Barcelona

I'm finally home, but I'm still two weeks behind on these posts!

I got to Barcelona on Thursday after my flight. I stowed my luggage in the train station. I tried to buy my train tickets for the trip to Madrid the following day, but there was too much of a line. I left for the hostel intending to return to purchase tickets on Friday.

After checking in, I headed towards the southern part of the city, between the old town and the coast. I got off and wandered towards the beach. I've never seen a more crowded beach. There were way too many people there.



I continued walking and made it to their Arc de Triomf. There were also lots of people here doing tricks while bicycling, skateboarding, or rollerblading.



I walked around the old town more and then took a long walk back to the hostel.

I was hoping to meet up with my friend the next morning. She was supposed to call me but it never came in. I was thinking my phone had quit working. It turns out she lost my phone number and couldn't get it back. I still had fun going around alone.

I first headed to the train station to stow my luggage and secure tickets to Madrid. The station was once again packed in the morning. I waited in line for the same-day-departures, to find out there was only one ticket left in business for the overnight train to Madrid. I would be paying more and only getting a seat. I decided a bus would be better, so I headed out for the bus office. I waited in line for the national departures, to have the sales person tell me to goto the next building. There wasn't a next building, so I went back and stood in line for the international bus departures, but he said I had to buy it from the other line. Finally I waited once more and got my bus ticket to Madrid. This was all a bit frustrating.

I headed back to the train station to wait in line for the future-departures to go ahead and secure a train ticket from Madrid to Lisbon. I didn't want to be stuck for this trip. The guy didn't speak much English, so I wasn't sure exactly what I was getting (I asked for a bed in the overnight train. It ends up just being a seat, but more on that on the next post).

With all of my travel arrangements made, I headed back out to wander the city.

I walked up and down La Rambla. The famous tree lined streets full of street performers and shops. Lots of people just dress up and sit there. They get money from donations and people taking photos with them. I didn't see this statue, but I wish I would have: http://urbanprankster.com/2008/07/the-golden-ass/




An open air market that I really enjoyed walking around:


I rented a bicycle and went around the city. I went around and tried to get a view of some of the Catalan architecture designed by Antoni Gaudí.



Saint Paul's Hospital:



It ended up being a long and terribly uphill journey to the Güell Park overlooking the city.



And Gaudi's masterpiece: Sagrada Familia. It's still under construction. I didn't realize when I went in I'd mostly be seeing a construction area. It's still pretty though.


Finally I headed out to the bus terminal to catch my overnight bus to Madrid.

The bus ride in itself was okay. I can sleep anywhere, though it's not as restful sitting up. I was asleep right away. However, sometime around 2AM, we stopped at a gas station. The driver made everyone get off the bus for about 20-30 minutes while I guess he fueled the bus. I was really tired and afraid I'd fall asleep at the gas station and get left. This made the trip terrible, and I was a bit exhausted when I arrived in Madrid.

Overall I really liked Barcelona. It's a very pretty city. Though I kind of think there are too many people and tourists there. I still enjoyed it.

All pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/wcleveland/Barcelona

End of the Research

After Cologne, I had two days to finish all of my research and turn in my paper. It was a lot of work and I stayed very busy for those two days, but I finished the paper. It was not as long or full as I had hoped, but I finished.

Wednesday night was my last night in Belgium. So like every Wednesday night, I went rock climbing! I never ended up taking pictures of the rock climbing gym, but it was very nice, and I really enjoyed my time spent there.

I got back to my apartment that night to have a small going away party with my apartment-mates (Javier and Marc), Kan, Emanuel, and Vagelis. It was a lot of fun to hang out one last time. I wish we could have spent more time after work hanging out like that.

I stayed up super late packing and organizing and woke up in the morning. My landlord kindly drove me to the airport and I was off! To Barcelona! (and home...)

Cologne

I'm having a wonderful end of my summer. There are so many things I want to write about. I want to do them all justice, and time is not my friend right now, so you'll just have to wait. (I'm currently in Madrid, about to head to the train station to catch an overnight train to Lisbon, Portugal).

So two weekends ago was Belgium's national holiday on Monday. To celebrate, Wassim and I left for Germany to visit the nearby Cologne.

It was a really fun trip. We didn't "do" all that much. Our train left very early on Sunday (so we didn't have much sleep because we got back late from Ghent). It took about 3 hours to get to Cologne. The first day we walked around the city. We went to a chocolate museum that was really nice and informative. We then headed back to the hostel to take a nice afternoon nap. We went back out to walk around a bit and eat a bit of dinner.



That night we hung out at the hostel talking to folks. We met a nice girl from London who was going to tour the cathedral the following morning.

I should of course mention the Cologne Cathedral! It's massive! Definitely the first and most memorable thing to notice in Cologne. As my guide suggested, we walked past it at first because it really takes a few hours to do it justice. We headed back the following Monday morning with our London friend and another Canadian backpacker we met. We had a full tour which was nice. It's famous for having the bones of the three magi. It was my first tour of a cathedral. It's kind of neat to get the history behind things. It was worth the money, but I probably won't take one again.





The afternoon was spent walking around the other, newer, part of the city. It was raining which is no fun! I wish we had had more time to explore some of the surrounding German areas such as Aachen or Bonn.

Overall I had fun. Unfortunately, I think Cologne is the most "American" city I visited. There were tons of American restaurants and stores. I think this is mostly due to the bombing it withstood during WWII. Most everything there is new and modern.

All pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/wcleveland/Cologne
Time to jet! I've got a train to catch :-)

Ghent Summer Festival

This past Saturday I returned to Ghent for the day. It was the first day of the 10-day street festival, Ghent Fests. It was a lot of fun to walk around the city. They had parades and music. I think Ghent may be one of my favorite cities in Belgium.

I went with Wassim. He's a stagiaire from France, originally from Algeria.



I didn't take very many photos. You can see them here: http://picasaweb.google.com/wcleveland/GhentFestival

Stagiaire Party

So this past Thursday, July 17, 2008 was a very important day (in case you weren't aware, that was the day I turned 21). To celebrate, I threw a party for all of the interns here at the VKI.

It was a potluck party, where everyone had to bring a dish. At first no one seemed interested, but as the date got closer, more and more people began talking about it during the breaks. We ended up with 25 or so people there (and we have about 30-35 interns), so it was a great turnout.

It was a nice opportunity to sample some different dishes from everyone's region.

I didn't think to take photos until after the food was all eaten. Here's the damage:


My few photos from the evening here: http://picasaweb.google.com/wcleveland/StagiaireParty