30 July 2010

a post about traveling

Posted by admin @ 19:39 pm    categories: images • traveling

So, it’s been a while. I’m back in Miami.

As you presumably know, I spent a while traveling around Europe. I have particular problems with the term “EuroTrip” — which may later be explored here on this blog — but that was essentially the idea. Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Copenhagen, Lund, Paris, Flavigny, Gubbio, Madrid again. 4 European capitals, 4 smaller cities. 29 days. 6 cemeteries, 13 museums (‘though heavily stacked up in Berlin), only 3 churches. 3 synagogues, too. Moved my luggage 13 times. 5 flights, 2 longer bus rides, 6 longer train rides. 3 hostels, 5 couchsurfers, 3 friends’ houses/flats. Only 1 novel, and 1 magazine. But the novel was in Spanish and 667 pages long.

In the past, when I’ve taken a grand trip, I’ve made one or two posts on my blog with pictures and descriptions. I’m not going to do that today. Instead, I’ll take a page out of the way blogging services like tumblr work, and keep it small. What I’m going to do: over the next few days, I’ll post each day (as I have time) a photograph (or two) and an excerpt from my travel journal, which will probably be brushed up and expanded for the blog. (To be fair, I won’t change all that much. You’ll notice my shortcuts, like dropping the subject a lot more than is really called for. When it’s obviously me, why write “I”?) The idea will be to highlight the best things I did, and ignore some of the worst. Not that there was much bad. Some days the writing will align with the photographs; some days they may not. So it is.

In any case, when better to start then today? First up, Berlin.

The room at the end of the Axis of the Holocaust tower, in the Jewish Museum of Berlin

The room at the end of the Axis of the Holocaust tower, in the Jewish Museum of Berlin. A giant, empty room, with only a hole at the top for letting in light

Friday, 02 July. Berlin.
I’m sitting now in a Jewish cemetery on Groß Hamburger Straße — I’m the only one here. People look in occasionally, but almost no one opens the gate to come in. In the New Synagogue, the exhibits mentioned this cemetery, just down the street — the oldest Jewish cemetery in Berlin. All the graves have no headstones, now; it’s just green. They were torn down; they don’t exist anymore. There’s a sprinkler in the distance watering the foliage. It’s beautiful, and quite peaceful for the middle of Berlin. I wonder what it was like with gravestones? There are more than 5,000 graves in this tiny space. They have a sign at the entrance asking men to cover their heads, so I’ve got a yarmulke on from the box below the sign. First time I’ve worn one of these in quite a while.

It’s interesting how Berlin today reacts to Judaism.

This morning, I went to the Museum für Gegenwart (the Hamburger Banhof) — a modern art museum in what was once a train station. The temporary exhibition was work by Bruce Nauman, and called Dream Passage — there was some very intriguing experiential work that I rather liked. The permanent collection wasn’t bad, either. I enjoyed the museum. Upstairs, there was an exhibition called “Models.” On one half, there was an interplay between these super-detailed bug models (made by Alfred Keller) and Gerd Rohling’s work, using plastic containers and lighting to make them look like fancy glass bowls, pottery, etc. The other half was this really cool piece called Schattenspiel (Shadow Play) where, by shining light on toys and random objects arrayed on a table, the artist (Hans-Peter Feldmann) created a shadow world. Then, and perhaps most interesting, was a piece called Spielzeugland (Toyland), by Jochen Alexander Freydank — a short live-action film that won an Oscar (2007), a very moving film. (It appears to be on youtube, but I couldn’t find subtitled versions — look for it if you speak German.)

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8 July 2010

a check-in from Prague

Posted by admin @ 9:11 am    categories: traveling

So I’ve been traveling for a bit more than a week now, which is kind of exhausting to be honest. I’m not saying I’m not enjoying myself — I am. But I’m definitely the sort of person who feels more comfortable when in a place that’s my own. I feel like I’m continuously stepping out of my comfort zone, which is both kind of fun and kind of tiring. Maybe comfort zone isn’t the right word — that has the suggestion of me being genuinely discomforted, and I’m not. But yes: I don’t feel like I have the opportunity to recharge as easily. I don’t think it detracts too much from my having fun, though, which is a good thing. Yes indeed!

I’ve moved around a bit, for the nine days since I left: I was in Berlin for five days, which was great, and then in Dresden for three. I just arrived here in Prague this morning. It has a very tourist-centered centre, with tons of different languages spoken every which way — I’ve heard a lot of Spanish, and definitely noticed some Argentines as well as Spaniards. (Well, people who speak with the sh/ll sound; they could be from elsewhere maybe. I doubt it.)

There’s no question that I’m a big city or no city person — it feels nice to be back in a big, busy city. Dresden was only busy in the very centre, or right before the soccer game (hurrah, Spain!). But I’d like to get to spend some time in the countryside, before I leave the Czech Republic. So we’ll have to arrange that, won’t we?

I’m here through Monday, when I head to Copenhagen. So let’s get outside! (Well, once the heat starts to fade a bit…)

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21 June 2010

the next month

Posted by admin @ 8:51 am    categories: traveling

So I’ve been back in Madrid for a short while, and I’m finally finishing up with teaching. (More on that soon, if I ever get around to feeling introspective.) But I’m not heading back to the States yet — I’ve actually got more than a month left.

I’m partially writing this down to gloat about my good planning and pleasant immediate-future, but mostly I just want to have it on record what my plans were before I left — in part so I can compare them to how they ended up. So: my plans for the coming weeks follow.

On Wednesday, school ends. It’s over already, in many ways, but Wednesday’s the last day the kids have to be there, and it’s the last day I’ll be going in. That evening, I head off to Galicia, with my friends Emily and Ashley and Mateo (who’s grandmother’s house we’re staying at). We’ll be in La Coruña for four days, for a summer festival/Feast of Saint John — but also just to see Galicia, explore, and so forth. I’m excited; it’s one of three places that I’ve really not yet been to in Spain, but care to. (The others are Valencia and the Picos de Europa, which I’m going to miss this time around. Another time! Also maybe the beaches on the southern coast, but beaches aren’t as exciting.)

Then I’ll be back in Madrid for either a few days or a week. I haven’t yet decided. Surely, I’ll be in Madrid for a few days, beginning on Saturday. I have a few plane tickets, though, so let’s see: I’ll be heading to Berlin, Germany, for a while, where I’ll get to see my friend Karina. Thence, I’ll probably stop off in Dresden, Germany, for a day or two, before heading out to Prague, Czech Republic, which I really need to see now that I’m almost finished with The Unbearable Lightness of Being (which, by the way, is so much more enjoyable than I feared; it’s wonderful; in case it’s not obvious, it takes place primarily in Prague).

From Prague, I’m flying north to Copenhagen, Denmark, which I admit is a bit unnecessary, but which should be fun; I’ll be there for only a few days, and also hopefully in Lund, Sweden, where a friend, Hana, lives. Afterwards, I take flight again, now for Paris, France. I’ll get to hang out with some friends there, including my high school friend Reshma, and hopefully a French kid I met last year, Benoit. I’ll be there only briefly as well, before heading south to Flavigny-sur-Ozerain, where a friend and former professor, Maud, has offered me a night or two at her house. (This is one of the main places where they filmed the 2000 film Chocolat, although not apparently where the river in the film is.) I’ll fly out of Paris, heading through Rome to Umbertide, Italy — in the Umbrian countryside, where my friend Jacob and his family will put me up for a few days.

Then I’ll finally fly out of Rome, spend a day or two more in Madrid, do anything I forgot to do, collect my things, and head home.

I am really excited. And curious to see how this will play out. I’m moving around more than I would really like to be, and flying more than I’d like, but it is as it is, and frankly air travel is often cheaper than train travel. If I manage to spend my money carefully, and don’t stress things too much, I think this will end up being a lot of fun.

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10 June 2010

san sebastian

Posted by admin @ 17:40 pm    categories: Food • images • Spain • traveling

San Sebastian: La Concha

Last weekend, Ashley and Mateo and I went to San Sebastian. We had a great time, which is to say that it’s a beautiful city and has amazing food. San Sebastian (Donastia) is a city in the north of Spain, in the Basque country–very close to France. It’s known for its food, its beach (La Concha), and not all too much else.

We essentially took San Sebastian as a place to relax. Which is as it should be. We got there on Thursday — I took the train up, and met the two of them on the beach. La Concha, The Shell, the only beach we really frequented, is a gorgeous ring-shape, and the water is pretty warm all things considered–which is to say, considerably warmer than the water off the Oregon coast, but not quite as warm as Miami beach water. (How’s that for a stupidly long sentence?) It was a fun beach to visit, and we spent a lot of time there, as well as walking up and around the city, seeing the fortifications, and so forth.

Island near San Sebastian

El Peine de los Vientos -- the Wind-Comb

But I’m going to focus on the part of the trip that’s most worth writing about: eating food. Mostly, we ate tapas, there called pintxos (pronounced, and spelled in the rest of Spain, as pinchos). Pintxos are just small dishes; the way we did it was we went from bar to bar, trying pintxos. In the south, tapas usually come with a drink. Not so here, so it’s not cheap. But that’s okay.

Thursday night we started at a place called La Cuchara de San Telmo, recommended by my friend Ade, where I started out adventurously with pretty excellent foie. I don’t remember exactly how it was prepared, but it was surprisingly tasty. Ashley wasn’t so pleased with her bacalao. Second, we went to Ganbara, an unimpressive bar where I had bacalao, but we also got our first taste of the Basque white wine txakoli, which all three of us really liked. Third, we went to Txepetxa, perhaps one of the better places of the night, essentially a bar that serves anchovies on bread prepared with different toppings — all of them delicious. At the recommendation of the NYTimes article posted on the wall, I tried the one that came with eggs of an erizo de mar. Fourth, we went to Zeruko, a fancier bar that had beautiful pintxos; I had the first morcilla I’ve ever liked, served with a fried quail egg. I’m glad I gave it a chance. Lastly, we went to Restaurante Munto, another rather good bar — at least I was pleased. There, I had a pintxo with goat cheese and caramelized onions on bread — traditional, but always delicious. A good night.

Friday afternoon, we splurged, and went for the Menu de Degustación at Bodegón Alejandro, which I’m so glad we did. Here’s the menu (and here’s a picture of it, in Basque):
0: An amouse bouche of this asparagus-cream drink, with bread crisps. both salty, both tasty.
First course: A chilled marinated anchovy lasagna, with the anchovies laid atop a ratatouille base. It was pretty great; we gave it an A.
Second course: Fried tomato stuffed with chipirones (squid), on a bed of risotto made with the squid ink. I don’t always like squid ink, but it worked well, the cheese sauce was great, and the entire thing was amazing. A+
Third course: Grilled hake (merluza) with mashed potatoes and a sauce of mussel “juice” — not amazing, but buttery and savory. B
Fourth course: Glazed veal cheek on a terrine of bacon and potato slices, with a roasted red pepper sauce. This was very good, although kind of gluttonous. A-/B+
This was the last savory dish. After we finished, they brought us small glasses of a sweet orange wine, which I really liked (but I like sweet fruit wines).
Fifth course: Torrija (Spanish French toast, hah) with a caramelized top and cheese ice cream. This — well, both desserts — was amazing. Mateo thought it too sweet, but I disagree. Both get A/A+ ratings.
Sixth and final course: Slightly spicy peach gnocchi, with coconut ice cream and a vanilla-lemon sauce.
As we finished, they gave us drinks of leche merengada, which was more like egg nog than a milkshake. Also soft almond biscuits. Yeah. Anyway, certainly we were stuffed.

After a few hours at the beach, and a few hours of walking around, we had a bit of dinner:
First, we went to Izazpi, where I got a goat cheese, honey, onion, and pepper pintxo, which was quite good. Second, to A Fuego Negro, which was disappointing — a shrug-inducing cup of shrimp soup. Third, some good but not great risotto at Txondorra. I ended with an anchovia pintxo at Txepetxa again.

I have nothing else to add, nor pictures of the food.

Waves at el Peine de los Vientos

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30 May 2010

Primavera Sound

Posted by admin @ 17:09 pm    categories: art • images • music • Spain • traveling

As I’ve mentioned before, I went to a music festival in Barcelona, called Primavera Sound. It was excellent. I am supremely glad that I went.

I also got to stay with Marta, who’s amazing. Also an excellent hostess. It was fun to get to see her!

The festival was here, which is to say here. Which was an excellent venue for a music festival.

It’s a huge place; there were four main large stages, several smaller ones, and a gigantic auditorium. According to one place I looked, there were over one hundred thousand people. Definitely there were at least 75,000. Which is actually pretty ridiculous, when you think about it. I can’t really understand that number of people.

In any case, if you’re curious, here are the bands I saw. The ones who had enjoyable shows, or something worth noting, have a picture or a comment, or both. I have pictures of all of the shows I saw, except for Owen Pallett’s show and the one show I can’t really count. All in all, I saw 31 shows over the weekend, although of course most of them I didn’t see all of. I’d hazard that very few of the shows were longer than an hour.

Day 1. Show 1.
The Wave Pictures
Went with this kid I met in Bilbao, Fernando, and his friends. Shrug.

Day 1. Show 2.
Monotonix
Tagged along here. Only saw the last song, but their show was ridiculous. Mostly-sans-clothes. Running through the audience with the microphone and drum. Yeah.

Day 1. Show 3.
Titus Andronicus
A bit of a large stage for them, in my opinion. Fun.

Day 1. Show 4.
The xx
The xx play at Primavera Sound
I really like this band’s album. You’ve probably heard “Crystalised” or “VCR” — if not, try ‘em out. They’ve gotten a bad rap for their live shows, but — and I acknowledge that this may come from the fact that I was expecting worse — I rather enjoyed seeing them. They weren’t amazing, and they were mostly just rather calm, but they put on an enjoyable show. It rained slightly during it, which was too bad, but honestly it was barely a sprinkle. I stayed for the whole show.

Day 1. Show 5.
Broken Social Scene
These guys put on a great show. I’d seen them before, at Brandeis I think (with my sister). I really like their new album, besides. I’m fairly sure I stayed for their whole show, although to be honest I don’t really remember.

Day 1. Show 6.
The Books
The Books play at Primavera Sound 2010
I love The Books. They’re one of my favorite bands. They do… I dunno, curious music. And for their live shows, they compile these amazing videos. Here’s a junction between good video and good song: “Smells Like Content“. “Tokyo” is another great song, although this video isn’t as great (and is fan-made). I got to see them do the former; not the latter. At this show, I met two American guys from D.C. while we were all waiting for the show to start. They were quite nice. I stayed for this entire show. I was really impressed by how well they did playing out of doors. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but it totally did. And I’m glad; this marks the second time I’ve loved them live.

Day 1. No show.
Pavement
With Rob and Tom, the guys from above, I walked over to the Pavement show. But we didn’t stay. It was nearing the end, none of us really knew the music, and it was PACKED. Instead, we went to…

Day 1. Show 7.
Sleigh Bells
This was enjoyable, despite this being essentially hard rock with some woman screaming.

Day 1. Show 8.
Apse
I took off after a while at Sleigh Bells, and went to see Apse. I like their music (thanks, Ali), but I couldn’t get into the show.

Day 1. Show 9. Last show of the day (for me) — 02:30 AM.
Fuck Buttons
I don’t know their music very well. They’ve got some songs I like, though. They’re kind of a noise DJ pair? I don’t know. See what wiki has to say.

Well.

I took the night bus to the Plaza de Catalunya, and then walked to Marta’s place.

Day 2. Show 1.
Owen Pallett (used to go by Final Fantasy)
I really like Owen Pallett, and honestly this was one of the best shows of the festival. Unfortunately, I arrived late — the show started at 16:00 — so I only caught the second half and didn’t take any photographs. Pallett is a really good musician; his live show is really cool to watch. He plays the violin — very well — and loops it on itself, live, to create his songs. Also he had accompaniment. I encourage you to give him a try, but honestly I’m not sure what song to recommend. This song (with its ridiculous video) is excellent. So’s this one (the names are the couple who form The Arcade Fire; Pallett toured with them but I don’t know the origins of the song). Anyway, really fun. Also, this show and several others I went to this day were in the auditorium, which was super-nice.

Day 2. Show 2.
Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions
Hope Sandoval is apparently rather strange; she and her band played their show in almost-complete darkness, and she (above and beyond the theatre’s prohibition) asked that we not take photographs. I don’t know her music very well. I do like it, though. I stayed for the whole show, although I dazed off for some of it. I had gotten up to the second row, so it’s too bad these two shows weren’t reversed.

As I left, I saw this enormous line to get into the auditorium, for a band called Low. I think maybe Europeans know this band better than Americans, because I’m pretty sure I don’t know them at all. Although apparently they’re American, and worthy of huge queues.

Day 2. Show 3.
The New Pornographers
I’m not the hugest fan of this band, although I do like them. I didn’t stay for much of their show, since a friend from Madrid, Javi, gave me a call. So I joined him for a band he really liked:

Day 2. Show 4.
Nueva Vulcano
Javi and his friends really like this band, and knew all the words. It was pretty good, so I stayed for the whole show. It was my first not-in-English-show. Then I followed Javi and his friends back to the auditorium.

Day 2. Show 5.
Junip
I’d never heard of this band, and no wonder, since they’ve never released an album. It’s a group project featuring José González, the Swedish singer probably best known for his covers. (“Heartbeats“, originally by The Knife. “Teardrop“, originally by Massive Attack.) It was a nice show, although weird since I knew none of the music.

Day 2. Show 6.
CocoRosie
I have mixed feelings about them. Their live show is supposed to be fun, but I decided not to stay for longer than a few songs. They seemed to be having fun.

Day 2. Show 7.
Beach House
I like Beach House better anyway, and I’m glad I got to see a good part of this show. It was completely packed, so I didn’t get as close as I would’ve liked. But they’re excellent musicians, and I was pleased that they were good live. Around this time, I managed to miss two bands I would’ve liked to have seen: Here We Go Magic, and (more importantly) Wilco. I’ll have to see Wilco some other time to make up for it.

Day 2. Show 8.
Standstill
Standstill at Primavera Sound 2010
I saw this band a few weeks ago in Madrid. They weren’t as good in the auditorium, but they’re excellent musicians, and this time they played with this cool video behind them. I liked parts of the video quite a lot.

Day 2. Show 9.
Panda Bear
I left Standstill to go see Panda Bear, which was honestly a waste of time. He played a lot of new stuff, I think. I wandered off and got food after a while. Disappointing. I love Animal Collective, of which he’s a part. And I like his solo work — I just need to listen to it more. Also maybe he’d be more fun in a smaller space.

Day 2. Show 10.
Marc Almond
Do you know who this guy is? I didn’t. He’s apparently a member of Soft Cell, which means he played “Tainted Love.” His wiki article makes him seem like an interesting guy, but other than “Tainted Love” I was kind of bored. I just sat and watched because there wasn’t much else going on right at this point.

Day 2. Show 11.
Major Lazer
Major Lazer at Primavera Sound 2010
And then I went to Major Lazer. Which was a-mazing. They’re a collaboration between DJs Diplo (Philadelphia) and Switch (London) and a bunch of singers crossing a bunch of genres… See the wiki page. I actually first heard of them from, of all places, The New Yorker. See here. Actually, I believe I first read this blurb in the print edition when it came out. Anyway, Major Lazer shows are ridiculous affairs, including a type of dance known as Daggering I’ll leave you to look up yourself. Also, errr, watch this video. Before the show started, I met this Swedish guy who was on his own at the show, and these two girls who had been studying in France. I stuck with the Swedish guy for the whole show — his name was Leo, or perhaps Lio. We walked up to the next show, but then he ran off — and we oddly ran into each other again at Diplo’s solo DJ set later that night. He was possibly on something… here’s him with a mask on:
Lio-Leo at the Major Lazer show

Sometime around now I missed seeing the Pixies. Yeah, I know.

Day 2. Show 12.
Yeasayer
I saw Yeasayer and wrote extensively about the show in these pages a short while ago. But I’m glad I went to see them again. Their show wasn’t quite as good, but it was very nearly so. I saw next to me this kid who had also been at the Books show, I’m almost sure. I recognized him because he was one of the only people dancing to The Books. He and I grinned and danced together for the duration of the show, and talked briefly. Nice guy. I always like when people aren’t afraid to dance during shows.

Day 2. Show 13.
The Bloody Beetroots
If you’re counting, you’ve noticed that it’s probably getting late at this point. It is. Yeasayer’s show was at 02:30. I stopped off to watch a bit of the Bloody Beetroots, who are apparently famous, while I waited for 04:30 to come — when Diplo came on. Shrug.

Day 2. Show 14.
Joker feat. Nomad
I don’t think this really counts. I can’t remember it, and I only saw like five minutes, max.

Day 2. Show 15.
Diplo
Dipo is a really good DJ. I sometimes wonder what a DJ does on the stage, but Diplo, regardless of anything else, makes it all work. Excellent show. Lots of dancing.

Got home on one of the early trams. Very easy.

Day 3. Show 1.
Dr. Dog
I like Dr. Dog quite a lot. I wish I had gotten here in time for the whole of their set, but as it was I only really saw the second half.

Day 3. Show 2.
Nana Grizol
Fernando, Leire, and Ignacio
I met up with Fernando and his friends Leire and Ignacio. We sat in the bleachers and watched this show. It was actually pretty good, considering I’d never heard of this band before. They were already kind of drunk.

Day 3. Show 3.
Florence + the Machine
Florence and the Machine at Primavera Sound 2010
Florence Welch has attracted a lot of attention, won a few awards, and so forth — and with good reason, seeing as how she’s excellent. This song is one of the more well-liked, as is “Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)“. She reminded me of Kate Bush, sort of, in what she was wearing and how she performed, although her voice is gorgeous and amazing. It was a truly excellent show; I saw the entire thing.

Day 3. Show 4.
Grizzly Bear
I really like Grizzly Bear. I don’t know their music as well as I would have thought, because I was somewhat lost at their concert, but I disagree with what some people have said — I think they played a really excellent show, and really liked the songs of theirs that I knew well. (Including a beautiful rendition of “Knife” and one of “Ready, Able“. They also, of course, played “Two Weeks.”) I stayed for the whole show.

Day 3. Show 5.
Matt and Kim
Matt & Kim at Primavera Sound 2010
This show had the sad honor of being more or less the last one I really wanted to see. On the bright side, it was pretty wonderful. They played a short set — ten minutes less than an hour, at least — but I managed to dance up a sweat, get knocked over by Kim crowd-surfing, get drizzled on by someone’s thrown beer, get to the front lines, and so forth. They did some brief covers (“The Final Countdown”; Alice Deejay’s “Better Off Alone”), and jumped about, yelled, and never stopped smiling. I saw them at Haverford a while back, and they were amazing then; they were also amazing now. This video (for “Lessons Learned”) has gotten them some attention; their song “Daylight” is pretty well-known for a small song. And those are both more recent. The crowd had a surprising number of Spaniards; I asked one of them how he knew of M&K and he told me he’d found them on youtube. So hurrah.
crowd at Matt and Kim at Primavera Sound 2010

Day 3. Show 6.
Sunny Day Real Estate
Apparently these guys are famous. I kind of knew this. They sing that song “Song About an Angel“. They were fun, although mostly I just know that song.

Day 3. Show 7.
Pet Shop Boys
End of the night for me. I’d never even heard of these guys, a British group. They put on a really good show, apparently, but I didn’t know the music and wasn’t so into it, so I didn’t stay. Sad, I know, but such is the case.

And then I went back to Marta’s, slept, and caught a plane home.

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quick update; more to come

Posted by admin @ 14:38 pm    categories: traveling

Place I’ve been recently:

* Mallorca (Spanish island, near Barcelona)
* London
* Barcelona (music festival)

Anyway, I’ve been busy. And generally enjoying myself, so hurrah.

I have to put some pictures up here. So I shall.

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4 May 2010

bilb(a)o

Posted by admin @ 16:37 pm    categories: art • images • Spain • traveling

I was in Bilbao two weeks ago. It’s in the north of Spain, in the Basque Country. It was pretty wonderful.

the train station in Bilbao
I really liked the train station in Bilbao. Something about it in the off-light of Friday afternoon… I took a few pictures. (See?) This is really what it looked like — a grey, but still bright, day.

That same day, I walked to the Guggenheim. This is one of the main tourism draws of Bilbao, and I really enjoyed it, both inside and out. Photography wasn’t permitted inside, but there was an amazing temporary exhibition of (sculpture) work by Indian-British artist Anish Kapoor. He’s the guy who made The Bean in Chicago.

Jeff Koons' 'Puppy'

The Guggenheim

The glass at the Guggenheim

I also took a photo of myself in the glass.

The next day, I took the metro out to the beach at Sopelana, maybe forty minutes from the center. It was gorgeous.

a cliff at the beach

sea ridge off the coast of Bilbao, Spain

My last day, I went to the Fine Art Museum before I left. Outside, was this:
lamp posts outside the museum of fine art in Bilbao, Spain

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2 May 2010

la sierra de guadarrama

Posted by admin @ 8:07 am    categories: art • images • Spain • traveling

This is the mountain chain to the north of Madrid, the Guadarrama, where Dan and I went for a hike yesterday.

Dan and I on the peak of Cabeza de la Brana

the pass from the silver mines up to the peaks

Madrid as seen from the peak of La Perdiguera

a crag we rounded on the way down to Miraflores

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11 December 2009

amsterdam

Posted by admin @ 10:30 am    categories: art • images • traveling

Well I already discussed what I did in Amsterdam, but I hadn’t bothered with the photographs. Well, now I have; here are seven.

bell-tower
Some bell tower we ran into while wandering around to the east of the center.

house
We went to the Vondelpark, which was really near our hotel. Despite supposedly being gorgeous in the summer, it was just kind of dreary. Oh: I don’t think I’d mentioned this. It rained the entire time we were there. Dan says the Dutch must be amongst the few people who think the weather is better in London than it is at home.

heads-henri-dono
So, like I mentioned, we went to the Tropenmuseum, the Tropical Museum. We saw some cool stuff, but I photographed the weird things. There was an exhibition of works by Henri Dono; this is one example.

teletubbies
I have no words to explain this.


This is a replica of a woman, in a glass box. We didn’t read the things about the people in the boxes (I think they were just in Dutch, although a lot of the museum was in English, too), so I have no clue who she is or what she’s doing. The parts that are shiny and look over-exposed are glass or plastic. Why are her ear and hand plastic? I don’t know!

dan-in-neuwe-kerk
We went to the New Church, as mentioned. This is Dan. I really like the wooden pulpit behind him. There’s a name for those, right? I forget it, regardless.

door
And here’s a door I liked that I saw there.

And that’s it.

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some pictures of my travels

Posted by admin @ 8:16 am    categories: images • Spain • traveling

I’ve been really bad about this recently; I’ve been completely forgetting to upload photographs. So here are four photographs from Salamanca, a while ago:

group

three-girls

cathedral-ceiling

Rebecca

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