So Barcelona has gotten the best of me, and it has been a pretty good amount of time since my last post. I’m going to do my best in a game of catch up to cover everything exciting that has been going on in the past weeks, starting with Spring Break. As far as a ten day trip is concerned, Spring Break was a very ambitious traveling endeavor. My aim was to visit three of the biggest cities in the world – Paris, London, and Rome. Although my choices were probably some of the most typical tourist hot-spots, they had been places I wanted to see with my own two eyes ever since I was a kid. I figured it would be a good opportunity to culturally test out some new waters in comparison to both the United States and Spain as well. I also thought it would be pretty interesting to see the whole “language barrier” put in play, considering going into the trip I only knew about a total of three French and Italian words combined. Lucky for me London was thrown in the middle of the two, and as far as I know my English is still holding up pretty well.
Paris was everything I expected it to be and more right from the start. As my first taste of European life outside of Spain, it took a little while to get adjusted. The hardest part was trying to communicate in any verbal form, considering I knew little to no French (sans the French “key phrases” I had quickly memorized from a Paris travel guide on my flight over). My first taste of Parisian hospitality came as I was checking into my hotel, and the receptionist kindly asked (and by kindly, I mean not so kindly) why most French people know the English language fairly well but hardly any Americans know a word of French. It was a very whole-hearted welcome. In any case, Paris was definitely an architect/tourist heaven. I had the opportunity of visiting and photo-documenting numerous global icons and architec
tural wonders. First on the list was of course the Eiffel Tower, which I had always dreamed of visiting since about age 5. I even had the opportunity of going to the very top to get a bird’s eye view of the city of Paris, which for me personally was a pretty big feat given my fear of heights. Next on the list was Notre Dame Cathedral, which was just as amazing in person as it was in all my architecture text books, followed by the underground catacombs of Paris. Aside from all the traditional tourist icons, I also decided to visit a few non-traditional spots that for an architecture student held some particular relevance. I spent some time at Renzo Piano’s Pompidou Center, which love it or hate it, was amazing to see in person. I even had the opportunity to take about an hour train ride outside of Paris to Poissy to visit Le Corbusier’s infamous Villa Savoye. Given the fact that I had studied Villa Savoye for numerous projects throughout the past few years of my architectural career, it was almost surreal to be able to see it up close and personal. Perhaps my favorite tourist hot-spot in all of Paris was the Louvre art museum, which I visited (both during the day and at night) a total of about three or four times. All in all Paris was a great success, and I walked away with about 700 pictures.
The city of London was, for all intents and purposes, a breath of fresh air. It was the first time since I had been in Europe that I was able to freely speak in English in public, whic
h was a nice change of pace. Strangely enough, of all the cities I had visited up to that point in Europe, London was the place I felt most at home. Although the weather was a little spotty, the people were friendly and the food was great. I started off my tour of London with a big red bus tour around the city and saw numerous global landmarks like the Tower Bridge and Big Ben, which up until that point never knew was the name of only the bell, not the tower. I also had the chance to stop into the Tower of London (which isn’t actually a tower, but more like a fortress), walk through St. Paul’s Cathedral, look at the Houses of Parliament through huge iron and gold gates, and take a nice boat ride up the Thames River. My favorite architectural spot on my trip to London, however, was the recently restored (by architects Herzog & de Mueron) Tate Modern museum. In the two or three times I visited Tate Modern during my time in London, it quickly became one of my favorite modern art museums in all of Europe. Overall London was a huge success.
The third city on my tour of Western Europe was the historically and architecturally rich city of Rome. It was unfortunately back to little to no public communication due to my lack of knowledge of foreign language, although many people surprisingly spoke English throughout the city. My tour of Rome started with a walk through the Roman Forum, a visit to the Arch of Constantine, and a considerable amount of time spent wandering the Roman Co
losseum. I also had the chance to spend some time wandering other notable tourist hot-spots such as the Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, and the Vatican interior and exterior grounds including the Sistine Chapel. Of the three cities visited during my Spring Break, it was in Rome that I felt the most like a tourist. However, it was really interesting to see how Rome compared to the city of Barcelona both architecturally and culturally, given the Roman Empire’s previous occupation of Barcelona hundreds of years ago.
Following the ambitious excursion of Spring Break, it was nice to return to Barcelona where all the sites and sounds were much more familiar. It seems like Barcelona is starting to feel more and more like home every day. Muy bien.
Paris was everything I expected it to be and more right from the start. As my first taste of European life outside of Spain, it took a little while to get adjusted. The hardest part was trying to communicate in any verbal form, considering I knew little to no French (sans the French “key phrases” I had quickly memorized from a Paris travel guide on my flight over). My first taste of Parisian hospitality came as I was checking into my hotel, and the receptionist kindly asked (and by kindly, I mean not so kindly) why most French people know the English language fairly well but hardly any Americans know a word of French. It was a very whole-hearted welcome. In any case, Paris was definitely an architect/tourist heaven. I had the opportunity of visiting and photo-documenting numerous global icons and architec
tural wonders. First on the list was of course the Eiffel Tower, which I had always dreamed of visiting since about age 5. I even had the opportunity of going to the very top to get a bird’s eye view of the city of Paris, which for me personally was a pretty big feat given my fear of heights. Next on the list was Notre Dame Cathedral, which was just as amazing in person as it was in all my architecture text books, followed by the underground catacombs of Paris. Aside from all the traditional tourist icons, I also decided to visit a few non-traditional spots that for an architecture student held some particular relevance. I spent some time at Renzo Piano’s Pompidou Center, which love it or hate it, was amazing to see in person. I even had the opportunity to take about an hour train ride outside of Paris to Poissy to visit Le Corbusier’s infamous Villa Savoye. Given the fact that I had studied Villa Savoye for numerous projects throughout the past few years of my architectural career, it was almost surreal to be able to see it up close and personal. Perhaps my favorite tourist hot-spot in all of Paris was the Louvre art museum, which I visited (both during the day and at night) a total of about three or four times. All in all Paris was a great success, and I walked away with about 700 pictures.The city of London was, for all intents and purposes, a breath of fresh air. It was the first time since I had been in Europe that I was able to freely speak in English in public, whic
h was a nice change of pace. Strangely enough, of all the cities I had visited up to that point in Europe, London was the place I felt most at home. Although the weather was a little spotty, the people were friendly and the food was great. I started off my tour of London with a big red bus tour around the city and saw numerous global landmarks like the Tower Bridge and Big Ben, which up until that point never knew was the name of only the bell, not the tower. I also had the chance to stop into the Tower of London (which isn’t actually a tower, but more like a fortress), walk through St. Paul’s Cathedral, look at the Houses of Parliament through huge iron and gold gates, and take a nice boat ride up the Thames River. My favorite architectural spot on my trip to London, however, was the recently restored (by architects Herzog & de Mueron) Tate Modern museum. In the two or three times I visited Tate Modern during my time in London, it quickly became one of my favorite modern art museums in all of Europe. Overall London was a huge success.The third city on my tour of Western Europe was the historically and architecturally rich city of Rome. It was unfortunately back to little to no public communication due to my lack of knowledge of foreign language, although many people surprisingly spoke English throughout the city. My tour of Rome started with a walk through the Roman Forum, a visit to the Arch of Constantine, and a considerable amount of time spent wandering the Roman Co
losseum. I also had the chance to spend some time wandering other notable tourist hot-spots such as the Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, and the Vatican interior and exterior grounds including the Sistine Chapel. Of the three cities visited during my Spring Break, it was in Rome that I felt the most like a tourist. However, it was really interesting to see how Rome compared to the city of Barcelona both architecturally and culturally, given the Roman Empire’s previous occupation of Barcelona hundreds of years ago.Following the ambitious excursion of Spring Break, it was nice to return to Barcelona where all the sites and sounds were much more familiar. It seems like Barcelona is starting to feel more and more like home every day. Muy bien.
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