BARCELONA/BASEL/SAN SEBASTIANNo pictures of San Sebastian yet, but WOW! This is an amazing city. My favorite out of the spanish cities that I´ve visited, and very high up in the rankings of cities I´ve visited anywhere. A brit I met in the school here made an interesting point that the reason this place isn´t completely overrun with tourists is that there aren´t any direct flights here from London. I absolutely recommend that everyone come here.
Barcelona wasn´t so impressive. Too much catalan, too much modern scultptures and architecture that don´t blend well with eachother or the rest of the city (though Gaudi is obviously incredible). But it is nice enough, and seems like it would be a fun place to live.
Basel was the bomb! Fantastic chocolate, as chronicled by Josh. It´s just a pleasant city all around. Not world class, but very classy. And whoever makes their way there in the future, you have to make the effort to take down a second tower of beer (which only costs about a third of the price of the first tower). Josh and I were just finishing the first tower when the place was closing, so get there early. Oh, and so far I´m failing to live up to ¨The Natural¨ moniker in my attempts at learning how to surf. The first day, when there were no waves and we were just paddling around, I had to be towed back into shore by the instructors because the effort from the paddling destroyed me. It was pretty damned embarrassing. I´ve gotten much stronger since, but still haven´t been able to get myself up on a wave yet. It´s really hard.
And to give you all the full experience I´m having, check out the hair on the kid in the red.
Posts
Joe, don't come back until your hair looks like that kid's.
ReplyDeleteOr until you can paddle back to shore.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSee, we should have spent more time paddling in the Rhine, less time drinking liters of beer and tasting chocolate.
ReplyDelete[Note on the above: I was signed in as Julie when I first commented. Don't want to violate any Swiss identity theft laws.]
I neglected to mention that Julie put in a small assist in taking down the tower of beer. Thanks Julie.
ReplyDelete1 tower beer; 1 litre chocolate; 1/8ounce weed = the winner gets their plane ticket paid for @ the Basel Triathlon
ReplyDeleteThat might be the first time in history anyone has described Barcelona as "not that impressive. too much modern architecture." Isn't that sort of like saying "Paris is lame. too many world class museums."
ReplyDeleteNo, because "lame" and "world class" are antonyms. Modern architecture mostly sucks, and therefore my overall impression of the city was reduced.
ReplyDeleteIn other news, I still suck at surfing. For now I´m going to blame it on not being able to see because I can´t wear my glasses, though I´m sure somewhere there´s a blind person that can surf.
oh no, gotta chime in with the assaults on modern architecture... check yourself, joe.
ReplyDeletebtw, gaudi is hardly "modern", really deco in a baroque sense.
did you see the barcelona pavillion?! c'mon you can't argue with mies!
I think the case can be made that many people go to Barcelona precisely for the world class "MODERNISME." Much the same way that people go to paris for the world class museums. Point being, your objection to the city was what many people would consider it's biggest selling point. I would agree that some of the Modern architecture (e.g. MACBA) is bogus if that's what you mean. But the modernisme? How about Paris is not that impressive. too many lights, romance, and haute cuisine.
ReplyDeleteOh, my soulmate city, how dare you malign it! Looks like some random guy had much more fun there....
ReplyDeletehttp://chrisrako.blogspot.com/search/label/Barcelona