There couldn’t be a better time to link to Edgar Gonzalez’s Weblog. He is born Mexican Architect, Mac Maestro, not to mention Jeff’s Tutor Extraordinaire that participated in the ETSAB Summer Workshop.
Very colourful personality. Let’s put it this way, the first time both Jeff and I met him on our walk back to our apartments, we couldn’t believe how *colourful* the words are – coming out from his mouth.
Haha you rule, Rock on, bro!!
For two weeks I was involved in a workshop that involves students from universities representing five countries, namely France, Switzerland, Spain, Brazil and of course, Australia.
The Faculty Lobby, so many good memories.
Our Studio, I was showing them this website !
Pizza Break.
Sitting around in a Plaza somewhere in Grácia
By the way, we had a football match on the beach. It was France-Brazil-Italy VS Switzerland – Australia. You would think we’re the underdogs but we won!
Lazing on the beach, after the beach soccer match.
Jeff’s group’s outstanding model.
Aftermath, observe the destruction … and peace that ensued …
The Rambla street extends into this development by the sea called the Rambla de Mar. Reminds me of Darling Harbour, with shopping, IMAX theatres and so forth.
This has to be a highlight. The actual Ictineo II built by Monturial in 1862, the first working submarine of the world !! It could dive as much as 90 feet and spend as long as 7.5 hours below water.
As a sidenote, note how the sky is darker in the background. Jeff and I affectionately refer to that as the Mordor effect. Consistently crops up everytime we take photos of landmarks throughout Europe! Backtrack if you don’t believe me!
Barcelona’s beach did not exist before the 1992 Olympics. After much hype, I must say the sand is really bad. Hard to explain, kinda like dusty and coarse at the same time.
At night, one of the shops.
I’m already a huge fan of paella ever since first trying it in Sydney 10 years ago.
By the way, I love saying PAELLA. It’s pronounced PA-EH-YAH, not PA-EH-LAH.
There is Jeff’s vegetarian paella, my seafood paella, and two tapas dishes – Potatoes in Catalan garlic sauce and sauteed mushrooms.
By the way I came across this supercool Prawn thing. It’s about the size of a tiger prawn but has a hard outer shell. Tastes like a cross between lobster and prawns. Anyone shed some light on this? Any marine biologists out there??
Black Paella, made from ink squid !! A trivia for you, does it still come out black on the other end?
And this is what I woke up to…
… spot the Nouvel and Foster towers.
We got off the seaport and tried to catch taxis. But EVERY single one of them just stopped and took off when we showed them the address. Am I going to a really seedy part of town?
Later a local explained that we arrived at 2PM sharp, which means lunchtime for them. NO ONE works during lunch time. From 2PM to 4PM, absolute standstill. The whole city just shuts down for two hours.
Our Hostel – Gat Xino Hostal
Really funky place. Feels queasy waking up in the morning, crawl your way to the toilet that’s totally GREEN.
The Famous La Rambla of Barcelona
Extremely lively street, feels like a carnival. Apparently the Rambla started off more than a main street, it’s also the main “drain” of the Old Historical centre.
So it was designed so that all branching streets will dump their water there.
This street performer made a full outfit just from plastic bottles. Very ecological …
We’ve never really gave this part of the trip a name. So just wrote it as The Great Crossing in our schedule and name stucked somehow. It’s the bit where we cross the whole European continent along the Mediterranean in one trip, from Istanbul to Barcelona.
We started off with a flight from Istanbul to Rome via Turkish Airlines. Pretty much a non-event because I was so flat out tired from the Conference.
When we got to Rome, the Airport “Express” was late and drove us nuts. Fortunately in a very Italian way, the train to Civitavecchia (Rome’s seaport) was late as well so it worked out.
This is one big chuck of a ferry. More like a cruiser but not really a luxury liner. It’s like a four star hotel on water with propellers. It was a good break cruising for two days on the Mediterranean.
I AM HOME, I AM BACK !!!
Just to give you an idea of what I have been preoccupied with, I had …
10,244 photos and movies to sort …
870 emails to review ..
18 snail mail in my letterbox ..
13 kilograms of backpack to unload ..
4 stupid architecture assignments to hand in (one late) ..
3 promises from Europe I had to fulfill ..
and ..
my iPOD DIED !!!
At this point I have 24 draft posts. So my good friend, Hai Lin, recommended that I deliver that slowly. So I will upload them DAILY over the course of two weeks.
That’s right, DAILY updates for TWO weeks.
Upcoming highlights include-
Meeting with a FAMOUS FAMOUS American celebrity …
“The Attack of the Killer Squirrels” …
and ..
according to pre-release audiences, the FUNNIEST VIDEO EVER (beating the Villa Savoye one apparently) !!!
So keep tuning in !!
This is the spike that went through the stomach of my good friend, Constantine the Great. As you can see it is very long, very sharp and rusted at the same time.
If you somehow missed it below. While I was hanging out with the bunch of Greeks, Constantine was trying to collect a UIA (Union of International Architects) Congress poster behind a cast iron fence and got his belly punctured. And it happened about 4:30 in the wee hours of morning at Taksim Square. He was taken to a public hospital by a police car but it was too dodgy. Then they found a private one which landed him a fat bill of TRL2,000 (about AUD2,000 or RM5,800). I still don’t know if he bought travel insurance. This picture above was taken in the evening of the next day.
By the way bro, if you’re reading this. You promised you’ll give me your email the next day but landed in hospital !!
Hi people, sorry for being “missing” for about a month. If you can appreciate, I was packed day to night for two weeks in Barcelona, then spent one week in Finland where internet is way too expensive, then finally one week again to properly settle down again in Sydney.
I have to say, this last part of the journey had been the most surreal. Trust me, WAY surreal. The most interestingly unbelievably bizarre events! Hopefully I will be able to put it up during the weekend.
As for now, back to work!
a young capricious architect chronicling an itch to backpack around the world and discover the deeper qualities of architecture, food and people.