Museum-ing at the Reina Sophia

Melissa in the background!

Cloisters

Geurnica.  Many people in the Basque region argue this painting should be at the Guggenheim in Bilbao

Multi-media at the museum

The SHOP

Gaia payed it forward the other day, tallied up all my karma points, must of given me an advance too, and got me Adobe CS2 premium edition for free!  I am beyond excited to have photoshop, not to mention those other ones I can't wait to learn how to use...ahem...Illustrator, InDesign and Dreamweaver.  With school starting this week and the new job, I haven't had time to really mess around with it too much.  But I did attempt to translate two old tricks I learned for gimp (open-source photoshop for the computer programmer or poor student).  So here's some early photo manipulation attempts:

Fake Dusty Light:

End Product

Original

Gritty Movie Cross-Processing:

End Product

Original

So I'm pretty excited about my good luck, think I'll take a photoshop class...really learn how to use this bad boy.

Here's Where I'm Not But Sort of Wish I Was

This photo's from Malaga, Costa Del Sol's gritty cultural center.  Wouldn't mind being there right now.

Cool Things

Two things I think are super cool: rooftops and graffiti.  And 5,000 pictures to prove it...

Annnnnnd graffiti

Also, for the first time in my five years as a legal adult I have jury duty...or at least maybe I'll have jury duty if I make it pass the selection process.  I'm sort of excited.

Just This

Okay it's been awhillle since I last blogged.  We got back from Spain toward the end of June, and then spent an amazing week and half in New England, before road-tripping back through Canada, then to Salt Lake and finally ending in Los Angeles.  It's been a pretty awesome summer, meandering through the country.  But now I'm back in Claremont, setting up shop in at my parents until I can get a decent, affordable place in LA.  I'm finishing my degree at UCLA, which I'm super excited about...east coast living and those private schools are pretty pretty expensive, here's to state school!

Okay, we spent a month and a week, and saw a bit of Portugal, Morocco, and Spain...the last few posts are from the road at some of the spots we stayed.  Anyway, here's the itinerary:

Lisbon, Sintra (Portugal), Madrid, Toledo, Granada, Gibraltar, Fez (via airport in Seville), Seville,  Basque Country (San Sebastian), and finally Barcelona.

I feel like we got a nice taste of Spain.  We opted to stay longer at the places we went, versus cutting days here and there to add more places.  It was really cool...plus I'll just have to go back some day to do those things we missed, I'm talking about you Camino de Santiago.  I have pictures to put up for probably the next few posts, plus I'll put some up on this traveling, city photoblog I started.

Okay, these are a few of my favorites and why I pretty much loved everywhere we went:

Granada, Andalusia.  Home of the famous Alhambra and also a super cool
underground street art scene in the old Arabic quarter.

Madrid. I loved Madrid sooo much.

The working Museum-bed-and-breakfast in Subugo, Portugal.  I can't believe how beautiful everything about it was.  Called the House of the She Pine Tree, stay there!

The Baixa in Lisbon

"Lady, lady, lady. Picture?"  Fez, Morocco

Tapas!  Iberian ham!  Madrid

Rooftops in Lisbon

Street performed on his way home.  Madrid

Courtyard in the Moorish palace, the Alhambra.

Musician in Morocco

There was amazing graffiti pretty much all over Spain.  Madrid

Flamenco in Andalusian capital Seville.  Home of all those Spanish stereotypes: fiery women, amazing guitar, Carmen, bullfighting, and the West Indies trading ports circa Columbus era.

San Seb

As it is with traveling, we have been falling in love with each place visited - Lisbon, Madrid, Granada then Sevilla and now San Sebastian.  San Sebastian is cool and sexy and fun.  Somewhere you immediately want to be.

It is on the Northern Coast of Spain in the Basque Country.  It is soooo incredibly beautiful, more like Scotland than what I imagined of Spain.  It is right on the water and boasts some of the best surfing in Europe.

Photo from here.

Basque Country feels different from the rest of Spain, in a way like a different country.  The people are so nice, they love their culture - we happened upon a parade/all day party for the local soccer team, and the whole city was so happy and out on the street, and the region and beaches are the prettiest (in terms of city beaches) I have seen on this trip.  Unfortunately, it has been rainy, which in a way almost enhances the beauty - though does mean no trips to the beach.

San Sebastian tapas, photo from here. 

The area is home the greatest ratio of bars/restaurants to space in Europe and the best seafood as well.  The pintxos (tapas in Basque) are amazing. The eating is so good, all around best meals we have had, and the city is just so social.  This is definitely a place I can imagine settling in.

Up next Barcelona!

In Love With Seville

Hola Amigos!  We´re back in Spain after the whirlwind of Morocco, and in the capital of Andalucia, Sevilla.  Sevilla: where flamenco was born, Carmen rolled her cigarettes, religion is passionate and everywhere, bullfighting takes place twice a week.  All those stereotypes about Southern Spain, the fiery passion, the best nightlife, Catholic religious fervor set to Moorish architecture, moving Spanish guittar, tapas bars tapas bars tapas bars, they all come together in the ¨narrow, winding, medieval lanes and romantic, hidden plazas soaked in the scent of orange blossom¨ of Sevilla. I love it here!  I could easily pass months and months here, I´m really taking to the Spanish way of life.

As for the rest of the trip, we have 5 nights here (which are almost up), 4 nights in San Sebastian on the North Coast (must visit the Guggenheim in neighboring Bilbao and Hemingway´s Pamplona) and 6 nights in Barcelona (enough said) before back to NYC and and then our Canadian roadtrip which will somehow end in Salt Lake.

photos from here.

Can I be a Madrileña too?

Spain has been so amazing.  We just spent a week in Madrid; the city was so vibrant, a bit gritty, and full of so much to see and do.  We had such an incredible time just wandering the windy, narrow streets.  And yes, the tapas bars are amazing...I love that tradition, jumping from one place to another for small, delicious snacks.  My favorite foodies experience was at the Mercado San Miguel, a warehouse with glass walls in which bars, fisheries, tapas bars, meat counters, cheese counters, and many others set up and people hop from one to the next trying out everyone´s specialty.  It was sooo good.

Photo of downtown Madrid from here.

We´ve just bused down from Madrid to Granada in the Andulcia region, and the city has already charmed me to bits.  There are so many pedestrian only streets and but the best is in the details, like the lamp post are different on different streets with really cool designs.  We´re off to a pinnacle in Islamic architecture in Spain today, the Alhambra.  I´m pretty excited, I love the style, ornate details, courtyards...

Next it´s onto a week on the Spanish Mediterranean before we jump over the Strait of Gibraltar for a few days in Fez, Morocco - super excited about this one.