TRIPPIN’ SOUTH SPAIN: WHAT HAPPENED IN 5 CITIES

TRIPPIN’ SOUTH SPAIN: WHAT HAPPENED IN 5 CITIES

Short summary of the eye opening experience in which 12 students, one teacher and a lot of bags went to 5 cities in 10 days to discuss architecture.

Friday---didn’t sleep the night before, that happens, staying up late to do last minute work. Not a great way to start the trip, but a precursor of the typical sleep deprivation that can be found on such trips. Flew into Madrid. Our director/teacher came down with the stomach flu. As soon as we got on the plane. Madrid was cold, freezing and windy. We get to the hotel. It is plush!! Nice pad. We regroup minus our instructor and go out for lunch and then to el prado to view some old school art. Fantastic work. Of course I have no pictures. But it was ridiculous to see some of those paintings in real life. They’re so big, and detailed and just painted…. Man. Humbling experience, along with a bit of jaw droppage. Coolest exhibit? The treasures of the dauphin exhibit in the basement. The exhibition showcased hand crafted ornate bowls, dishes and wine goblets, plates, cups and broaches, etc… just a ridiculous amount of incredibly detailed, handcrafted jewelry in metal, precious metal, gems and stone , and various combinations. Fantastic. Then we went out side, walked to a park, and then walked through the park, only stopping at the playground. We played on the playground, then went home. Slept for a bit, the director is still in bed, went to dinner. Ate a dish called ropavieja, or old clothes. Pretty good actually. Then went back to the hotel, chilled out with everybody, then we went out to check out nightlife. Nearest club was a five minute walk. Checked it out, everybody danced, I actually met some structural engineers from Phoenix and we talked about architecture, engineering and American cities for the whole night. Went home slept.

SATURDAY---wake up to go with director to an expensive breakfast.great. should have gone to bk with the others. Went to palace plaza. Geometric gardens, statues, pretty cool. Space was made unique by being on a different elevation than the street, in order to keep noise down, make private. Cool idea. Then took a walk to plaza mayor. Stayed there, sketched for the assignment. Bleh, hate these assignments. Supposed to be analytical, etc. a bit cold in the plaza. Not a bad space. There was this pretty cool guy who had an old vintage authentic (I think) pin hole camera. He took fantastic pictures, and he developed the film and did his whole dark room basically on the floor of the plaza. Pretty cool I guess. Then we went to the modern museum… don’t remember the name right now. Had these cool glass exterior elevatiors. Didn’t fit the building, but they were cool. Glass encasing the elevators, we guessed after doing abit of engineering, were suspended and hung from above. Marvelous idea. Went inside, saw some modern art. A lot of famous work… had to rush through the museum, actually, Christie the director only gave us an hour. Got to see the guernica. Fantastic. Even more impressive was the in progress photographs of the painting, documenting the progress of the painting. Pretty cool. Went to get churros. Yum yum. Tired. Then we napped for abit. We went out and walked for abit, got some pizza. Hung out with everybody in the hotel, while some of the others went out to the bar. Then we met up and went out to club next door to the other club from the night before. This club was even better. It basically was a mansion that was converted into a club. All these old renaissance rooms were dance floors, with ceilings painted, cornice work and painted walls, very classical. There were side lounges with old school lounge furniture. Very cool architecturally speaking. The music was awesome. They had a live African drum player, who played to the house music, and it was awesome. We danced until dawn. No lie. Walked out of the club and went and had breakfast.

SUNDAY. Train to Toledo. It’s a small medieval city, at least the old city is. Cool. Freezing cold. Go to the local mosque. Smaller than my house. Over the course of the day, trudging in the cold, I get sick. I feel terrible, and the feeling heightens during mass. Had to leave the service. I couldn’t eat, but didn’t vomit. I eventually had to go back to Madrid with Sean. We missed some cool stuff, the cathedral and some really cool escalator stairs. I shower and then sleep. Then I sleep. And I slept a little more. Wake up. Eat dinner. Hawaiian pizza saved my life. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.

MONDAY---wake up. Better. Leaving Madrid. Get on the train. I got to see some snow here and there. Very beautiful. Sleep in and out intermittently during the trip. Get to Cordoba. My first Islamic Architecture. I dig it. We check into our hotel, which is also Islamically inclined, and is also located 50 feet from the Great Mosque of Cordoba, which is a big deal. Cordoba, in the old city part, is a quaint, silent little place, no building taller than 3 stories. Everything except for the mosque is painted a pure bright white, which looks marvelous, because it is the old school minimalistic, not modern minimalistic. One of my favorite places on the whole tour. Lunch and then Mosque. Fantastic architecture. A bit dreary perhaps, but a marvel nonetheless. It was really cold in there however. The Mosque had been taken over and made also into a Cathedral, which most of us as architecture students see that as a sacrilegious act of blatant ignorance of existing architecture. It was a bit interesting to see how they had tried to merge the two styles. Sketched for assignment. Then, we went to arab baths!!! Space had always been arab baths, for centuries. It was a really cool experience, very relaxing, included a massage. There are 3 types of pools in the arab bath--- freezing cold, warm and hot. All you do is just go from pool to pool. There is supposed to be a particular order to it, but we just went however we wanted. Very very relaxing. Afterwards we went up stairs to the teleteria for tea and hookah… We all had some really good tea and they played some really awesome middle eastern music. We left and tried to find somewhere to eat. We walked for hours it seemed like. Some punks pretended to be nice and tell us where to eat, but the restaurant didn’t even exist. We eventually found a Chinese place. We order Chinese food in Spanish, which was interesting. We walked home, and some kids went to bed. The rest of us just wanted to explore. We crossed the bridge and went to yet another playground. Felipe and I walked out to this really cool swirl sculpture and looked at the stars. Chill, calm. We then walked along river, in the flood plain area. It was bit creepy but a lot of fun. Eventually crossed further upriver and explored the old castle towers (which were locked) and the old Arabian mill (which we contemplated jumping to) walked home and slept.

TUESDAY---I wake up with a shower and yet I still feel exhausted. We pack, leave our bags with the hotel, and then go to the next sketching assignment—a tiny jewish synagogue. Quaint, small, and the sanctuary space was very ornate, and incredibly detailed with stone tessellations. We then went to Arab House, which was basically that, an arab house. Very cool space, a lot of old authentic things, very nice. Get back to hotel, grab bags, take bus to Granada. Sleeping on the bus, wake up, sleep, wake up, sleep. We arrive in Granada, finally. We get to the hotel, check in, drop bags and then navigate through maze to get a church plaza on the summit of a hill in order to see the cloudy sunset. We can see the Alhambra on the opposite hill. It is absolutely nuts how big it is. We’ll go there tomorrow. The walls here are also all white but have graffiti, which is kind of cool to see old school adapting to new school. Walk home through narrow sketchy streets. Five of us go to get pizza because we’re hungry and it’s a cheaper filler than wherever we’re going to eat. We then meet up with the group and go to a little teleteria for dinner. A small place, with a frazzled young waiter who would actually run to get our food and then run back to the kitchen. Maybe they were understaffed. Hookah and food. We then go back to the hotel to hang out, talk and chill. Everybody had a good time swapping stories and laughing at some really good jokes. Then we go to bed.

WEDNESDAY---we wake up and it’s ALHAMBRA TIME!! We spend pretty much all day. A huge palace fortress. Basically the Alhambra is a really cool place. I have a lot of pictures, just ask. We sketched a lot too. It was a bit rainy, but it eventually cleared up. There was a palace section, a huge garden section, a fortress section, and then, further up on the hill, was the summer palace home section. All of it was so cool. Then we were to meet up in an hour. So Meg, Bob, Tom, Rob and I decide to climb the mountain behind the Alhambra. And we did. We basically ran up this gigantic hill. We have fantastic pictures looking down at the whole city. IT was a marvelous view and probably one of the more thrilling parts of the trip. Then we ran down like maniacs in order to catch the bus that would take us to the meeting point with the group. We made it in the nick of time. Did a “walking tour of the city.” Basically 2 churches, sitting next to each other. Then we went up “gypsy street,” which wasn’t that gypsy-ish. I bought my only souvenirs so far, some Arabic prints that looked really cool. Then we got cleaned up and went to dinner. Authentic Morrocan for dinner, and it was pretty good. Then we walked around to go bar hopping. We started at one small bar, and we talked for a while with the bartender, he pointed us in the direction of tantra bar, a more upscale bar which was supposed to be nicer. We went over there and had a few drinks, pretty nice place, nothing cool architecturally, maybe aesthetically I guess. Felipe talked with the bartender, we got some sweet deals and then he pointed us in the direction of Granada 10. This time, instead of a mansion, it was a movie theater that was converted into a club. It has some good music, the place was packed. Bacardi was hosting the party, which was alright I guess. The bartenders from the 2 first clubs actually came over later and we saw them. i eventually go home early. Really tired. Ah, thank God for sleep.

THURSDAY---Waking up involves packing, catching a bus and getting on a train. We are headed to Seville. It’s warm when we get to Seville. We take a very long bus ride to the hostel that we’re staying out. There was a complication and a room for 4 guys only 2 single beds… The complication gets worked out and the solution means Bob and I are put up in the attic of a hotel a half block away. Not too bad, just 4 flights of stairs to get to our room door. Then you open the door and there’s another flight of stairs. But a bed is a bed is a bed. We then walk about 2 kilometers to the university (the professor there asked why we didn’t take the bus) to attend a lecture about the Alhambra. It was a 3.5 hour lecture, broken into 2 parts--- history of Granada, Seville and Toledo, and then the Alhambra. Or as it actually happened: Part 1—sleepy students trying to stay awake, coffee break, and then Caffeinated Students realizing that they are in the presence of a master architecture professor. The guy had actually spent an entire summer measuring every square inch of the Alhambra. Truly a scholar. Great guy too. After lecture, we walked home, or in the direction of home, but then half the group went with Christie the director to this posh pizza place. There we ate pizza and drank wine, not so bad eh? Then from there some kids go home, but bill, felipe and I decide to go find some night life. We talk to some locals, and go searching for this hoppin’ club called Garamond, and instead find a bar called elefunk. The dj playing that night was awesome. He played some really funky jazz dance music along with some very rhythmic latin dance music. Very awesome. Felipe goes back to the hotel to get Monica and Meg. They come back, we hang out there, then Bill and I go home. Walk up 5 flights of stairs to bed.

FRIDAY---We wake up a little later today, wooh! People are starting to get more burned out as the week progresses. We walk over to the cathedral of Seville. We go inside, walk around, then walk up the spiral ramp to the bell tower. From there we had a great view of the entire city. Some of us met up because there were rumors of an arab bath here in SSeville. We go back to the hotel to get more information. We call and find out that the place is booked. Felipe, with his smooth people skills, thought that we should go over there. So we do. Turns out there was an opening. At 12am Friday night. We take it. We meet back up and go out to a flamenco show. The dancer was tall and a good dancer, but she never smiled. I guess it was because she’s not supposed to, but whatever. The guitarist was really good too. It was very theatrical too though. But for a first flamenco show, it wasn’t so bad. But it ran pretty late, and for those of us going to the bath, we had to scramble to find somewhere to eat. Bill and I eventually settled for McDonalds. They served beer, and it was good. We then ran over to the arab bathhouse and waited for the other kids to show up. They eventually did and we went to the Seville Arab Bath. (there is actually only one per city…. Weird) This arab bath was a bit more modern but still very cool. All the pools were salt water pools. They had a warm salt water bath in the basement, and then on the other level they had a large warm water pool with the hot and cool tubs nearby, and in another section they had a sauna room, and also a warm water jet pool which was just a lot of bubbles. A lot of it was very relaxing. There a bunch of couples there with us, our party of five…. Haha. It was funny. We get out, clean up and go back to the hotel, and round up the gang. We all drink a bit, and then head out to Garamond, which we saw on the way to the flamenco show. Turns out to be really cool. We throw our jackets down and go out on the floor. The décor was psychedelic in design, but the space wasn’t anything fantastic. The music was off the hook, however. They remixed some really good songs and it was awesome. It was funny because they were Red Hot Chili Pepper Songs, and so we were the group of English kids who knew all the words and were jumping up and down to these songs. I’m sure everybody thought we were nuts. We stayed out pretty late, about 630am, and then took the riverside walk home. It was nice. Get back to the hotel, and sleep.

SATURDAY---It gets fuzzy towards the end of the trip because I didn’t take notes/journal entries at the end of the trip. Saturday we were allowed to sleep in, so we did, and met up to go to the Alcazar, which is the Seville Islamic Palace, historically speaking. It also became the Spanish Royalty Palace. This was also a huge palace, like the Alhambra, but in a more civic/city setting. It also was very beautiful, especially the Islamic part, and the more Spanish sections were very rewarding to see as well. There were several rooms in which gigantic tapestries depicting maps or important political scenes. These tapestries were easily 50’ by 25’….think about weaving that…. Yea, it was rather impressive. We did some more sketching for the assignment, and then left. Felipe and I met up with Monica and Gisela to all do some shopping. Basically that meant Felipe and I walked with Monica and Gisela to the first shoe store and then we didn’t seem them until later that night. Felipe and I walked along, here and there, and then eventually went back home. For dinner we all went out to his arab bath/ Spanish mansion converted into a pizza place, actually owned by the same owner as the place the night before. Architecturally speaking, not terribly impressive, but still kind of cool. WE had pizza and pasta and wine. Then we all went back to the hotel. Basically Felipe and Brian went out and everybody went to bed but Tom, Meg, Bob and I. we stayed up, had a beer or two, and then went to bed.

SUNDAY—We packed up, took the long bus ride to the airport. Ate, went through Security, and then flew home. Everybody was a bit tired, and we still had studio work to do after that. We remet up and all did some studio work, and then went to bed. Great trip.


What I took away from this trip: I have been awed by some of Spain’s history and architecture, and the power in which architecture can have on a person as he/she experienced, as well as the power that architecture played in different peoples’ lives throughout history. The scale and grandeur of these spaces baffles me, and it has been both eye-opening and humbling. The life in each city has added to my own understanding of city, space, and people in general. I had a blast on this trip and am glad that this was apart of the program here in BCN. Good stuff.