Danielle and Jessi's Travel Blog: July 2011

16.7.11

Barcelona

New #1 favorite city. New goal: live in Barcelona. First off, Spanish. Whether the language makes the culture or the culture makes the language, anything that is adorned with Spanish words seems to be simultaneously touched with passion and nonchalance. Although I do not speak Spanish, stumbling through the phrases I do know was a pleasure for my palat.

We had approximately 34 hours in Barcelona and two goals. One; see Gaudis architecture, two; get train reservations for our journey from Barcelona to Italy. Our first and only full day we got up and imbedded goal one inside goal two. We walked through the city going from one Gaudi building to the next on our way to the train station. Gaudis designs made my skin pucker up and form goose bumps all along the upper 1/4 of my body for half hours at a time at each site. The awe made me feel like my artists soul was enlarging too rapidly, like the grinches heart, to be contained anymore in my phyical shape and was going to explode out at any moment. It was quite overwhelmingly amazing. My heart was on fast forward for thw whole day.

In addition to the eye candy that Gaudi provided the city seemed to be burstung with art and design. I guess in a city that historically allowed someone so eccentric as Gaudi to create the base line for thier architectural designs must harbor many generations of artisitic souls. This is evident everywhere you turn. In the short time and distance of our days walk across the city to the far train station we were inidated with one unique building after another. We passed many sweet galleries and street musicians which were unusually talented. We passed a market stuffed full of amazing and artisitic antiques as if they were junk but the vendors and the price tags knew better. The gothic churches were everywhere and had a less stuffy aire about them with a barcelonian twist in their design. Being full of enthusiasm for all of the interesting things to take in we finally reached our destination to achieve goal number two. The station was right off the harbor and was a beautiful sight in and of its self. Although we did not achieve this goal of getting our tickets booked, a problem we seem unable to avoid despite all efforts, we were still in good spirits. A walk walk through the triumph arch and on to the most famous Gaudi cathedral and then to the UNESCO sight of the Gaudi Park filled our senses and distracted our irritation at the limitation of the Eurail pass.

Our 34 hours were well spent and thanks to Gaudi my goose bumps have been revitalized.

Barcelona, mucho gusto!!

Gaudi Apartments

Miscillanious Street Architercture

Antique Market

Train Station

Gaudi Cathedral

Guadi Park

On The Farm

We spent a little over a week at the Enjouanisson Farm outside of Auch, France, planting tomatoes, weeding, feeding animals, catching rabbits and trying to determine their genders, cleaning cages, mucking out chicken coops, milling grains and beans for pig food, baby-sitting, and, on one especially exciting morning, tackling sheep, flipping them on their backs, and clipping their nails. We stayed with a British couple, Louisa and Stuart, their kids Harmonie and Phoenix, and a second British couple who arrived a few days after we did to workaway - Sarah and Drew. Despite the hard work we had a relaxing and enjoyable stay. Here are a few of my favorite memories.

Showering after planing 80 tomato plants in the rain and getting covered head to toe in mud on our first day of work

Watching Ben the dog sniffing out mice in the barn

The delicious food Louisa cooked for us

Finally finishing my 16 page medical school application

Getting swamped with hugs from Harmonie and Phoenix on my first night in an obvious attempt to delay their bed time

Watching the kids enjoy their new inflatable swimming pool on an especially hot day

Taking a family trip to the man-made beach beside the lake, where Stuart bought us ice cream

Catching baby bunnies (our most enjoyable farm task by far)

Riding bikes to Montesquiou on our day off

An afternoon in Auch, walking around, sitting at cafes, and eating macaroons

Stopping at a grocery store to buy a stash of amazing European chocolate to combat the stress of applying to medical school. And then eating it ALL.

Watching the sheep we were trying to coral gracefully leap over our make-shift fence, and getting a flashback to counting sheep in order to fall asleep as a child

It happens for real

Flipping the first sheep over onto Drew's lap and seeing a level of angst normally reserved for tragic Renaissance paintings on its face.

Michelangelo's Pieta

Drew with anonymous sheep

And again

We did this all morning

The sheep in general were a lot of fun. When we fed them they turned into a sheep voltron.

Swarming

Just a couple of girls with a bucket of feed

Baby chicks hatching in an incubator next to the kitchen

Petting Gypsy, a very naughty, very lovable dog that burrowed into Sarah and Drew's tent several nights in a row

Harmonie wanting to play dress up in Danielle's sparkly gold bikini (Danielle has been admired by little girls the world over for this swim suit)

Baby piglets!!! And more specifically, seeing three piglets fall asleep stacked on top of each other. Unfortunately before I had time to get the camera the top two had fallen off.