Valencia: La Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias

This past weekend I went to Valencia to see La Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias. We took a train into the city from Madrid, something I had never done before. It was definitely a good experience to have, but wasn't anything too special. La Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias was an impressive combination of buildings. The structure was built by Santiago Calatrava and was started in the late 1990's. The city itself has five main structures. One houses a garden and is completely open and free to walk through. The round building in the center is called the Hemesferic and was designed to look like an eyeball. Inside there is an IMAX theater where we saw a film about deep sea creatures. L'Oceanografic is Europe's largest Aquarium. There we saw sharks, a beluga whale, and several species of fish. We also went to the Museo de las Ciencias Príncipe Felipe. There we saw several exhibits from superheros to Nobel Prize winners. We were unable to enter one of the largest buidlings in the city, the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia. This impressive building is an opera house and looks almost like a helmet. Overall, the architecture of the city was very impressive and the lighting was beautiful at night.

Segovia's Cathedral

Last week, I finally entered Segovia's giant cathedral with Elena, my art and architecture professor. On the outside of the cathedral over the doorway is a statue of Saint Frutus, one of the patrons of Segovia. He is holding an open book in his hand with a page flipping. In culture, we learned that as you walk past the Saint, it looks like the page is turning by itself. The cathedral itself is the last Gothic cathedral built in Spain. The construction began under Carlos V and took over 200 years to complete. The cathedral is know as "la dama de las catedrales" because of it's elegant interior and exterior. The cathedral was designed by Juan Gil de Hontañón, a famous Spanish architect who also built the cathedral of Salamanca. You can find his tomb inside. Also inside there are around twenty small chapels and a museum of religious art. I thought the cathedral was very small in comparison to some I had seen, but still impressive. Some of the walls of the chapels were painted with intricate designs, almost like wall paper. Inside, I was also to see a detailed sculpture of Jesus that is brought outside during Samana Santa. Unfortunately, I won't be able to see it because I will be in Italy.

El Rastro

A couple weeks ago, Ashley and I ventured to Madrid on Sunday morning to brave El Rastro. El Rastro is a giant market in the streets of Madrid, selling everything from scarves to tools to bird cages. It is held every Sunday from nine in the morning to three in the afternoon and can have up to 3,500 stalls. I knew it was a giant market, but I had no idea how packed the streets would be with people. Ashley and I had to shove between walls of people to even look at most of the stands. Many of the people running the stalls were screaming their prices to everyone to attract customers. I bought way more than I should have, but everything was SO cheap that I couldn't help it. Throughout the market, there are several streets with their own specialties. There is a street of parrots, covered with animal shops and every type of bird cage you can think of. There is also a street of painters selling all types of paintings and picture frames. I am planning on returning before I leave the country to buy even more incredibly cheap souvenirs for myself and my family.

My First Bullfight

This past Sunday Lauren, both Ashley's and I went to a bull fight in Madrid. I have to admit, I was a but nervous about going. I did not really know what to expect from the spectacle when it came to goriness. It ended up to not be as bad as I had expected. Bullfighting can be traced back to prehistoric times with animal worship and sacrifice, but is many times associated with Rome. At the beginning of the fight, a bull is sent out and evaluated by the bullfighter for its aggressiveness and determination. After the bull is chosen, a “picador” comes out on horseback with a huge sort of sphere. The “picador” stabs the bull in the neck muscles a couple times in order to weaken the bull. Sometimes, the bull would charge the horse to the point of knocking it over. At this point, I felt worse for the horse than the bull. After the “picador” left, other matadors would try to stab the bull with two “banderillas” in order to further weaken the bulls neck muscles. The main matador then takes the stage to fight and attempt to kill the bull. The point of the fight is to show the man's control of the bull, and he shows his control by sometimes turning his back on the bull. If the matador is good, he can kill it with one stab in the neck, right to the heart. Unfortunately, many of these bulls needed several stabs to be killed, a sight I could have done without.

University of Salamanca

While in Salamanca, we also saw the University. University of Salamanca is actually one of the four oldest Universities in the world. Oxford and Cambridge are two of the other four included in the list. It was founded by Alfonso IX in the early 1200's. We were able to see the symbol of the University, which is a painting showing all of the astrological symbols in the stars and was created for Queen Isabella. We learned that in the old classrooms, students use to sit on the floor to listen to lectures. Students learning Latin did not take notes, but learned the language only through memorization. We saw the famous building covered in carvings where the toad of Salamanca is hidden. They say that if you find the toad in the carvings you will have good luck. I found the toad sitting on the top of a skull in a corner of the building. In all the souvenir shops in Salamanca, you could find a University shirt of every color. I made sure to get one to remember my visit to the old University.

Old and New Cathedral of Salamanca

This past Friday our group ventured to Salamanca for our last excursion. As we neared the city, I could see the giant Cathedral towering over the city. It was so much larger than any other cathedral I had seen in Spain so far. Our tour guide taught us that there are actually two cathedrals in Salamanca, Catedral Nueva and Catedral Vieja. The new cathedral was constructed when it was decided in the 15th century that Salamanca needed a bigger cathedral. The tower of the new cathedral is actually slightly tilted because of an earthquake in Lisbon in the 1750's. The earthquake caused major damage to the cathedral and caused some of the statues on the sides of the structure to fall off. On one side of the cathedral, a small portion around one of the doorways was reconstructed in the 1960's. In this newly built area, you can find a small astronaut floating around. The old cathedral is much smaller than the new one. The most interesting part of the old are the graves in the floor. There are hundreds of graves where many of those who died during the Black Death in Salamanca are buried. I found it a little creepy to be walking on top of hundreds of graves, especially of those killed from such a terrible disease.

Sagrada Família

These are pictures of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona. This building was, by far, Gaudí's most ambitious project. This was his last project and was left incomplete after his death in 1926. I actually learned that he died from being run over by a tram on the Gran Vía. Gaudí was very proud of the region in which he lived and only built in Barcelona. His death was considered a Catalan national disaster. Construction ceased after his death, but restarted in the 1950's. Unfortunately, many of Gaudí's models were destroyed in the Civil War by anarchists, but construction continues today. The projected finishing date is 2017, but will probably take longer. The structure is such a weird site to see. It almost looks as if it is melting because of all of the detail and curves in the design. In the museum, I learned a lot about the inspiration behind Gaudí's work. Most of the forms and shapes in his architecture are taken straight from nature. Inside the Sagrada Família, the columns are meant to look like tree trunks, and the ceiling, a canopy of leaves. He also studied the crystallization of minerals, which can be seen in some of the wall structures. On the outside of one side of the building, he built a structure resembling a cave with the story of the Crucifixion of Christ carved in the walls.