Of all the famous places in Europe, why did I end up visiting Oporto? Oporto (or Porto, in local language, but I think that is a less distinctive name, so let's stick with Oporto) is the second largest city in Portugal. On the grand scale pf the glamorous European tour however, it is a rather modest town, known mainly for port wine!
Anyhow. The answer to why I end up here can be found in the Lello's Library. No, it's not about the search of some rare books or tomes of secret knowledge, but it is for the search of a stair.
This stair. I saw the photo of this stair on Google Image as I was browsing ryanair's destination list going out from Barcelona. And it looks befuddlingly interesting. I couldn't figure out how does this stair work in 3D. It seems convolutedly elegant, and yet it compactly snug in the small space. Plus, I have soft spot for antique shops, a bookshop no less!
View from the other side of the balcony. And that's a person coming up from the first floor. Do you start seeing how this stair works? It's works like a ribbon weaving in and out and finally parting ways in two. There's four landing along the way, and the red floor material seems to be made out of something like latex.
Looking from the second landing onto the street entrance. The shop makes the simple event of purchasing a book like a scene from a bygone era. There is cart at the other end of the small rail there, that carries books thru and fro the shop.
View of the back of the stairs. Looks like it sits on a Victorian gothic mansions, huh? I love the sight of books.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Barcelona | An embodiment of Cosmopolitanism
On the train from Valencia to Barcelona, I sat across a violinist. An elegant lady, she copied my (inelegant) way of sleeping at a train by lying flat on the entire row of seats, with feet up on the, of course. We chatted for a while, as the train speeds across the Andalusian landscape. She described Barcelona as "a cosmopolitan city. Probably the most cosmopolitan city in Europe. There are many people from different places. Not many Spanish people. You're more likely to meet a foreigner as you'd meet a Spanish." She was German herself.
I forgot to note. I have been traveling with no guidebooks and only a minimal GoogleMap research. So, here's the fastest way to get to know the city's main attraction, by the postcards!
The great street of La Ramblas. It's an invert of the regular street: it has a narrow vehicular road on the side, and a broad pedestrian avenue in the middle (see? urban planning utopia!). I would not appreciate the sociability of this place without walking it with found friends from the hostel. It was a modern version of the Italian passegiata.There's a lot of buskers on both sides, and peddlers of live pets. Fishies, bunnies, kittens, parakeets or a full sized hen is up for grabs (don't think that they'll pass through the x-ray scans though). A selection of sights:
Happy evil buskers!
Sad man on a toilet...
A lively musical choir kept us entranced for over a good half-hour. Whatever they were singing about, it was fun! They acted well and the music had narratives.
As the selection of live poultry is being sold on La Ramblas, with a detour to your right, you will find an even more diverse choice of meats being sold at the market.
Something like a mussel... I remember seeing on some bio textbook. I wonder what it tastes like.
Muy dulces = Extra sweet. Do you believe it?
Fresh dedication. Every day.
Paella dinner with friends from the hostel. Left: seafood paella. Middle: Melon cream with bacon. Right: Asparagus and mushroom paella. And Yumm... they really know where to go.
La Ramblas at night, humming with light and liveliness.
Day 2. Casa Milà, nicknamed La Pedrera (the quarry) by Anroni Gaudí. Barcelona is a city of Gaudí, the architect who has created most of Barcelona's famous landmarks (Sagrada Familia, Casa Battló and Parc Güell).
Looking up to its balconies as I queue for tickets. The inspiration behind the architecture of this building comes from nature. Imagine. The windswept hills of the desert sand. The spine and ribs of a snake. A seaweed growing from the ocean floor.
From the interior of La Pedrera, one of those noisy school-tour boys look out, quietly.
The undulating terracotta rooftop of La Pedrera.
Arritey, another bye-bye message. I'll be flying to HK, NY and then Houston tomorrow for the long awaited internship. There are a few more posts to go for the coming weeks: Oporto, Brussels, Copenhagen, and Cinque Terre. Next week, I would have to start writing a blog for internship too. When it comes I'll link it up *wink!*
I forgot to note. I have been traveling with no guidebooks and only a minimal GoogleMap research. So, here's the fastest way to get to know the city's main attraction, by the postcards!
The great street of La Ramblas. It's an invert of the regular street: it has a narrow vehicular road on the side, and a broad pedestrian avenue in the middle (see? urban planning utopia!). I would not appreciate the sociability of this place without walking it with found friends from the hostel. It was a modern version of the Italian passegiata.There's a lot of buskers on both sides, and peddlers of live pets. Fishies, bunnies, kittens, parakeets or a full sized hen is up for grabs (don't think that they'll pass through the x-ray scans though). A selection of sights:
Happy evil buskers!
Sad man on a toilet...
A lively musical choir kept us entranced for over a good half-hour. Whatever they were singing about, it was fun! They acted well and the music had narratives.
As the selection of live poultry is being sold on La Ramblas, with a detour to your right, you will find an even more diverse choice of meats being sold at the market.
Something like a mussel... I remember seeing on some bio textbook. I wonder what it tastes like.
Muy dulces = Extra sweet. Do you believe it?
Fresh dedication. Every day.
Paella dinner with friends from the hostel. Left: seafood paella. Middle: Melon cream with bacon. Right: Asparagus and mushroom paella. And Yumm... they really know where to go.
La Ramblas at night, humming with light and liveliness.
Day 2. Casa Milà, nicknamed La Pedrera (the quarry) by Anroni Gaudí. Barcelona is a city of Gaudí, the architect who has created most of Barcelona's famous landmarks (Sagrada Familia, Casa Battló and Parc Güell).
Looking up to its balconies as I queue for tickets. The inspiration behind the architecture of this building comes from nature. Imagine. The windswept hills of the desert sand. The spine and ribs of a snake. A seaweed growing from the ocean floor.
From the interior of La Pedrera, one of those noisy school-tour boys look out, quietly.
The undulating terracotta rooftop of La Pedrera.
Arritey, another bye-bye message. I'll be flying to HK, NY and then Houston tomorrow for the long awaited internship. There are a few more posts to go for the coming weeks: Oporto, Brussels, Copenhagen, and Cinque Terre. Next week, I would have to start writing a blog for internship too. When it comes I'll link it up *wink!*
Monday, June 16, 2008
Valencia | A Shopper's Guide
Corrida de Toros. Despite little bullfighting tradition in Valencia, this matador ring features prominently in the city. Unless you go there in August, there's little to see there and it's becomes a tourists' market during other times.
Fans, fans, fans! The souvenir of the town. Prices range from €8 to a dashing €50. Explore smaller streets further from the center and you might get one of these decent Spanish fan at half the price.
Ceramic tile-making is also another core Valentian industry. Looks colorfully spanish, at €6 apiece.
Paella making pans! from your tiny one-person sized, to a 30-person pan 60-80cm diameter.
And this is what the paella kinda looks like. The vendor informed me that this is fried rice though! Yummy food with wholesome grilled garlics in it.
This is the grand Mercado Central. Sells all sorts of vegetables, fruits, cheese, meat, fish, and canned foods. Closes on Sunday (I presume) and at 3pm everyday. Looks like Spore's Lau Pa Sat, ne?
Cheeerries!
And snails!!! Live snails, ladies and gentlemen!!! The first appearance of snails on this snailer's blog!
And of course, there's always Carrefour, in case you don't make it before the market's closing time. Wherever you are in the world, it looks just like any Carrefour you have near you.
Except that Filipinos is the local Oreo. These comes in over 12 edible varieties and can be found in most cafés too.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Valencia | Calatrava
The City of Arts and Sciences, developed by Santiago Calatrava, is a large-scale urban recreation center for culture and science which also incorporates L’Oceanogràfic, an underwater city designed by the late Felix Candela. Set in the old dried-up river bed of the Turia, midway between the old city of Valencia and the coastal district of Nazaret, the City of Arts and Sciences covers an area of 350,000 square meters. Designed almost entirely by Valencia born Santiago Calatrava, the architecture of all the buildings use pure white concrete and Gaudiesque fragments of shattered tiles, an important Valencian industry, tie all the structures together as a whole. (from Arcspace).
The opera house (El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía... fancy names) is off limits to mundane visitors like me. Cut off the ground, and look upon the staff hanging out on its foyers, and it looks like a futuristic spaceship flying into the vast open sky, like one of those fantasy paintings.
The front half kinda looks like a giant mask of the Jedi from Starwars. Don't you think so?
I was hanging around the complex until 10pm, three hours after the closing time, for the L’Hemisfèric, the eye looking building, to lit up. But it didn't. The opera house did though!
Look at it in real life, and observe that this white bridge has plenty of gentle curves that creates a perspectival distortion that enhances its elegance. Ooooh.
Porticoes by the opera house. I wonder if this plain looking facades actually cost more than the expensive, pastiche renaissance, marble ones. Hmm.
Science Museum Principe Felipe, the plainest out of the strange companions?
Inside: A giant pendulum on a giant atrium, with a giant DNA helix at the back (every science center seems to have one these days). Come to think of it, with all, the museum looks like a giant cage of science toys.
Triangular lobby. I like how the arrangement of the gift shop (left, 1st foor), and office (left, 2nd floor) has worked out.
View from the 3rd floor. To the left is a series of many sciency gadgentry (in case you're wondering... a sliced human heart, three legged chickens, 3-d hologram illusions, machines you can jump on and measure the quantity of water in your body, a smell-tester rack, and bla bla blaa).
L’Hemisfèric from the outside. There is a super-wide angle, spherical IMAX theatre inside the eyeball of this building. Went to watch the coral reefs show. Lovely images... though I wish they'd stop playing the distracting 70s music in the background!
From inside the eye.
L’Oceanogràfic is the largest aquarium complex in Europe; and this is its mussels looking headquarters.
A welcoming smile from the local spoonbill waterfowl!
Tropical fish display room. My second favorite fish tank in the aquarium, second to the one that hosts the school of jackfish and a lone giant 2m sun fish. Anyhow, this room has a fancier boat-like shape. It also has an interesting set up that enables you to do a comparison between the tropical seas: the right hand side displays south east asian tropical fish, the left hand side displays Caribbean tropical fish. Good ambiance for a fancy (seafood) restaurant.
Fish of the south east asia tropical seas. The wide, single-piece, concave aquarium glass is an impressive craftsmanship. It makes the aquarium feel more approachable, as compared to the regular straight kind.
Jelly fish. Wonderful, elegant, serene display of jelly fish... ah, if only the kickin' n' screaming tour groups of children would stop kissing the aquarium glass!
Mermaids!!! Stuff that the sailors of the past fall in love with: hunks of gray-blue meat.
The opera house (El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía... fancy names) is off limits to mundane visitors like me. Cut off the ground, and look upon the staff hanging out on its foyers, and it looks like a futuristic spaceship flying into the vast open sky, like one of those fantasy paintings.
The front half kinda looks like a giant mask of the Jedi from Starwars. Don't you think so?
I was hanging around the complex until 10pm, three hours after the closing time, for the L’Hemisfèric, the eye looking building, to lit up. But it didn't. The opera house did though!
Look at it in real life, and observe that this white bridge has plenty of gentle curves that creates a perspectival distortion that enhances its elegance. Ooooh.
Porticoes by the opera house. I wonder if this plain looking facades actually cost more than the expensive, pastiche renaissance, marble ones. Hmm.
Science Museum Principe Felipe, the plainest out of the strange companions?
Inside: A giant pendulum on a giant atrium, with a giant DNA helix at the back (every science center seems to have one these days). Come to think of it, with all, the museum looks like a giant cage of science toys.
Triangular lobby. I like how the arrangement of the gift shop (left, 1st foor), and office (left, 2nd floor) has worked out.
View from the 3rd floor. To the left is a series of many sciency gadgentry (in case you're wondering... a sliced human heart, three legged chickens, 3-d hologram illusions, machines you can jump on and measure the quantity of water in your body, a smell-tester rack, and bla bla blaa).
L’Hemisfèric from the outside. There is a super-wide angle, spherical IMAX theatre inside the eyeball of this building. Went to watch the coral reefs show. Lovely images... though I wish they'd stop playing the distracting 70s music in the background!
From inside the eye.
L’Oceanogràfic is the largest aquarium complex in Europe; and this is its mussels looking headquarters.
A welcoming smile from the local spoonbill waterfowl!
Tropical fish display room. My second favorite fish tank in the aquarium, second to the one that hosts the school of jackfish and a lone giant 2m sun fish. Anyhow, this room has a fancier boat-like shape. It also has an interesting set up that enables you to do a comparison between the tropical seas: the right hand side displays south east asian tropical fish, the left hand side displays Caribbean tropical fish. Good ambiance for a fancy (seafood) restaurant.
Fish of the south east asia tropical seas. The wide, single-piece, concave aquarium glass is an impressive craftsmanship. It makes the aquarium feel more approachable, as compared to the regular straight kind.
Jelly fish. Wonderful, elegant, serene display of jelly fish... ah, if only the kickin' n' screaming tour groups of children would stop kissing the aquarium glass!
Mermaids!!! Stuff that the sailors of the past fall in love with: hunks of gray-blue meat.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Valencia | Prima Impressione
Wheee! I'm back to blogging again! SnailingRome is over, but before that, there is going to be a series of post-mortem posts on my Europe hopabouts ('the grand tour' on budget airlines!). Since I am travelling by myself and there is nobody to remember the travels with, posting helps me to remember of what happened. So, lets start. I spent the first four days in Valencia. Here's the first look at the city:
A sweeping view of the city from the high towers of Catedral san Catalina (can you spot the famed white Calatravas?
Hint: Squint! See those aliens near the sea on the horizon?).
Cozy cafés under the dappled shade of the trees at Calle de Cuarte. Valencia sets the standard too high on what a café should be like for my trip. Though, I still vote for the Italian coffee!
Another lovely café to spend siestas at (because everything is closed!). This one sits by a quiet piazza under an old olive tree. And that's a vine-leaf wrapped dish from the middle east, with yogurt sauce and balsamic vinegar.
A peek at the typical look of downtown Valencia from Plaça de l'Ajuntament. The well-preserved gothic architecture from the 15th century seems to be regularly cleaned, since it still maintains that ivory-white glow that is long lost in the dirty gray buildings of the cities that I visited later in the trip.
Estación del Norte or the North Station, is the central station of Valencia. It has a charming art deco pillar+lamp+seats at the main hall. I want a copy of this for myself one day!
Even the trees express similarly elegant sense of taste.
This courtyard appeared on a postcard, and I decided to search for it. I tailgated a delivery man into this estate, and was kicked out within 5 minutes by an angry Spanish man. Thankfully I know no Spanish, and his angry words went unheeded in my head. So, savour this private view! Not everybody gets to go in!
Lovable graffitis. Look at the door!
And this is the staircase at the youth hostel!
A sweeping view of the city from the high towers of Catedral san Catalina (can you spot the famed white Calatravas?
Hint: Squint! See those aliens near the sea on the horizon?).
Cozy cafés under the dappled shade of the trees at Calle de Cuarte. Valencia sets the standard too high on what a café should be like for my trip. Though, I still vote for the Italian coffee!
Another lovely café to spend siestas at (because everything is closed!). This one sits by a quiet piazza under an old olive tree. And that's a vine-leaf wrapped dish from the middle east, with yogurt sauce and balsamic vinegar.
A peek at the typical look of downtown Valencia from Plaça de l'Ajuntament. The well-preserved gothic architecture from the 15th century seems to be regularly cleaned, since it still maintains that ivory-white glow that is long lost in the dirty gray buildings of the cities that I visited later in the trip.
Estación del Norte or the North Station, is the central station of Valencia. It has a charming art deco pillar+lamp+seats at the main hall. I want a copy of this for myself one day!
Even the trees express similarly elegant sense of taste.
This courtyard appeared on a postcard, and I decided to search for it. I tailgated a delivery man into this estate, and was kicked out within 5 minutes by an angry Spanish man. Thankfully I know no Spanish, and his angry words went unheeded in my head. So, savour this private view! Not everybody gets to go in!
Lovable graffitis. Look at the door!
And this is the staircase at the youth hostel!
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