Time to Say Goodbye to Spain =(

It's been quite a while since I've last updated. Been really busy with different things. I'm still in Spain but SADLY I'll be leaving Spain on Thursday which is in two days' time. OH WHY SO FAST!!!

Well, I've just had the best night in my life last night. My supervisors (since they have all supervised me throughout the three months and I've spent the most time with them); 4 of them, and my supervisor's cousin, which is also my housemate have actually organized farewell dinner for me. How lucky am I yea? It's good enough I manage to get a training in Spain but I also managed to have great great people around me, leading and guiding a noob wanderer in Spain. I think that's one of the reason why I love Spain so much.

And it's not just a regular dinner. It's a surprise dinner.. HAHA!! how cool is that!! I would be really happy if I had regular farewell dinner or lunch with them but again, they actually spent some time organising a surprise dinner. And it definitely is much easier for them because they communicate in a different language. But of course, with my eavesdropping ear and my nature of extreme curiosity, I did find out a little bit earlier before the dinner =D. But I'm still surprised because I don't know who would be attending.

So, we had dinner at this very famous Catalan restaurant in Girona.

Pictures of famous people who ate at this restaurant

This restaurant sure have got delicious local cuisine. Well, if you don't know how Catalan food is like, below are a few famous ones

It's not Catalan if there's no Jamon

That rounded thing is rice with pork blood

Underneath, there's baked potato with eggs

Botifarra or something like that... which I love very much!!

And of course all kinds of dessert to choose from.

I've always controlled myself from drinking too much but last night, I let myself enter into the next level of drinking. Well, it's Spain so it's stupid not to do it. Ok.. let me explain how people drink here in Catalunya. First, before dinner, we have a glass of beer. Then during dinner we had red wine.. three bottles of wine for six people in a meal. It's like half a bottle for each person. Then after meal, we had shots of some local alcohol which I don't know the name. I was given four shots. It's like a three course drink where there's appetizer, main and dessert drinks..

Beer and wine together?? Now who's the better drinker huh...

My first shot ever in my life.. =D

I don't know the name of this. It's vodka similar but locally made.

My supervisors and my housemate..THANK YOU!!!
Which one is my housemate??

And after dinner, I went to a bar with the rest of my housemates and had another bottle of beer. Then we're supposed to go to another place but I was already wasted so we headed home.

I'll be BACK IN SPAIN SOON!!! It wouldn't be the last!!

The Awesome Sagrada Familia

Well, after Zaragoza, let's move on to Barcelona. When I hear the word Spain, the first next word I would think of is Barcelona. I guess most of you will have the same answer too... except a few whose first next word would be "hot-girls". To be honest, I didn't really know about Madrid until I came here. I thought Madrid was just a football team's name.. Real Madrid. Don't blame me. At least I'm better than some Malaysians who didn't know Sarawak was in Malaysia.

And in Barcelona, for a foreigner, the most important spot to visit would be the Sagrada Familia. Even more important for foreigners who are architects or civil engineers. And of course I wouldn't miss that. But I haven't manage to get into the building yet. Just outside... I'll try to go in the next time. The queue was just too long and we didn't exactly have the time for that. It will take one whole day just to tour the Sagrada Familia.

The long queue outside the building.. I think there's a limit of how much time you can be in the building considering the really long queue.

I suppose it's worth standing under the sun waiting for our turn.

The Sagrada Familia is famous for its complication. Well, it's not a rumour. It is a fact that it's really complicated. It's such a gigantic building yet the fine details are all there. It's true that this structure is a 3D piece of art. Even my art is not that detailed. Gaudi is just amazing. He could design a building so artistic yet he was able to know that the structure will not collapse. I think I would shit in my pants every day if I work with him. And of course, the construction workers are extremely good too, to be able to make the plans into reality.

The Sagrada Familia, as known is divided into two main facades, The Nativity Facade and the Passion Facade. For this post, I'll just talk about the Nativity Facade. Can you imagine, I've taken so many pictures yet all the pictures are of different details. And the structure is still not complete yet. There's still another facade, the Glory facade which is under construction.

The Nativity Facade.. Still standing tall

How?? How did he do it? Without technology.. I guess technology is nothing. It's just the matter if we want to do it or not. Technology is just a lazy way

Can you see? Fine details even at the peak of the building.

So complicated... Even complicated when everything is made of concrete. There's a story behind all the designs

Zoom in. The statues are still not that difficult but the bushy mushy walls.. How did he even sketch it out in the first place

This building is also a good place for photographers to get inspiration. I wasn't interested in photography at all but when I visit this spot, suddenly I just got inspired. And so I started playing with my camera. If only I had a DSLR camera. It would be more fun. And of course it would be much nicer if edited. But I don't like make ups so it's always good to let it be..
Here are a few.. At the same time look at the story told by the structure.

I like this one best..

And opposite the Sagrada Familia, there is a beautiful garden to supplement the structure.

Synchronized duck swimming.. Do you think they are trained to do that too?

From the garden, you can capture the view of the whole building. Otherwise it's impossible because the building is just to big to fit into the camera.

I'll stop here. There's the other side of the building still. Till then.

Warning: Don't Drive in Spain if you're lousy!!

If you're a lousy driver, don't drive in Spain.
If you take ten minutes to park your car, don't drive in Spain.
If you're the type that loves your car so much, where one scratch on the car equals to a slit on the wrist, DON'T EVER THINK OF DRIVING IN SPAIN!!

Why??
Drivers in Spain are much more aggressive. Vehicles are fast and honks are regularly used on the road. If you're slow, take the bus or walk.. Don't drive. But still, in Spain, cars stop for pedestrians... unlike in Malaysia where pedestrians ridiculously stop for cars.

As for the parking skills in Spain, it's like heaven and earth compared to Malaysia...haha.. might exaggerate a little bit but you know what I mean..

PLEASE take note that most vehicles in Spain are manual geared... and they don't have rear sensors for reversing like we do.

Here are a few pictures that speaks a million words...

Firstly, all the cars always park in a straight line. No odd one out, because the pavement width is allocated just enough for its purposes... And look how close they park to the curb.

And they park really close to each other. And if you're a noob driver, I bet you'll sit by the roadside crying while waiting for the other car driver to come.

A head in parking.. How the hell do they even know they have reached the limit before knocking the wall??

And this one, the gap between the front car and back car is pretty close.. Trust me, it's PRETTY CLOSE!! And judging by the way the red car is parked, I'm pretty sure both the blue cars were already there before the red one comes..

Well, let me prove how close it is in front...

TADA!!

Yepp, that's what I mean by PRETTY close.. Right now, my six sense tells me that you have either opened your mouth for a while or have taken a closer look at this picture.

It's so close, that both cars touched each other. Let me emphasise.. touch. Not knocked.. You can see the gentleness of the touching.. haha..

If it's back home, the owner of the car in front would have starved for one week thinking about his or her car.

Then he or she would have gone for a police report... But then again, the authorities will say, "We'll need 7 working days to process and look into the matter." And it never came back so the owner waits until he eventually forgets the matter..Case solved =D

So, do you still wanna drive in Spain?? I know I will because it's driving on the right side of the road.. and that makes me feel like in the movies.

Goya the Artist

After the tour around The Pilar Basilica, we headed to an exhibition hall which exhibits the works of the world renowned Spanish painter, Francisco José de Goya y Luciente. A long name that is. 21 characters longer than my name..wow

Personally, I don't know him until I came to Zaragoza because I'm not a fan of arts but for those of you who takes art courses then probably you would have read about Goya. Well, he was way before the Picasso generation which is why I don't know him. But I don't really know Picasso as well. I have 0 knowledge about art history. However, in Zaragoza, I've learnt a thing or two about the great Goya. And I even know a few facts which is not available in Wikipedia. First, he's a really expensive portrait painter... money face I should say. According to the tour guide, he was reluctant to paint portraits of ordinary people unless he was being offered something he wants. He preferred engraving more than painting. Painting for him was to earn money and he surely had earned tons as he owned the second most luxurious carriage. The most luxurious carriage belonged to the king. That's how rich he was. And I was told that the Queen was a really ugly person and he was the one who managed to make the queen look beautiful in his painting..He was sort of the first person to invent the concept of Photoshop. HAHA...

Also, I have learnt that for portrait painting during that era, the painter would charge the most to paint a person's hand.

Again, cameras are not allowed in the exhibition hall but with Operation Paparazzi Jordan, it is made possible. It was too hard to take pictures of the portraits but I have managed to take lots of the prints of his engravings. They have the signs in other departments except this room so I suppose it's okay to take pictures. These are just prints of his engravings anyways. The templates are probably kept somewhere much safer from visitors like me. Drawing a picture out of imagination and complete with the shadings are difficult but to engrave the pictures, that's pure talent

So, Goya's engravings are divided into three main themes: People, War, Bullfights. Remember it's not drawing.. it's ENGRAVING

The Exhibtion Room for prints of Goya's Engravings only.. and it is a dark room as you can see.. no lights except the display lights

 Every picture has got its story but I only know some of the meanings behind it

CHARACTERISTICS OF PEOPLE

This one I'm not so sure what it is about

This one is about men. The bird like creatures are men. There's a picture before saying men are free like a bird. But in this picture, it says that women are evil. They attract men, use them and when they are no use, they shoo the men away...hmmm... What do you think??

This one is about vanity. The women looking into the mirror is really old and ugly but the people around her keeps on telling her that she's beautiful, so she believes and kept on thinking of herself as beautiful. This one I agree..

This one I'm not too sure too. My brain is too simple for this. All I see is a woman and a man naked.

This one is about stupidity. Donkey represents stupidity.. and this one shows a stupid person teaching his son. So in the end the son will be as stupid as his father.

 
WAR
Goya, as I was told, was the first person who depicts war as a disaster full with gory and grief instead of victory and celebration of winning as assumed by people in the past.

Regular people being killed

Torture

An even more serious torture...oooouch.. this is real torture

People being treated badly.. as prisoners and slaves during war period

A helpless mother trying to save her daughter from the soldier..

Women braving up to fight in order to protect their family

BULL FIGHT
And of course, it's the tradition of Spain which Goya didn't miss out

This one is cool. It's not just about the bullfight, but look at the distribution of audience. They're all at one side, afraid of too much sun

This one probably is about the dangers during bullfight. Injuries and accidents can occur

Well, after the exhibition, I have learnt a thing or two. Now I know who Goya is and I know how to put more expressions when saying ooooo... or Wowww... after looking at all the paintings. I even know how to fake them.. =D

And here you have two statues created to depict and to appreciate Goya's artwork. Thank you Goya for all the pictures...