This picture above was taken about an hour ago from the balcony outside my living room.

This one taken at the same time from my bedroom window.  And I know what you might be saying, “but Zach, you live in Boulder 9 out of the 12 months in a year.  Aren’t you used to snow yet?”  The answer is yes.  Yes I am, but that doesn’t change the fact that when I signed up for Barcelona, I signed up for warm weather.  Three months ago if you asked me what I would be doing in Barcelona right now, I would have said “sitting on the beach, getting my tan on.”  And I literally just saw lighting and heard thunder two seconds ago.  But enough of my ranting, the times I have had good weather here have been amazing, and the “bad” weather hasn’t been that bad (except for today).

Last week I had a project due about the neighborhood I live in, in Barcelona.  I was contemplating uploading the powerpoint I made for the presentation, but the file was too large.  So here are some photo’s of my neighborhood I took for the project.

The area of Barcelona I live in is called Poblenou, it means “New City.”  It is a recently renovated section of the city that for years was the main industrial district of Barcelona.  However, once it was announced the 1992 Olympics were going to be held in Barcelona, a major renovation occurred in Poblenou and since that time renovation has continued.

The building pictured above is known as the “Torre Agbar” or Agbar Tower.  It was designed by the French architect Jean Nouvell and is a very recognizable landmark in the Barcelona skyline.  I live about a 7 minute walk from here.

Some graffiti I thought was pretty cool.

A major park on the outskirts of Poblenou, also designed by Jean Nouvell.  The tower from the first picture is visible in the background.

A classic building seen around my neighborhood.  Pretty much the majority of area consists of ultra new buildings, warehouses in the process of being demolished and turned into ultra new buildings, or old smokestacks the city decided not to demolish to remind citizens of what used to be in the area.

I thought this was a cool picture.

One of the smokestacks.

A neat part of the older portion of the city close to the water.

A recently designed park right on the water.  I live about 5 blocks north of here closer towards the center of Barcelona.

More graffiti.

There’s a lot of graffiti all over Barcelona.  Also, barely visible on the wall are the words “Poblenou resist.”  I tried to find out what this was about, but was unable to find anything significant.  The only thing I can think of is it was someone wanting to resist the urbanization of the area during the Olympics, as I assume many people were forced from their homes in order to renovate the area.

A picture of the old city square of Poblenou.  Poblenou itself used to be a small village on the outskirts of Barcelona.  Then in the 1860′s, when Barcelona was in the process of implementing a geometric layout for the expansion of the city, Poblenou was included in the expansion plan and therefore incorporated into the city.

A picture of a well known “street” a block over from my apartment.  The street is really more of an alley.

This is what is known as the Rambla del Poblenou.  It’s the street I live on and is pictured in the above snow pictures, looking off of my apartment balcony.  It’s a heavily traveled street and is the prime destination in Poblenou.  It’s basically Pearl Street in Boulder, with less bars but just as many restaurants and shops.  The main people present in Poblenou are evident in this picture.  The area consists of middle aged families that usually have young children, and elderly people.

A picture of a “Bicing” bike rack.  This is a city wide initiative to cut down on CO2 emissions from cars, buses, etc.  They have 400 stations like this set up all over the city to encourage people to ride bikes instead of driving.  It cost 30 euro’s for a year subscription and is only available to Spanish citizens.

The market right next to my apartment.  I literally live 10 feet down the street on the right side of the picture.

A mug from my favorite local watering hole.  Ovella Negra or Black Sheep is an awesome bar filled with pool tables, fooseball tables and darts.  It’s located in a renovated warehouse allowing a lot of people to be in it without it feeling crowded. And it’s on the way to Razzmatazz (pictured below) which is always a plus.

World renown club with multiple floors, locals and live music.  It is awesome.

So I hope I didn’t exhaust everyone too bad with this lengthy post about my neighborhood.  But now I have to go get some grocery shopping done and possibly some laundry.  I just got back from San Sebastian yesterday which was the most beautiful place I’ve ever been too.  I’ll be sure to post more pictures very shortly, because I look forward to reminiscing about the weekend which now seems so far away as it continues to snow/rain outside my apartment.

So two weeks ago my school sponsored a trip to Madrid meaning, they provided transportation, accommodation and a sub-par bus tour of the city.  Pretty much they gave us free reign on of the city.  Luckily my friend Anne had just studied abroad in Madrid for a semester, so her recommendations on places to visit in the city were of much use and much appreciated.  Here are some pictures from my time in Madrid, which as I said earlier is an amazing place to be.

The first place we were allowed to get off of the bus tour was at the Plaza de Toro’s de Las Ventas(where bull fights take place).  Unfortunately, there were no bull fights during my time in Madrid because the season starts in March.  The Plaza was nice from what I got to see of it.  They only let us off of the bus for 5 minutes so I couldn’t even look inside.  Plus, I was a little skeptical anyways after hearing there was a carnival going on inside.  American carnies are strange enough, I can’t even begin to fathom Spanish ones.

The last stop on the bus tour was the Palace of Madrid where the current King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, “lives.” In reality he doesn’t reside there, he actually stays in a smaller palace on the outskirts of the city, but he does conduct business of sorts inside the building.  In the picture from left to right are my friends Hannah, Kas, me and Lindsay.  From here the staff let us roam around the city as we pleased.

A picture of the King’s courtyard at the Royal Palace of Madrid.

After stopping in at various food shacks on our way back to the part of the city where our hotel was, we stopped in the Plaza Mayor pictured above.  The Plaza Mayor is one of the central plaza’s in Madrid and since it was constructed has been home to a variety of events from soccer matches, to bullfights, to executions.  However, I seemed to be in Madrid for the wrong weekend because I saw none of the above occur here.

The last stop of the day before heading home to take a siesta before going out to the club was the Museo del Prado. Very cool as far as art museums go, but as I mentioned before, portrait paintings don’t really float my boat.  El Greco was my favorite painter in the extensive list of renowned artists the museum has art pieces by.

A random picture I have from the club Joy Eslava, which boasts that it has been open everyday for the past 27 years.  I assume from looking at this picture now, the reason I took it was because of the two girls on stage with nip pasties on.  Definitely one of the best clubs I have been to since I’ve been abroad.

No explanation necessary.  Me staying classy at the club.

As much as it may seem like I have a lot of free time here, I don’t.  I regrettably have to go work on a presentation I have to give on Tuesday and on top of that do some laundry, which is by far one of the worst parts about Barcelona.  There are zero dryers here so everything has to be hang dried.  And when its been raining like it has for the past couple weeks hang drying clothes can be quite difficult.  I’m contemplating investing in a hair dryer as a quick fix.

A view of the beach, and Frank Gehry’s “Fish” in the background.  Apparently there was a lot of opposition to this fish when it was considering being built, but I think its pretty cool.  Underneath the fish is a casino and adjacent to it are clubs right on the beach.

A picture of “Las Ramblas.”  This area used to be the old city wall that surrounded Barcelona back in the Gothic times.  When it was demolished they decided to turn it into a Pearl Street Mall type thing with lots of shops, restaurants, street performers and lots of pick pocketers.  Pictured in this photo with the black backpack on is my roommate Kas who I know from Boulder and ahead of him is our friend Mark.

A small panoramic view of Barcelona from Parc Guell.  Going from right to left, those two towers are the towers present in the picture with Gehry’s “Fish,” the next noticeable building to the left is Antoni Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia (probably his most famous and recognizable building). The building to the left of that, which I think resembles a vibrator but is actually supposed to be a water fountain shooting into the sky, is right next to where my apartment is.

The three forty year olds present in this picture (we know they’re forty because they were in Barcelona celebrating their friends birthday) are these really cool Irishmen we met while walking around one weekend.  We had just enjoyed a nice Mcdonalds dinner on the beach and were about to go home to siesta before we went out for the night when these guys heard us talking.  Being slightly intoxicated and excited from the best Mcdonald’s meal of our lives, we were naturally talking pretty loud. One might even say yelling.  Long story short, these guys heard our American accents and offered to buy us a beer.  Several hours and pints later with the Irish guy on the left passed out on the bar bench, both groups decided to call it a night and we went our separate ways.

I have a lot more pictures to post, but am currently in a rush.  Tonight is free admission to the world renown club Razzmatazz (http://www.salarazzmatazz.com/clubs/razzclub.php).  I know, I know, I have school tomorrow you say, but that’s not until 1:30pm.  And besides, its free. To a world renown club. Free

I’ll post more later