As Sr. An Nghiem said, she had visited the day before, it doesn't have a straight line anywhere! Well, first off, of course I was in a rush, as usual. I had spoken to two sisters at breakfast and they were planning to go as well. I suggested I go ahead (one of the sisters hadn't even come to breakfast yet) and I would wait in the line to get the tickets. Then we could go in together.
So I hopped the metro, come out with the Gaudi house right across the street, and realize I had COME without any money or credit cards,,, I couldn't believe it! I had no choice but to go back home, 8 Metro stops away! I was hoping the sisters were moving mindfully and hadn't left yet, as I had no phone to reach them. Huffing back into the lobby, I ran into Valerie who told me what room they were in. When I knocked, Sr. Ttri Nghiem from Sydney, answered and said relax, they weren't quite ready and we would go back together! Crisis averted! I pictured our paths crossing on the metro, them waiting for me thinking I had already bought tickets, and I wouldn't know whether they had already gone in or not! All that thinking for naught!!!
Sr. said she had been advised to pay the extra 3 euros to get these video headsets that show you what each room looked like when it was furnished (Gaudi designed most of the furniture as well, curved oak dining chairs, tables, beautiful stuff!) The video headset was amazing! You would stand in a room, press the number and as you turned around, it would show you all sides of the furnished room. Because of so many people going through, there is now very little furniture there. The house is still privately owned but the family allows it to be a museum.
Sr. Dao in first room. she's the one whose daughter is here
Some of the furniture Gaudi designed
Fireplace with room on right for couple and on left for chaperone!
Everything in this reminds you of water, the ocean, sea life. Even the floor on the outside patio undulates rather than completely flat! He had some amazing features to add light and air through venting and skylights. The outside structure reminds you of a dragon, probably a nod to St. George who slew the dragon, patron saint of Catalonia. I'll put captions on the pictures to try to describe them. I would have LOVED to live in this house!!
That five floor atrium looking up!
Central atrium the height of the building, maybe five floors!
The revolutionary arches in the attic
Railing that looks like a dragon spine
More chimneys
Colors in the atrium were lighter in lower levels and got darker to cobalt by the roof level.
laundry sinks in attic
Looks like a modern bath today!
Details on the roof
Largest Attic room
Attic room
the skylight from the rooftop
Doesn't really show the undulating flooring
hand rails conform to the grip of your hand
Patio garden
This usually had seasonal flowers in this planter
Thursday. May 15
In the afternoon on Wednesday, after seeing Gaudi's Casa Batllo, I left the sisters who were going to lunch with Sr. Daughter. I headed I to the Gothic quarter, the old city that had originally been enclosed by a wall and gates. I first passed the wonderful music hall that is an architectural wonder in its own right. I had gone to a wonderful Catalonian guitar music concert four years ago when I was here. So this time I just took a couple of pictures of the outside.
I then went to the square in front of the huge Gothic cathedral. I wandered around behind the church and found the square I remember from my previous bike tour here where they said guerrillas or people opposed to Franco during the Civil War in the 30s had been lined up and shot! the bullet holes are still in the walls.
Where revolutionists were lined up and shot by Franco regime in the Civil War
Further wandering brought me to narrower and narrower streets called the Call, which was the old Jewish Quarter of the city. There were some signs in Hebrew, signs for a synagogue, and little shops selling yamulkes and other Jewish paraphernalia. At this point I ran out of battery life and that took half an hour or more to find a photo shop.
As I walked along these narrow streets I stopped by a shop with an interesting sculpture in the doorway of a woman seated in a paper leaf dress! An English couple came out and said I should really go in as it was most interesting! I did. it was a jewelry shop, very high end, but they DID have the most interesting sculptures down the middle of the shop (see photos).
Map of quarter
At this point I was getting tired so headed to the pier, that was completely renovated for the '92 Olympics. I wanted to ride the long aerial tram across the harbor to Montjuic where most of the Olympic events took place, a high hill, behind which they hid the new harbor or industrial port. I could see the tower and kept walking towards it but at the end, there was a huge water gap between me and the tower!! I gave up to come back another day. I took the metro back for a small rest before the 6 pm night session.
The theme that night was conflict and conflict resolution. their formula is called "Beginning Anew". This involves first "watering the flowers" meaning tell the person all the wonderful, positive things about themselves. Then you can tell how you feel about either what you've done or said or what the other person has done or said that has caused the conflict. Then you do deep listening to help understand each other.
We were told to find triads, groups of three people and go find a spot to meet. The time guidelines were very strict. Each person could have five minutes to explain their conflict (or didn't have to talk at all -that was always an option. ) I ended up with this Chinese woman (married to a Swede and has her doctorate and teaches at a university there!) and Kim, with dyed red long hair, looks Asian, from the UK who said she would just listen, not share. So I went first. After I explained for five minutes, we stopped to breathe and then they could "water the flowers" about what I had shared. Turned out when they talked issue in their entity amazing to share that personally in!! What are the chances of that? Kim ended up sharing after all! It was pretty amazing to share that personally to people you had just met. but that's the trust that is built up in a retreat like this!
You can tell Valerie is used to facilitating groups like this to handle conflicts. She was really focused and kept us so.
When I returned to the dorm, I knew I had the room only until Friday and tried to find out if there was a room I could get for the last three days. She said it looked like they were overbooked but ask Sondra in the am. When I check on the internet, it looked I like every place I tried was booked for the weekend!! I may be sleeping on a sofa somewhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment