{"id":2647,"date":"2013-10-07T12:35:28","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T20:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=2647"},"modified":"2013-10-07T12:35:28","modified_gmt":"2013-10-07T20:35:28","slug":"saturday-in-the-park-barcelona-spain-10052013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=2647","title":{"rendered":"Saturday In the Park \u2013 Barcelona, Spain \u2013 [10\/05\/2013]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"OLYMPUS<\/a>Let\u2019s go for a jaunty saunter
\nYou are bound to make your mark
\nLooks like all of you were born to take a promenade in the park ~ Mary Poppins: The Musical
\n<\/i>
\nBirthdays on ships are a weird thing to manage. For one thing, unless you arrange otherwise (which these days I do) all 800 or so crew members on board know who\u2019s got a birthday coming up, because there\u2019s a list that\u2019s published in the main crew corridors. Me, I\u2019ve never been big on celebrating my birthday with anyone but close friends, so I\u2019ve taken to having my name removed from said list just to avoid the awkwardness of accepting a ton of birthday greetings from people who I don\u2019t know from Adam\u2019s off-ox (remember, I live in a world where a name-tag is a permanent part of your daily outfit, there is little in the way of anonymity). Besides, as I\u2019ve gotten older I\u2019ve found that I\u2019d rather spend quality time with people I actually care about then simply use the day as excuse to have a party. So I kept the fact that I was turning 31 today quiet, I wouldn\u2019t even have told my boss except I had to go through her to book dinner in the specialty restaurant.<\/p>\n

I did however \u2013 of course \u2013 tell Amras, who would have known anyway since I made a huge point of reminding him last year (I\u2019m a very aggravating sibling that way). But Amras knows me well, perhaps better than I thought, and didn\u2019t announce anything on mic last night (which was the live karaoke night, which I feel like I survived by the skin of my teeth since I was battling a terrible chest cold at the time), didn\u2019t try any crazy surprises, merely met me at my cabin after my morning shift and said to me<\/p>\n

So we have a couple of choices, one is the Picasso museum and the Gothic Quarter, and the other\u2026well I really, really want to show you this park. Seriously, this place is like Shaughnessy\u2019s playground\u2026and you need to see the cathedral, because you just do.<\/i><\/p>\n

Since the Picasso museum would have taken all day and excluded everything else, we went for the other option. Which is when I realized just how well my big brother listens when I babble\u2026because this wasn\u2019t just any park; I mean it was a park, there were trees, there were flowers, there were some really great buskers, there were all those other park-like things, but Gaudi Park is at its heart an art exhibit. Now granted, I never truly understood modern art \u2013 it was the only class in university I very nearly failed. I blame both the lack of understanding and the near failure on a seriously lousy professor which caused a rare \u201951 and run\u2019 reaction in me as far as the course went, but doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t appreciate modern art. And Gaudi is exceptional. He based his work almost completely on nature, there\u2019s not a straight line to be found anywhere in any Gaudi work, which appeals to me on more than one level. Some of the structures in the park look like they\u2019ve been grown not built. The look on my face was probably priceless.<\/p>\n

Told ya\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Of course, the park isn\u2019t the only thing that Gaudi left his mark on here. Less than a ten minute subway ride (although it took us a bit of an amble to find<\/i> the subway\u2026and I swear, subways all the world over are the same, no matter what language the signs are in) \u2013 we alighted at Santa Famalias.<\/p>\n

So\u2026turn around Sis\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

And do, and I look up\u2026and up\u2026.and up\u2026and whoa\u2026<\/p>\n

Sorry we can\u2019t go in, the lines are just way too long, but you had to see it\u2026happy birthday Sis.<\/i><\/p>\n

Me and cathedrals. I have this\u2026this thing with cathedrals. Thing is, this one isn\u2019t finished, even though it was started over 200 years ago, it\u2019s still not finished, probably won\u2019t be finished until sometime considerably later this century. \u00a0As we learned while standing in the dappled sunshine eavesdropping on the surrounding tour guides; when Gaudi was given the project in the 1800s he apparently knew that it was a 200 year endeavor and when asked why he would take on such a thing on such a scale which he would obviously never live to see complete, he merely answered,<\/p>\n

My client is in no hurry<\/i><\/p>\n

Literally, as long as this thing was finished before the end of eternity, God wasn\u2019t going to care.<\/p>\n

Originally he had plans and blueprints and notes all laid out so that those that came after him would know precisely what he intended for the building, but the Anarchist movement came along and being not that fond of the church as an institution, attempted to burn the cathedral. Now the cathedral itself is stone which obviously doesn\u2019t burn all that well (I don\u2019t think that really was thought through very well on the part of the anarchists) but those precious blueprints and maps and notes that were stored inside<\/i> the partially finished structure, they didn\u2019t fare so well. So today the designers don\u2019t know precisely what the original artist intended, though they can piece together most of it from the scraps they were able to salvage. None the less, the building is incredible, and intricate, and you\u2019re not quite sure where to look when you start staring at it, even if you\u2019re not a fan of modern art.<\/p>\n

Lunch, when it came, was late, but I can always count on my big brother to find the best pizza place in town. Yes we are in Spain, yes we could have done something more \u2018local\u2019 but neither of us is a big fan of tapas, and sometimes fresh pizza is all you really want. Plus the pizza bar was tucked neatly off the worst of the beaten path so no one bothered us, which is sometimes a truly treasurable experience out here where your every movement is judged, weighed, analyzed and interpreted by someone<\/i> whether it\u2019s actually important or not. Let the other people have their wild parties and their crazy late nights, I did that once, I was that girl for about a year before I got sick of her, these days \u2013 just give me a day with my best friend, good food, and a chance to nurse a cocktail (because let\u2019s face it, my tolerance is not precisely as high as it once was since certain shipboard rules came in) \u2013 and I\u2019m probably the happiest girl in the world.<\/p>\n

We were sitting in the specialty restaurant in the evening \u2013 which we had almost to ourselves because our schedules required such an early booking \u2013 and Amras grins across the table at me and says,<\/p>\n

So, tell me something I don\u2019t know about you.<\/i><\/p>\n

Seriously? You think there\u2019s anything left<\/span> you don\u2019t know about me by this point?<\/i><\/p>\n

It was a surprisingly difficult question to answer; I\u2019m not actually sure what I came up with in the long run. It was also one of those meals were the conversation was so rambling that I ended up forgetting to actually eat<\/i> much, which always confuses the heck out of the wait staff and I have to explain to them than no, it has nothing to do with the quality of the food (which, as always, was amazing.)<\/p>\n

Oh, and then there was the one other little thing (and seriously, this is little, but it made me smile a lot \u2013 because it\u2019s really a case of just how much my big brother can spoil me when he feels like it). The mid-ship lounge was practically empty last night, because everyone was either packing or was still out in the city \u2013 but the band, as always, still had to play. With only myself and one family of very loyal regulars (seriously these people have been there EVERY night, almost more than I have) in the house \u2013 Lark started calling out for requests. Now, I always have the same two requests, only one of which Amras is usually willing to play (and that one was too good a chart to waste on an empty room) \u2013 the other I\u2019m always bugging<\/i> him to play, but for a variety of reasons the answer is pretty much always no. Except, apparently, when it\u2019s his kid sister\u2019s birthday. He just looked at me from the bandstand, shakes his head, rolls his eyes and says<\/p>\n

Guys, we have a request\u2026and I\u2019ll take this one.<\/i><\/p>\n

And he kicks the band in to Mony Mony<\/i>.<\/p>\n

HA! He did tell me later that that was so a birthday present, which I knew, which made me grin.<\/p>\n

So yes, I may not get to spend my birthday at home these days, but this time I was lucky \u2013 at least I got to spend it with Family.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s go for a jaunty saunter You are bound to make your mark Looks like all of you were born to take a promenade in the park ~ Mary Poppins: The Musical Birthdays on ships are a weird thing to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[48,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-med-2013","category-ports-of-call"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-GH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2649,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647\/revisions\/2649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}