Barthelona

I have - or maybe had - the good fortune of a friend who lives in Barcelona. Unfortunately, he is leaving at the end of May so I needed to visit immediately. It was fantastic, seafood, Gaudi, the Med.

I did it properly by spending the days at either the beach or in the museums. I was particularly drawn to the architecture and artistic visions of Antonio Gaudi. He designed a city within a city at Park Guell and the church for which posthumous work continues, the Sagrada Familia (here).

Spent too much money but spent it all on food and entrance fees. Perfect.

Scotland

I recently took an unrepresentative tour of Scotland. It was limited to Aberdeen. The first day was meetings and work but I did get a chance to see the university and its cobblestoned streets. Quite lovely actually.

Day two, however, introduced me to the sea harbour that Aberdeen actually is. Aberdeen sits on the North Sea and is home to many Americans, Swedes, and Scots. The city is a sturdy one, and necessarily so at the pronounced latitude of 57° 9' N (for comparrison, Oslo, St. Petersburg, and Stockholm are in the 59's).

However, there was a greivous miscalculation as to how much granite is suitable for building. Every single building - including houses, flat, businesses, the City Hall, churches - was grey, unpainted cinderblocks. I thought at first it was the grey sky overhead that was clouding my vision, but no.

Now, the peope that I met were fantastically pleasant and I did find a nook of green from which I could see the sea. But other than boats (and the accompanying oil museum), it was granite all day and all night.