Barcelona Tour Bus and Flamingo Dance Theater

Hi All, So here is a blog coming to you from Europe. My two grown daughters and I are on a wonderful trip together....

There was a tour bus system set up in Barcelona, Spain so that you could get on the bus and then get off anywhere you wanted to as long as you held onto the ticket and then you could get back on the next tour bus when you were ready to move on. We wanted to see "all" of Barcelona and thought this might be the easiest thing to do.

COURTYARD WITH FOUNTAIN - LOOKED LIKE IT WAS  PART OF A MONASTERY.

CROSS IN THE SAME COURTYARD

When we approached the waterfront there were two cruise ships in the port and we got so excited but our cruise ship wasn’t in port yet. (We went on a 7-day Cruise on the Mediterranean down Italy's "boot" - more on another blog). It was wonderful to finally see the ocean (Mediterranean Ocean). Our destination this day was the aquarium. There were throngs of people in there even though it was a week-day. There were a lot of European tourists around us all the time, speaking multiple languages. It was really amazing to see so many tourists with hardly anyone speaking any kind of English.

In the evening we went to a Flamingo Dinner Theater. This was held in an older part of Barcelona where some of the original buildings have been refurbished and where you have to pay a fee to get in, unless you have a reservation for the dinner theater. When we got there it was still daylight. This area is called the Spanish Village.

AS WE ENTERED THE SPANISH VILLAGE AREA.

MY TWO BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS, LISABETH ON LEFT AND TAMARA ON RIGHT

THIS IS RIGHT OUTSIDE OF THE ENTRANCE TO THE FLAMINGO DANCER DINNER THEATER

THIS AREA IS FILLED WITH SHOPS WHERE PEOPLE ARE MAKING AND SELLING THEIR ARTISTIC THINGS...A FEW DEMONSTRATIONS WERE GOING ON WHEN WE WERE THERE

A NICE VIEW OF THE BELL TOWER IN THE BACK WITH AN OLD  WATERFALL TYPE AREA

The dinner was very good as you can see from these pictures.

MY DESSERT: CARAMELIZED APPLES WITH WHIPPED CREAM, OF COURSE!

MY MAIN COURSE: SLICED BEEF IN A WINE SAUCE WITH MASHED  POTATOES

MY DAUGHTERS FIRST COURSE: GAZPACHO!

MY DAUGHTERS MAIN COURSE: TROUT OVER SHRIMP WITH BOILED POTATOES

MY FIRST COURSE: PEAR SALAD WITH PROSCHUTO ON TOP (forgive my spelling...only the spanish disctionary comes up here!!!!)

MY SOUP: VEGETABLE (and it was soooooo good!!!!)

The Flamingo dancers were absolutely spectacular! They were so intense! This type of dancing seems to be more “heel” dancing, It is really fascinating to watch and I will upload some video clips to Facebook of the dancing. Here are some still shots.

THE PEOPLE AT THE MICS IN THE BACK SANG  IN SPANISH  WHILE THE DANCERS WERE PERFORMING

All-in-all the evening was beautiful and interesting and YUMMY!!! Here are a couple night shots of the Spanish Village.

SPANISH VILLAGE AT NIGHT

I hope you are enjoying seeing Barcelona through my eyes. Janie

More from Barcelona, Cruise Starts Today

One of the things I have noticed is that people are the same the world over. Mannerisms, and many more things are so common in all cultures. Barcelona is a melting pot of European and some American people coming together for work, tourism, or whatever. It is always "moving". When we leave our hotel it seems like we are stepping into a carnival atmosphere. There are people on the street trying to sell you something, People singing and marching around like a parade. It is so odd. There was an announcement in a store the other night and i had no idea what was being said....and it didn't matter. 

Some Sort of Creature. Along the Ramblas

A woman angel. Along the Ramblas.

Same Angel Lady.

The Ramblas is the center of the tourist area. It is several blocks long and there is activity there all day and half the night. It is very interesting in terms of people-watching. 

Along the waterfront.

Along the waterfront.

We took a bus tour down to the waterfront. It is quite a ride from our hotel, but worth it. The palm trees are beautiful and the water is blue. It's so beautiful!!

A modern apartment building.

I will be off-line for the next 7 days because I 'll be on a cruise ship. After that I'll be in Paris for a week and promise to upload more beautiful pictures.

Janie

Hello from Spain!!

It's been a while since I wrote anything here and I have a few minutes so thought I would get started. This is a typical "ally" or walkway where people and cars share the same space. There are millions of people here so this picture is unusual because usually it is filled with people. Basically, the city seems quite clean, but there are people who don't care and throw paper or whatever on the ground. There are people who go around with brooms and dust pans cleaning up. 

There is graffitti everywhere, and it is sometimes hard to tell from the "street art". This woman's face was particularly interesting to me. It and the graffitti are on a metal door that the shops close at night. When they reopen in the morning, up goes the door (like a garage door) and that makes the entrance to the shop. 

This is a typical license plate in Barcelona. There are a lot of smart cars here....some just tiny!!!! 

Barcelona may be a city of 4 million people and maybe 1 million tourists, but there is a lot of greenery all  around. There are lots of trees and parks, with a statue or water fountain in the park-like settings too. This particular photo was taken from the bus tour we took. It is beautiful here when you get away from the downtown core.

Some things are the same as the states, such as movie posters! There were several on a huge movie theater we passed. I took this photo. We almost went to see Conan, the Barbarian but thought the theater would not be air conditioned. This is a country with very little air conditioning, no ice, the lights in the public restrooms are on a timer and shut off after 3 minutes. Then you have to hit a special switch for more light. The toilets are water-saver ones and everything seems to be on saving energy. It rather makes me wonder why we don't have these in our country.

 

Today is our last day in Spain. Tomorrow morning we board our Cruise Ship, The Norwegian Epic. We are more than excited about this. I promise to do more writing and putting up of pictures. 

Janie

A Stranger in a Strange Land

That's me: A Stranger in a Strange Land. Life has thrown me around quite a bit lately. It's very painful and hard to understand sometimes. When I was growing up I believed that there would be the one and only man who would ride into my life on a beautiful white stallion and we would fall deeply and passionately in love, and that my world would forever be happy and perfect. Well, there is no such thing as "happy" and no such thing as "Perfect" that lasts forever.  I look back on the last 7 months and in that time my life has totally been changed forever. Is this the first time that this has happened to me? Absolutely not. I have come to believe that the only happiness we can count on is the one that we create for ourselves and are living at this very moment, not the one before it or even the one after it, just this singular time in existence. 

The stranger is ME. The strange land is SEATTLE. With the GPS telling me where to go I do a pretty good job of "getting there". I'm a people-watcher and there are few places with the mix that Seattle has. As I write this I think that Alaska must be getting colder, and lots of rain or maybe even feeling like snow. Here it is still beautiful and has been since I arrived! No coat weather....ahhhhh.

So I decided today that I would restart my blog...which I have shamelessly pushed aside. One of the reasons is that I want to share my trip to Europe with my two daughters, with all of you. So there is no place better to do that than here on my blog, don't you think? 

I really hope you value each day as the ONLY  day you have, and that if you are granted the time here tomorrow that you not waste any of it being sad or negative or unhappy. There is too much of those things going on in the world without adding to it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

My, How Time Passes Away

It sure has been a while since I posted!! I swore to myself that I would not let time elapse between posts and here I've done exactly what I said I wouldn't do!! UUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!

OK, I *HAVE/AM* been busy....having a very huge garage sale...two consecutive weekends, three days the first weekend and two days the second weekend....but I'm also trying to get ready to participate in an outdoor evening Bazaar on the 23rd and am also having another art showing on August 5th of my "fine" art....better known as Zentangle Art. I'm thinking that I need to come up with a better name for it because the term zentangle is very limiting and I do so much more than that. I just finished a huge butterfly done in white ink and dark blue Gelly Roll glitter pen on black paper. It will be the centerpiece of my show on the 5th of August, I think. The more I look at it the more I want to do to it but maybe it is better left alone...but a little shading here and there.... Well, if you are an artist you know what I'm talking about. LOL

I have been working a lot more on black paper although I did a piece on apricot colored paper and will put a picture of that up soon. I like black paper with the white ink but most of the white ink pens just do not work right. Also, the really good black art paper usually comes with a rougher texture like canvas looking paper. It is interesting to look at and nice (well, most of the time) but it is very hard to work on.

Anyway, I'll try to "not be a stranger" from now on....

Enjoy!

Janie

OK, here are a couple of other pictures too....

Butterfly in white on black paper with dark blue glitter pen.

Supposed to be apricot-colored paper with black ink...sorry about the photography.

My newest lady...black pen on white with light pink highlights on lips, cheeks, and selected areas in the tangles.

It finally Stopped Raining

I went out to ferry my husband's truck from one spot to another so he could try out his newest canoe. I always take my camera with me so took a few shots by the river and of him in his new "toy".

I also got this great photo of my husband holding Gracie on the couch. I love it when I see how affectionate she is. We are really lucky to have such a loving and intuitive dog. When I get upset she has to be right there beside me, licking me, and putting her paw on my arm. 

The last photo of the day is this wonderful bowl of red raspberries floating in 1/2 and 1/2. It is my very favorite thing to have breakfast, lunch and dinner!!!! 

OK, I lied. It wasn't the last photo. I'm working on some bookmarks for the winter bazaars. Happy Zentangling!!!

Huggs,

Janie

Bitching and Whining

It is evening, although you would not know it by looking outside...that's what summer is like in our neck of the woods. And there is soft classical music playing on the iPod, our Gracie is sacked out for the evening, having had her "dessert....licking our ice cream dishes" and my Love and I are doing our "computer thing". I am so thankful for the times that I have where all feels right with the world, and yet it still brings tears to my eyes. I wonder why? Well, it could be because I am having pain again after a couple of weeks with almost none...and this has me worried. Will I ever again be without pain like I was? Wow, I was doing all those things that we take for granted that we can do forever...like clean house, do laundry, go places, do things...and then WHAM! I woke up on Wednesday morning with such bad pain in both legs and my back and ever since then have been struggling. Emotionally, it is devastating. Physically, it is aggravating beyond words! 

Here I was thinking that I could behave like everyone else in my world...plan ahead to do things, be excited about getting up in the morning, you know.....NORMAL THINGS. 

Life has a way of humbling us...and the way I feel now I should be the most humble person in the world. Instead, I feel angry and sad all at the same time. I have things to do, places to go, and plans to make. This is not fair!!

Wow, how many times in my life have I said those words! Well, my friend, life is not fair...it is what it is. It is magical at moments and I have had those. It is wonderfully painful...as in falling in love....and I have had those. It is fulfilling at times, and I have had those. It is joyful, as it was when I held my new babies in my arms. It has  been miraculous and beautiful and awful and full of dreams coming true and full of disappointments....Life everyone just like everyone else has. 

I guess because I am in the last quarter of my life I think all the pain and disappointment should be over with. That I should be able to do and plan what I want without any road blocks. It just ain't happening! 

So, I have to figure out what the next step is....and boy do I hate going backwards!!! Now I have to sit back and wait for the pain to go away, wait for the doctor to do something different or something more, figure out how to not worry about what might be or what could have been, and just keep putting one foot in front of the other. The worst part of all this has always been how it affects others, especially my loved ones, who feel helpless. It also affects my ability to be creative. I don't like those things in the least. In fact, it tears me up inside that I can't change things that I cannot change!!! At this rate I'll live into my 100s because I just don't get it....and worse of all, I don't want to. 

I have put these pretty flowers on my blog because [1.] They are purple, and that's my favorite color and [2.] Flowers are like life. We start out as a seed, become a bud, then a small blossom, then full bloom and slowly wilt....but along the way we need lots of sunshine (Love) and water (Nurturing). It is the natural cycle. But unlike my beautiful flowers, I am going kicking and screaming into my "golden years". (Who the hell came up with that phrase??) 

I DO hope you and your loved ones will be safe and well during this July 4th weekend. And be thankful for the freedoms that we have and continue to vote to keep the freedoms from being taken away from us so we can grow old...and leave a wonderful world for the younger generations coming up. And to my Love, thank You for "Growing Old with me because the BEST is yet to be."

Huggs,

Janie