Arc del Triomf, parc de la Ciutadella, Jardins de Fontsere, Parc Zoologic, Museo de Picasso and Esglesia de Santa MAria del Mar

So as you can see from the title of this post, I have kept myself very busy the past few days. I visited the Arc del Triomf which is this gigantic arched structure in the middle of these three really beautiful parks. It is pretty amazing and was supposedly a "triumphant" accomplishment (hence the name) because the finished building it on time, something like 40 years...I will try and post a picture online of it, but if not just look it up, it is really cool. The parks around the area were tranquil and beautiful, it kind of reminded me of central park with this peacful scene of people lounging around, playing games, excersising, relaxing and talking, smack in the middle of a bustling ruidoso city. There were also a few museums but since I went on monday I was not able to go into any of them. There is also a zoo with some thousands of animals, however I think I wil pass on that one considering we have one of the best zoos in the world in san diego.

The next day I made a trip down into one of the older districts and saw the Picasso museum. A few cosas sobre lo:I dont like museums that much, so this wasnt the most exciting thing for me (the Dali museum being a great exception) I never really liked picasso that much either, i thought he was just a weird expressionis, cubist artist. But i heard it was something worthwhile to see so I went. I took away a few things from it first off, I didnt realize that Picasso was actually an amazing artist, he didnt just paint weird cubist things. The museum contained most of Picasso's earlier works, from when he was a little biy until around his 30 somethings. In this time he went through many experiemental phases where he tried many different artistic styles. He copied famous styles from his era and the ones earlier than his, mastered them and then got bored and experimented doing differet things. So it was kinda cool to see him progress through the beginning of his life and how he kind of morphed into the strange cubist style he is mostly known for. I was not allowed to take any pictures (there were actually guards in every single room) so there is not any visual evidence of what I saw there...

Then I checked out the Esglesia de Santa Maria del Mar which is a gigantic gothic catholic church in the middle of what is now a cute shopping district. The church was amazing! the walls were covered in stained class windows (some which were upwards of 50ft tall) and the ceilings were upwards of 100 feet. There were many statues and scultptures etc and the whole scene was very somber with locals there praying and buring candels saying hail mary's etc. It was very dark and I therefore was not able to take very many pictures either, but it was a really cool thing to see.

For the nightlife, we found a cool Irish pub called George Paynes, went to an "Ice Bar" where you need to put on a parka and hat (its 4 degrees celcius) and gloves and go inside this freezer where everything is made out of ice-the bar the tables the counters the glasses the seats (with fur on top of it) the ground, everything! it was really cool but you couldnt stay in there long because it just got too cold after a while. So hopefully you enjoyed the update talk to you soon!

David