Tuesday, May 16, 2006

The most phallic mountains ever









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The Torre Agbar (Agbar Tower) was designed by Jean Nouvel (who I guess is famous but I don't know architects), who claims to have been inspired by Montserrat, a mountain range outside Barcelona. I'm skeptical, because clearly the Torre Agbar is a giant condom. But Montserrat is a little phallic, too. Maybe he was inspired by Montserrat and condoms.

Anyway, I went to Montserrat with some friends today. It's about an hour train ride from Barcelona and then you take a cable car up. There's a Benedictine monastery tucked away in Montserrat and there's also a music school; we heard the boys' choir sing in the basilica. It was as close as I've been to a church service in a while and it freaked me out a little, but the singing was good. Super crowded with tourists, though; I wonder how the monks feel about all that. We also hiked up to the highest point of the mountain range, where we met a really cool Texan and two obnoxious Canadians. More blatant regional stereotypes, I know, but it seemed backwards. Then on the train ride home we met more Texans: two women in their 60's or maybe even 70's who are here with a tour group. I wasn't expecting to like them, but they were super cool. They blew off their tour group to go to the mountains by themselves and were figuring out the subway and gave us their metro cards because they didn't need them anymore. I hope I'm still traveling when I'm that age.

Here's a better picture of the mountains.

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