Barcelona markets - 2 different views

Oh boy, it was a Catholic treat at these flea markets in Plaza St Jaume, Barcelona. All that was missing was a black Jesus. If only I was rich with a big suitcase, I would've bought so many bits and pieces for my wall of tackiness*. Grainy hipster photos will have to suffice.



Serious church pillaging has gone on in Spain:











Home made Saint relic, anyone?


Look at all these awesome looking cameras lined up:


Love me some creepy dollies:


On the other side of the coin, and the gothic quarter lies the pet markets on La Ramblas:


Tiny turtles.... Not legal in oz. Or surely Danye West would be breeding these.


I think this is a bandicoot. Or some sort of south American rat.



Something small, fury and stripey. Probably bites.


Ferrets, cheaper cousin of the mink. I saw a guy taking one for a walk past my house once, it was surreal.

*currently in storage

Museo de Caza - Help me Ronda

I didn't initially intend to visit but on a Sunday afternoon where there's not alot open or much else to do (plus the low price of €1.50), I took a trip to the Museo de Caza.

From what I could work out (the spainiards aren't big on english subtitles), this home now partially houses the hunting/taxidermied collection belonging to one family, while they lived upstairs (that's 2 floors below I would not like to stumble around in the dark). They also featured many happy snaps of the family in their hunting adventures with their trophies from the room.


Most of the taxidermy was the typical deer/elk/moose variety but there was also a few lions, several big cats of various varieties, bears, wild boars, birds and elephant feet.


I sort of debated this whole concept in my head of even patronizing such a museum as I'm so adamently against hunting animals for sport and I refuse to witness a bullfight whilst I'm here because frankly I don't think I could handle it. But I decided it's ultimately my curiosity of viewing once-live animals far more closely than I ever could in life.



The moose and bison heads were huge!!!


I have no idea what this is. A monkey crossed with several deer? A moer? A deerkey? A donkey?


This was in the basement. This scared me. I quickly left.


The view from the backyard, the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

Sick of Madrid

Literally... I have an Infection de los senos :( also I'm putting this out there - there's really nothing special about Madrid, however I got to see Picasso's possibly greatest work, "Guernica":


It is huge in scale, foreboding and dramatic.

Also, I didn't want to go to a bullfight because it's fucked up and I'm the odd one out?!?!?

Paris - a hipstamatic view #4

The best way to see Paris - at night on the Seine:






Unknown pointy stick:



Alexander III bridge:






Musee D'orsay, which I finally got to see (after 5minslatedoorshutinfacegate) is HUGE!






"idiot...."



"....more idiots"












It's not easy being green...and pink:



Photos by everyone...!

Paris Visual mediocrity #3?

My favourite park in Paris, Park Monceau:













La Defense grande arch, so big I couldn't fit it in my shitty photo:





Look hard enough and see a tiny arc de triumph in the centre:


Close up:


Street art in Abess:


Look closely at the ladies shawl, it's a collage of old fashion illustrations!!


Pigalle..... home of Moulin Rouge, but a pretty tacky area...


This vintage sewing supply store, Ultramod, made me nostalgic about a company I used to work for:

Location:Rue Laurin,Rueil-Malmaison,France

I remember when Brittany was just a pop star...

I spent a lovely week frolicking along the shores of Brittany, (on the north west coast of France)... well more like running along the shores - running AWAY from the giant killer stalking seagulls they have here, seagulls that have NO fear and could possibly carry away a small child.

My first night I was awoken by what I thought was screaming only to find it was seagulls fighting outside the window. I witnessed an army of seagulls systematically disemble and proceed to anhilate an unattended picnic lunch on the beach. I dared not interfere with their wrongdoings for I feared they might peck my eyes out. Plus it was just funnier to watch and laugh from afar.

No wonder they have a statue in tribute of Alfred Hitchcock on the beach in Dinard, for he too saw the true evil in these beasts illustrated in his classic film, "The Birds"








Don't be fooled by the serenity, this beach is Seagull HQ. People use those blue and white tents as protective housing units.

No seagulls at the markets, thankfully. Mmm look at all those yummy olives:



This is the medieval village Dinan, by a river, not so much the sea:






I'm high up on a bell tower looking over Dinan, obviously happy and relieved to be far away from those perilous seagulls: