For this class, we need to make an online blog with entries about food, culture, events...etc. Luckily, I am already a step ahead and already have a blog so I am not worried. So here is my reaction to our field trip.
Like almost everything I have done so far, I thought it was very interesting. This was the first time I got a tour about the culture and history of Barcelona from a Catalan person. So that was probably the best part of the field trip. Our professor Xavi Alcon is also very knowledgeable about the history and we got a very accurate picture of how people lived everyday in the ancient Roman city (at least I assume everything he says is accurate). I did have one other tour in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona from a Catalan professor but it was an architecture class and he only talked about that subject.
The first place we went was the Cathedral. I have been to the Cathedral many times but this time I noticed a booth in front of it with some Catalan flags. I am not really sure about what they were doing but here is a picture of both the Cathedral and the stand. I still have not been inside the Cathedral though, but I will go at some point.
Just to the right of the Cathedral is part of the Roman wall and the Aqueduct that flowed from the rives to the city. If you click the picture and make it bigger you can see the Aqueduct on the bottom of the third tower
After that we walked along the outside of the Cathedral. There are a ton of gargoyles on the buildings with holes in their mouths. On a different tour my guide told me that they would torture people of different religions by chaining them up under the holes and pouring hot oil on them. Here is a picture of the gargoyles and the back of the Cathedral.
This next picture is of the last standing pillars of the Temple of Augustus. They are older than 2000 years old because the city of Barcino was founded around 10 BC. You can't really tell from the picture but these pillars have definitely been through a lot. They are very worn out but still manage to stay up. Seeing this was very interesting and it is pretty cool that they kept these standing. There are also two more pillars to the left of the picture.
This is a stone that was at the base of the pillars. I am not sure what it says but I am assuming it says the full name of the temple. The Romans like to have very long names for things. A perfect example is the first name of the city. It was Colonia Iulia Augusta Paterna Barcino.
After all of this we finally made it to the Museum. However, we were not allowed to take pictures so I don't have any from inside of the museum. At first we saw how the city grew after the Roman empire fell. There were a few expansions of the walls but eventually most of the walls got torn down and in the 1850's a man named Cerdá expanded the city with a grid. We watched a short video on the history and expansion of the city. At one point Barcelona was one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Cool fact.
Eventually we got in an elevator and went down about 20 feet. There was a digital clock in the elevator that went from 2011 to -19 representing going back in time to the Roman times. I think the idea of having the Roman ruins is a little more interesting than actually seeing them. It was definitely cool to see and to be there but there just wasn't that much. If our professor was not there it would have been a lot less interesting and I would not have learned anything. Luckily he was there and explained everything that we saw. Some of the sections down there were houses, the sewage and clean water system, the baths, and how they made wine and dried the fish. There was also an ancient tic tac toe board (stone) that was called 5 in a row. It was slightly different but it was really cool to see because everyone still plays that game. The most interesting thing down there was probably the model of the house. It was a model of a wealthy families house but it was very large and had an area that collected rain water so they were self sustaining and using all of their resources. Our professor also explained how they dried the fish. There was a large cube box where they would layer fish and salt and let it sit for a few days. There was a small hole at the bottom where all of the water would drain out and the fish would be preserved. Then to eat it, you would let it sit in water for a few days and it would be good to eat. This is how the Roman army could expand. They would give the legions enough food to march for a long time and they were able to eat on the way and expand their rule. After that the field trip was over and I went home but it was very interesting and I am glad we got to go to the museum for free.
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