Posts Tagged ‘elevators’

Washington – Day 11 – Wicked

By Jeffrey Preston On Jul 12, 2011 0 No Comments

Jeff woke up this morning in a bit of a funk–his allergies had finally gotten the best of him. What he’s allergic to, we may never know, so let’s just assume it’s “freedom.” After popping some Claritin we were off to enjoy a day of artistic discovery at the National Art Gallery.

Note, we finally found the Canadian embassy and, lo and behold, it’s right across the street from the National Gallery. Curious, because it’s across from the National Gallery in Britain as well. And is part of Barcelona’s party-central at the Catalunya Plaza…man, Canada gets the best embassy locales.

Lobby and fountain at the National Art Gallery

It was so hot today it took all of Clara's strength to keep Jeff from jumping in this fountain

Anyway, the National Gallery was pretty impressive. It just goes to show you what a country with a ton of power can do…which is basically fill a huge building with every famous artist you can imagine. They had Monet, Picasso, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, JMW Turner, Chuck Close, Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik, etc. There were some truly staggering pieces to behold and the staff was so friendly and helpful. We think they might have just been happy to have visitors.

A man walking in front of a black and white striped painting

They're not paying you to act like a human bar-code scanner, Mr Security Man. Get back to work.

Ok, that’s not fair, but admittedly the Gallery was near-barren compared to the crowds we’ve seen elsewhere during this trip. As a result, this was one of the most fulfilling experiences for Jeff because he could actually see the paintings without fighting through a million people butting in front of him. The elevators were also extremely quick and easy to use, as they weren’t being occupied by lazy walkies who just didn’t want to use the stairs. For accessibility and “cool” factor alone, both the West and East National Art Gallery are worth checking out if you’re in DC.

After dinner, we decided to team up with Ali and see a live performance of “Wicked” at the JFK Arts Center. Interestingly, this arts center is MASSIVE, so much so that it was both showing Wicked and hosting a  huge hip hop festival. This lead some interesting cultural blending, as we stood in line with musical goers while being serenaded by some local hip hop artists performing on a crowded stage right beside the box office. Speaking of hilariously divergent crowds, the way people dressed to go see Wicked was a true spectacle. Some people were in full gowns with pearls and heels while others opted for sweat pants, socks and flip flops. It was pretty awesome.

Also, there is a SLIGHT chance we witnessed this show with President Obama. Now, we didn’t actually see him but when Ali was entering the theatre she saw a huge swarm of security locking down the front of the theatre, talking about a ‘special guest’ who was arriving moments before the show and who would be watching the performance from the Presidential Suite. Also, she’s pretty sure she heard someone answer a phone and say they were from the Office of the President. While we didn’t get a chance to see Obama, or verify if he really was in attendance, we did see someone who looked a bit like Condoleezza Rice. Is there a chance Condi is actually Obama? Maybe we really DO need to see that birth certificate…

The performance of Wicked was a real crowd pleasure, with Ali and Clara agreeing it was one of the best performances of this show they had ever seen. The two main singers were unbelievably talented and it was a pretty entertaining experience all-in-all. Jeff absolutely hated the show and called it “ableist tripe” but that’s for another blog post. Let’s just say this play’s representation of disability is worst than the worst episode of Glee ever created. Jeff found it so infuriating and offensive he spent most of the 2nd half contemplating storming out in protest. One of the main songs in the show quips that no one mourns the death of someone wicked and Jeff whole-heartedly agrees–he wouldn’t be upset if Wicked died.

Our eve ended with a heated debate about disability, perception and culture as we walked back to the hotel along the edge of Potamec, washed in moonlight, and it was, for lack of a better term, magical.

Tomorrow is our last day in Washington. No regrets, this has been an amazing trip.

Travel Log - Washington

Jeff woke up this morning in a bit of a funk–his allergies had finally gotten the best of him. What he’s allergic to, we may never know, so let’s just assume it’s “freedom.” After popping some Claritin we were off to enjoy a day of artistic discovery at the National Art Gallery. Note, we finally…

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Washington Trip – Day 3 – Patatas Bravas

By Jeffrey Preston On Jul 4, 2011 0 No Comments

Today was our first whole day in Washington DC and it promised to be an eventful one, given the whole 4th of July thing. Assuming that our day would be a little messy, we decided to spend some serious time plotting out our next few days and taking care of some procedural things, like getting cell phones to use in Washington. For this, we needed to head off to Pentagon City Mall beside, you guessed it, the Pentagon.

Getting to the Metro was a bit of a chore. Yes, the metro is accessible but the signage is definitely lacking. In fact, yesterday Clara and Jeff went into the Rosslyn Station, used their cards to get in through the accessible gate, only to discover there was no access for wheelchairs. Why there was an accessible gate is beyond us. Anyway, as it turns out we needed to use the elevator across the road and, because we’d already checked in, we had to be escorted by an attendant who buzzed us through the proper gate. As we waiting for our subway, we noticed a television screen listing places where elevators were not working–sure enough, Pentagon City was one of the stops affected by elevator outages. So, we decided to just get off one stop earlier, check out the Pentagon and then walk over to the mall. Once again we were faced with a bit of an accessibility barrier, as people refused to yield to let Jeff through the wheelchair accessible gate. In fact, Jeff actually had to pull his chair right into the gate just to block people from coming through and they STILL kept coming and trying to climb over him. Kind of ridiculous.

America! The Store

"Hey, you guys got those Roots Canada hats here or...?"

Anyway, arriving at the Pentagon, we had another hilarious “Americans are anti-walking” moment, when we were forced on a bus only to drive across the street, literally across the street, to the mall. Why are Americans so afraid of walking anywhere? We may never know. Anyway, the mall was pretty standard. Oh also, we were left weeping at how cheap cellphones are here…like $40 for two cell phones with unlimited text and call anywhere in America for 2 weeks. We’re pretty sure $40 a month won’t even get you 200 local talk minutes in Canada. We also found one of our favourite stores in Washington, titled “America!” which sold, as you might assume, American…stuff…

After wandering around the mall and buying some great (and cheap) new glasses, we were back to Georgetown to check in to our new hotel, the Georgetown Suites. The room is huge and works really well for me, despite not being an officially designated “accessible” room. Apparently the only difference between this room and the “accessible” ones is a drive-in shower–otherwise the rooms are identical.

Checked in and nicely unpacked, we ventured out to find food, only to find a Spanish tapas restaurant! Jeff cried with joy when he discovered they had Patatas Bravas on the menu. It was truly a beautiful moment for all of us. With nice tapas in our bellies and fond memories of Barcelona floating through our minds, we made our way down to the river to make some new memories with the 4th of July Fireworks. While we had planned to watch the fireworks at the National Mall, countless locals told us to not head down as it would be a giant tourist trap and, if the weatherman has his way, the rain would likely make it a big muddy wheelchair trap too. Instead, all the locals line the shores of the Potamec river and watch the fireworks in relative peace. All in all, this was a good choice. We met some really cool people and didn’t even have to fight for a spot. The fireworks were pretty good, although it was a little sad when the obligatory ”U-S-A! U-S-A!” chants fired up. We tried to launch into a rendition of the “War of 1812″ song, but people didn’t seem to take kindly to our White House burning ways.

God bless America…

With the fireworks finished and energy running low, it was time to come back to the hotel (but not before picking up some juice at the local grocery store) and take it easy before a big day of touristing tomorrow when Clara and Jeff begin trying to see everything humanly possible in 2 weeks. On the docket for tomorrow are some small art and sculpture museums followed by a trip to the zoo after dinner. There’s a chance tomorrow will be our only day this week without threat of rain, so we’re going to try and do as much of the outdoorsy stuff as possible.

More photos and stories to come…

Jeff & Clara

Travel Log - Washington

Today was our first whole day in Washington DC and it promised to be an eventful one, given the whole 4th of July thing. Assuming that our day would be a little messy, we decided to spend some serious time plotting out our next few days and taking care of some procedural things, like getting…

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Barcelona Travel Log — Day 9 — I’m not good at gauging ratios!

By Jeffrey Preston On Jul 26, 2010 No Comments

Without a cloud in sight and the sun burning down, there was only one possible thing to do today–beach day. We had intended on getting an early start to things and navigate our way across the city, but were stymied by a sudden influx of foreigners who have no idea how the elevators work in this hotel. To be fair, they are a bit confusing: you have to select your floor outside the elevator, as there are no buttons on the inside. Anyway, the result was extremely long wait times getting down for breakfast, getting back up to the room to shower, and getting out of the hotel. To let some of the crowds dissipate, Clara and Jeff decided to head down the ol’ Diagonal for some quick shopping. Sure enough, things were a bit more sane around the hotel by noon and it was high time to hit the surf.

The journey down was fine, if not a bit precarious with the seatbelt-less manual wheelchair. Once we hit the beach it was time for some over-priced patatas bravas (Jeff’s obsession) before fighting our way through the crowd to find a nice place to sit, sun and swim. Being Jeff’s first time to a European (read: topless) beach, he wasn’t sure what to expect but figured it would be a lot of old men and women exposing themselves to the horrified younger people who were attempting to gouge out their eyeballs. While there was quite a bit of nudity, it was neither scandalous or horrific, except for the naked young children who set up shop directly in front of us, leaving us with no where to cast our eyes without looking like perverts. Also, a couple got into a huge tiff behind us when one of the parents threw sand in a small child’s face, then they taunted the child, then they fought about it. Having said that, the naked children were probably the most uncomfortable part of the whole ordeal.

Oh and also the constant near drownings. Turns out Jeff isn’t quite the swimmer he once was and his nose has become completely useless at keeping water out of his lungs. As a result, the swim, although hilarious, was also a constant battle of keeping Jeff’s head out of water long enough for him to spit out all the salt water ingested from the previous large wave. Unfortunately, there were no fatalities, so our families will have to wait a bit longer for their free trip to Barcelona to mourn our loss. Fingers crossed for Thursday when we go for a solid wandering of La Rambla: Jeff is sure to get stabbed there.

All-in-all, today was a pretty relaxing day, completed with dinner at Nuria. This probably means nothing to most people reading this, but Clara’s younger sister is named Nuria and we can now say that the restaurant named after her has crappiest patatas bravas in town (one word: …currymayonnaise). Jeff intends on taking this out on Nuria when he returns to Canada.

Another day in the books, although probably boring for our dear readers. Never fear though,we will be back with more excitement tomorrow when we get back to more touristy things.

Adios

- Jeff and Clara

Travel Log - Barcelona

Without a cloud in sight and the sun burning down, there was only one possible thing to do today–beach day. We had intended on getting an early start to things and navigate our way across the city, but were stymied by a sudden influx of foreigners who have no idea how the elevators work in…

Read More