Day Sixty-Three: The Zoo Zquad

8/17/15, 11;37 PM PDT

Today, Angela, Kayla, Nick, and I decided to go to the zoo in order to visit Christina's family just to hang out.

Hey, you can see Christina on top of the sign!

Somewhere in this park, there's a beautiful and elusive animal. Natively found in Africa, we San Diegans are lucky enough to have one grace us with its presence in our very own zoo. Hailed as a divine being in some cultures, it is the epitome of elegance.

It calls itself the "Dik-Dik." And I was on the hunt to find it today.

The first thing we did was take the skytram to the other side of the park. The first animal we saw was unfortunately, not the Dik-Dik, but this guy:

It looks like a living kiwi.

This cute little guy is called a peccary, a member of the pig family with prickly-looking fur surrounding his entire family. He deserves special recognition for being the unofficial welcoming animal for the first annual Kamichan zoo trip. Good on you, friend!

Congratulations!

Of course, with the 3,700 different species in the zoo, I couldn't afford to photoshop top hats on all of them nor can I upload pictures of all of them, so I'll post the highlights.

There was this snow leopard that happened to be standing on a walkway that connects the two leopard cages that I got a pretty okay silhouette picture of.

"I'm Batman."

Not to be outdone, this peacock (which is allowed to roam the park freely!) also did his best Batman impression by climbing on top of a roof.

"I am the night. Err, the dusk."

And there was this guy, star of the bestselling novel "The Poisonwood Bible."

Half giraffe, half horse, half zebra, it's a Gizebrorse! Also I'm bad with fractions.

We also saw a real Angry Bird! Look at how fat it is!

They had to surround it in sand because if it hits anything wooden, glass, or
pig-like, it instantly explodes.

Actually, I believe the title of "real life Angry Bird" belongs to this guy, where he's so angry that it's in his actual name.

Of course it's not threatened, it won't even allow poachers
to step on its lawn, let alone get close enough to kill it.

This animal quickly became one of my favorites when it let out its incredibly cry. My camera glitched when I recorded its song, so instead, have this YouTube video that I found:

Isn't it adorable? Also adorable was this plaque that we found.

We're not sure if Poseidon the leopard dog is an animal or the full legal name
of whatever rich philanthropist donated to the zoo.

We also found Christina's family!

With my estimates, her fist should come flying through my window and into
my face right about n-

Seriously though, hippos are pretty damn cool. Key club  D21 definitely chose a good mascot, they're adorable.

We caught a video of one of these guys submerging...

Love me my underwater transition shots.

And we noticed a neat little symbiosis happening between these fish and the hippo:

Much like the symbiosis between Will Smith and those whales in a
particular Dreamworks animated film.

The highlight of the day though? THE ORANGUTANS. We luckily came to their exhibit right as they were starting up their daily Cirque du Soleape show, so we got some pretty good footage:

(Ignore how obnoxious I am on camera, I don't know what the hell is wrong with me)

I especially loved this little guy:

I really regret not bringing Joby to meet his family, but on the other hand, with how active some of the other animals were, it might have been a good thing not to bring him, lest he get mauled to death by these guys:

Oh and I also had a face to face encounter with a koala!

"It's like looking into a mirror." -Christina
(Pic via Kayla)

We stayed at the zoo until it was pretty late. Late enough to see the golden hour...

It's pointing up because if koalas touch the ground to cross the street,
they go straight to heaven.

And to see when the zoo was nothing but golden light.

The beauty of incandescent lighting.

We got that picture when we were on the skytram at night. And since we took it near the entrance of the park and it was near closing, we would have to walk back to the entrance from the other side of the park. At night. Pitch black night. And although it gave rise to a particularly cool picture of Kayla...

Looks like she's about to perform on stage but she has stage fright or something.

It also gave us some very creepy, horror-game worthy moments. It was inevitable that we had to pass through some of the animal enclosures to get back, and even though the zoo was essentially closed at that time, the ambient jungle-esque noise that played near each enclosure kept playing. And though it might give the exhibits a bit more realism during the day, at night it only served to hide the sound of footsteps from murderers that were walking right behind us. 

After sprinting the last 40 miles of the zoo when we though we heard breathing behind us, we made it to the gift shop and decided to distract ourselves from the fact that the San Diego Slayer was definitely real and definitely almost murdered us with his dirty, bear-like paws by looking at the stuff they had for sale.

They of course had cute stuffed animals...

Reminds me of the look I had when I was first told
that girls and boys had different parts.

Some "cute" baby children's shirts...

One of those things is not like the other. And no, I didn't just put the shirt
there for a photo, you can see the stack of kids size snake shirts on the right.

And a kaleidoscope, which I used to simulate what you'd see when Kayla knocks your lights out when she finally snaps and becomes the San Diego Slayer.

Look closely at it.

RFotD: We never found the Dik-Dik enclosure, unfortunately :(

Day Fifty-Eight: Fucking Grass

8/12/15, 8:12 PM CET

Today, we ran out of swipes for our public transport card, so we couldn't explore the city further. However, we felt like we covered a TON of the city anyway, so we were very happy to take today as a rest day.

We did walk around our hotel to see what was nearby though. And apparently, this whole time we had a hotel that was RIGHT NEXT TO FC BARCELONA'S FOOTBALL STADIUM.

Hmm... their stadium looks a little bit... messi. Heh.

So of course, we went in. Or at least, we went into the only thing accessible on non-sports days, which was the gift shop. And, as expected from one of the most valuable, popular sports teams in the world, the interior of the FC Barcelona Megastore was incredible.

If you stand in the correct place, those things hanging from the ceiling
look like Messi's kicking foot. This is true.

Remember my trip to FC Bayern's stadium and how I said the level of fandom there was ridiculous? Turns out, fandom bordering on creepy obsession is common in European sports teams. Especially when they sell this:

Grass. FUCKING GRASS. Seriously, I mean what would you even do with it? Plant it in your backyard? Shit, maybe if you cultivate it enough, you'll grow your own Suarez, right?

And if it's not crazy enough, they also have miniature versions in magnets that you can stick right on your fridge.

Then again, if you think this is a good purchase, your
fridge is probably already shaped like Messi's face.

Ridiculous.






RFotD: I'm not actually angry, I think this stuff is hilarious, truthfully.

Day Fifty-Six: Barcelona Life Is A Beach

8/10/15, 11:10 PM CET

Spain has so much gorgeous architecture that we basically have to stop every few seconds to take pictures of it all. It's a good thing that our main mode of transportation is the subway, else my camera would literally be full from all the pictures I take.

This wasn't even a landmark or anything, it was just awesome-looking.

One of the more prominent architectural marvels in the city, however, is the National Art Museum in Catalunya. And for good reason. It is MASSIVE.

See this? This is from A MILE AWAY. (Approximately)

This was the closest I could get while still getting all of its architecture in the shot.

The view from said building is magnificent.

Architecture as far as the eye can see...

Tell you what though, these Spanish people are a bunch of wannabes. Look at them and their blatant ripoff of my college's Janss Steps.

Biters.

We also visited the Olympic Park that they had. It wasn't as pretty as the one in Munich, in my opinion, but it is still very very nice.

With a public foot dipping station too! Wow!

I think my favorite thing about their Olympic Park was this AWESOME trippy space needle-like thing that looked like it could be straight out of a sci-fi dystopia film.

Complete with giant alien traffic cones too. Oooooooh, spooky.

When the sun started getting less hot, we decided to get on this thing called a funicular. Basically a slanted trolley thing designed to take you up steep slopes, it's hard to describe but if you've ever seen The Grand Budapest Hotel, it's the pink thing that takes the people to the hotel.

The pink thing in the center of the frame.

From there, we briefly looked at a Spanish fort they had...

Proof that I mean "my family" when I say "we," I'm not just roaming Spain solo.

Looks like a sandcastle made with those rectangular buckets from Target.

Then rode the gondola...

Gondola, cable car, I'm never really sure what to call these things.

All the way to their beach!

Perfect timing for golden hour too!

Every shot of the beach I got is a shot that I absolutely LOVE. Look at this!

Look at that glow, man.

Vague silhouettes are gorgeous.

We ate at that restaurant, it was actually not that deliciosa.

Good night, Barcelona!

If there's one thing I can say about Spanish beaches, it is that their sand is INCREDIBLE. It's clumpy and lumpy, but still somehow manages to feel incredibly soft and silky to step on. It's interesting, definitely.

Sorry I'm cutting these entries pretty short, I'm in a rush to catch up on entries right now, BUT for good reason. I have a little special something that's more career oriented for me that'll require a bit more time, but I'll disclose information on that later!





RFotD: ALMOST CAUGHT UP. Writing this as of August 16 and I am ALMOST DONE.

Day Fifty-Five: Paella, Tibidabo, And A Soylent Snack

8/9/15, 11:20 PM CET

If you asked me what a "Tibidabo" is prior to today, I would have thought it was a kind of Japanese snack, or a Filipino meat covered in vinegar and soy sauce. But nope, neither are correct. Tibidabo is actually the name of a HUGE amusement park, situated at the top of one of Barcelona's mountains.

Pretty, huh?

This place is AMAZING. They had some pretty awesome rides, including this little spinning plane ride that goes OVER THE MOUNTAINSIDE. You can see it on the right side of the picture above. 

They also had a Ferris Wheel...

Wonder if it ever takes a day off.

And, strangely, the entire thing was right next to a very large church called the Sagrat Cor, or the Sacred Heart.

The big thing on the left.

Later on in the day, we also tasted a Spanish staple: paella! Essentially, it's fried rice mixed with sauce and a BUNCH of seafood, and it is DELICIOUS.

It took 20 minutes to prepare, which sounds like a long time until you actually see it:

The rice is hidden beneath the layer of sauce around the seafood.

Yes, it was the most amazing thing I've eaten. The bowl that it came on was MASSIVE, but my entire family still managed to finish it.

Well, most of it, at least.

\
We also visited Park Guell today. It's a relatively large park, with some more nice architecture from the very creative Antoni Gaudi, which you saw in yesterday's post. Here's a few pictures that I grabbed!

I especially loved the look of that tower over there, so of course...

Golden Hour Joby looks amazing. Or it might be incorrect white balance
Joby, I'm not sure.

And to end today, here's a pretty disturbing candy bar that I found in a shop on the way home.

Manufacutured by the Soylent Corporation, Philippines Division.

RFotD: Filipinos also come in milk and dark chocolate flavors. Allegedly, they are named because they have a brown outer layer and a white inner layer.

Day Fifty-Four: A Church 200 Years In The Making

8/8/15, 11:10 PM CET

When a city tour by bus takes FOUR HOURS to complete and requires two separate routes, you know that there is a lot of stuff to do in Barcelona. And it doesn't even stop at all of the tourist locations for us to take pictures of them, it just passes through them so you know what they look like. And it STILL took four hours.

It was nice that they didn't stop specifically for all the monuments though. I think the day tour was nice just to see what exactly we can see in Barcelona. I didn't get a lot of pictures, but from this tour, we know exactly which places we have to visit in the coming few days.

We did see something today though, the beautiful Sagrada Familia, a massively mathematical church in Barcelona, a few hundred years in the making. Even in 1886, the main architect, Antoni Gaudi knew that the church wouldn't be finished during his lifetime, so he meticulously described and modeled what he wanted the church to look like and expected future generations to pick up where he left off. Even today, it still isn't done (it's set to be finished at around 2026), but what has been finished is INCREDIBLE.

Yes, just as I suspected. This church is much larger than my monkey.

The inside of the church had beautiful stain glass windows that made the entire church light up in color. The pillars were intentionally designed to be like fractal trees, complete with a canopy-like roof, and Gaudi put SO MUCH detail and symbolism in every aspect of the church that even I felt more spiritual just by being in it, and I'm not even that religious of a person. It really is a beautiful church, and that's coming from a person that felt nothing when he saw the Notre Dame.

The pictures really don't do it justice, like most of the things in the world that are brilliant, but I took some anyway.

I absolutely LOVE the stain glass in here.

More on the multicolored stain glass on the walls.

Everything is so beautiful.

RFotD: If you look up more pictures of Sagrada Familia online, you'll probably find better shots.