Breakfast at Taste with Thea, Lynnette and Janet.
Eggs over easy
Hash browns
Corned beef hash
English muffin
OJ
I prefer the buffet for breakfast. It is quicker and I like just taking a little of a bunch of different things.
Left the ship at 9ish. Very sad to leave the cruise and my friends but I have many more adventures ahead. I am staying in Barcelona till Thursday (same hostel as before) then I am planning on heading to Pamplona for the weekend. My backpack weighs a ton. I need to get rid of a bunch of stuff.
Janet and I took the hot, hot port bus back to the Columbus monument then the metro to where my hostel is. (the bus has windows I don't know why they don't open them) I helped Janet find the train to the airport and by that I mean we wandered around confused and asked locals for help. We said our good byes. I am glad we planned this cruise together. Maybe more in the future...?
Dropped off bag at the hostel and went exploring.
11:20 Cathedral of Barcelona
Around noon on Sundays the locals gather in front of the cathedral for the local Sardana dance. A band of mostly flutes and oboes plays traditional songs. Locals link hands and dance with arms raised. The circle turns slowly as the dancers perform the small intricate steps.
The slow circle dance is a Catalonian tradition as much as a small quiet political protest. There is an undercurrent of political discontent, as this area, Catalonia, wishes to be independent of Spain. Catalonian flags hang from balconies and graffiti calls for a free Catalonia. The local language is given preference as things often are written in Catalonian first, Spanish Second and English third.
I went in to the Cathedral after watching the dancers, young and old. In 343AD the Temple of Jupiter was replaced with a Christian Cathedral. The current cathedral began construction in 1298 and finished in 1450. Mass was going on so only the front part of the cathedral was accessible. To the right of the entrance was a chapel I went in and said a quick prayer (yes, Dad I prayed for you. You too Mom)
Next I walked through the gothic quarter. Narrow shafts of light filter down as the towering apartment buildings rise up on either side of the haphazard alleys.
I grabbed a Donner Kebab for lunch, this one was not as good as last week's.
1:00 Chocolate Museum
This is a total tourist ploy but good yummy fun. Plus it has great air conditioning (for the chocolate not the people) so it is a nice mid afternoon stop. Admission was €5 but my ticket was an actual small bar of chocolate. How cute. And it was yummy dark chocolate too.
The exhibit started with the growing, harvesting and processing of chocolate.
Killed time walking around the old gothic quarter. Then sat on a wall of a plaza and people watched.
I got in line at 2:37 for the 3:00 free entrance to Picasso museum and caught up on blog writing to kill time. Admission (normally €11) is free the first Sunday of each month and every Sunday after 3:00 pm. The line grew behind me like wildfire.
3:15-Even though it is free they still require you to get a ticket; they only let so many people in an hour. I paid €3 audio-guide. I enjoyed learning about Picasso's early years. They had diplays of his artwork at age 9-13. He was a very talented child. I also liked some of the stuff he did in his twenties and his blue period. But I am not a fan if his later works. They are childish and sloppy. He did a collection of paintings called Las Meninas where he was obsessed with a painting of the Family on Felipe IV by Diego Velazquez. The original is a Baroque masterpiece pictured below (from wikipedia.com)
Picasso's interpretation supposedly is a mastery of light, perspective and simple geometric shapes. I just seems infantile to me. Seems like a waste of talent.
You can see Picasso's Las Meninas and some of the works on display at the museum linked below.
http://www.museupicasso.bcn.cat/gomobile/en/highlights/index.html
Back by the hostel I grabbed a hot ham and cheese croissant €1.95. It was supposed to be a snack but my quick nap ended up lasting through the night.
I am in Room 513 with 2 twenty-ish girls from the UK, a girl in her mid 20s from South Carolina, and 2 guys one German, one Australian. All seem very nice.
Souvineers I didn't buy today
-Spanish fans for the girls
-Chocolate museum shirt for me
No comments:
Post a Comment