Day 204 - Museo Picasso and the Fundacio Antoni Tapies

Today was Sunday, and some of the local businesses near my hostel were closed for the day since it was the holy day, but then again, a lot of businesses close on Monday as well for some reason. Seems like there are a lot of days off in both Italy and Spain!

I did a little research on some of the museums nearby, including the Museo Picasso and Gaudi's La Pedrera and Castel Batllo and found out I could get into 7 museums for 25 Euro with a special card I could purchase at the different sites. I was researching whether it would be better to purchase the card or just go to each museum individually. Included with the card were admissions to the Picasso Museum and La Pedrera, but not Castel Batllo. I also researched which of the Gaudi exhibits would be the best value. They both seemed to have great reviews, so I decided to get the card, since entrance to the Castel Batllo was a ridiculous 16.5 Euro!

I took the metro to the Arc di Triomph, where I walked under the arc and south towards the Parc de la Ciutadella. The park was filled with people taking strolls, practicing Spanish Capoeira, walking their dogs, and even being tourists taking pictures of some of the sculptures in the gardens. Is seems that the city takes great efforts to ensure that there is enough green space for the people, and I don't think there is any shortage of it after my other walks in the city thus far.

I found my way to the Museo Picasso afterwards by following the signs marked at major street intersections – one of the things I love about this city since it's easy for a tourist to get to major destinations, and if lost, a metro is not too far away in any direction to hop and and get somewhere. I tried to purchase the card, but my credit card would not work, and I've been having random trouble with the card at different places. I've been trying to save my Euros for emergencies and charge everything on my card since I am running out of cash in my checking account and in my wallet as well. I decided I'd try to purchase the card at one of the other locations, but opted to hang around the area until 3PM, when they offered free admission on Sundays.

The museum was such a delight to visit, despite the fact that it was crowded to the max with tourists on the free day. The museum houses a collection of work by the artist himself throughout the years, from his childhood until his death. There were paintings as well as sculptures and pottery on display, and the exhibition had different rooms with an explanation of what was going on in his life at the time, what gave him the inspiration to paint the subjects he chose, and why he painted in the style that he did. I never knew of any of his work besides the typical abstract style paintings everyone recognizes, but he was a very accomplished artist prior to developing his own style of art. It was funny because the first room showcased his early childhood art, where he took some influence from his artist father. They say you could tell his paintings had childlike, uneducated strokes with hints of mastery, which they assumed was him trying to emulate his father's techniques, yet after years of studying and learning what it was to have “masterful” strokes, it seems he reverted back to childlike drawings in the way he painted his abstract and cubist art, which we all know and love.

The most interesting and fun part of the exhibit was a room full of his paintings and interpretations of a single painting by Velasquez called Las Meninas. He was a huge follower of Velasquez and copied over 40 paintings of the single art piece using his own styles, each completely different than the next, but still having that “Picasso” look to each of them. He explained how a painting, while being copied, could be completely changed by a different artist if he was painting from a perspective, even slightly removed from where the original painting took place (for the viewer). With a slight change of a few inches, visibility of different people in the scene changes, and the effects of light changes, and in the end, you could come up with an entirely different scene that could be surprising to the artist himself. It was quite fascinating to see his versions of the single painting. Definitely a must-see exhibit to appreciate the genius of Pablo Picasso, who educated himself fully through the years in Spain, before deciding that he was tired of learning about art in school and seeked his own style afterwards.

Afterwards, I made my way to the MACBA (Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona) and CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona) since these two were near each other and included in the museum pass. I thought it would be easy to navigate my way through the streets with the street signs, but it took quite a while to figure out where they were located because they were hidden from the main streets near the city center. MACBA ended up being closed today, so I went to CCCB. The museum was holding a World Press International Photographic exhibition, but there was a long line since it also had free admission on Sundays, so I decided to come back another day.

It's been a long day of walking and getting lost, and I wanted to see at least one more museum for the day before closing time, so I headed to the Eixample district to see if I could visit Gaudi's La Pedrera or the Fundacio Antoni Tapies. I stopped by Gaudi's Castel Batllo, where numerous people were there to take pictures of the building as it was lit up after dusk.

I managed to get my museum pass at the Fundacio Antoni Tapies, which included the artists own work along with a temporary exhibit called In the First Circle with a collection of works by different artists all relating to language, the voice, and sound. I didn't know too much about the artist, but he is one of the most famous Catalan artists and creates informal art, using non-artistic objects in his paintings. Basically, all I saw was a bunch of stuff together on canvases... I definitely needed an audio guide when looking at his art, but it was nearing closing time so I quickly went through the exhibit blindly. Definitely get the guide if you visit...

Tomorrow I'll head to MACBA and La Pedrera since most of the other museums are closed on Monday.

Museo Picasso

Picasso - Portrait of Jaume Sabarte's with ruff and hat

Picasso's Interpretation of Velasquez's Las Meninas

Arc di Triomph

Parc de la Ciutadella

Antoni Tapies

Ketchup Sandwich

Gaudi's Castel Battlo

Day 203 - Olympic Stadium/Museum and Monjuvic

Another day of wandering around Barcelona, except I really wanted to check out the Olympic stadium since we passed by it on our Hop On Hop Off bus tour a couple of days ago. I used the Metro to get to the Espanya stop and upon heading up the stairs to the Placa d'Espanya, I immediately saw the Arenas de Barcelona, which was a old bullfighting ring that was converted into a shopping center. What was cool was that you could take a lift up to the top and get some great views of the city, including the Venetian Towers, MNAC, and the Parc de Joan Miro.

Afterwards, I headed north towards the MNAC museum, taking in more incredible views of Barcelona. I was in the "Monjuvic" district of the city which is higher in altitude than much of the rest of the city. I went up further up until I found the old 1992 Olympic stadium. I don't remember too much of the '92 olympics, but I've always been a fan of the spirit and excitement of being an Olympic spectator, even if it's just through a television screen. It was cool to actually see the stadium where athletes from around the world marched during opening and closing ceremonies and won gold medals. Next to the stadium was an Olympic Museum, which had a good collection of Olympic memorabilia and video and photo archives.

Next to the Olympic Stadium/Museum was the Fundacion Miro and some well-maintained park space at the Park de Montjuvic where I took a stroll for a while. I was waiting for the sun to go down before heading to the Magic Fountains, where they had light and sound shows to Christmas tracks even 30 minutes. Not as powerful and eye-catching as the Bellagio fountains in Vegas or World of Color at Disney's California Adventure, but still fun to watch and remind myself that Christmas is coming!

Arenas de Barcelona

The View from the Top

Parc de Joan Miro

1992 Olympic Stadium

Olympic Museum

Magic Fountains

Day 202 - Churches and the Seaside of Barcelona

 Today was a relaxed day since I spent the early day packing and unpacking to another Hostel in the city. It had a skateboarding theme and was one of the more luxurious hostels I've been to. It reminded me of the hostel I stayed at in Penang, Malaysia.

After getting situated, I headed to the Mediterranean seaside in Barcelona, where there was an extension of the Las Ramblas pedestrian walkway out across the sea. Street sellers lined the bridge with souvenirs and fake luxury brand merchandise, and seagulls hovered closely to pedestrians, looking for someone to feed them. It was cold near the sea, but I stayed for an hour just enjoying people watching and reading a book.

I headed back up Las Ramblas, the seedy walkway lined with talented painters, newspaper stands, street artists, sidewalk restaurants, and purse snatchers (or so I've heard). Nearby was the Gothic Catedral and the Esglesia de Santa Maria del Mar, two of the city's most famous churches.

I spent the rest of the night walking through the small alleyways and seeing what I could discover in the nooks. By the end of the night, I ended back at the Arc de Triomph before heading back to the hostel.

Monument a Colom (Columbus)

Gothic Catedral

Esglesia de Santa Maria del Mar

Day 201 - Hop On Hop Off Barcelona

EJ and I decided to take the Hop On Hop Off bus today since it would be his last full day here and it would be the best way to see the whole city, even if we couldn't really visit any specific sight for too long

This bus was so much better than Rome for a couple reasons. One, the buses constantly ran the route, and it would only take from 1 to 15 minutes to wait for the next bus if you got off at one stop and waited for the next. In Rome, it would take around 30 minutes! Two, the coverage of the city was so much greater than Rome. They both had a couple routes, but in Rome, there was a lot of overlapping of sights. In Barcelona, there were two districtly separate routes, without a couple places where you could switch from one route to another.

It really was a great way to see the entire city of Barcelona and all the possible tourist sights you could ever possibly want to visit. Barcelona isn't too big, but all the sights are spread out throughout the city, and unless you wanted to take the time to really research all the possibly sights and take the metro to each sight, you should just book this bus tour to get an oversight of everything there is to see! Each route took about 2 hours, so you could spend 4 hours just seeing the whole city in one day, before deciding what you really want to focus your attention on!

MNAC

Lichtenstein

Arc de Triomphe

Day 200 - Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, and Casa Gaudi

The biggest attraction in Barcelona has to be Gaudi's incomplete masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia. Everyone who's been here has always mentioned this church in their praise of the city. I must say, I didn't do too much research on it, and even forgot how to pronounce it numerous times. People would ask me if I was going to see the "Sagrada Familia" and I would go "oh, is that the church thing?" But I doubt I'll forget the name now that I've seen how incredible and detailed and grand the project is.

The church has been under construction since the late 19th century and doesn't expect to be finished until the late 2020s. The progress of the project is dictated by the donations it receives and also by the price of admission for tourists to enter. I'm not sure if it is often used for church services, even if it's a church first and foremost and then an attraction afterwards.

The church was Gaudi's lifelong project, and he died before he could see much of the progress of the construction, but it has continued to be built, with the help of other designers and architects. Nothing in the church was placed arbitrarily or added as "fluff" to fill space. Everything was painstakingly thought out and meticulously placed where it was intended to be placed.

I don't know too much about the specifics of the project, (Get an audioguide if you go!) but Gaudi usually incorporates nature in his architecture, and the inside of the church was made to resemble a forest, with the columns used to support the church resembling tree trunks. He used a lot of natural geometry to design various parts of the church, and used laws of nature to create structural support that would enable the church to have a lot of open space, and require as little support materials as possible.

The church has 3 facades called the passion, glory, and nativity. We were able to see the Passion and Nativity facades, but the Glory facade was covered due to construction. When construction is completed, there will be 18 towers, 12 of which represent the 12 apostles, 4 representing the evangelists, and the other three representing Mary, Mother of God, and Jesus. There's so much more to mention about the church, it'd take way too long to explain. Check the pictures below to get a small sense of how grand this church is...

Afterwards, we headed to Park Guell, another Gaudi creation. The park is situated in the northeast of Barcelona, higher in altitude where there were great spots overlooking the rest of the city. Gaudi was commissioned to design a residential neighborhood in the area, but the project flopped when there wasn't enough interest in purchasing homes. The area was subsequently given to the city, where it is now used as a public park. Gaudi's once lived in one of the houses he designed, and there, we visited the museum to get a sense of his living and work space. It was all about Gaudi today!

Passion Facade

Passion Facade

Nativity Facade

Nativity Facade

Nativity Facade

View of Sagrada Familia from Park Guell

Park Guell

Day 199 - Rome to Barcelona

I'm finally leaving Rome! Not that it wasn't a beautiful city, but I just spent way too much time there! Spain will be the last country on my round the world tour this time around. The trip is coming to an end soon, but I'm especially excited to visit Barcelona since it was one of the original places I had a very strong desire to visit.

EJ and I headed to the airport before noon. It would be the first time either of us flew with RyanAir, and I was interested to know if there would be any problems at the airport since they basically rape your wallets when you purchase the tickets initially. Everything actually went smoothly though, and we got really good seats near the front of the plane. What was funny though was how much stuff they tried to sell to you during the flight - calendars of hot babes, tour guides, snacks, drinks, duty free items. It was ridiculous! I would hate to be the flight attendant who had to use the intercom every 5 minutes to introduce the next product. I think I'd just feel entirely silly, as if people actually were paying attention...but who knows, maybe there are Home Shopping Network die-hard shoppers frequently on planes...

We arrived in Barcelona and took a bus from the airport directly to the city center - Plaza Catalunya. Our hotel was just a short walk from there, and we checked in and relaxed a bit before heading out to explore the town a little. We noticed all the Tapas menus and I was excited to try some of them. EJ ordered some spicy potato wedges, and we both ordered some hamburgers - mine was called the Johnny Depp...

Since it was already dark, we just walked around the area near our hotel, stopping by a Christmas Crafts Village near the Gothic Catedral and the Shopping areas near Las Ramblas. We ended the night at an Irish Pub, drinking beer and cocktails before heading back.

Johnny Depp