Day 211 - Last Day in Madrid

Today was the very last full day out of the United States on this 7 month journey. I head for NYC tomorrow. I took it pretty easy today, doing some window shopping for the majority of the afternoon. The streets were filled with holiday shoppers shopping for Christmas gifts I assume, unless it's this chaotic every weekend? I steered clear of the city center and shopped on the outskirts, where you could easily find the same shops that are in the city center. In fact, I must have passed by the international stores numerous times – Zara, H&M, Pull&Bear, etc. We have tons of Starbucks and Subways at every intersection, but in Madrid, even clothing stores can be found easily and repeatedly. It was a little difficult trying to find boutiques with more unique merchandise.

In the evening, I headed to the Museo Nacional Del Prado (Prado Museum), probably the most famous museum in all of Spain, housing another extensive collection of more traditional European paintings and sculpture. Admission was free after 5:30 on Sundays. So far, Madrid has been much cheaper than Barcelona thanks to all these free museums. I definitely came at the right time of the week to see them all.

The museum, like the Reina Sofia, was huge, with numerous rooms of artwork throughout 3 floors. It took me a couple hours to skim through all the rooms on the ground floor, and by that time, the doors were ready to close. If you want to see all of the artwork and actually listen to the audioguides on selected pieces, I suggest you plan a half to whole day at the museum. Some of the more famous artists included Spain's most famed artist, Velazquez, Raphael, El Greco, Rubens, Goya, and Rubens. The most famous painting on display was Velazquez' Las Meninas, which I wrote about in my visit to the Picasso Museum in Barcelona. I was lucky to be able to see both the actual art piece, and the interpretations that Picasso painted these past two weeks.

At the end of the night after packing up and preparing for my departure in the early morning, I played a drinking game with my Belgian dormmates. It seemed everyone at the hostel was planning on leaving tomorrow, with flights to various places. We were a rowdy bunch by the end of the night, but it may have been due to the various last portions of alcohol that were in each bottle. I think we may have had whiskey, vodka, tequila, beer, red wine, and sangria. Definitely a good way to end my stop in Madrid!

Prado Museum

Day 206 - Caixaforum, MNAB, and the Fundacio Joan Miro

Another exhaustive museum day, but very enlightening to be exposed to so many varieties of art in this city!

The first museum I visited was the Caixaforum which is a free museum at all times. I believe all the art showcased is usually from the permanent collection of the Caixa Bank. There are 5 salons at the museum, which used to be an old factory, each showcasing a different exhibition. Today, only 3 of them were open for viewing. The first I visited was a collection of Impressionist art on loan from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. There was art from Renoir, Monet, Sisley, and a bunch of other artists. The second salon I visited was an exhibition on the Ballets Russes, a movement of ballet that was popular in Europe in the early 20th century. There was archived footage of some of the performances, as well as some artwork and costumes that were worn by the dancers.

I headed onto the next museum, which was nearby - the MNAC (Museu Nacional D'art de Catalunya). This museum housed an extensive collection of art ranging from Romantic to Gothic to Baroque to Modern Art. The Romantic section had huge murals on display in built-in church apses throughout the floor, along with a bunch of other religious Christian art. The Gothic section also had a lot of religious art, but more on furniture and altar pieces and less as huge murals. We saw more paintings in the Baroque and Modern sections, all in various styles that were popular throughout the decades - ranging from impressionism to neoclassicism to noucentisme to surrealism. There was one last temporary exhibition of a collection of lost camera rolls that were found in a suitcase that documented much of the Spanish Civil War. I briefly walked through this section since I was again getting restless...

Last and final museum of the day was the Fundacio Joan Miro, a wonderful exhibition solely of his art, again showing the changes in his styles throughout the years (surrealism to abstract to expressionism...), due to the changes in the artistic world, the political climate, and his own personal life. His style of art is very unique, similar to the uniqueness of Picasso, if that makes any sense. He developed a certain style of creating art that was recurrent through many of his pieces, including the use of stars, moons, sexual organs, eyes, snakes, and birds. It was pretty difficult to see some of the pictures he was drawing in his strange and abstract way, but the audio/visual guides definitely helped.

Going to three museums in one day is overload...Writing this entry was difficult because it's already so hard to retain all the information that I thought I'd remember when going through all the exhibits. It's a little frustrating, but I want to see as much as I can in my last few days here!

Caixaforum

Caixaforum - Impressionism Exhibition

MACBA - Romantic

Bartolome Bermejo -  Taules d'un retaule de Crist

Maria Fortuny - La Cicaria

Joaquim Sunyer - Les Germanes Ribas

Josep De Togores - Bust de Dona

Salvador Dali - Retrat del meu pare

Fundacio Joan Miro

Fundacio Joan Miro

Day 205 - MACBA and Art from the 1950s Onwards

I woke up late today, but I only planned on seeing a couple museums - the MACBA (Museu D'art Contemporani De Barcelona) and Gaudi's La Pedrera. In the end, I was only able to see the MACBA exhibition since I came too late to the La Pedrera. Oh well, I'll see it tomorrow...

The MACBA was really interesting though. Most of the artwork in the museum was from the 1950s to the present and the main exhibition sort of explained the paradigm shift in the style of art from seeing art as an audience through paintings, to the use of different media, textures, space, and sound to engage the audience in the art itself and to view art more as a process than the final product itself.

I think it was probably one of the very few times I went through an exhibition with a guide, but it made such a difference. Even just reading a guidebook or listening to an audio guide can be confusing and/or pretentious when explaining the meaning behind some artwork, but the guide today was great at really explaining things in laymans terms. Instead of just trying to look at abstract art blindly, I got a greater understanding about the situation going on in each other artists' lives during the time they created their artwork, and that makes a huge difference in trying to interpret some of the abstract art that is presented in front of you. A lot of the messages these artists convey have a lot to do with the political, economic, and cultural statuses of the times. And I sometimes devalued art that wasn't the traditional art I was used to seeing because it was so hard to decipher, but I've come to appreciate it more thanks to the insight I received today. A work of art doesn't have to look like it took forever to create through brush strokes, but maybe can be understood in the time it took to plan the creation itself, even if it doesn't look like much to the naked eye.

We went from seeing artwork by Lucio Fontana, whose paintings marked the beginning of this paradigm shift when he started using not only the paint, but the canvas itself as a tool of expression by slashing through it, to John Cage, who experimented with silence being considered art and music, to Oyvind Fahlstrom, who created exhibitions that forced the viewer to become a participant in the piece by having them move around the space to explore the messages conveyed. We saw artwork that was made for dogs (Dieter Roth/Richard Hamilton) to an art piece of decaying chocolate that is the antithesis of what people believe an art piece should be - something expensive, lasting forever, and unchanging. There was a section of pop art and another section of the renaissance of painting in the 1980s, where artists like Miguel Barcelo created "still-life" paintings that consisted of darker subjects and colors. Overall, it was a very informative introduction to modern art. I wished I could stay for the tour of the 1980s to the present, where a lot more of the art was about space and sound, but I was getting a bit restless...

Since it was too late to visit La Pedrera, I headed back to the hostel, where they had a "How to Make Sangria" class, which really was just us watching them make pots and pots of sangria for us to drink. Ten drinks later, I was tipsy...and they still wanted to go ou

MACBA

Sangria Night

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 186 - Pixar Exhibition and Triennale Design Museum in Milan

I spent my last full day in Milan walking around the city and checking out some of the newer and more contemporary museum exhibitions.

Giulio told me of a couple of canals in the city that were designed by Leonardo Di Vinci, which I set off to explore and see. Although the city is flat, he was able to create the canals so that the current would flow in to the city through one canal, and flow out through the other. 

Afterwards, we both went to the Triennale Design Museum, which showcased some of the products designed by Italians in the 20th and 21st century. Most of it looked like an Ikea showroom, but of course, Ikea is the company that mass produces some of the smarter designed furniture created by intelligent designers from Italy and all over the world. There was an entire floor with some interesting, good, and awful furniture and gadgets from across the decades, and it was easy to pinpoint some of the things both Giulio and I either owned in the past, or currently own now. It was a quick exhibit to view, but definitely not worth the price of admission.

Pixar has a touring exhibition of all the artwork from its movies, and opening day in Milan happened to be today, so I made sure I would catch it before I left tomorrow. Now this definitely was worth the price of admission since it was so relatable for everyone, I'm sure. These movies have so much power to effect all of us and dig into our emotions, all through the use of animation, which painstakingly takes so much time and man power to get so technically precise. And then there are the story-tellers that make it more than just a technically beautiful moving picture. There were lithographs, computer designed drawings, cast models, pencil drawings, colorscripts, and even a huge Toy Story zoetrope for us to view. I couldn't help but have a big smile on my face when I saw some of the artwork. It used to be that animation was for the sole entertainment of children, but these days it's for everyone. The museum wasn't that large, but it took us until closing time, in about 2 hours just to see everything and admire it all..


The last thing to do was head out for happy hour in my last night here, or what the Italians call "Aperitivo" which is basically a discounted drink, and an appetizer buffet with some pretty decent snacks to nibble on. We went to a couple of these aperitivo hours before calling it a night.

A great ending to my time in Milan. Tomorrow, I head to Bologna, a place where many people say to visit for the food...especially the Bolognese Sauce (ragu), or meat sauce.

Triennale Design Museum

PIXAR!

Day 185 - Day Trip to Torino (Turin)

Torino was one of the "highlights" of Italy according to Loney Planet, so I decided to make a day trip out of it since it was close to Milan. Also, I had to rearrange my entire Italian leg of the trip since I would be meeting one of my friends from back home in early December in Rome. Initially, I wanted to tour all of Italy from the north in Venice all the way down to Sicily, but I decided I would spend more time focusing on the Northern Half of Italy over the next couple of weeks.

Torino is known for its Fiat car factories, along with its baroque and renaissance architecture. I arrived before noon from a train from Milan and took a tourist map from the tourist office along with me to explore whatever there was to see here. The main Plazas were called Piazza Castello and Piazza San Carlo, both easily reached by heading directly north from the train station. It'd be hard to miss. There were palaces and museums and churches around both plazas, with huge open space for people to congregate.

Visiting the two most popular plazas only took about 15 minutes, and I headed further north to see what else I could run into. The next stop was the Duomo di San Giovanni Battista, which is considered to be Torino's main catherdral. Here, they say that the church houses the linen cloth that was used to wrap Christ when he was crucified. Adjacent to it was the Royal Palace along with the palace park grounds which were open to the public. It still looked like autumn in Torino where the leaves were still slowly falling to the ground, and turning from green to brown.

The last stop on my Torino tour was the Mole Antonelliana, which houses the Museo Nazionale del Cinema. The Mole Antonelliana is a huge architectural masterpiece that towers over the city at 167m, and is on the 2 cent Italian Euro piece. I took a lift to the top where I saw some views of an overcast city.

The Cinema museum was the highlight I must say. It was an interactive museum that first showed the initial development of the uses of light to create different scenes (shadow puppets) to the development of illusions with light and lenses, to the creation of early film and animation (Zoetropes), and all the way to what we have now with all the technological advancements in movie-making magic. You could easily spend hours just going through each of the rooms and learning about the evolution of cinema. I would highly recommend it to anyone going to this city.

By the time I got back to Milano, Giulio was ready to cook us some dinner! I decided I would help make some dessert - an Argentinian Pancake dessert that I tried when I was in Istanbul. The dinner was excellent, some chicken breasts with a wine and mushroom sauce and bread. The dessert....was burnt and almost inedible...I really have to learn how to cook better. One word of advice for anyone who is going to start couchsurfing....LEARN TO COOK! At least learn one simple recipe from your own culture so you have something to share with others around the world!

View from the top of the Mole Antonelliana

Piazza San Carlo

Cathedral di San Giovanni Battista

Royal Palace Parkgrounds

Mole Antonelliana

Museo Nazionale del Cinema

Scrumptious Dinner

Destroyed Dessert