Something is wrong with me!
I woke up at 8.30 today. Not just opened my eyes, turned over and fell asleep again. I am wide awake since 8.30! On a Sunday! I hope this was a one off..
Anyway, since I'm awake now and I've been meaning to for days, let me tell you about my holidays! A week ago I was wearing short sleeves and sweating in the spanish sun. Now it's snowing outside. Note to self: Learn a language that os spoken in warmer climates and emmigrate!
Barcelona (26th - 30th of October)
was great. I arrived on Friday evening and went out to explore the old city. I ended up at a make belive medieval market with cute stalls like the one on the left.
It was there that I saw the tentacly menace from Lord of the Rings that comes out of the lake at the gates of the Mines of Moria to catch the hobbits. Apparently it's a local speciality:
Two british tourists watched me taking pictures and asking the cook to lift up the tentacle monster. They challenged me to try it. How could I resist? That's what it looks like cut up:
It's also what it tastes like.
The brits felt guilty for edging me on, so they kept buying me beer to make up for it. Or maybe to help me get the taste out of my mouth? ;-)
So I wandered around Barcelona's old city, enjoying the mild evening, drinking spanish beer and thinking about quitting my job and moving here permanently to work as a waitress. I thought going on a trip would cure my "fernweh" but it just makes it worse...
On Saturday I started the hardcore sightseeing. I had planned to see the Picasso museum (his early works), casa mila and maybe the sagrada familia. Turns out 1 million tourists (lots of them from Austria) had the exact same idea. Whereever I went these 10 days in Spain, there were huge queues:
So I went and sat at the beach for a cup of coffee and marveled at the people who actually swam or sun bathed. They must have been brits, too ;-)
The Sagrada Famila was...interesting. A huge, half finished cathedral, built by Gaudi. It's certainly impressive in size and detail. But also butt-ugly, I thought.
The second time I tried my luck at the Picasso museum there was no more queue. It is a huge exhibition of his early works which he donated to the museum himself in the 70ies. The museum spans 3 houses and its layout is so that you will always automatically use the wrong door, wrong route or try to walk in at the exit. But there a suits with a button in their ear to guide you through at every corner.
Everything was trilingual - Spanish, Catalan, and English. But even though the texts described his development - sorry, I don't see it unless it's as blatantly obvious as the blue period. I liked the blue period pictures and the portraits as well as the cubism. I'm not so bothered about landscapes.
I saw a play at the English theatre recently called "A Picasso". It's set during WW2, a Nazi interrogator asking Picasso to authenticate 5 paintings/drawings, so they can burn them as "depraved" art. I looked for the pictures described in the play but didn't find them. One thing they mention in the play, I did notice: the eyes are often off-kilter, smeared over or one has a different color than the other.
On Sunday I went to Montjuic, the former Expo area and saw the Mies van der Rohe Pavillion. It was cold, impersonal, bare, and the signs ("don't sit on the chairs!", "don't walk on the grass!" in several languages) matched the unwelcoming atmosphere. Boring.
(I'm sure my sister disapproves of my judgement..)
I don't know what I expected but I thinks something not quite so lifeless might have been it.
I also saw the MNAC (museum of national catalan art), which was huge and quite interesting, though I didn't really figure out how to use the audio guide properly.
I went back to the Casa Mila / la pedreira, a house built by Gaudi, after dark. It had a great view of Barcelona from the roof and I experimented with my camera. Not very successfully, I should add:
Who can guess the nature of this item in the museum shop?
Hint: It is not a particularly big and scarily shaped dildo.
I also went to the MACBA (museum of modern art of barcelona). I often don't like the very modern museum buildings all grey concrete. The MACBA is white and airy and interesting to look at. I liked the building and the exhibitions.
I saw my first Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. I probably have seen paintings by them before but it was the first time I actually knew that they are abstract expressionists. I read about Rothko and Pollock in Kurt Vonnegut's book. Despite reading about them and their art, abstract expressionism does nothing for me. But it was still more interesting than 100 more paintings called "Madonna with child".
There was also a very strange piece of art by a German artist made entirely out of chocolate. It would have looked yummy, if it hadn't gone all grey with age :-/
After all these museums I wanted to sit down and enjoy the sun, so I went to Park Güell - a park designed by Gaudi. Unfortunately it wasn't as nice and quiet as I'd hoped. It was invaded by groups of french tourists with differently coloured stickers on their coats and tour guides holding matching signs. I saw at least 11 of these groups. Funny how I manage to be resentful of tourists while unabashedly being a tourist myself ;-)
Back in town I lost all inhibition and shopped, shopped and shopped. A jumper, a coat, shoes, a bag, earrings. I only stopped when my money ran out and I felt a bit weak. I'm not entirely sure if I was weak with hunger or with the adrenaline rush of shopping...
After four days on my own in a strange town I was quite relieved I'd be seeing people again. Living in my own head for four days, I was starting to go a bit funny. I'm always a bit funny in the head, but after Barcelona it was a bit more than usual ;-). So very very early on Tuesday morning I said goodbye to Barcelona and hello to Metropolis.
Sorry, I just couldn't resist the cheesy joke there.
Anyway, since I'm awake now and I've been meaning to for days, let me tell you about my holidays! A week ago I was wearing short sleeves and sweating in the spanish sun. Now it's snowing outside. Note to self: Learn a language that os spoken in warmer climates and emmigrate!
Barcelona (26th - 30th of October)
was great. I arrived on Friday evening and went out to explore the old city. I ended up at a make belive medieval market with cute stalls like the one on the left.
It was there that I saw the tentacly menace from Lord of the Rings that comes out of the lake at the gates of the Mines of Moria to catch the hobbits. Apparently it's a local speciality:
Two british tourists watched me taking pictures and asking the cook to lift up the tentacle monster. They challenged me to try it. How could I resist? That's what it looks like cut up:
It's also what it tastes like.
The brits felt guilty for edging me on, so they kept buying me beer to make up for it. Or maybe to help me get the taste out of my mouth? ;-)
So I wandered around Barcelona's old city, enjoying the mild evening, drinking spanish beer and thinking about quitting my job and moving here permanently to work as a waitress. I thought going on a trip would cure my "fernweh" but it just makes it worse...
On Saturday I started the hardcore sightseeing. I had planned to see the Picasso museum (his early works), casa mila and maybe the sagrada familia. Turns out 1 million tourists (lots of them from Austria) had the exact same idea. Whereever I went these 10 days in Spain, there were huge queues:
So I went and sat at the beach for a cup of coffee and marveled at the people who actually swam or sun bathed. They must have been brits, too ;-)
The Sagrada Famila was...interesting. A huge, half finished cathedral, built by Gaudi. It's certainly impressive in size and detail. But also butt-ugly, I thought.
The second time I tried my luck at the Picasso museum there was no more queue. It is a huge exhibition of his early works which he donated to the museum himself in the 70ies. The museum spans 3 houses and its layout is so that you will always automatically use the wrong door, wrong route or try to walk in at the exit. But there a suits with a button in their ear to guide you through at every corner.
Everything was trilingual - Spanish, Catalan, and English. But even though the texts described his development - sorry, I don't see it unless it's as blatantly obvious as the blue period. I liked the blue period pictures and the portraits as well as the cubism. I'm not so bothered about landscapes.
I saw a play at the English theatre recently called "A Picasso". It's set during WW2, a Nazi interrogator asking Picasso to authenticate 5 paintings/drawings, so they can burn them as "depraved" art. I looked for the pictures described in the play but didn't find them. One thing they mention in the play, I did notice: the eyes are often off-kilter, smeared over or one has a different color than the other.
On Sunday I went to Montjuic, the former Expo area and saw the Mies van der Rohe Pavillion. It was cold, impersonal, bare, and the signs ("don't sit on the chairs!", "don't walk on the grass!" in several languages) matched the unwelcoming atmosphere. Boring.
(I'm sure my sister disapproves of my judgement..)
I don't know what I expected but I thinks something not quite so lifeless might have been it.
I also saw the MNAC (museum of national catalan art), which was huge and quite interesting, though I didn't really figure out how to use the audio guide properly.
I went back to the Casa Mila / la pedreira, a house built by Gaudi, after dark. It had a great view of Barcelona from the roof and I experimented with my camera. Not very successfully, I should add:
Who can guess the nature of this item in the museum shop?
Hint: It is not a particularly big and scarily shaped dildo.
I also went to the MACBA (museum of modern art of barcelona). I often don't like the very modern museum buildings all grey concrete. The MACBA is white and airy and interesting to look at. I liked the building and the exhibitions.
I saw my first Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. I probably have seen paintings by them before but it was the first time I actually knew that they are abstract expressionists. I read about Rothko and Pollock in Kurt Vonnegut's book. Despite reading about them and their art, abstract expressionism does nothing for me. But it was still more interesting than 100 more paintings called "Madonna with child".
There was also a very strange piece of art by a German artist made entirely out of chocolate. It would have looked yummy, if it hadn't gone all grey with age :-/
After all these museums I wanted to sit down and enjoy the sun, so I went to Park Güell - a park designed by Gaudi. Unfortunately it wasn't as nice and quiet as I'd hoped. It was invaded by groups of french tourists with differently coloured stickers on their coats and tour guides holding matching signs. I saw at least 11 of these groups. Funny how I manage to be resentful of tourists while unabashedly being a tourist myself ;-)
Back in town I lost all inhibition and shopped, shopped and shopped. A jumper, a coat, shoes, a bag, earrings. I only stopped when my money ran out and I felt a bit weak. I'm not entirely sure if I was weak with hunger or with the adrenaline rush of shopping...
After four days on my own in a strange town I was quite relieved I'd be seeing people again. Living in my own head for four days, I was starting to go a bit funny. I'm always a bit funny in the head, but after Barcelona it was a bit more than usual ;-). So very very early on Tuesday morning I said goodbye to Barcelona and hello to Metropolis.
Sorry, I just couldn't resist the cheesy joke there.