Barcelona, part II

So I left off Friday night. After dinner that night (which was paella, Spain's national dish, which consists of many different types of meat [beef, chicken, fish, shrimp, mussels] thrown together with rice and vegetables), some people went out, but a lot of us went to the hotel and went to bed because we were dead tired from having to wake up and be at the airport at 6:45 (it was an hour away for a lot of people, me included).

Saturday morning we woke up and took a bus ride to Montserrat. It's a mountain about half an hour outside of Barcelona proper, on the side of which has been constructed a monastery and a lot of shops. Here's a picture from the Internet which shows Montserrat from a distance:



This is the little village as viewed from on the mountain (the monastery is dead center):



My friend Britt sitting on a wall on the edge of the mountain about to fall to her death:



Inside the monastery is housed the famous black Virgin of Montserrat statue, a representation of a black virgin Mary, the only one of its kind in Spain. Supposedly it's 1000 years old, and legend holds that it was made white and turned black on its own volition:



After that we returned to Barcelona and were dropped off in the Gothic district (very old buildings) downtown. Some of us went and visited the Picasso museum (like I said, he and Dali were Catalonian natives, and frequent denizens of Barcelona). I didn't take any pictures, but it was interesting. None of his famous works are there, but it gives a comprehensive portrait of his development as an artist -- from a young man painting small landscapes to an award-winning social realism portrait artist through his blue and cubist periods. They do actually have what I think has become my favorite Picasso work there: a study/interpretation he did of a famous work by the Spanish artist Velasquez, entitled "Las Meninas". Here's Velasquez's painting:



and here's Picasso's study of it:



Absolutely incredible, as far as I'm concerned. I could sit there looking at it for hours (and I did; at least, for a few minutes).

After that it was dinner in one of the best restaurants I've ever been to -- one of the most popular places in Barcelona, because the food is so good and it's also really cheap. I had a salad, cheese croquettes, pork filets, bread, wine, and one of the most delicious desserts I've ever had in my life, and it probably only cost about 12 or 15 Euros. The dessert was called "The Catalonian dessert" and I knew it must be good because they named it after their beloved "patria chica." It consisted of nougat ice cream covered in a delicious custard with chocolate sauce. I was so delighted I had to take a picture:



Sunday it was up early and a two-hour bus trip (during which everybody slept cause Saturday night was all about partying) to the town of Figueras, the hometown of Salvador Dali, where the Dali museum is situated.

The museum is like nothing else in the world. The entire thing, brick by brick, was designed by the artist. Thus, it's like a 3 hour surrealist experience that dominates every sense. The first thing you see when you get in is a statue he did for the musem, which consists, among other things, of an old cadillac inside of which are three mannequins, one of whose torso dissolves into a sea of coins, the other a topless woman, and the other missing a face. If you put in a Euro, it rains inside the car:



The museum is vast and every corner of it is impressive. You really get to know the artist and his personality. I gained a lot of respect for him and appreciation for his art. Here are a few memorable pieces:

This painting, when viewed from up close, looks like a cubic fresco including a nude portrait. Very nice...



but when viewed from far away is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln:



This is a painting of Beethoven that Dali did with the ink of a live squid:



There's a statue... of sorts... of Mae West, which, when viewed from the side looks like a room with bizarre, lip-shaped furniture and nose-shaped fireplace, but when viewed through a lens on a staircase up above looks like this:



In the wall behind Mae West's head is a room that you can look into through holes, which I believe represents her dreams:



As I say, there was a ton of stuff in the museum like this. A great experience.

After that, it was back to the airport, back to Madrid, and then home for dinner and sleep.