This weekend a bunch of us went to Barcelona and i can honestly say it was one of the best experiences i’ve ever had. A friend of mine from Duke, Laura, has been interning in Geneva this summer and came to spend the weekend with me so that was an extra treat. Unfortunately Laura and I ended up getting separated from the rest of the group in terms of the bus tour (we did the blue line on Saturday and the red line on Sunday, while the others did the opposite) however it did give us a chance to explore everything we wanted.
My two favorite experiences of the weekend were the Picasso Museum that we visited on Saturday and our lunch in Gracía on Sunday. I really enjoyed the Picasso Museum because it showed a side of Picasso i’ve never seen before. While the museum did contain several works that were uniquely Picasso, the majority of the museum was filled with his earlier works and even some from his early years in art school. Laura and I were extremely intrigued by these works because they gave no indication that the were woks by Picasso, save the signature on the bottom. Most of these paintings were oddly realistic and were dominated by rural scenes. The museum was also particularly interesting because it displayed Picasso’s progression over time, from his very first works to some of his last. I have to say one of the most interesting was his interpretation of Velazquez’s Las Meninas, especially because we had studied in in depth in class.
The other part of the weekend that I especially was our lunch at Cafe Nena in Gracía. Laura and I got off the red line of the tour bus in the Gracía neighborhood because we hears it was really interesting and decided this would be the perfect place to have lunch. We consulted our guide book and map and eventually decided on a tiny Morrocan cafe about 7 blocks away. Unfortunately we found that the cafe no longer existed but during our search we ran across and even better find, Cafe Nena. The cafe was definately a local favorite because Laura and I were certainly the only tourists and the only people that didn’t speak catalan there! As we looked at the menu we realized that everything was in Catalan and had and interesting time trying to desipher what everything. Between my Spanish and Laura’s French I though were doing a pretty good job but the waiter realized that we were obviously not for the area and proceeded to bring us the only menu the had in Castellano. With the new menu were we surprised at how wrong we were about the different items!! Eventually we decided to order quiche (zhuccini for me and spinach for Laura) and let me say that it was the best meal i have had in Spain so far. The quiche had just the right ratio of egg to cheese to vgetables and it came with an amazing side salad. To top it off the entire meal only cost us 4.50 euros each!! It was perfect!
All in all it was an amazing weekend!
-Laura
1 response so far ↓
dukeinspain // June 25, 2008 at 11:45 am |
First thing I wanna say is that our experience would have been much worse if Laura wasn´t there. She knew where everything was and had everything we needed to know at her fingertips. But, yea, I agree with everything you said. Barcelona was incredible and unlike anything I´ve experienced. I wish I could have seen Picasso´s museum, but I guess I´ll do that when I return (which I definitely will).
-Ryan