Our second day in Barcelona we planned a day trip to Figueres, a town outside of Barcelona that is home to the Dali museum. It took us about two hours by train after quite an adventure just to get to the train station, but when we arrived in Figueres it was a welcome break from the seemingly constant problems of Barcelona.
We followed signs for about a fifteen minute walk from the Figueres train station to the museum, through some smaller streets with interesting shops. When we got up to the museum we bought our tickets (fortunately right before a big line formed) and then sat down to have a quick lunch before the museum. We got a good deal on a burger/fries/drink/ice cream combo (neither one of us wanted any more Spanish food), sitting outside.
The museum was gigantic. Every time we turned a corner, one room became three rooms, and then sometimes there were little rooms that had just one painting in it. It was kind of like an artistic fun house. There were tons of drawings, sculptures, and paintings big and small. Some things seemed very normal, from when he was learning to paint, and then there was iconic Dali, lots of compositions of unexpected combinations of objects. There wasn't a lot to read though, most things were left completely unexplained. It was really interesting, but we got pretty tired before we were done due to the little amount of sleep we'd gotten the night before.
Admission to the museum included admission to a special exhibit called the Jewels of Dali and was a really beautiful showing of jewelry Dali designed. Some of it was surrealist like his other work, some of it was just pretty, and some was both. Most of it was well-lit, which I appreciated as well. And fortunately the exhibit was small so that we could then head back to the train station.
Along the way we stopped at the grocery store (Caprabo, like the one I shopped at by school in Madrid) and bought some cheese, almonds, and orange juice to snack on. We then only had to wait a few minutes for a train back to Barcelona. Although we were both tired, neither of us got much sleep on the train because we met a very chatty woman from South Korea who was traveling by herself and was just arriving in Barcelona. She asked a lot of questions and I think tried to get my mom and I to show her to her hostel, but we got off the train the stop before hers so we got out of that one.
We had to walk from the train station to the metro station thanks to some construction, but along the way we stopped to see two of Gaudi's most famous buildings - Casa Batllo and Casa Mila, also known as La APedrera (The Quarry). We took a few pictures and then hopped on the train back home. Mom wanted to try getting off at the next stop on the train line because it looked equidistant to our hostel but we'd come at it from the other side, so we'd get to see something new. Turned out the map was not at all to scale, we were far away, and we walked in the wrong direction so that we ended up just getting back on the train and going back to our usual stop. Funny, Barcelona. Real funny.
On our walk from the metro to our hostel we stopped at Wok to Walk, a chain I like in New York and an easy way to not eat Spanish food again. One box of noodles was enough for the two of us and we headed back to the hostel and attempted to go to bed after our roommates headed out for the night.
Things seemed alright, because the air conditioning was fixed and the boys said they'd try to be quieter. But the music was still loud downstairs and eventually the boys came back and weren't quiet and brought friends who weren't even staying in our hostel. We thought about leaving right then, but stayed through the night.
In the morning we ate breakfast in the hostel, checked out, and canceled our reservation for that night. We packed up, put our stuff in the luggage room for the day. Our only agenda for the day was Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell, two more Gaudi masterpieces, so we took our time going places. It was hot and humid so we didn't spend as much time at Sagrada Familia as I did my first time, but mom appreciated all the stained glass. We ate lunch at a subway, mom asked a man for a look at his map, and we figured out how to get to Parc Guell by bus.
Then we couldn't find the bus stop, so we walked back to the subway and took the train up to the park area. I had gotten off at a different stop when I came and walked up the hill, this time we came from behind the park but we still had to go uphill - on a street with escalators. Lots of escalators. I've never seen anything like it. We spent a little time in the park and eventually took a taxi back to the hostel because there was no good public transit option and we were both tired.
After a brief trip out to get Sam a Messi jersey (he plays for FC Barcelona) and a souvenir for Dad, we hurried back to the hostel, picked up our bags, and took a taxi to the airport hotel Mom had booked that morning. It was one of the best decisions we made on the trip. We got there around dinner time, ate our leftovers from lunch, relaxed, took long hot showers, slept in comfortable beds, it was quiet. I found Castle on tv and managed to change it to English and then later watched a Spanish game show called El Cubo. Quite entertaining.
In the morning we took the first shuttle to the airport and checked into our flight to Paris. Due to a long line at the Ryanair visa check, the desk we were supposed to check in at closed and we had to go directly to our gate where we had to gate check our bags. That meant that even though we'd already paid to check them when we booked the flight, we had to pay again. I started yelling at the woman in Spanish. But there was nothing we could do so we paid and checked the bags and got on the plane. The only comforting thought I remembered this was the flight we had never actually gotten charged for because Ryanair doesn't charge right when you book, so we hadn't actually already paid for the bags. In any case, it was one last crappy thing that happened in Barcelona. But, we were on to Paris!
No comments:
Post a Comment