Barcelona continued
Thursday 24 november 2005 4:09pm s’pore time
9.10am spain time
Feeling fresh and the start of another new day. Am blogging on the bus. We’re leaving Barcelona and heading towards Valencia, and stopping over shortly at taragona, supposedly famous for its well preserved Roman town. By now its all probably in ruins anyway, so not really looking forward to seeing it. But I think there r more interesting stuff in Valencia, also famous for their soccer team.
So anyway rewind back to yesterday. Picasso museum was huge. They contained many of picasso’s early works, and the very late works, wif only a few representational works of his stylistic phases in between. And yes I feel lucky to b finally b able to stand in front of the acual paintings. Mr chia has been waxing lyrical abt how seeing the actual works r a breathtaking experience and blah blah, but after yesterday’s experience, I don’t really get that much of a different feeling seeing the real works than seeing well-printed reproductions in those art books. If u feel any difference, its all probably a phycological thing. Conclusions from Picasso museum? Yes Picasso was quite skilled and he was very productive, producing so many paintings that have quality in such a short span of time. But I don’t really fancy him. The surrealists still rank supreme to me. What lingered in my mind, however was picasso’s interpretation of velaquez’s las meninas, and yes both versions r really popular.
Perhaps if my other aep friends and mr chia were to come here they’ll probably b more fascinated and probably go down on their knees and worship. So I feel abit unworthy to see these paintings. I didn’t leave wif any fresh inspirations for directions in art. My zainess far exceeds Picasso’s.
Then dinner was c and g. we really enjoyed it. One reason was becoz we were really hungry after walking after such a long day, and another was becoz the food was really good and reasonably priced. Took a pizza, wif this rice thingy cooked wif seafood, and a local desert called pajamas. Pijamas is basically this egg-based soft custard cake wif ice cream, sweet plum and whipped cream. Very enjoyable meal. After that went to las ramblas, bought some postcards and souvenirs along the way.
Then walked ls ramblas (they have very nice architecture along the streets as usual). Walked past this very elaboratedly decorated church. Wanted to go in and see, but I guess we were all so tired from walking so much that hotel was the only thing on our mind. Ramblas ended at this huge square called plaza de catalyuna, the same place the bus dropped us earlier. Veryh pretty. I wanted to sit down and just take in the magnificent ambience and feel the night air over Barcelona, but mother say she rather sit down in hotel. So bo bian, have to compromise and accommodation. Sat their undergroun metro from catalyuna to the end of the line, dropping at this stop called zona universita, which is the nearest place the hotel is located.
Sitting in barcelonametro is…what can I say? A normal mrt ride, although I have to comment that s’pore’s mrt is cleaner and looks newer. Theirs is abit dirty and drabby, but their transport system is quite efficient. I still have to say that sitting s’pore mrt is a more pleasant experience. And sitting metro that time, both o my parents were on high guard, still traumatized by their experience sitting roman metro 2 yrs ago, were papa almost got robbed by this tennage girl. Luckily none of these nonsense happened, and I have to conclude that Barcelona is a very safe city, contrary to what most of u might think.
And now to sum up…Barcelona is a very to the power of infinity beautiful city. The architecture here is…. And walking thru the streets is like walking thru a virtual open air museum. Every thing is so richly decorated. No surface is spared. From the carvings (not graffiti la)on the pavements, to the what-the-hell wrought-iron lamp posts. And the road system is quite neat, especially in the new town. In the old town, its more cramped and more messy. Many small lanes. And not all of the rd names in the old town r on the map, so if u have a lousy sense of direction, sure get lost one.
And after a day of covering the rest of the city in detail, the hallmark of Barcelona for me still is the cathedral. And rightly so. Many say that Barcelona was born of the cathedral and of Barcelona, the cathedral. If u come here, must come and see the cathedral. U won’t regret it.
And I hope the locals treasure what they have and not take all these beauty for granted. It took them centuries of history to achieve such beauty, so must appreciate la.
No mood to blog now. Dong feel like doing anything but sleep and listen to music. And solo exhibition preparation is still stagnant.
alvin ong dozed and watched the sawdust trampled night @ 10:00 PM
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