Spain - day 7 - Barcelona
I had a great day yesterday. I started by going to the beach for a few hours after I woke up and had a great breakfast in the executive club here at the hilton. I ended up wondering around the city for about 8-9 hours.
My first destination was Barri Gotic. I wondered around for a few hours soaking up the way people dressed and talked as well as the fascinating architecture. I saw a crowd of people around and some lights and trucks in a square near Barri Goti. I had heard Woody Allen and Scarlett Johansson were filming a movie near the beach the previous day. I ended up seeing Woody and Scarlett. I'll tell you it was a bit of a let down seeing her in person. She was shorter than I thought she would be and her her was all the way bleached out blonde. I decided yesterday I'm no longer going to marry her. I still like her as an actress and think she is pretty but, I don't think she's quite right for me.
My main goal for the afternoon was to see the Museu Picasso. I wondered around Barri de la Ribera for awhile. I really enjoyed the narrow winding streets and colorful graffiti. The place had a great energy about it. I finally found the Museu Picasso and there was a pretty long line. I almost decided not to wait for it but it was totally worth the wait. There was an option to pay extra to see a special exhibit featuring Lee Miller on top of the permanant collection.I was really blown away by everything I saw in this museum. I knew a little about Lee Miller but it was great to really see all about her life and who she was friends with. What an interesting person. I started by watching a documentary that was in English with Spanish subtitles about her. Basically, she was a beautiful model, photographer, artist and muse. She went to France and learned photography from Man Ray. He fell in love with her but she didn't want to be tied down. Then she came back to the US in 1933 and was standing in the middle of the street and somehow Conde Nast saved her from being run over by a car. He asked her to do some modelling after this in Vogue which she did. Later became a big time photographer herself with these contacts. Also, she was affiliated with John Cocteau and did some movies with him. The main focus was her later relationship with Picasso. I am fascinated by how really creative people feed off of eachother. She took some of the most famous photos of Picasso and he did some portraits of her. You could tell they both had huge egos.
Then I went through chronologically every Picasso piece that was in the museum. I was extremely impressed. In the past I have realy been so-so about Picasso. Not really into a lot of the cubism stuff but now that I see all the periods he went through and how he kept changing and pushing himself I appreciate it a lot more. They told where all the paintings were done and how he moved around to different places in Spain and France but how Barcelona may have been the city he loved the most. He donated most of the paintings that are there to the museum in 1970. I read the timeline of his life and it was crazy how many different women he married and had babies with. I was especially interested how he liked the ballet and met Diaghilev and married a ballerina for awhile. Carl had just recently been telling me about Diaghilev and the modernist movement. I was interested to see how Picasso's experiences affected his work. He was turned onto certain artists or writers and it changed his style for awhile. This reminded me of the Scorsese Bob Dylan documentary how Dylan kept changing and growing as he found these different artists and creative people. For example he was introduced to Rimbaud, Baudelaire and Verlaine which started him into the blue period. I think one that that really struck me about Picasso was how he kept making art, he didn't seem to stop. He appeared to be confident and sure of his progression, even though I'm sure he went through many, many inner struggles and outter struggles with other people. I can imagine he would have been a very tough person to be around. I would definitely recommend this museum to anyone who goes to Barcelona.
I really wanted to go to the Dahli museum but its 2 hours outside of town and we just don't have time this trip. I will be back again another time to see it.
I left the museum and started to wonder the small streets again and then I was trapped inside some barracades. It turned out Woody had moved locations to this district. I stood there for awhile and waited to see what would happen as it looked like they were getting ready for something. I could see Woody down the alleyway, then a man pushed me behind some little gate. The man told everyone silencio. Then spanish fellow had a headseat on and said roll cameras then action. A boy rode by on a bicycle then I'm pretty sure I saw Rita Wilson. There were about 5 other people around me watching she was about 5 feet away. They did another take and then Scarlett walked in front of us with a camera.
I then wondered around to several other areas including the Vila Olimpica to see the aging olympic buildings as well as the Barelonetta area which I remembered as a place where Picasso liked to hang out. I was really tired after this and rode the bus back to the hotel.
I saw on the news yesterday that a bull went crazy at yesterday's running in Pamplona and 13 people were injured and 7 were gored. The footage shown here was much more gruesome that what was on CNN. The bull appeared to slip on a turn and got dazed. Then he went nuts and started really attacking a few guys. One guy took a horn in the stomach and the bull was tossing him around in the air. They showed the man later with blood streaming from the white pants of his leg. The bull even threw a very large man in the area. It really was amazing. They said yesterday's run lasted about 6 minutes which is a very long time. The bull got disoriented and went backwards on the course for awhile until he was re-directed by handlers with long sticks. We were very fortunate.
Also, we saw that there had just been an oil spill near Ibiza that they are now cleaning up. You could see oil washing up on the beach. It looks like we went to both places at just the right time. Hopefully Barcelona does not go up in flames after we leave because its a nice place.