Barcelona (Part Two)

So after sitting at the cafe for a little while, sipping my little tiny cup of coffee (I know, I hardly ever drink coffee, but honestly? I was too nervous about having to order tea in Spanish, I was able to handle cafe con leche...which I know is ridiculous, it´s unlikely someone´s going to pull out a gun and shoot me for misprouncing the phrase, "me gustaria te´por favor" - we´re funny, aren´t we?)- I decided to head over to the CaixaForum - a fairly new art space. It was free, which was very cool, and they had a Renassaince exhibit hanging there, which was exciting.

I love the medieval period. Always have. Gothic paintings, Renassaince art...it´s always just felt sort of comfortable and warm to me, despite the frequency of scenes of torture (martyrdom of saints) and beheadings (John the Baptist´s head is always lolling about in some fashion). I kind of like the pained, pious looks of all those depicted, the wierd adult-faced cherubs floating around on-high, and checking out all the different ways Jesus and Mary show up. There was one painting, from the 14th century that had a very concerned-looking Jesus having words with Mary Magdalene, and I swear he was wearing some sort of cowboy hat. I´ve never seen that before. It was something. Cool painting.

In another wing they had a bizarre little exhibit that told the "forgotten" story of the Elf Wars in Spain, a re-telling of a history that has apparantly been erased from our memories. Unbeknownst to many, there were Elf People all around, but they were exterminated. This exhibit had a little movie, an interview with the last surviving member of the Elf Race, and even a faux archeological display of elf ruins - fairly well done. It was interesting in a creepy sort of way.

From the CaixaForum I went to the Barcelona National Museum of Art and saw more Gothic art. I could´ve spent hours in there, just looking out over the city from way up on top of that hill made me realize just how much there was to see. I spent some time listening to a Flamenco guitarist playing for coins outside and watching people pose for pictures. I almost asked someone to take my picture for me, but decided against it. I should´ve just taken pictures of the people who were posing - wonder how that would´ve gone over?

Cruised down the winding hill towards the center of town, a little cat stood there on footbridge, watching me. Found the Barri Gothic cathedral and the long, dark and narrow street that leads up to it. There were pieces of tile art set into the walls, it looked like they were depicting a story, as they were all captioned. I took pictures of all of them, so I´ll have to translate them later. This was probably my favorite place of the day. It was such a tight and narrow alleyway, but it was big enough for a constant flow of foot traffic for the shops that lay tucked into these beautiful old buildings.

I loved that in the midst of all of this art and ancient cathedrals, there were people living in all of these buildings, hanging laundry from the railings, tending to their shops on the street level, talking with their neighbors, old women moving arm and arm down the steet, kids revving around on bikes.

Earlier, I had the fleeting thought of hopping the "tourist" bus, which takes you around to the highlights of the city. I would´ve seen more, but I would´ve missed out on so much that it wouldn´t have been worth it. I wouldn´t have been able to duck down these alleyways and smell cooking from people´s kitchens, or see the men sitting in barber chairs, or hear people talk to each other over the counter at the carneceria. I wouldn´t have been able to linger at the church, and rest my hand on the 400 year old stone edifice, gazing up at the bell tower. I would´ve heard English spoken from loudpspeaker instead of the rush of Catalan and Castillian words vibrating off every wall, from every doorframe and window. In short, I would´ve missed seeing Barcelona.

I spent most of my day like this, just weaving in and out from place to place. Stopping here to listen to street music (New Orleans jazz seems to be a favorite), or resting at a cafe and just sit for a bit, watching.

My last place to visit was Gaudi´s last work, unfinished, the Sagrada Familia church, a massive thing that is still under construction. You should Google this. I went inside and took the lift up into one the spires. It gave me vertigo to look out over the edge, onto the street ridiculously far below, and at the other spires, so near me, several hundred feet off the ground. We had to climb back down the tight, curving staircase, which was equally nervewracking, got a little scared, but it turned out fine. Didn´t have to cause a scene or anything (I think I remember causing a scene on top of a ferris wheel once when I was very young, and they had to bring me back down..I do believe Matt was rocking the car back and forth, scaring the shit out of me), anyway, that didn´t happen.

I was exhausted by the end of it all, but felt like I saw a goodly portion of what I wanted to see and was okay to leave it at this point. When I got to the bus stop at Martinet, Hugh was there to pick me up which was a lovely surprise. I wasn´t looking forward to negotiating that spider again. But guess what...

After shaking out all my bedding back in the yurt and getting everything ready for bed, making sure there were no spiders anywhere, I turned around, just getting ready to switch off the light and there was a big spider on my pillow! A big spider. Jiminy crickets. I scooted it outside. Kathleen, could you look up "Spider" in your medicine cards book and give me the cliff note version of what spider is trying to tell me?

Anyway guys, I´m off tomorrow it looks like...should be in St. Jean Pied de Port tomorrow night and starting my walk on Wednesday. I´ll write you when I can, I think about you all and am so happy you´re out there!