WWATD (What Would a Tourist Do)?

If you have no interest in reading this entire entry then here are the spark notes: My day was long. It consisted of morning class, some shopping, and a tour on the life and art of Picasso.

After my first spanish class of the semester, I found a spot by one of the fountains in Plaça de Cataluyna.  The sound of the stampeding water drowned out all of the other city noises - I couldn't hear the cars zooming by or the people talking as they walked down the street.  What made this even better, was the the heat from the the bright sun beating down on me. 

I could've sat there forever, but after about ten minutes of being a loner, I headed over to the IES Center right before the Picasso tour began.  The tour was fantastic, yet I was slightly tired and starving so my attention span was short. We walked the streets of Barrio Gótico again, while hearing about how Picasso came to Barcelona as a young boy.  His life is fairly fascinating.  He spent his adolescence in Barcelona where he learned about women and sex, which one can see through some of his paintings and sketches.  He lived and spent the majority of his time with fellow artists, in places like 4 Gats (Cats).  Maybe this is horrible to admit, but I still find myself looking at some of his work and thinking 'I could do that.'  And then, there are the ones I look at in awe.  Picasso's Doña amb Montenilla is one of those curiously beautiful paintings with tons of small brush strokes and parts of the canvas that look unfinished.  

The narrow alleyways and streets we walked down were more charming than I can put into words.  The mix of antiquity and modernity in Barcelona is what makes it so appealing. I guess the nightlife isn't so horrible either.  There's nothing like walking down Passeig de Gracia and overhearing a group of girls talking about one of the many clubs they went to the other night, knowing full well that they went to that club thanks to the hard work of a club promoter (shout out to Michael Jordan Barcelona and Kyke Navarro). Barcelona has SO much to offer! I'm in love...with love (that's for you, Seton).

Ok, so I'm wrapping up this post with another photo of food. I had to take a picture of the tasty dinner Mercedes (my Señora) cooked up for us tonight!

Ensalada caprese y pizza con verduras

Manzanas con canela (cinnamon)

Buen noche,

Mads