Let stick to the more positive aspects of those elements though, and say the following:
1. A man was nice enough to switch seats with me once I realized that an hour in the window seat of a Greyhound-like bus was going to cause my leg to rage against me, more than it had already begun to.
2. I got to go to different parts of Spain, one town called Gerona and another Figueres. Good news!
3. There'so way to skew the rude people, so let's just say that the people are rude, and move on.
GERONA
This was a stop that we made on the way to the purpose for the trip for me, Figueres. Gerona is a lovely little Spanish town outside of Barcelona, in the community of Catalonia (the guide said that even though Catalonia is like a province, they call them Communties of Spain). The guide that we had took us to a bunch of places and told us a lot about the history of the town. I'm not much of a history buff, but it was very interesting, and the tour guide's accent was just wonderful. They speak Catalan here, as well as some French, she mentioned, because they are so close to France, and because the people who took the land back in the day (she had less ignorant, actual date information) were French.
Don't let this shot fool you, the bus was sold out.
Little did they know that I would have paid €65 for just the air conditioning!
We had an hour and forty five minute tour, and then had an hour on our own, during which time I ate. I left 20 minutes at 8am to get some food from somewhere, but nothing was open! Not a thing, but a newsstand that had Pringles and water. Yeah, so I had a small tin of Pringles and a bottle of water from 7am, when I got up, to 12:15pm when I got lunch. Not cool.
Anyhow, I had some weird fish, you guys, I don't think it was weird, I think I was weird. It was a whole fish with the eye left in (I'm sparing you that photo). Ummmmm, not appealing to me. I did what I could, but it had all of the bones in it as well, we the big scales too. I tried. I got a few bites, and then it didn't go well. Every bite was a little mouth-scraping bone. The salad was good!
The tour guide, this lovely woman that I mentioned, she was so politically bitter/opinionated, it was fascinating. Most seemed turned off by it, like they didn't pay to hear someone's personal opinion of the region, just the facts, but I thought it was amazing. She was a real person, not programmed, and I loved it. For example, did you guys know that there are only four years left for their pension? Meaning if you're not retiring within the next four years, there will be no pension for you, ever. For all of Spain, dude, that's insane! She explained a lot about politics, the area, religious, etc. and if not for her, Gerona wouldn't have been half as great.
FIGUERES
Then we got back on the bus for another hour to Figueres, where Dali and his wife lived for part of their lives, and where the largest Dali museum in the world is, which he designed himself. Not just curated, he designed the building and everything in it. The whole thing is a work of art, and it was quite impressive.
Here are the interesting things I learned about Dali:
1. The eggs that he uses in his are represent three things:
a. His belief in the perfect geometrical shape
b. He was thankful that art allowed him to put food on the table,
so he used food in his art to show his appreciation of it
c. He knew that he was not a normal person, not born the same way as the rest of us,
and used it as a symbol to show that he was born out of an egg (a crackable one)
2. His wife was his inspiration, and even though he loved her, he "kept other lovers" (as the bus tour guide stated it), and to keep his wife happy, bought her a castle to go and stay in!
3. After his wife passed away he moved to the castle, where their burial lots were attached at the hands so they could be holding hands for all time, but there was a terrible fire, in which he was badly burned, and so he left the castle, and since he's died (he had Parkensons), he was not returned to that plot.
4. He requested that there not be any audio guides at his museum, because regardless of language spoken, he wanted people to see the work through their own eyes, and not by his words. Very cool.
5. He's crazy, but the right kind.
This is the back and main entrance of the museum, the opposite side is the egg situation.
The guys in the diving suit represents him, who at a yearly show, dressed like this, and literally almost died of suffocation because he couldn't get the headpiece off, and people thought it was part of the act.
The museum used to be a theatre, and this shot is where the audience would have sat to watch the show.
Insane interior of the largest room in the museum.
That's Abe Lincoln made up of a nude lady and other craziness.
Is it me or does this angry egg with arms have a goat penis that's eating a stick?
Perhaps I need an audio guide for this part.
Even the ceilings are beautiful.
There's a whole setup that goes with this, you climb a latter, there's hair around it like a human, but I was being shoved by too many people and was about to make a scene, so this is the best I could do.
These are just two shots of the fun surroundings in the town.
And finally, folks, on my last night in Barcelona before I fly off to Paris tomorrow, I was accompanied by Danko, the AirBNB hosts dog, who took a liking to me, and napped under my bed as I wrote this post.
How cute is this dog?!
Alright then, this is good day on today, but back tomorrow, likely with a Barcelona summary (I have some opinions), and the beginning of a Parisian adventure. Until then!
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