Bigote de la Cabra
I don't know how to title things anymore. This was January 3rd, the first Sunday of the month, and on the first Sunday of the month museums are free. Steve and I had hoarded many croissants and muffins from the free hostel breakfast to survive on throughout the day and headed to the Place Espanya and the National Museum of Catalonian Art.
On our way up the steps to the museum there was some very strange cultural dance parade thing. Mainly people walking in circles in bright costumes narrated by a woman who's voice was so perky I became inherently distrustful of her, even though I didn't understand a word. We did a quick tour around the lovely medieval and Renaissance art and statues before catching a bus to Montjuic Castle. This fortification has been a central location in all of the conflicts in Barcelona. A year after it was built in 1640 it was in the Catalonian Revolt in which it went unconquered by Spain. It was further fortified and given an impressive array of guns however was captured during the Napoleonic Wars as they were ordered to not fire on the French. Spain captured it in 1714 and used it to bombard the city of Barcelona during times of insurrection. Montjuic has been used as a prison, a torture chamber and a place of execution during the Spanish Civil War and holds the same reverence and mixed history as France's Bastille or England's Tower of London. I think it's safe to say it was Steve's favourite place as he had his nose the in the information pamphlet the entire time and we walked every inch of those battlements. The view from the towers is amazing, Barcelona looks like a chaotic pattern of squares and colours contrasting the ocean's uninterrupted blue.
We had a difficult time finding a way back down the mountain but we did eventually make it to the maritime museum, which was actually rather clever. The building itself was an old shipyard and the various exhibits were inside shipping crates, connecting the expansive history of Barcelona's ports with it's current commercial business. The central exhibit was a massive reproduction of a 16th century royal gallery that had been sailed in the 1571 Battle of Lepanto on in which the Turkish Armada was defeated. We took the appropriate photos at the bow and stern and then ran into an unnerving but impressive street performer.
We walked along the pier on the hunt for food and found a decent paella place. Going out to eat so frequently I've discovered how much I appreciate the English pub idea. If you want something, you go up, order, pay right away, and then get your food. There's no pressure, no hovering or absent servers. It's so much easier. In Canada, servers are normally friendly, even if they don't like you they pretend to - no such pretence in Barcelona apparently. The food however was amazing. The seafood paella - spiced rice with a collection of crustacean obstacles, sangria, and the traditional creme de Catalonia made for a memorable meal.
