Aventura 16: Montserrat

 This is one adventure that I can't explain except with short phrases and photos, so here it is:

Finger-mountains.  Hands coming up from the small towns, reaching for the sky, the sun, the stars, space. 

Eating 35 empanaditas at the top of the mountain.  Tomando el sol.  "Bon Siesta."

Adventure shoes in Spain.  Walking backwards down the hills because forwards was to steep for my knee.  Strange looks from kids and parents.  Lots of laughs.

The smirking, smile man in the mountain with his pet tree. 

The afternoon sun hitting the city, but putting us in shadows with the strangely beautiful mountains.

The monastery in the mountains.

Painting what I felt, what I saw.  The purples, yellows, greens, blues, reds grays, blacks of everything around me.  The colorful finger mountains in front of me, the blue snowy mountains behind them, and the soft, pillowy clouds above them all.

Are those the mountains? Through the clouds? Is that really them?

Hearing Catalan and Spanish all around us, but not a word of English. 

The footy field of the gods? Of the giants that turned to stone in the mountain? Of the monks? Could it someday be ours?

Riding up to Montserrat on the Cremallera railway, but really, we were flying among the clouds.

Walking on a dream?

Standing at the top of Sant Jeroni.  After two hours of hiking up straight stairs.  That couldn't have been the way the monks got to the top here.......

Oh.....so THIS is the way the monks made it.  The 2 hours we went down, on the long, winding, mostly cobblestoned path with very few stairs.  That makes a little more sense.

A long, long time ago there were giants in Barcelona.  But something happened one day.  No one quite knows the story.  And they disappeared.

To reappear as the magnificent cliffs of Montserrat.

Will you join me again tomorrow? I promise you - you have no idea what's at the top of these stairs.  It's beyond anything you've ever imagined.

Aventura 15: Museo de Picasso

A museum a week.  That's my plan.  And the museum of the week is........el museo de Picasso.  This museum is in the Barrio Born, and the entrance and bottom floor of the museum is an old stone palace. So even from the get-go I loved the museum.

http://www.canalpatrimonio.com/es/noticias/?iddoc=51767

What was great about this museum wasn't that it had all the most famous paintings of Picasso, but actually the opposite.  It had all the little secrets, all the sketches or the unfinished paintings that no one ever sees, and you wouldn't expect to be from Picasso.  One day he drew caricature sketch of a friend, with an angry sun!  Another day, for a comedy journal, he created another caricature of a friend, having quite a lot of fun....

He had a few paintings that had secrets, like this one where after doing a radiographic screening, they realized that there was a painting of a man underneath.  I tried to will my eyes to have x-ray vision so I could see the man underneath the flower, but alas, today was not the day for x-ray vision I guess.

And there were paintings of Picasso's time in Barcelona! So I could see Barcelona through his eyes during his time!  This is pretty different than the beachfront today, isn't it?

And the best part of the museum: that I could see the evolution of Picasso's art throughout his life, from his oil paintings on pieces of wood when he was fifteen to the cubist art that he is most famous for.  Seeing this progress of art was breathtaking - especially as someone who likes art.  I got to see all the hard work for many years to get to his famous pieces of work.  I got to see thirty different versions of "Las Meninas" until he got to the final one that is his best-known work.  Art isn't just about one painting, but all the history and hard work behind that painting.  And walking through the different rooms, seeing how Picasso's art change while also seeing where it was going, as if I could look into the future, was a great adventure.

I've tried to put these in order and representative of the progression of art in Picasso's life.  All photos are from the collection online at Museo de Picasso.  You can see for yourself a little slice of this amazing evolution.

Autoretrato

Las Meninas

I even tried my hand at some of Picasso's work, sketching La Menina, a dog, and a circus girl!

Aventura 14: Fútbol Sansur

Although fútbol is everywhere in Barca, at the same time it's hard to find if you are an outsider.  Once you are in the world of fútbol, especially fútbol for women, it's easy to be a part of it.  And that's exactly what I have figured out - because I am now on the inside of the fútbol de mujeres world here!!!!  I had almost given up my search, after asking three or four organizations if there was a team I could play on, and then my director found this club that is in my barrio! 

Tuesday I was welcomed to A.C.E. Sansur by 13 girls who are so awesome and nice and make sure I understand everything!  I thought I would only be able to practice as I'm here for two months, but I just found out today, after emailing the director all my information, that I am on the team!!!!!  I get to play fútbol three times a week, IN SPAIN! Entrenimiento Tuesday and Thursday, and Partidos on Saturday! 

http://www.futsal.cat/equip/98-a.c.e.sansurfemeni

However, this fútbol is different than fútbol 11 that I'm used to.  It's fútbol sala, or fútsal, played indoors and 5 players per side.  The ball is heavier and smaller, and the goalies have elbow and knee pads because they slide all over the hard gym floor.  The movements are more structured than I'm used to, so I have a lot to learn! But I cannot WAIT and I get to play in my first game tomorrow!!!  

http://www.futsal.cat/noticia/289-a.e.f.s._arrels_femeni_1_a.c.e._sansur_1

Aventura 13: Camp Nou

"Experience Camp Nou." That's the slogan for the museum tour, the words that you follow around the stadium.  And man is it an experience.  Not only do they have an incredible amount of information on the history with photos and quotes and old artifacts, like these boots and old pela - can you imagine playing with these?

Not only do they have all the trophies they have won (or reproductions of them) from the first trophy ever, la Copa Macaya, a piece of modernist art really (left) or the Champions League Cup (right, with a pretty happy person in front of it):

              

But after all these "things" that are in every museum, we followed those magic words "Experience Camp Nou" and we went into the stadium, up into the second tier of seats.  

We walked by the snack stands and down to the visiting teams locker room! Which had a huge jacuzzi in the middle, lucky ducks.... We followed the path to the cheering of a crowd into the tunnel - the same tunnel that both teams go through before the step onto the field:

And then, we walked up those stairs and found ourselves right in between the two teams' benches.  We were so close to touching the grass, to playing on the beautiful green right in front of us - except for the barriers and guard standing in our way.  But we were right there.  Right where the players are, surrounded by the endless rows of red and blue.

We walked down the sidelines up to other seats, maybe 20 rows up from the field, and we just sat, for an hour, drawing and taking in the stadium.

We finished up the tour walking up an endless flight of stairs to the press boxes, then down to the back end of the museum where we put on headphones to listen to the song of Barca.  And that was the tour.  That was the experience.  

I think what heightened this experience, though, was all the history I read in the information before.  I have this new(ish)found appreciation for this team.  Did you know this team, the Barca team right now, is thought to be the best footy team in history, and it all started from one guy writing to the local newspaper, asking if a group of guys wanted to start up a team?  Translation of the article to the left: "Our friend and companion Mr. Kans Kamper, a member of the Football Section of the Society of Sports and an old Swedish champ, wants to organize a few games in Barcelona.  Whoever feels to be a fan of this sport should get in contact with him, as they can meet every Tuesday or Friday at night from 9 until 11."

Or did you know that this team is such a part of the Catalan spirit and culture, that during the franquismo, many ways this time is how ciudadanos could legally support their culture?  During el franquismo, this club never lost its democratic spirit - as the fans, the players, the coaches, the president, the staff all were an important part of the club.  In the Posguerra, when many españoles left for México to find safety, this team too went on a tour in México.  When they returned, all the players who had participated in this tour were suspended for two years.  During this time in Spain, "los partidos de Barca en Les Corts eran un oasis de libertad en unos años de miedo, miseria y represión" - the Barca games in Les Corts stadium became an oasis of liberty during they years of fear, misery, and repression.  It became an identity.  And when immigrants would come to Barcelona, one of the easiest ways to integrate themselves and to become a part of Cataluña, was if they started following and supporting Barca.  This team is such a part of the local identity that for the 50th, 75th, or 100th anniversary of the club, famous artists such as Tápies or Joan Miró created artwork commemorating Barca and Cataluña.

The president of the Barca, D. Narciso de Carreras, said these famous words about the club in the years after the war: "El Barcelona es algo más que un club de fútbol, el Barcelona es más que un lugar de esparcimiento donde los domingos vamos a ver jugar al equipo; más que todas las cosas, es un espíritu que llevamos muy arraigado dentro, son unos colors que estimamos por encima de todo....Barcelona is something more than a football club, Barcelona is more than a space where we go on Sundays to watch the team play; more than everything, it's a spirit that we carry inside us, they are colors that inspire and awe us on top of everything..."

And that line, "más de un club" or, in Catalan, "mes de un club" has become the great phrase of this Barcelona club. And they really are more than just a football team.  And this tour, this tour was really more than just a museum tour.

Whoever is around on Wednesday, Barca is playing against Real Madrid, their biggest rivals.  Whoever wants to see this incredible team play with its incredible fan support and community, look for the game at 4pm ET.  You won't want to miss it.

Aventura 12: Sigue la Música

Wandering around the Barri Gotic the other night, in and out of these skinny streets lined by unique stores in old stone apartments and building, I heard a beautiful sound.  We started following (siguiendo) the music, around this corner, is it around the next corner? Until we finally turn left onto a narrow street behind the church, and there's three hombres playing a beautiful beautiful song with three instruments.  The hang drum (which is really my new favorite instrument), the acoustic guitarra, and the alta saxophone.  We lean against the ancient walls and just listen.  Listen to the amazing sound of the music that drew us through the maze of the old city center.  I danced a little, sat, drew, and closed my eyes, thinking, dreaming about how there's no other place I would rather be right at that moment.