On a day off of school, A, S and I decided to take a day trip to Figueres. It’s a town north of Barcelona, in the province of Girona. We took the Renfe from Barcelona at the Passeig de Gracia station, and it took roughly under 2 hours. The town is pretty small and easy to navigate with an awesome tourist information desk supplying us with maps once we got off the train. The main attraction here is the Salvador Dali Theater Museum. There isn’t much else to do other than this museum, and the town is really famous because it’s where Dali was born. To be honest, I had no idea who Salvador Dali was. I knew nothing about Spain before coming here, and art was something I wasn’t too interested in. But S and A were taking a Spanish Art History class at ESADE, and their professor had recommended them to visit this museum. I had nothing to do, so I joined them, hoping I wouldn’t be too bored from looking at art. This was the best decision ever! If you’re someone who usually isn’t interested in art like the ones at the Louvre, I assure you that Salvador Dali will make you enjoy art!
I think if I were to describe Dali in one word, it would be “weird”. Yup, Dali’s art is quirky and bizarre, but in a good way. He was a Catalan surrealist painter, but he has art work of all sorts. I often say that his work is trippy, because depending on the angles you look at it, the piece of art turns into something completely different. Hence it’s extremely fun to look at his work and you can be imaginative even if you don’t understand his true intentions. For instance, in this picture, when we walked in the room, it was weird to see two random paintings on the wall, and then a couch shaped as a lip. Then the blonde hair is actually a horse if you look from the other side. However, Dali wants us to look at it from the top of one wall and look into this circular glass. When you do that, it becomes a woman! I loved how his whole museum allowed us to be imaginative and creative. Something I don’t usually possess, but I really enjoyed and admired his work. The cool thing is that this theater was also completely designed by Dali himself!
After an early morning in the museum, we decided to find food in Figueres. We did a quick tripadvisor search, and found that Lizarran was highly rated. Lizarran is a tapa bar which actually has many other locations around Spain. The fun part was that the tapas are self serve if you choose one of their options. This option allows you to walk down the bar and choose whichever pintxo you want. Each pintxo has a toothpick in it, and at the end, you pay by how many toothpicks you have on your plate. It’s pretty much based on a trust system. You can also choose to order off the regular menu, where you can have larger tapa dishes or actual entrees. We went for the self serve option. Some of the pintxos I chose included one with a cream cheese and salmon with a pedro pepper, shrimp and egg salad, brie with onions and garlic chips, and Iberican pork on imitation crab salad. All in all, quite a delicious lunch!
After lunch, we rushed to get to the bus stop. We wanted to visit Dali’s house in the town of Cadaques. The best way is to take a bus that is near the train station, and it takes less than an hour. Cadaques is still in the province of Girona, but also on the Costa Brava of the Mediterranean. It’s beautiful here, with boats along the shorelines. The white house in the picture is one of the homes Dali lived in later in his life and is located in Port Lligat, which is a small village in the Cadaques area. Dali spent a lot of his childhood in Cadaques, hence he went back here to live later. The house is now called the Casa- Museo Salvador Dali, meaning the Salvador Dali House Museum. You do need to pay to enter, but it’s pretty cool inside, so worth a visit. Apparently in the summer or peak seasons, you’ll also need reservations.
There will be a tour guide who will bring you and a small group of visitors in his house. She gives very brief information, so it’s not too useful, but you are welcome to ask her more questions. Here, this is where Dali used to do his paintings. When you look at the paintings at the Theater Museum, you’ll find lots of scenery and views of of the port since he painted from here.
On the top floor, you’ll find weird looking objects. Like this egg shell. What was Dali thinking putting an egg shell on his house…?
The beautiful view from his house. He has many paintings of this scenery if you visit the museum.
And he also decided to put an egg on the top of his house. I have to admit, Dali is pretty cool. Who in their right mind would think of doing something like that? Also, how in the world did he structure this egg so it wouldn’t fall off?
In his backyard, he has this giant… Such bizarre art.
And here is a picture of Cadaques while the sun sets. I love how the houses are all white here. Such a beautiful place to spend in the summer, and hence many Barcelona locals spend their summers here as a getaway. This was already early November, but it was still fairly warm.
Every Day is a Food Day 