Riding Dorky: Barcelona Day 4 and 5: Picasso, Contemporary Art, and Hemp Museums

The whole group visited the Picasso museum at the beginning of the next day where I focused the majority of my attention on an Italian man with a mental disability who followed an unrelated family around. The poor guy just wanted to talk about the art while the family would turn their backs on him.

The whole trip, my mom obsessed over her corduroy pants. She worried that she could not wear them in such a fashionable city, though she gathered the courage to wear them by day 4. Here, she's trying to stand next to a man wearing the exact same pants-- corduroy and all.

Just a little street graffiti

Sweets in the window of a store

Photography was not allowed in the Picasso Museum, so I don't have photos of Picasso's works. I'll try to describe it...
In October, the same group visited the Guggenheim in NYC to see the Black and White Picasso exhibit. This exhibit focused mainly on his black and white sketches and had an audio that explained his life through his daughter's eyes. In Barcelona, the exhibit focused on his early career and time in Spain. There were many more famous paintings in Barcelona, including his still life. The audio guide focused less on his personal life and more on his talents, giving information about how he created the works. There were two rooms full of nude sketches and a room of his pottery (he dated a potter for a large portion of his life and I guess he played around with that format). I'd definitely recommend visiting this museum, though one should purchase the 6-art museum ticket so he or she doesn't have to wait in any lines.

Kief and I finished perusing the museum before the rents, so we headed out on our own for a few hours. This is when my knee really started to kill. I think I have tendinitis and I walked with a limp for the rest of the trip.
Kief and I first visited the arch.

A street performer who would roll around inside the giant hula-hoop.

This is when I hurt my knee, so I sat for a while outside the arch.

We had a delicious lunch at a restaurant just by the arch: tuna salad, corn empanada, and entrapan jamon.

I fell in love with these dropped-crotch tartan trousers. I ended up having a special pair made for me which I'll post later... though my plaid is not as red and green as this one :(

We met up with the parents later in the afternoon to visit the Contemporary Art Museum. The pieces in the museum were generally interactive sculptures. We took a guided tour where we were told to think about what is special about this generation of art. I didn't take any pictures, but here's a close-up of Kiefer's fav.

The next day, Kiefer and I went back to Las Ramblas on our own.

Here's breakfast, a entrapan con chorizo and a quiche.

We first visited the Hash, Marijuana, and Hemp Museum, the sister museum to the one in Amsterdam. The purpose of the museum was not to showcase weed in a legal way, but to educate the public about the environmental and economical uses for the hemp plant. Photography was allowed in this museum and Kief and I took a lot of pics!

The hemp plant grows very quickly and does not deplete the soil like many crops. It would be both environmentally friendly and economical to grow crops for paper.

This is just a picture of posters the museum was selling. I can't remember the name of the goddess, but she stood out to me as a strong female.

A picture of a poster of hemp buds up close.

Marijuana has been smoked in many forms for thousands of years. There are a couple different ways to extract hash (concentrated THC) from the buds. Here, a person has rolled a bud between their hands so the orange fibers will stick and create hash. I think this picture was taken in India.

In the second room of the museum stood a large display of pipes used throughout history. The brochure we were given on arrival explained how each one was used. They were as simple as a hole in a rock or as intricate as the one below.

Many of the pipes were created to smoke very specific forms of weed. There were ones just for kief (small bits of THC) and others for a mix of tobacco and weed.

There was a coffee table and chairs in almost every room. This museum was made to chill in (there was even a smoking room out back).

This poster states the main uses of the hemp plant.

This rhino head was made of fibers taken from the hemp plant.

The museum gave the history of the United States and hemp which I thought was particularly interesting because it's so hard to get a complete history of it IN the United States. Apparently Jefferson grew hemp and Christopher Columbus' boats all used hemp rope.

An advertisement for citizens to help the country by growing hemp to make rope.

Yes, this exists. No, I don't know if it's good.

Just like doves, the hemp leaf was a sign of peace. This is definitely evidence of historic stoners, though I wish I knew where and when this was made.

They had a pot of large buds in the museum.

Shakespeare with his peace pipe.

I don't see why not.

Apparently the US government banned weed because it was TOO economical. The country needed to make more money and so corn and cotton crops were valued more.

Yes, this guy helped pass the bill. Just read his quotations.

After spending about 2 hours in the museum, Kief and I shopped. I got the pair of drop-crotch trousers, a necklace, and a bracelet. Kiefer purchased gifts for his family.