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Modern artist vs. capability
First stop of the day, three minutes walk from the hostel and next to the Las Ramblas, is the first Gaudi monument of the day, Palace Guell, more of that later though.
Following our visit to the Palace, Karen and I separated. She chose to go for a walk at the beachfront whereas I walked to Picasso's museum which is located in the gothic quarter.
Before the split we dashed off quickly at the nearby Reial Square to see the lamp posts which were Gaudi's first commission.
Pablo Picasso and the modern art movement
Pablo Picasso's family moved to Barcelona from Galicia in 1895, when Pablo was 13 years old due to his dad getting a job teaching art at the city's school of fine arts.
Not only was his dad therefore a civil servant but a civil servant teaching art. Imagine, what a contribution to society!!!. So of course young Pablo joined his dad school.
Pablo went to Madrid for a year for further studies and returned to Barcelona in 1898. The Barcelona collection was started in his lifetime.
When his life long friend Jaume
Sabartes died, he donated his collection of Picasso’s paintings to the city. Pablo, in order to honor his friend matched his donation panting for painting.
The collection is housed not in one but five handsome medieval buildings, a huge contrast with the aesthetics of his "art". The buildings represent some of the world’s finest domestic architecture from the 13th and 14th centuries.
Built to fashionable styles influenced by Italian palazzi, each of these aristocratic homes was more beautiful and lavish than the previous one, testifying to the rivalry among the city's merchants.
I have seen most of Picasso's famous works at various European museums and galleries. Even though the collection in Barcelona contains his famous modernist version of Velazquez's Las Meninas, cubist lithographs and pottery works it also contains his work before his abstract/modern period.
The thing with art is the following: Art exists to represent man for what he is, A HERO. Art is a mirror of the immense capabilities of mankind; art shows the true genius of the few capable among billions of others before them. Art is there to make us wonder of two things
1) The complexity of the artwork
Place Reial
First Commission by Gaudiitself
2) The fact that the artist thought about it in the first place
In relation to painting the handful of people who have risen above the rest include names like the following: Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Rafael, Da Vinci, Rubens, Van Dyck, Botticelli, Perugino, the aforementioned Velazquez, Titian, Mantegna, Durer, Rembrandt, Vermeer and Canaletto.
The 20th century, following the industrial revolution and prior to the War brought about the biggest crime in art history, the so called "modern" art with Impressionism as the starting point represented by people like Edgar Degas, Eduard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir immediately followed by Post-Impressionism with Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Georges Seurat.
However, the genre that followed, Fauvism, is often considered the first genre of "modern" art.
Fauvism gave birth to bastards like Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract art. Other sub genres include Abstract expressionism, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Bauhaus, Concept Art, Constructivism, Dada, Der Blaue Reiter, Futurism, Minimalism (or poor mans art as I like to call it) and Pop art.
There might be a myriad of modern art genres but basically there is only one criterion for the categorization as
Picasso Museum
Only photo i have since cameras are not allowed in modern. If you see a piece of art and think to yourself "who is stupid enough to pay millions for something that my 3 year old can paint?" you should know that you are looking at a piece of "modern" art.
Modern artists are basically incapable painters which can not really paint to save their lives. You see, Karl Marx made popular the false notion that there are no objective laws in life (by insisting on the notion that there is no such thing as an inalienable right to one's property), the modern art painters used this theory to question the products of the Master's of the previous decades and managed to convince myriads of naive and ignorant people that their product is worth a mention next to the miracles by Rafael and Michelangelo.
Next time you are in front of a piece of "modern" art do not for one second consider yourself less than the arty and smelly type next to you with the thoughtful look on his face and his stroking of his long and smelly beard. Just look at him with a pitiful stare and walk away, towards great things.
Pablo Picasso knew all
of the above. He knew he was rubbish and he knew that he would make money out of all this commotion that he witnessed, where else? but in France.
He famously paid even the smallest amounts with a cheque, safe in the knowledge that his signature is/will worth more than the amount on the cheque and thus no one would try to cash it.
I walked through his collection, reading about his life (did you know that in 1944 L'humanite in France confirm his membership at the communist party?), reflecting on his quotes but could not find my favorite quote of him. it goes something like this. Once a journalist asked him -
"So Mr. Picasso, what does this painting represent to you?", pointing to a incomprehensible creation of the "painter"
Pablo, without glancing on the painting answered "A million dollars". Great man.
The Barcelona collection is worth the visit (however doesn't worth the 9 euros admission fee) just so you can see Picasso's level of competence in real art, real painting prior to his scam. A few rooms were devoted to his early works. I can safely testify now that he was truly abysmal.
Sea side
Marina Port Vell I have walked passed thousands more capable painters lined on the shores of rivers at the European capitals, or on Montmartre in Paris and next to Green park station in London.
I wondered what was going though his mind when he raped the famous painting by the greatest Spanish painter of all times. Probably another million dollars.
Karen's seaside Excursion
Hello, this is Karen! Teli asked me to write about my little sun-seeking adventure while he was nourishing his mind on Picasso and Gaudi (or as Teli would have it, on the palace built by Gaudi because of the industrious mind that is Guell). So here goes.
After Teli advised the exact time it would take him to visit the two sites (Picasso Museum and Casa Batlo) , we synchronized our watches and I set off on my merry little way towards the famous Barcelona beaches. I had three hours of sunshine and sea breeze!
I made my way down Las Ramblas towards the sunny beaches via Barcelona’s new seafront development, Port Vell. Teli will be very proud of me, so I’ll give you a tiny bit of history… before the 1992 Olympics, Barcelona had
a pretty shabby seafront and harbour, but since then it has been transformed into a “Polished Pleasure Port” with luxury yachts lining its marina and shops, bars, eateries, cinemas and night spots catering to all pleasure seekers’ needs.
There is also an aquarium with an 80m glass tunnel from which you can enjoy an up-close encounter with sharks and sting-rays! There is even a cable-car from Montjuic to the Barceloneta area - which was my next stop.
Barceloneta is known for its honeycomb of lively, narrow streets lined with fishermens houses. This area was originally created by draining reclaimed land to house dockers and boatmen.
On the beach opposite this area is a - and I’ll try to be subtle - a rusty monstrosity of a sculpture that attracts seagull poo and beach bums.
This sculpture was created by Rebecca Horn to commemorate the displacement of dockers and boatmen when the Spanish Citadel was built in the early 18th century.
I also passed the Olympic Village (didn’t realise it at the time), and Frank Gehry’s whale-like half fish. Nice. Not spectacular, not awe inspiring - just nice. Nice because it casts a shadow over the
Sea side
Gehry's (most famous "modern" architect on the planet) sun seekers having lunch in the eateries below it.
I’m not one for criticizing - at least not on the Grand Scale that Teli does, but the outdoor modern art in Barcelona does not do it for me, on any level.
HOWEVER, the people do it for me on a huge scale! They are the most happy, healthy looking people I have seen in a loooooong time. Wherever I looked there where happy couples, happy families and just happy singletons - running, cycling, roller blading, strolling or just sitting and enjoying life.
I also saw something I don’t often see in England - wherever there was a baby, there was a mother AND father. I’m so used to seeing teenage mothers pushing their little bundles of “benefits” around, with no father in sight - probably because he’s in a pub somewhere getting hammered instead of working, and once he’s done, he’ll stumble back to his free accommodation.
What a life these young Brits have? - they actually get paid not to work, and get given homes as a reward for their careless attitude towards sex and the new little life that follows it.
Lucky for
me I realise there is so much more to life. Work hard and you can do ANYTHING! Of which traveling is the BEST.
PS - I also got burnt to a crisp. Walking in the sun for 3 hours without protection (haha) is not very clever, and is a sure fire way to ruin a great holiday! So lather up people!
PPS - Barcelona has four main beaches, stretching over 4 kilometers (I therefore walked a mammoth 8 KILOMETRES, no wonder I got singed!) Any way, I stray ... If you’re a bit of a prude, you may wish to make a U-turn just before the last beach … for it is a NUDIE beach! Whoo Hooo! And Barcelonan men are particularly proud of their goods - sunning them in the most fashionable of ways. What a treat!
Let us return now to the works and story of Antoni Gaudi, to whom I devoted the start and rest of my date following the visit to Picasso's collection.
Antoni Gaudi
Antoni Gaudi was born in Reus in 1852 and studied architecture at the Barcelona School of Architecture. I think it is really important to note
that as an architecture student from 1873 to 1877, Gaudi, achieved only mediocre grades.
After five years of practical work (as it should be), he was awarded the title of architect in 1878. As he signed the title, Elies Rogent declared, "Who knows if we have given this diploma to a nut or to a genius. Time will tell." (Has it though?)
Gaudi’s first works were designed in the style of gothic architecture and traditional Spanish architectural modes, but he soon developed his own distinct sculptural style.
French architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, who promoted an evolved form of gothic architecture, proved a major influence on Gaudi.
Güell
First stop, a short walk from the hostel was the Palau Güell which is a town mansion even though Palau means Palace.
The building was commissioned by Gaudi's greatest patron, the Catalan industrial tycoon Eusebi Güell.
Count Eusebi Güell was a patriarch who profited greatly from the industrial revolution in Catalonia in the late 19th Century.
Güell met Gaudi at the start of his career and hit it off immediately based on their mutual interests and especially their devotion to Catholicism. Güell saw Gaudí as the
man who could provide him with uniquely designed buildings in order to leave a posthumous mark.
Reportedly on one occasion Gaudí said to Güell, "Sometimes I think we are the only people who like this architecture." Güell replied, "I don't like your architecture, I respect it."
Güell was a great industrialist, but cheaper production methods elsewhere in Spain caused a slow but steady erosion of profit. Güell bought land in Barcelona and employed Gaudi to build an estate for the rich.
However, Gaudi’s architecture was not very popular among the elite of his own time and place, and there were few takers: only two houses were built. In 1923, the Güell family gave the land to the city, as Park Güell. Inadvertently, this immortalized Güell as a great patron and benefactor to Barcelona.
Palace Güell
The mansion Gaudi build for Güell at the seedy part of the town is centered on a main room for entertaining high society guests.
Guests entered the home in horse drawn carriages through the front iron gates, which featured a parabolic arch and intricate patterns of forged iron-work resembling seaweed and in some parts a horsewhip.
Animals
Casa Batlo
Roof light could be taken down a ramp and kept in the livery stable in the basement where the servants resided, while the guests went up the stairs to the receiving room.
The ornate walls and ceilings of the receiving room disguised small viewing windows high on the walls where the owners of the home could view their guests from the upper floor and get a 'sneak peak' before greeting them, in case they needed to adjust their attire accordingly.
The main party room has a high ceiling with small holes near the top where lanterns were hung at night from the outside to give the appearance of a starlit sky.
Unfortunately as of 2005, Palau Güell is closed to the public due to renovations; some of the stone used in the original construction was weak and has cracked over the years causing structural problems within the building and therefore we could not inspect the famous roof top chimneys.
However, they have recently opened the ground and basement level to that great social group, the Turists. As part of the tour you get to go to the gift shop and watch an impressive 3D slideshow of Gaudi's work
in the building.
I was really impressed by the workmanship and not the artistry of the ironwork on the external door and his use of floor tiles made from timber and disguised as stone tiles in order to provide damping (for noise) against the impact from the horse's hoofs. It wasn't a great solution acoustically. I guess his design was a compromise which met science and aesthetics somewhere in the middle.
Very short visit. Oh well, next time we may see the roof.
Casa Batlo
After Picasso’s museum I dashed off to the fashionable Eixample district to visit Barcelona's greatest rip off. Entrance price of 16.50 euros for one apartment, a courtyard, a roof and the common areas of a building which was restored by Antoni Gaudí and Josep Maria Jujol.
Casa Batlo, built in 1877 and remodeled in the years 1905-1907 is located at 43, Passeig de Gràcia (passeig is Catalan for promenade or avenue), and is part of the Illa de la Discòrdia in the Eixample district.
The local name for the building is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones), namely due to the skeletal organic quality of the balconies. Gaudi totally
changed the appearance of the building by the introduction of sensual curves throughout.
Much of the façade is decorated with a mosaic made of broken ceramic tiles (trencadís) that starts in shades of golden orange moving into greenish blues. The roof is arched and to model a dragon.
A rounded feature to the left of centre, terminating at the top in a turret and cross, represents the sword of Saint George (patron saint of Catalonia whose celebration on the 23rd was still trickling in parts), which has been plunged into the back of the dragon.
At least there is an informative audio guide of the development however, after a while you get tired of all the expletives used in the description. What fascinated me was the fact that the building is still used as residential accommodation, my guess by eccentric millionaires and teddy boys living off daddy's success.
Can you imagine residing in an actual Unesco monument? It's like staying in the Parthenon or the Colloseum since all Unesco declared monuments are of equal importance without a top 10 or similar.
I walked nearby to the foundation of Tapies, a contemporary "artist" who having scammed
naive people made enough money to open his own "museum" for the advancement of modern art.
I found great pleasure by the sign on the door informing of the closure of the foundation due to "construction". Justice.
Even though the outside of the building, especially the roof, looks like they are indeed in the middle of construction in fact that is a not true.
The exterior of the building looks exactly the same as 5 years ago when I first saw it when it was open to the public. The roof of the building contains a piece of "art" by Tapies. That's modern art and achitecture for you. Deconstruction my ass.
I went nearby to check out the restaurant my friend Chris recommended and had a nice cold beer. The place (Mussol) didn't inspire my touristy needs, looked like a run of the mill modern restaurant, of the type you find in any major world city. At least my visit reminded me to give Chris a call for his birthday today.
Chris and I were actually born in the same clinic, a day apart, our mothers shared a room. He is in Greece and stuck
Park Guell
Doric columns support the roof of the lower court which forms the central terrace, with serpentine seating round its edge.
in the Easter celebrations for the resurrection of his namesake. Oh well, maybe he can celebrate his 40th in style in a decade.
Park Guell
I met up with Karen at the designated time and metro stop for our communal visit to Park Guel. The park is a garden complex with architectural elements situated on the hill of el Carmel in the Gràcia district of Barcelona. It was designed of course by Gaudi and was built from 1900 to 1914.
Guell had an idea to create a residential site set in a garden inspired by the English garden movement, that’s why the place is named Park in English.
Guell bought the site cheap since based on it's name; the Bare Mountain the site was a rocky hill with little vegetation and few trees.
Guell wanted to exploit the fresh air and beautiful views from the site, with sixty triangular lots being provided for luxury houses.
He added to the prestige of the development by moving in 1906 to live in Larrard House. The project was a financial disaster.
In the end only a couple of houses were built, which were not actually designed
by Gaudi. Gaudi bought one of them with his savings and moved in with his family and father in 1906.
The main attraction of the park is the big terrace supported from columns underneath and flanked in its perimeter by a long curvy bench.
Apparently, Gaudi took the inspiration for the curvature after seeing the shape of the buttocks left by a naked workman sitting in wet clay. Don't ask me what a naked workman was doing sitting naked in wet clay on a construction site or why Gaudi was looking at him.
A couple of fairy tale like buildings line the entrance, with a semi elegant staircase, passing by the famous Gaudi dragon (recently restored following vandalism) and into the colonnade where one can be serenaded by a lone violinist in the reverberant space.
Curvy earthy columns support various colonnades which are dotted irregularly around the site.
The weather was fabulous. A lone trumpeter was fiddling away, palm trees above us, gently moved by the slight refreshing breeze, various pigeons were scramming with sparrows for leftovers, hippie performers were trying their luck and within this picture we found a table on the outside seated
The finished Sagrada Familia
Here is a computer generated image of the finished church in around 2025. area and enjoyed a nice, refressing cold pint of shandy.
La Sagrada Familia
Last stop on the sightseeing tour of the day was Gaudi's, "masterpiece", the unfinished monumental church dedicated to the Holy Family, the finest example of his vision, the worldwide symbol of Barcelona and the Cathedral of the third Millennium.
The official name of temple is the Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family, and will be a massive Roman Catholic church.
Construction began in 1882 and continues to this day.
The original designs called for a run of the mill cathedral, which I bet you would be finished for the designer to witness. However, after one year the architect was replaced by Antoni Gaudi who changed all plans and worked on the project for over 40 years, devoting the last 15 years of his life entirely to the endeavor, the project is scheduled to be completed in 2026. 100th year anniversary of his death.
On the subject of the extremely long construction period, Gaudi is said to have remarked, "My client is not in a hurry." Where I will add, what is the point? Why start something you can not finish?
Don't you know there is no such thing as an afterlife?
After Gaudi’s death in 1926, work continued under the direction of Domènech Sugranyes until interrupted by the Spanish Civil War in 1936.
Parts of the unfinished church and Gaudi’s models and workshop were destroyed during the war by Catalan anarchists. The design, as now being constructed, is based both on reconstructed versions of the lost plans and on modern adaptations.
Since 1940 the architects Francesc Quintana, Isidre Puig Boada, Lluís Bonet i Gari and Francesc Cardoner have carried on the work. The current director and son of Lluís Bonet, Jordi Bonet i Armengol, has been introducing computers into the design and construction process since the 1980s. Mark Burry of New Zealand serves as Executive Architect and Researcher. Sculptures by J. Busquets, Etsuro Sotoo and the controversial Josep Subirachs (Passion Facade) decorate the fantastical façades.
According to the newspaper El Periódico de Catalunya, 2.26 million people visited the partially built church in 2004, making it one of the most popular attractions in Spain. The central nave vaulting was completed in 2000 and the main tasks since then have been the construction of the transept vaults and
apse.
The temple (not yet a cathedral of course) is a synthesis of his architectural knowledge with the complex system of symbolism and a visual explication of the mysteries of faith.
There would be extraordinary façades representing the birth, death and resurrection of Christ with eighteen towers symbolizing the twelve Apostles, the four Evangelists, the Virgin Mary and the Christ
The work was interrupted in 1936 when the crypt and Gaudi's studio were burnt. The project was resumed in 1952 using existing drawings and models.
The building should be able to accommodate more than 13,000 people, and the platforms, on the sides, a chorus of 1,500 people.
The whole of the building is an allegory of the Christian religion. The 170 height meters arrow will incarnate Christ.
The uniqueness and complexity of the project make practically impossible to give a precise date of time necessary to build the remaining ten domes.
The temple is not financed by the government or a big industrial businessman. It is solely financed by donations and entrance tickets which partially explains the slow progress. After all Gaudi, spend all his savings (and most of his life) on the
project.
Gaudí intended the church to be the "last great sanctuary of Christendom". I believe that the most striking aspect are the spindle-shaped towers. In total there will be 18 tall towers, representing in ascending order of height the Twelve Apostles, the four Evangelists, the Virgin Mary and, tallest of all, Jesus Christ.
The central tower of Jesus Christ is to be surmounted by a giant cross; the tower's total height (170 m) will be one meter less than that of Montjuïc, as Gaudí believed that his work should not surpass that of God.
There will be three grand façades: the Nativity façade to the East, the Glory façade to the South (the one missing so far) and the Passion façade to the West. The Nativity facade was built by Gaudi and the Passion façade by Subirachs.
The plan is that of a Latin cross with five aisles. The central nave vaults reach 45 meters while the side nave vaults reach 30 meters. The transept has 3 aisles.
Gaudi intended that a visitor standing at the main entrance be able to see the vaults of the nave, crossing, and apse, thus the graduated increase in
vault loftiness.
We did a walk around the interior, which is after all a building site, gazed at the various interesting artifacts in the museum, queued for 45 minutes to get up on the towers (not recommended) and had a haste view of the external facade which was newly lighted by perpendicular sun rays. Impressive scale and very, very expensive.
Thoughts on Gaudi
So I pretty much spend the day going over the creations of Gaudi, who is regarded as a genius by architecture aficionados and by my young and naive self. However, now that I am older and wiser I have to say that I am grateful for the greatest appreciation I have towards modernism.
Gaudi was able to build his irregular creation because he found a few benefactoris. If it hasn’t for Guell no one would know about Gaudi. His masterpiece, the Sagrada familia, wasn’t finished simply because of the lack of resources, the lack of a benefactor.
Park Güell, was a financial failure since everyone at the time regarded his "art" as vulgar. What has changed? Why in the meantime we suddenly think his work is genius and his contemporaries
Sagrada Familia
Crucified Christ on Passion Facade thought that it was abysmal?
Were they missing something? Were they ignorant? They, the people of the industrial revolution, were they ignorant? Well the answer is simple, of course Gaudi’s contemporaries were not stupid. It's the art that was the problem, not the taste.
Proper architecture is there to serve the best function for a given building, to show that man is capable of conquering the randomness and fragility of nature. In the age following the enlightenment, there was not such a thing in Europe as a feudal king or an all powerful religious figure or even an all encompassing government in order to steal (via taxation) the wealth of the people for their own useless little projects.
You see, Gaudi's design are not the work of a genius, are not miraculous, magnificent, divine, perfect, eye opening etc etc. There is one and only word that should be used to describe his work. EXPENSIVE.
It probably cost's the same money to have one curved wall than it is to have four straight ones. It is probably cheaper to have a straight wall clad in gold than having one of the curved walls of Casa batlo with
the elaborate random wallpaper drawings. It was probably cheaper to build the palace in Versailles than the Sagrada Familia.
Give any architect, or a 6 year old child, a blank cheque and they will gladly produce something similar to Gaudi's creations i.e. works without foundations, logic, function, symmetry, coherence.
When I was standing in front of the buildings it was not the architect I thought about. I could only remind myself of his great benefactors. The capable men, be it Güell, Batlo or Milla who were clever enough to use their industrious minds to create unprecedented wealth, so much wealth that they gladly wasted a portion to an expensive "architect" like Gaudi in order to show off to the rest of society.
What people seem to forget is that turists visit Palace Güell, Park Güell, Casa Batlo and Casa Milla. Tourists in Barcelona do not visit, Palace Gaudi, Park Gaudi or Casa Gaudi. Without the businessmen we would be looking at empty spaces. It’s them who are the geniuses, not Gaudi.
It's the businessmen who managed to surface about mediocrity, laziness and ineptitude in order to create amazing wealth which they used to finance a waster
of wealth, a man who gave his life savings (and eventually his life) for a project which he knew he would never lay his eyes upon.
Is that the kind of man you want to idolize? Someone who sacrificed his life for nothing? Thank you very much, but I will stick with the businessman, I will stick with the able.
It is an extremely sad state of affairs when societies idolize the artist in expense of the rich man who made it all possible in the first place.
I ve got one more Gaudi site to visit, but that's for tomorrow.
Forum
To cap of the night we headed a bit outside the centre of Barcelona towards the vast multiplex called the forum of cultures. Teresa, the chef from yesterday, reccomended the place.
From what she was saying there is a festival that has to do with the Andalusians. Because there is a vast minority of andalusias in Catalonia, this festival is quite a big thing with massive organization and impressive attedance.
Since this is an Andalucian thing, of course we had to come. Andalusia is the area to the south
of Spain, with major cities being Granada, Cordoba and Seville.
Ruled by muslims for hundreds of years, Andalucia is the mother of every stereotypical image you have of Spain. Bullfighting? check, Flamenco? check, Guitar driven music? check, Sangria? check.
The area around the Forum was indeed vast, thousands of revellers, mostly families lined the streets. Basically the layout was the following. Large tents had a kitchen, staff and a large amount of pick nick style tables (think octoberfest), containing a stage where most of the times you had a small school of typical flamenco dancers, mostly young girls dancing in choreography around the DJ's selection. Some tents had live music as well. Food stalls, sweets shops and small souvernir stalls with all things andalucian were scattered throughout. A fair was also set near the entrance with a large illuminated ferry's wheel offering bird's eye views of the surroundings.
Having eaten almost nothing all day and constantly walking brought a toll on us. Karen's sunburnt was starting to emerge and cause her even more misery alongside her empty and angry stomach.
We simply went into the first tent we could find. We sat with two middle aged
ladies surrounded by tables full of families. Smoking was permitted but the atmosphere wasn't that stuffy.
The waiter didn't speak much english but we managed to order a pitcher of sangria, prawns for Karen and a large steak for me.
I had the best steak ever, I few years back, in Madrid so I had great expectations for this one. I was not dissapointed, this steak was not as good as the one in Madrid but probably was the second best steak I ever had (of course I still haven't tried a steak in France). The steak was perectly cooked at the outside but was nice and pink inside and was served with grilled peppers and french fries. Cold Sangria and a bucket of catalan bread (toast smeared with olive oil and garlic) binded a perfect meal after an exchausting day.
Karen unfortunately, didn't like her prawns too much. Apparently not cooked to death like she would like.
Following our meal, we walked around to the various food stalls, the smell of burning meat all over the place. We checked out a few of the acts on the other tents. No one look very professional, you
know movie-quality like. The dances all seemed like they were part of the neighborhood or village act or something equally amateur.
I guess that is what you call Local. We couldn't spot any tourists there. Therefore, we did what "travellers" do. Got in with the locals to see how they trully live.
I wasn't particularly enlighted by the whole situation and thus we made an exit after a while. Karen's sunburn was getting too much for her and she wanted to lie down. Tomorrow, all the eyes of the planet are on us.
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