Category Archives: Museums

Dilly-Dali-ing around

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Our reason for travelling was to get to Figuera, the home of the Dali Museum (and a few other attractions). BOth of us felt lousy – I could have slept another few hours at least and my nasal passages were as rough as if I’d been snorting iron filings. Damn head cold!

We managed to catch the 9:30 train by the skin of our teeth and endured a stifling 2-hour journey in the non-ac’d carriage. All the main sights in Figuera are well-signposted from the station and the Dali Museum is around 15 minutes’ walk away. The route takes you through some lovely streets and past an outdoor fruit and veg market.

It’s instantly recogniseable from any approach with bizarre sculptures surrounding it. One wing is crowned with a multitude of golden eggs and encrusted with gold jobbies. At least that’s what they look like. Entrance is €10 and includes entry to a separate jewellery exhibition that we didn´t have time to visit.

The main museum is on three floors, circling a courtyard. Pride of this place in this yard is a car being “ridden” by a large woman in chains. Above her, a boat levitates with water seeming to drip from its exposed hull. A multitude of squashed bathroom sinks ring the top of the interior wall.

Completely hatstand. Wibble, wibble, indeed.

We spent over two hours walking around looking at this lunacy. We had cold-induced headaches when we arrived and surrealism-induced ones by the time we left.

I managed to locate what seemed to be the only shop in Feguera selling junk food. Through a combination of miming, pointing, guessing and blind luck I got the world’s largest chicken kebab burger and enough chips to chose a horse that really likes chips. After I clogged my arteries with this lovely fare, we legged it to the station to catch the 16:30 back to Barcelona.

Sharon had a snooze while I caught up on email then we popped to a nearby bar to watch England U-21s throw away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with Italy. Some things don’t change no matter what country you´re in. The bar was full at one point with an 11-strong Everton-supporting stag party. I’m glad I wasn’t sharing a bathroom with any of them that evening after seeing some of the cocktails they were downing: Baileys, Malibu, Bacardi, vodka and whisky anyone? Thought not.

Another early night as we were both ready to drop. I walked Sharon back to her place then hobbled to mine where I cuddled up with two paracetamol and some eucalyptus oil on my pillow.

Holocaust denial is for fools

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Today’s little trip was by no means a joyful one, but was certainly hugely educational and emotional. Noa took me to the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum, which contains more information than just about any person can comprehend about the culling of the Jews (and other religions, races and whatnot) that the Nazis decided the world would be better off without.

It really is a harrowing place, though for obvious reasons given its geographical location concentrates most heavily on the Jewish aspect. I learned a lot when I was there as the story doesn’t stop when the war ends. Unknown to me, courtesy of my lousy history education, Britain pretty much ruled the roost of Israel around 1945 and refused to allow Jews who’d fled Germany into the country. Most other countries also closed their doors to them when they tried to escape from Germany prior to the war beginning. Too many people turned their heads and looked away. Shameful.

The imagery using is pretty brutal and doesn’t pull any punches. Like the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, this place rightfully believes that you can’t appreciate the horror without seeing it at its worst. Photographs are on display of people being hanged, shot and buried. Details are available of the “living” conditions in the concentration camps and the sheer numbers of people killed, tortured, experimented on. Poems by 14 year olds are on walls… followed by the date those same children were slaughtered.

The site doesn’t just contain the museum, but also a reference library detailing every single Jew killed during and around the war. People are invited to submit information on friends or relatives not yet included. There is a memorial hall, a garden of remembrance, trees planted and dedicated to non-Jews who helped save lives and a separate monument to the children killed – in excess of one million.

This is the one that really got to me. Inside this small structure is a darkened room with mirrored walls and a handful of lights which are reflected myriad times. Each light representing a child’s life. A light extinguished like a worthless candle by the Nazi war machine. As you stand in the near darkness, a voice reads out a different name and age every few seconds. It only takes a minute for the whole weight of the numbers to settle on your shoulders and make you realise how awful a place the world can be.

I congratulate the people who have set this site up for keeping attention focussed on one of the worst massacres in human history, and for not missing out a single detail. For not shying away from pointing a finger of blame at any country which refused to lift a finger, or delayed in doing so. And for presenting it so well. It’s truly a beautifully designed “attraction” and worth a visit… no, demands a visit from any visitor to Jerusalem.

Besides the historical perspective, anyone interested in architecture will be fascinated by the fairly recently opened prism-like building which houses the majority of the exhibits.

Leaving the museum at closing time, Noa drove me to her house where I met her brothers and mother (at last!). We decided that Jewish mothers are pretty much like Scottish grandmothers in that they will not allow you to leave their house without eating at least a certain amount of food. After forcing me to eat far too much fresh fruit (I protested so much), Noa took clippers to my head and readied my hair for Download. I’m sure she nicked my scalp on purpose.

And then back to the hostel for my last night on the roof. I was really going to miss this place. And the free wireless.

ACTually, I think I’ve been here before as well…

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An early morning after a good night out with the mad French and Belgian brigade. We also met up – very briefly – with Leon the Welshman who has appeared at the same hostel. I’ll see him again on Sunday with any luck.

The fully-laden walk down to the bus depot took less than fifteen minutes and I arrived in good time to get my bargain ($15) coach to Canberra. As seems traditional now, I slept for the duration of the trip and woke as we pulled into the station.

I realised on the way there that another cap had bitten the dust, though this time hopefully only temporarily. It seems I left it in Delphine and Sophie’s room, and Delphine’s promised to keep care of it until we cross paths again. I bought another one from a closing-down souvenir store as I got off the coach. A whole $2.50. Whoop.

In fairness, the cap I left in Sydney had really seen better – and much less smelly – days. Still, it’s served me well for almost six months so it’d be a shame to lose it!

Back in Canberra, I met Kat for a chat over lunchtime before strolling down to Parliament House. This is well worth the visit and if you come to Canberra, then make sure you don’t miss it.

There are free 45-minute tours starting every thirty minutes. The guide I had was great fun, knew her stuff and chucked plenty of trivia our way. The building itself is fascinating, even though it’s less than 20 years old. Essentially, the hill on which it was built was levelled, the building placed there, and the hill built back up on top of it. Weird.

Most of the parts of the building symbolise something. The water feature outside (currently waterless due to water restrictions) symbolises Australia in the middle of the sea. The pillars in the entry hall symbolise the European forebears – all the marble used in the hall is from various places in Europe. The red mosaic outside symbolises the Aboriginal beginnings of the area.

Heck, even the name of Australia’s capital – Canberra – is an Aboriginal word meaning “meeting place”. Much better than some of the other suggestions from which it was picked: “Kangaroo”, “Shakespeare” and “Federalium” (or something similar).

The building is made up of five different areas. The major ones are the central building, the senate wing and the representative wing. As a very rough equivalent, these are like the House of Lords and House of Commons in Westminster.

The House of Representatives is all done out in shades of green – Eucalyptus leaves being the inspiration. Many of the acts of ceremony here are similar to the uK parliament, such as the mace being carried in before the Speaker (it’s modelled on the UK one) and government and opposition being sat opposite one another.

Before voting begins on major decisions, MPs are given a “4-minute warning” to get from their offices into the House. In the old Parliament building, this was two minutes. To come up with the 4-minute limit, the oldest MP was placed in the furthest office and timed in his walk from there to his place in the House. He took three minutes, so the time allowed was set at slightly more than this.

A huge tapestry in the Great Hall is the second largest in the world. It’s based on a painting and the only recogniseable items in it are trees and a white cockatiel. And Halley’s Comet. This wasn’t in the original painting, but it was visible in the sky when the tapestry was being worked on so, with the permission of the artist, was included in the final work.

In the House of Senates, the colour scheme is red – this symbolises the Eucalyptus flower and also the Red Centre of the country. It also has the only red “emergency exit” signs in Australia. Even the ones in the viewing gallery above it are green. A special piece of legislation had to be issues to allow the ones on the Senate floor to be red!

Yeah, I got overloaded on trivia today. Loved it! The Parliament House needs more time than I had – it closes at 5pm so I didn’t have time to have a “free” wander around so I may head back tomorrow if I can fit it in around the museum.

I walked back into the CBD (quite quickly) to meet Kat for dinner and chats. A good evening ran on into the night! Yet another overly-friendly Aussie!

Seen it before…

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I managed to get an early start without any help from my roomies. By which I mean there wasn’t one snorer or shouter amongst them for the first time in ages. I got a restful night and rose around 8am to start ploughing through the road atlas I got from Dymocks.

Argh. Now I really am starting to realise what a neckache this is going to be! The number of motorway-class roads I can’t walk down and so on is bewildering. I think I’ll have to do a rough plan and then measure how far I’ve gone day to day and add/remove miles ad-hoc to keep the total near 1000.

After lunch (beans on toast with free bread from the “left behind” food area at the hostel), we walked up to the Australian Museum where I’d arranged to meet Michaela – you may remember her from the Alice Springs trip all those months ago. The museum’s $10 to get in but offers a $2 discount to YHA members… though doesn’t mention this anywhere. I forgot to ask and paid the full whack. Ah well.

As with most of the Aussie museums I’ve been in, it’s very modern and well laid out with plenty to see. It also has a “discovery centre” with loads of hands-on exhibits to tinker with. Great stuff for kids and Belgians… We had to tear Sophie and Jerome away from one of the microscopes!

We – well, I – kind of lost Michaela somewhere around the Wildlife Photography exhibit. Sorry! If you read this, Michi, I hope you have a safe trip home next week!

Back at the hostel we split up. Delphine and I went to KFC. Me to eat far too much food, her to watch me and pinch the occasional chip so I didn’t feel too bad about myself. Then we walked down to the Opera House so we could get some snaps of it and the bridge in the darkness. The city skyline’s pretty neat once the sun goes down and all the office lights are bright.

On our return, Sophie and Jerome had been cooking so out of politeness (and greed) I wolfed down a couple of helpings of pasta as well. Nice stuff.

Then on to packing. I have a bus to catch at 9am tomorrow back to Canberra. Hopefully I’ll get around to seeing the Parliament House and Museum by Thursday!

Dymocks rock!

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French-speaking ahoy. Today’s been a very good one. I had to swap rooms this morning, theoretically into the 10-bed I’d originally booked into as it was cheaper. Only I’m in a 6-bed instead, which is strange. It’s more cramped than the 8-bed I just left, but who cares? It’s clean and comfy.

Breakfast was a $6 eat-all-you-can continental affair downstairs, so I wolfed through some Coco-Pops and raisin toast smothered in jam while talking to a girl from England on a gap year before she start on a Events Management degree. Smart cookie – she’s timed things so that her placement year will be 2010 so someone with her skills will be ripe for the picking for the Olympics!

Next up was a quick walk down to Dymocks, the bookstore. I’d spoken to a nice lady on reception last week about scrounging a free European road atlas for the 1000 Mile Walk, and as I was staying less than five minute’s trudge from their head offices, thought I may as well make an appearance.

I was greeted by a nice lady called Janet O’Hanlon who’s PA for one of the big cheeses in Marketing (if I picked things up right). They’d basically decided “hey, why not? He’s not asking for much and it’s a good cause”.

It took a bit of a trawl, but another the nearby branches had the exact tome I was after and it was handed to me gratis for which I am hugely grateful. Anyone in Australia – buy all your books from Dymocks because the rule!

Back at the hostel I popped online briefly and tried to book cheap advance tickets for the Opera House walking tour tomorrow. Unfortunately, their web page was chuffed so I might be skipping the tour again. I’m not paying $26 to walk round a theatre!

Then I caught up with Delphine and Sophie. Sophie’s parents and another random Belgian (Jerome – hi!) are visiting, and I spent the afternoon with them. We bought an all-day monorail pass and circled the small area it covers twice before getting off at Darling Harbour to walk around the Maritime Museum. All very pleasant – it’s a decent way to spend an hour or two.

Somehow, Sophie located a box of treasure in one of the exhibits which contained a note to inform the staff at reception. This netted the whole group of us free tickets (worth $18 a pop) to walk around the submarine and ship they have moored up outside. Bonus!

On the way back, the heavens opened again and we got drenched. All in good fun, though. I wonder if Australia would refund the cost of my visit because it rained?

Sophie’s parents located a nice pub restaurant near their hotel and we went there for dinner. Mixed grill, $12.95. Bargain. And it was nice!

We finished with a couple of beers and wandered “home” in the comparitive warmth and delightful lack of rain.