Chocolate and Culture – Barcelona’s sweet side ;)

As I mentioned before, I was expecting to get many visitors here during my ‘exile’ in Spain. And indeed they came, or at least some of them. My mother visited me some weeks ago. Although I had to work most of the time when she was here  we tried to get the most out of our time together. I am not really into the touristy things but for my mum’s sake I tagged along and now feel as if I have fulfilled my quota of cultural activities for this year.

The first place we went to was the Parc Guell, which is quite close to the flat I live in. Being very famous it was absolutely packed on the particular day we choose to go, but I have to admit it was impressive. How impressive? Well my mum decided to finally find out how the camera on her mobile phone works (my mum has a better phone than me!) just so that she could take a few pictures including a fantastic view of the city. This is quite something, as my mum usually regards mobile phones and such as unnecessary technical gimmicks!

Apart from that we went up and down the Ramblas several times, went to the beach and visited two museums. As my mum was interested, we went to the Picasso Museum. This is, according to the tourist information, the most visited of Barcelona’s museums and I do believe it. Of course our timing wasn’t the best; we went there on the first Sunday of a month when apparently several museums are free to enter, as did everyone else!

Maybe less cultural but far more relaxing and at least for me more interesting was the Chocolate Museum. Located near the Picasso museum and fairly quiet in comparison, it offers both a history of chocolate production and consumption as well as impressive statues made completely of chocolate. You can see the famous chariot race from Ben Hur for example. Also there is a very obvious smell of chocolate everywhere. I came out craving my chocolate fix.

Meanwhile my mum has returned home and I am back to everyday routine in Barcelona. But don’t worry I will soon be back with new stories about my life here.

Katherine