16 a 18 de Julio - Laughter, Picasso, and Estrella

Sam and his Estrella

Our friends Sam and Misty and thier daughter, Maire, came to see us this last weekend, and looking at how this entry is titled, it is a bit underdeveloped. Estrella is the yellow beer of the Barcelona locals. It is best served cold, and it is best downed quickly. Knowing that, the title would be better illustrated if I could have written it as such: Estrella, Laughter, Estrella, Picasso, Laughter, Estrella, Repeat. I want to describe the weekend in one of the simplest sentence structures because it was perfectly simple in nature, as it nearly always is with great friends: We had fun!


Many of the things we did with our friends we had done before. But our eyes had changed. Some necessary touristy sights looked different the second time through, even richer than the first, the smaller details unmasked behind the façade.

We sandwiched Picasso. And it rocked.

Jamon Iberico is the special bocadillo of Barcelona. The meat, Jamon Iberico, is extremely simple but salty and soft, cured and sliced to sit between two pieces of French bread.

The Picasso Museum was our Jamon Iberico that sat between laughter and Estrella. The museum shows an intimate picture of Picasso’s time in Barcelona and his connection to the city through paint strokes. His most famous pieces are not here. They sit in the Louvre or the MOMA, but the work that lines the museum walls directly reveals Picasso’s triumphs, struggles, and growth as an artist in Barcelona. If you ever come to Barcelona and you need meat, the Picasso Museum has been delicately cur(ate)ed to give visitors a salty experience of Picasso they may not have tasted before.

The weekend: we had fun. Simple and true, and I love the simplicity of laughter between friends. It should always serve at the beginning and the end.