museums – YQtravelling

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

I finally managed to pass the Candy Crush level that I was stuck for about 2 months. This morning, I was stuck at another level and I left the hostel for school a bit later. In the process, I forgot to put on a jacket and was assaulted by the bitter winter wind.

The last day of class for the week was a bit more relaxed. Even though I do not feel “TGIF!”, it’s great to take a break so I can catch up on my revisions.

[Memo to self, memorize numbers, important verb conjugations and write a few lines of composition during the weekend.]

After school activity today was a visit to the Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires. I’ve not visited any museums in Buenos Aires, which is strange since I love museums.

In front of MALBA is a system with lights of three different colors. I thought that it was just some fancy art installation in front of the museums.

Macarena, you know her from previous school trips, explained that the lights show if there are too many cars on the road.

When we were going into the exhibition, there was a bit of confusion at the ticket counter. The museum insisted that all of us needed to have student IDs to pay student price even though there was a school letter. Out of spite, I did use my *wink* student ID *wink* and the price was 16 pesos (32 pesos for full price).

Interestingly, those with “Samsung Smartphones” can get two tickets for the price of one. It’s because Samsung’s one of the sponsors, or something. This was the one of the times I wish I own a Samsung instead of an Apple.

Art Moderno

Since the museum is about Latin American art, all the pieces were modern looking. This contrasted with the museums in Europe where many of the works were around the Renaissance period.

Even though the works were modern, some of them were dated from 1926 so we can’t really call them modern.

Macarena asked us to tell what we thought the paintings were about. I’m glad to report that I was able to talk about the paintings in more words than gestures.

Out of all the works, I was most impressed with Diego Rivera’s Retrato de Ramón Gómez de la Serna (Portrait of Ramón Gómez de la Serna). Even though Ramón Gómez is a good guy, I felt the potrait showed something like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Diego Rivera, Retrato de Ramón Gómez de la Serna (Portrait of Ramón Gómez de la Serna),

Diego’s partner Frida is also exhibited.

My most favorite piece was this cheerful work: Rafael Barrada’s Quiosco de Canaletas (Kiosk in Canaletas). There’s something about the blue that catches my attention.

I stayed on to look around at the museum while some of the others left. I was disappointed to find that only the first floor was exhibiting while the rest were closed.

Back to the hostel

Luckily, there was Wi-Fi at the museum and I found the route back to the hostel. I spotted a bus stop with buses going to Plaza Constitution. What I didn’t realize until I got down at Constitution was that I needed to go to Congressio, not Constitution.

When I arrived at the wrong destination, I had to walk back about 20 blocks to get back to the hostel. The sky was almost dark when I reached my elevator at about 6pm.

Dinner was a satisfying porridge of potato soup with spinach. The hostel mate who gave me rice yesterday gave me a whole bowl of leftover rice which I dumped into my soup.

I have a bad photo of my porridge so I’ll leave it to your imagination.

Until next time!

Who is your favorite Latin American painter?

Location: Athens, Greece

King Agamemnon's mask — King Agamemnon’s mask (not really his though)

Since I am staying 7 nights in Athens, I have 6-full days for sightseeing in the city. I had planned to slow down my pace and visit only one museum/ site a day.

Today’s plan was to see the National Archaeological Museum which is near by hotel and roam around the city in the afternoon.

When I went out a little before 8:30am, the sky was grey and cloudy and the temperature was cool. It felt like my kind of day.

Using directions by Google Maps, I took bus B12.

The signs for buses here in Athens is all Greek so I don’t think the government recommends tourists to take the bus.

Before the museum, there was a little cafe and the price of its bread was very reasonable. I had a pastry with cheese filling and a cappuccino.

While eating, a little tanned girl with messy hair came into the cafe to ask for money. It was rather awkward for me and I focused on my bread.

I didn’t want to encourage begging and thought that it was better than her going out and pickpocket. Actually, begging is not any better than stealing.

National Archaeological Museum’s goodies

The museum was large but not overly gigantic like the Vatican Museum.

My Rick Steve’s audio guide for the museum worked perfectly, telling me highlights of the museum and the history behind them.

In fact, I had been enjoying Rick Steve’s audio tours for all the places I’ve been. I highly recommend you to download them if you are heading to Europe. He has mobile apps as well as podcasts and they area all free.

While the museum had lots of great Greecian works (like the gold mask above), my favorite section was the little corridor with statues of Athena.

At the end of the corridor was a small statues of Athena, her helmet decorated with winged beings, her Peter Pan collar decorated with snakes (!) and her shield also decorated with a snake. This was a miniature copy of the gigantic Athena statues that stood in the Parthenon in the ancient time (a replica in Nashville shows the size of Athena).

After the museum, I was thinking of where next to go. The sky was still grey and cloudy so I thought it would be perfect to go to the Acropolis and enjoy a not sweaty climb.

Off I went to the metro, buying a frappe to drink along the way. This time, the frappe had a less sour endnote. I’m getting to like this more and more.

Acropolis

It was about 12 noon when I reached. Based on my experience at the Vatican Museum, this was the best time to visit any famous sites as the tour groups have headed for lunch.

I got my tickets at the Theater of Dionysus so there wasn’t a queue. Even with the ticket, I had to exchange for an electronic ticket at the main entrance so it kind of annoyed me.

Rick Steve’s Acropolis audio tour kept me company the whole way. This is way cheaper than hiring a tour guide and less taxing!

The path to the Parthenon wasn’t a smooth walkway and I was thankful that my sandals didn’t sprain my feet.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the sun decided to come ot and play when I bought the ticket. The sky was cloudy but the ray of the sun pierced through and made it a little too warm.

It got so hot that I had to hide in the shade, thinking if I should wait for sunset and leave at 8pm (it was 2pm then). I didn’t leave that late but I did hang around in the shade, writing postcards.

Postage in Greece is cheaper than in Italy. I had to pay 2 euro to mail a postcard from the Vatican City but here in Greece, it was only 78 cents each.

Oh, I also started eating a chocolate pastry I bought. I was told by someone working at the Acropolis that only water is allowed. Oops.

After my long wait, I finally finished my audio tour and descended from the holy hill.

My phone’s battery was dangerously low then so I decided to head back to the hotel. Before that, I stopped at Carrefour (!!!) for some dairy product to prevent my stomach from having severe gastric.

Carrefour in Athens near Larissis Station

I did plan to head out later but my lazy bones decided to stay in with my computer. Let’s hope tomorrow’s more productive!

Tag: museums

School trip to MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires) [YQrtw Day 68 Jun 14]