Yesterday, we went to go buy gifts for people. We headed towards the El Born neighborhood, where we were distracted by a brightly colored roof. When we went over to see what sort of building had a roof like that, we found the Mercat Santa Catalina, which has been there since 1848, the roof being a modern addition. Unlike Mercado San Miguel, which is mostly for tapas, Mercat Santa Catalina is mostly for non tourists to buy food. It's full of butchers, fishmongers, cheese sellers, and green grocers with the occasional bar or two (this is still Spain after all). We got some sherry vinegar, and wandered about the neighborhood until it was time for lunch. We met up with a consultant from Adam's job who lives here, and he took us out for a lovely menu del Dia. Afterwards, we planned to resume our shopping. Unfortunately, on Mondays in December, many places close up shop at 5PM, including the aforementioned marketplace. After consoling ourselves with a pint from a local brewpub called BlackLab (which was by far the best beer we had in Spain), we went to Las Ramblas to find some knockoff Barcelona jerseys. We did, and managed to haggle a good price, but alas, they were youth size large, and therefore only fit Alecia. We then went into the adjoining Mercat Boqueria, which is easily twice the size of Mercat Santa Catalina. As the main marketplace of the city, they have some rare things (the Spanish don't care for hot peppers, but if you need habañeros to cook with, they'll be here) and some expensive things (kobe beef, anyone?), but everything else they've got is more expensive than it would be elsewhere.
Showing up in low season may play hell with opening hours for mercats, but it does have its perks. One of these is that you can decide to go to the Museu-Theatre Dali in Figueres the day before you go, not buy tickets in advance, and still get in. Figueres is about 2 hours away by medium distance train (the high speed will get you there in about 40 minutes, but only runs in summer, and will not be a cheap trip). Once there, the ticket line for day of tickets was 50 minutes at 2PM in low season. Double or triple the tourist numbers, and you'll be waiting in line for longer than you'll spend in the museum. The museum's collection of his original oil paintings has a lot of his early work, which was done while he was figuring things out, and his later work, when he was sort of copying his earlier self, but does have a few gems, including his famed portrait of his wife that turns into Abe Lincoln, and Leda Atomica. However, the main draws are the museum itself, which was designed by Dali, and features a route through the galleries that is deliberately confusing (the man was drugs after all), and the jewelry he made. Dali designed a bunch of pieces of jewelry from the late 40s to the mid 60s which are as fantastically bizarre as his paintings themselves. He made flowers, rings that loon like corsets, literal ruby lips with pearly teeth, a heart pendant that beats, and a Byzantine icon with a face viewed through a giant gem. Tampa may have a better collection of oil paintings, but they don't have anything like that, and their museum was designed to make sense on the inside. The only downside is that round trip train fare and an admission will run you €40 (36 if you only use local trains, more if you take an AVE), but if you enjoy Dali, it will be worth the trip.
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