Dalí, Empúries, y Tossa de Mar

This morning I woke up after a night of studying for a quiz at 9am this morning. After finishing with class, our group loaded up on a bus and headed toward Tossa de Mar. 

After about an hour of driving, we stopped in the hometown of artist Salvador Dalí, Figueres. Dalí built his museum on the ruins of an old theater bombed during the Spanish Civil War. It houses many of his works, including some rather strange pieces of artwork that could only be Dalí. I was in heaven. Walking through the maze like building surrounded by his surrealist art was a dream. Also, I got to see the artist himself, considering his crypt is located within the museum. I loved it:)

After our stop at the museum, we got back on the bus and next stopped at the ancient town of Empúries, founded by the Greeks and later occupied by the Romans. We took a tour through the ruins from a very charming tour guide. I sadly only understood a fraction of what he was saying about the history of the structures because he spoke Spanish, but it was interesting nonetheless. At the city gates, our guide pointed out the figure of a huge pene (I'll let you translate that one on your own) carved into the wall. He said this was used as an intimidation factor to tell enemies that the city was well-endowed and prosperous. 

A statue of Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, found at the ruins

The tour was long and informative, but most of us couldn't absorb the information. Right next to the ruins was the most beautiful beach with powder fine sand and the bluest water. After some time there, we loaded back up onto the bus and headed to our final destination Tossa. Finally reaching our hotel was a welcome relief because even though it was only dinner time, we had had a busy event-packed day. But there was no time to rest. We had a huge dinner at the hotel and then explored our area. The streets here are a tourist paradise filled with shops upon shops of souvenirs and beach apparel. As the sun was setting we headed to the beach and spent the night relaxing under a blanket of stars next to the beautiful Mediterranean with a lighted castle along the shoreline illuminating the dark.