A date with Picasso

I arrived back this morning from a delightfully relaxing trip to Dusseldorf. It was my first time to this German destination and just like my visits to Hamburg and Munich I found Dusseldorf to be just as beautiful. I had done a little bit of research before leaving Dubai and was planning on seeing a Picasso exhibition that was showing in one of the major galleries. After some hesitation at setting off to my destination using public transport by myself (where all the names for stops and lines sound freakishly similar to my Australian ears - ie Handelszentrum, Kaiserslauterner, Lierenfeld Betriebshof) I was lead to the big gallery by a very friendly local girl who saw me nose deep in a map of the city while I was waiting at the train stop. As luck would have it she worked at the police station right next door to where I was going, so she kindly took me from the train to the underground and then a short walk to my date with Picasso.

The exhibition presented a collection of works which Picasso produced in the last decade of his life. I spent a blissful two hours getting lost in the frenzy of abstract shapes and bright colours in his canvases. It made me remember how much I enjoyed my days at university studying works like his.

Once I had finished catching up with Picasso I walked through the narrow back streets, going into some of the cute boutiques with funky nic-nacs where I bought some chocolate wrapped in the cutest paper - little red strawberries and cursive running writing in German (who knows what it says!), and some other little pieces for a friend of mine at home who needs some cheering up at the moment. While I was waiting on the street for my train to arrive I bought some yummy blueberries and bananas from a big open-air fruit stall, I have great designs for those blueberries - am thinking of making some brulee perhaps. I still had a few minutes to spare before my ride came along to take me back to reality so I bought a small mountain of pomme fritte, with a big dollop of creamy mayonnaise on top and a miniature sized fork. I sat outside the stall, in the warmth of the sunshine on one of their park-bench tables with several beautiful older ladies seated around me who were delicately consuming their hot chips, dressed so impeccably in their burberry-checkered trench coats and matching bags, with coiffured hair combed perfectly into place.