1 more week

My immune system decided to take some time off this past week and I've been sick since.  Really some great timing.  Nonetheless, I packed a little packet of tissues in my purse and was on my way.  The rest of my floor was off to Paris for the weekend come Thursday so I made other plans.  Like the Joan Miró Foundation.

The museum holds the largest collection of Miró's works and furthermore serves as a space for other temporary installations.  This time around, it was an installation called "You Are Not Alone", a collection of art revolving around the issues of the AIDS stigma and as it always is with AIDS-inspired projects (as it should be), there was the awareness aspect of it too.

Talking on the phone, ignoring the art
You Are Not Alone 

The museum is located atop Montjuic mountain which has a pretty good view of the city below and covered by extensive greenery.

Courtyard

Little Asian baby girl we were waving at for about 5 minutes
She waved back

 Miró is hard to understand.  He's not really my type.  When I asked the kids to show me how Miró makes them feel, these were the faces I got:

Only Anita really appreciates the man
Matthew displeased, Andrew confused and scared

We walked through a beautiful park on the mountain that had stairs going all the way back down (it's not a very tall mountain). 

"There are so many ants!"

"Ok fine let's just do it"

Planking 2

Friends forever

I turned in early on Thursday and I'm having trouble recalling what I did all Friday but by evening, I had an appetite.  Melissa, who lives the floor below me and I hadn't really gotten to know until this past weekend, is a Dominican queen in the kitchen.  We made some amazing stewed beans and I made a stewed chicken, the rice came out all wet so we mixed it in with our stews and we got something great.  We also made tostones (fried plantains) and by 1 AM we were ready.  All I keep thinking now is how I'm going to cook this for my sister Christine.  I think she would love me for that.

After a full meal in the middle of the night, there wasn't much else I wanted to or was able to do so we passed out in anticipation for Saturday's adventure: Tarragona.  

Tarragona's an old Roman city.  It was the Roman capital of this part of the empire and it shows.  There are ruins of an old forum, a theatre, aqueducts, walls, etc.  It's rustic and quiet, and very Mediterranean.  It actually reminds me a lot of the Mediterranean coast of Israel and the aqueducts out there.  The Romans did spread quite far and wide.

Melissa overlooking the crystal clear waters

Ruins of an amphitheatre on the lower left hand corner 

Up close

Tarragona is just an hour south of Barcelona by train on what is called La Costa Dorada (the Golden Coast) while the coast north of Barcelona is known as La Costa Brava (the Rough Coast).  The sand is really golden and powdery soft.  If only I had more time...

Dinner was another good time back in Barcelona.  We were talking about schnitzel earlier in the day so I made some chicken schnitzel but Melissa also made these arepitas made with grated yucca so it tasted incredibly close to a potato latke.  We also had some rice and beans as per usual.

Again, it was dinner and then lights out.  Then off to Sitges at noon.  We bought a bag of about 20 mini croissants individually wrapped in plastic.  I made sandwiches out of almost all of them with turkey and cheese, some with ham and mustard and then we packed up some juice boxes and were ready to go.  Unfortunately, we got hungry early and ate most of the sandwiches on the train before we even got to Sitges which is less than a half hour train ride from Barcelona.

It was looking dangerous when we stepped onto the sand.  The red flags were up and lifeguards were walking up and down the beach and heading out on jetskis to keep people from going further than waist-deep in the water.  They were especially nervous about unattended children which made me even more nervous but I understood their anxiety.  It was giant wave after giant wave and ominous gray clouds passing above and threatening to demonstrate Poseidon's great wrath through the sudden materialization of a giant ocean cyclone (which thankfully didn't happen) before the sun came out again although the wind and the waves persisted.  Using my amazing little noggin, I decided to build a wall to protect us from the tide which was inching toward our toes.  And then we got a little creative...

Sand wall in the shape of penises

Paddle ball on the beach

Fearing for our lives when an extra long and ominous black cloud got low enough to graze my eyebrows (exaggeration), we packed up our things to go on a walk although once we were all packed, the cloud had passed and the sun was out again.  We would resettle on another beach later.  In the time being...

A very impressive sand sculpture

About to tumble off into the sea or onto some craggly cliff rocks

 We walked up to the seaside church which is emblematic of the Sitges shoreline as much as the modern hotels on Barcelona.  The church is worn from being splashed with salty seawater for all of its life and it's a little bit ghostly but beautiful and solid.  Even more beautiful is the view of the seemingly infinite Mediterranean from its high perch on the cliffs.

A tempestuous sea

A historical canon!

Sitges' beaches (it does rhyme)

A beautiful garden opposite the side of the church facing the sea

And that was me lazing on a Sunday afternoon with good friends in a whirlwind of sand.  When we resettled, the wind was too strong for the fine sand and it was being picked up by every gust of wind and being dropped right on top of us.  I could feel the grains of sand gritting between my teeth and even now, 24 hours later and even with the 30 minute shower I took last night last night, I'm scratching sand off my scalp.

It was a relaxing weekend although I didn't spend much of it in Barcelona.  I think I'm a little bit in denial.  I don't want to leave the city that's been my home for the past two months.  Of course it's not just the city.  I'm trying to put off the many farewells, the gift-shopping, the scramble to see the last few things and eat the last few morsels of delicious Spanish food before I leave for I don't know how long.  It'll just be long enough for me to forget certain little details but also long enough for the magic of the city to be revived when I return.  Till then...