For those just tuning in, I arrived home last Friday from my big solo trip to Barcelona and Lisbon, my 50th birthday gift to myself. It was spectacular, magical, incredible. I am so glad that I planned it, and so grateful to my kids’ father for holding down the fort with kiddos for 11 days so I could do it. It’s making 50 feel like a time of possibility and potential, instead of decay. I highly recommend solo travel, especially if you’re a mom, a newly single one like me. The first installment of my travel journal is here. This is the second. I’m making this one free so everyone can see it, which is how I would prefer to do it all the time, if I could afford it.
Love to you, dear reader,
Mariya
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Day 2. Sagrada Familia designed by Antoni Gaudi a stunner. Big “wow” factor, and our tour guide was a total pro. Learned lots about the story of the building, its vicissitudes and the current simultaneous efforts to restore and build upon it. It is going to have 18 towers when finished! So amazing — although I wonder if 2028 (five years from now) is a realistic deadline for finishing. The colors, the majesty and at the same time, the playfulness of the adornments on it, the real innovations in column architecture & geometry — all these amazed me, but what I loved most was seeing the people out in the streets and inside the great cathedral enjoying it and celebrating being together. The place makes people smile, which I don’t know that I’ve ever seen in a building, let alone a Catholic church. Is the entire thing really paid for by admission tickets? IDK.
Came home slowly by way of the empanada shop. That place is dangerous. I got a plantain and chocolate one that was so yummy! Ate it with a ripe persimmon that I bought at the market this am.
Tomorrow, museums.
Friday/Day 3. I woke up really late. 9:45am. Spent an hour getting breakfasted and ready and out the door to the museums. I wanted to see both the Museu Nacional de Arte Catalunya and the Fundacion Miro, but because I was so late (arrived about 11:45am), climbed about one thousand steps to get up to the entrance, and then went through the whole place including an intense exhibition on the Civil War, I ended up just lounging in the main atrium for a while before moseying on out of there.
The Civil War exhibit was of art and propaganda from during the war. The images were arresting, anguished and harrowing. Bombings, corpses. People running, babies in their arms. The horrors of war perpetrated by fascists.
Given the intensity and speed of the atrocities depicted in these images, I’m fully shocked that the war lasted as long as it did — 3 years. The trauma to an entire popularion, as well as a full understanding of the meaning of fascism and what it would do to the country, are both evident in the artwork. If the Spaniards’ military organization and weaponry had been as good as their wartime propaganda against the fascists, theyd have won. That’s a hard thing. I’ll learn much more tomorrow on my walking tour about the war.
The other artowrks in the museum were less intense, less urgent and still a delight. Organized generally by decades, all of the work presented was by Catalonians. But they were all placed in the context of Western art movements, so it was all somewhat recognizable and very accessible. Clearly a love for the region is the unifying principle of the museum — and it is well founded.
Things People Do In Public Here:
—breastfeed babies
—smoke cigarettes
—make out fully
—hold hands regardless of same-sex
—hug and kiss — even male friends
Nervous about making it out to my 7am thing tomorrow. And then making it to my walking tour. I’ll need breakfast, somehow.
Thanks for sharing these gorgeous photos of such a beautiful place! 🥰