MACBA - Museu d'Art Contemporani

It has been a very, very long time since I had a restful vacation of one week or more (three years plus).

On this trip to Barcelona, I made a promise to myself that I would not wake up with an alarm and I would get up when I was good and ready.  This past night, I think I slept Barcelona time PLUS Toronto time (two out of three nights I have done this!).  There was nothing to wake me up on my little street!

But when I did get up, I was raring to go for a Monday in Barcelona.  It was a pretty low key day.  I found the local lavanderia, dropped off my dirty clothes (to be washed and dried for 23 euros?!  Will they mint them?), then went to MACBA - Museu d'Art Contemporani, just a stone's throw from my hotel.

The best exhibit was the black and white photography from Centre Internacional de Fotografia Barcelona (1978 - 1983).  Absolutely amazing!  I love black and white photography very much.  These photographs, taken by a variety of photographers in Barcelona after the death of Franco, and as Spain moved from dictatorship to democracy, were truly stunning.

MACBA kind of reminded me of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto -- the glassed facade, where you can see all of the people moving up and down the ramps.  Very cool!

I then shopped at El Corte Ingles, bought a lovely woolly turtleneck (to warm me up), pyjamas (to warm me up), an alarm clock (to wake me up on Sunday to get to the airport ... my hotel room is very spare ... but that's okay), and new hiking shoe laces (one broke after more than ten years).

I have been spending this evening catching up on emails and my blog at Travel Bar - The Travelers' Meeting Point - with free wireless internet and very great tapas.  I am eating a piece of chorizo and a piece of cheese as I write this.

There is a great quote from Lao Tzu on the chalkboard at Travel Bar -- "A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving."

That really sums up my trip so far!  (And that's my travel philosophy in general.)  I quietly think during the morning about what I would like to see and do that day.  I am only at the mercy of museums that close early on Sundays or are not open on Mondays.

But tomorrow is Tuesday!  (If tomorrow is Tuesday, it must be Barcelona!) So, for the next five days, the museums are wide open.  On Sunday, I fly to Amsterdam and I will see my cousin, Allison, who lives close to the airport.  If my flight arrives on time, she'll sneak me into Amsterdam for 90 minutes or so!

Ah, Barcelona!  Ah, Spain!  Ah, Europe!