Day 6: Fundacio Joan Miro & Arrival in Sitges

Joan Miro Fundacio

[Kirsten]
We decided we’d squeeze one last activity out of our stay in the city before heading to the beach in Sitges. It seemed simple enough to us – we’ll wake up relatively early (just so you all know, we are living on Barcelona time now, which means our days really get going around 10am and wind down around 2am – quite a change from our normal 6am – 10pm, eh?), grab some café and head over. Well. Nothing ever quite works out how you imagine it when you’re traveling. We forgot (whoops!) that we had to pack, and check out, and think about what we were going to do for lunch after the museum, and think about the train schedules for travel to Sitges, etc., etc. THEN we realized we would have to walk a good chunk of the way to the museum up a gigantic hill.

On the way up to Joan Miro's Fundacio - a view from the Catalan Museum of Art

So, when we finally arrived at the museum, it was well into the early afternoon hours. I couldn’t help but think about all the beach time I was missing.

[Brian] Yes, she wanted to get to the Joan Miro museum as quickly as possible – I knew I couldn’t convince her to walk a couple metro stops. However, once at the museum, both of us savored and meditated on the art inside and the rush went out of style for around 2.5 hours.

So, Joan Miró (1893-1983)...

This man was not only a painter and sculptor but a ceramist. He is, perhaps, the biggest rebel artist of his time. He tried his best to “assassinate” what he considered conventional methods in established painting, which supported pleasurable visual elements and balance as well as the established form of cubism (mastered by Picasso in the latter part of his career). He considered the stiff, structured, defined artistic methods to perpetuate and promote the propaganda and cultural identity of the wealthy. So, Miró was actually laying the hammer down on Picasso’s art form, as well. So I guess Cubism was cool when Picasso discovered it but once it was established (about the time when Miro came around) it became lame (to Miro, at least).

Views from the roof of Joan Miro Museum were easing. The museum sits close to the Olympic stadium in Montjuic. Brian is thinking,"Both Miro and Picasso lived to over 90 years (Picasso: 92 and Miro:100). Is there a medical study on this? Maybe I should drop the bike and pick up paint brushes"

[Kirsten]

Once inside, though, all thoughts of that order vanished. The museum was incredible. Although she looks bored here, Kirst is actually having a great time.
We are a little tired, though, and beach time is needed

Unbeknownst to me at the time of my entry into that building, I am actually a fan of abstract art. I’m not sure if you are all familiar with Joan Miro’s work, but I’m sure you’d recognize it immediately if you saw it – lots of bright, primary colors and thick lines used to draw shape. Thank goodness we had an audio guide, because otherwise his pictures might not have made sense. However, with the guide, we were able to make some sense of what we were looking at and it became….quite fun. In the words of Rick Steves…. ‘Miro believed that everything in the cosmos is linked – colors, sky, stars, love, time, music, dogs, men, women, dirt, and the void. He mixed childlike symbols of these things creatively, as a poet uses words. It’s as liberating for the visual artist to be abstract as it is for the poet….Miro would listen to music and paint. It’s interactive, free interpretation. He said, ‘for me, simplicity is freedom’. What a cool guy. He painted lots of pictures of women and stars especially, often on the same canvas – they always looked different, but the themes and messages were always similar.

[Brian]
I won’t lie. Most of this work went over my head. Thank God for the 4 euro audio cliff notes guide. I was so dependent on the explanations that I wouldn’t study a work without them; I knew this isn’t what a true connoisseur of fine art would do but that’s why I am not one. One of Miro’s works consisted of three huge canvases (so big they needed their own room), each with a free-handed, non-connecting, single line running across them... and nothing else. This is art? No, I think this is what happens when an artist is so respected that he can get away with anything he claims he spent years trying to conceive; anything is often accepted and accommodated for such people. Much of his stuff, however, is quite decent but for a few of his works, even he must have been quietly laughing after selling them.

[Kirsten]
We weren’t able to take pictures inside the museum, but there was a rooftop exhibition of some of his sculptures and we snapped some photos there. As I mentioned before, the building WAS located on the top of a hill, so we had great views of Barcelona behind us.

Okay, after the museum we hustled back down the hill (I was starving, and we really did hustle), headed back to our hotel via subway, made a quick stop at the grocery store for bocadillo ingredients, grabbed our suitcases, bought tickets for the next train to Sitges, and ran down the ramp and just barely made the train. We were proud of ourselves but somewhat exhausted and as I mentioned before, starving.

So, from the grocery store we had bought bread (a long baguette) and cheese. There were basically three problems: the bread was, obviously, in one long, continuous piece and it was extremely crumbly; third, we were on a crowded European train, which means you always sit facing the people seated directly behind or in front of you (it makes for a lot of awkward knee and foot touching). There was a kind old man across from Brian and a mom across from me (her daughter sat next to me). In order not to cause crumbs to fly every which way like sparks from a from a crackling fire, Brian devised a plan: cut the bread over – and semi-inside – his backpack. What a genius – no crumbs flew anywhere, except directly into his backpack. He created our cheese bocadillos and we ate them like there was no tomorrow. We felt better right then and there.

Sitges

[Kirsten]
We felt even better when we began to see the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. Man, it’s like a jewel – layers of blue and green upon other layers of blue and green. We hopped a bus which drove us almost to the door of our hotel.
After we checked in and had our first glimpse of our hotel room (during which our jaws literally dropped, this place is soooo nice!) we took a few minutes to get to know the space. The room is beautiful, and we are completely self-sufficient in here – we have a kitchenette, a washing machine (!), a really, really big balcony, and the most comfortable bed perhaps in all of Spain. We absolutely LOVE it here and are enjoying every second!

the view from our balcony in Sitges

[Brian]
The Hotel Sunway Playa Golf was about US$105 per night and it was worth it. It is not only new but it’s well designed and well managed. Our apartment had a laundry washing machine, and a drying rack, which we could place on our balcony. They also provided us with dishes, knives, cutting boards, etc. and the means to clean them. This allowed us to cook our own food, cut a variety of fresh fruit, which saved us a lot of money on eating out, since restaurants in this area are pricey.

Dinner in at our place (complete with ice cold Estrella Spanish beer)

We also got bikes (and locks) with our room which made up for the 1 mile distance the hotel was from the town’s center.

Kirsten mastering clothes washing... Euro-style

Heavy chill-time

first stroll through the town's center

Sitges is probably one of the most gay friendly towns I have ever been. Walking through the town's center, shown above, there were more same-sex couples than hetersexual ones.

International Study Program Last Minute Cancellation

I got bad news from the program director of the international education program I was supposed to start working for this summer. Due to some last minute key staff pull out, the program was canceled. This means that I’ll be heading home much earlier than I thought. Kirsten and I were having such a great time in Sitges, we decided to stay here for another night, for a total of 3 nights. Although I am bummed about not being able to work here and continue my learning process of running international education programs, I am glad to return back to NYC, spend time with Kirsten and work on my proposal.