Today I spent up on Montjuic (Mountain of the Jews). Since I had purchased a two day Bus Turistic ticket today was my last day to make use of it and I figured it was a nice easy way to get up to the mountain. I began with teh Caxia Forum whish hosts exhibitions and cultural activities. The one I liked was the exhibit of Alphonse Mucha who is a Czech Art Noveau painter. He did these paintings of women in a very fanciful playbill style. But then he also did designs for Plays especially featuring Sarah Berndhart and some chocolate wrappers. The guy was a really good designer with this flowy, artsy style involving women and flowers. It seemed to me like a cross between fantasy and the stage. They had another smaller exhibit of this modern artist, Fermin Jiminez Landa. All I remember of that guy was that he powered these neon signs with lemons and his main art medium was epoxy. They had pictures of him using epoxy to gule a moped to the street, tables down on the floor and just pain epoxy between the cracks of concrete tile. I still don't get what exactly makes "modern art". Give me the impressionist anyday!

The next stop was to Poble Espanyole aka "The Spanish Village". This was create for the Interational Exhibition in 1929 and basically shows the various architectural styles found in Spain. You walk through different neighborhoods which has the facade of houses found in that region. There are also shops which has artist working on their craft from lace makers, glass blowers, leather smiths and such. Of course you can buy things too but make sure you have Visa or Master Card, since that is the only two types of credit card they take! It was pretty cool just walking around the village and they had benches you can sit in to just take in the view or the atmosphere. Lunch was just a cafe con leche and chocolate covered waffles, nothing exciting just comforting and sweet.

Near the top of Monjuic is this white building designed by Josep Lluis Sert and it houses the Fundacio Joan Miro. A museum exhibiting Joan Miro's work and his friends who dontated or lent their artwork to the museum after Miro's death. Joan Miro is an artist born in Barcelona and his work can be found everywhere here in Barcelona. Usually when you see Miro's work you will see lines and shapes, they say that when he starts his painting it begins with a black line followed by paint. But he doesn't just paint, he scuplts and does ceramics too. So there are various scupltures in the musuem that he created and some textile art like bulap with yarn and paint. The nice thing about Miro's work is that you can interpret it how you like. You just read the title and try to figure out how it can be seen in the art. He doesn't stick to one typ of art either. Miro's work "evolved" as he aged and when splatter became art he used that in his paintings.

I took the cable car to the castle up on Montjuic. This has an awesome view of the city and county around it along with the Mediterranean and ports. It has been in the 40's here in Barcelona so you need to wear a nice thick winter coat. The wind was blowing so I didn't stay too long up at the castle. Also it didn't help that I was surrounded by all these lovey dovey couples. They were everywhere, hugging, cuddling and kissing! Makes me stick out like a stick in the mud and I was beginning to feel blue. If I could've painted my mood by this time it would be squares of different shades of blue, from freezing cold blue to melancholy blue to sky blue. So to cheer myself up I decided to take the bus to the Chocolate musuem.

When I got to the museum it was closed! Talk about being bummed out! So I ended up wandering around the Gothic quarter. The thing about the Barri Gotic is you can't help getting lost. So many small alleyways and pedestrian only side streets with shops that one can feel like they are lost but you somehow end up on Las Ramblas or Plaza Catalunya. You know you're near Las Ramblas because all of a sudden the streets become croweded with people walking by too close for comfort. I didn't intentionally mean to find every sight in Barcelona that was featured in "The Cheetah Girls 2" but I did. Maybe because I watched the movie so many times (and even brought it with me here!) that I can recognize the places were the scenes in the movie takes place. The last music scene in the non-extended version of that movie takes place in Plaza del Rei. It was there that I followed the sound of violins playing and when I looked around it seemed so familar. The only place I haven't found was the house used and the scene where they sing that has a cliff view of the ocean from a park with some trees. Oh well!

By this time I was sick and tired of the crowds, spotting the couples holding hands or group of friends chatting around that I decided to make it an early night and head back to my hotel. My stomach started growling on the walk home and I knew it was time to stop when I tripped and nearly fell. The verse in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 came to my mind then too! So I found the next food stop whichwas a Pans & company and stopped to grab something to eat and use the bathroom. Pans & Company is like a Panera but the Spanish version. They have good sandwhiches for less than 5 Euros and clean bathrooms.

One of the interesting things I've found while traveling is the bathroom situation. You never know what kind of a faciiliy you will find! In Italy the toilets didin't have a toilet seat just the bowl, in Cambodia you had the squatty potty, Bangkok you had really small stalls, in Hong Kong they didn't have public restroom facilties (none that I could find anyways and certainly not in the metro area!) and in Paris you had to pay to use the public bathrooms in the park (like in Italy!). So now I scout out the bathroom situation when possible though it is a safe bet that the museum bathroom will be clean and sanitary. Here I found you had the pay to use the bathroom at FNAC (the European version of Best Buy) but the one's in the department store 'El Corte Ingles' you don't. And NO I did not take a picture of the bathroom here since it isn't any different than the ones back home.

I plan to spend the rest of my evening catching up on my food input, writing some postcards, watching the FC Barcelona vs Valencia game on TV (apparently they're big rival soccer teams) and reading my 'Moments for Singles' book.