Nov 12

Today I looked up my bank account and realized I’m a little over budget for what I intended to do. I was a bit put off by that, plus I was late for my return trip home with Jen and parents. Needless to say, I was pretty put off for most of the day. We went to a series of art exhibits in various cathedrals though town (sorry.. I don’t have any pictures from it!) I never quite understood the Roman Catholic deal with Saints and the numerous art works around them. The price and pride put into such works is awe inspiring though! We took a different route to get Home, this time though the mountains, it was a magnificent Vista going up from the Mediterranean. Then back to Valencia for a couple of nights, and onto Madrid on Tuesday!

November 13 2006 Randomness of Spain.
In previous blog entries I don’t think I fully captured how completely random Spain is sometimes. Spain sometimes really surprises me on its spontaneous artistic creations and almost a playful romance that I haven’t found quite anywhere else.

Construction Workers

For example, the first day I was in Valencia, there were a bunch of construction workers outside. They’re working on a square close to my hostel (that even today I’m writing on top of). On the first day, there was a man in a small hole on the sidewalk, he was singing at the top of his lungs throwing rocks at a steamroller. As I explored Valencia, the man singing was still there, still throwing rocks. This continued as I came and went from the Hostel for 4 hours, eventfully his fellow construction workers put a fence around him, But the man continued singing! Now this is not an isolated occurrence. When I returned last week a whole group of them were singing as they were laying cement. Today as I woke up, they were dancing a flamenco! One of the workers was clapping, one was hammering a beat with a sledge hammer, one was singing a random tune and another was dancing with one of the girls from the hostel! Perhaps it was the North American equivalent of Whistling at girls, none the less this has to be the most slack/musically talented construction groups ever!

Random Art

Everywhere in Spain there is art, Traffic circles, parks, graffiti and art galleries. There is many conceptual art sculptures in pretty much wherever they place it (remember that the new movement of art manly came out of pre war Spain) Once I was walking past a square and they had a huge paper mache model of the corpse bride for Halloween. Many of the churches have all kinds of sculptures adorning them even in the smallest of towns. You can really get a sense of power from the Roman Catholic Church wandering though many of them. Graffiti is widespread, and there’s no sense of trying to get rid of it, many of the works are quite good, and some of some meaning behind them, like anti Iraq or anti war slogans. There are art galleries everywhere, not just in the old parts of town which I usually find a hostel in, but even the newer areas, there almost as plentiful as the cafes in the area. Sometimes there’s even exhibitionalist art, where people do random things usually as buskers. In Barcelona there were quite a few people on any given weekday painted as statues, complete with bronze coloring. On the Plaza in Alicante, there were a bunch of people on stilts with music walking up and down.

The Mid day break/ work hours

There is no set rules for the mid day break, which usually happens from 2-4. Some places stay open, other stay closed, it’s the owners choice. Afternoon shopping isn’t something you really do, it’s more just a time designated to hanging out! Opening and closing times are also not set in concrete sometimes, for no apparent reason a store will be closed, regardless of advertised work hours. Kevin Smith would be proud.