Today, Sunday, March 19, we continued to confirm our gradually sliding sleeping schedule. Not getting to bed until close to 4 in the morning, we did not get out until after 9:30 or so. Probably even later than that. I think yesterday, was more like 10:30 or so, with a similar bedtime. We don't care much about dates or times anymore. What a luxury!!! Only when we have a plane or train to catch, or a hotel check-out to abide by, do we really check our watches with any frequency. Isn't this the way it ought to be? Hahaha, yeah, right. We live in the moment, letting our whims steer our decisions, and just try to take in as much of what comes our way as possible. It probably sounds pathetic, but it is not always so "easy". Taking it all in I mean. Of course it's EASY, in that, no, we aren't "working", we don't have any "deadlines", and no one is telling us what we need to be doing. But, with so much beauty around you all the time, and so much newness, it is NOT easy to take it all in. It gets to be a sensory overload. It is a luxurious position to be in, for sure, and we are well aware of that. But, regardless, you get to feel guilty, having such an amazing opportunity, being in such amazing places, when you start to feel yourself occasionally blocking bits and pieces of it out, as a sort of natural response to the enormity of the stimulae coming at you from every direction. One of the kazillion fantastic things about being here with Vee is that although many times we perceive the same things, there are as many times that we are paying attention to totally different things, and that way, when we share our perceptions, we are reminded of everything that we are NOT perceiving, in addition to the things we ARE. This helps us refocus, and try to re-attune ourselves to our environment. For example, I see motorcycles, Vee sees scarfs, I see pizza shops, Vee sees haircuts, and so on.
We took care of a few last minute scheduling details for our next journey to Rome, and Naples, and then headed out with a flexible itinerary for the day. Since we did Cafe di Roma yesterday, we did "Cappuccinnos" cafe today. It was excellent, but a bit pricey for coffees and sandwiches. We strolled down the Diagonal, through the Ramblas again, but then veered towards a part of the city called El Raval, where there is a Museum of Contemporary Art we were hoping to see. Disappointingly, they closed early, since it was Sunday, and we could not get in. They had some kind of TV, surround sound setup going on in the entryway, and we sat down to check it out, but they had the speaker system all messed up, so that the sound for the tv we were watching was coming out of the speakers next to the tv we were NOT watching, and vice versa. So we left, and wandered a bit through the El Raval neighborhood, not liking it much, and left for more certain territory pretty quickly. Continuing down towards the water, Vee suggested we ride one of the gondolas over the water to the Montjuic part of the city that sits high atop the crest of one of the surrounding mountains. I could not believe she even suggested such a thing, since it involved being crammed inside a little box dangling from a cable hundreds of feet over the water, but she did, and I eagerly agreed before she could have a chance to withdraw the idea. Actually, I would later find out, the idea seemed perfectly fine to her, and she was actually surprised that I was surprised at her suggesting the idea. Being Sunday afternoon, the crowds were very light, and we hardly had to wait even just a few minutes before our gondola showed up, and we were whisked away. The ride only took a few minutes, and we were off and trudging through the "jardins" on our way, hopefully, to the Castell de Montjuic. Our legs were a bit sore and stiff from all the walking we did the prior two days, but after a brief sitdown at the foot of the gardens, we endured a long, confused, sometimes totally maligned journey upwards, eventually reaching the summit where the castle was perched. It was huge, and in fantastic condition. We had a bit of trouble finding our way in, but did, walked around, snapped a few pics, shared an orange drink, took in the expansive views, did some people-watching, and decided to head back to the gondola. One of the cool things we saw on our way was the Olympic swimming and diving facility that was used in the 1992 Olympics. Once back to our initial starting point, the long journey back to the hotel began. For some reason, my jeans have been starting to annoyingly slide down, so I needed a belt. The plan was to stop into El Corte Ingles, but I found a cheap touristy Barcelona belt for 2 EUR that I bought, which was a fortunate find since it turned out El Corte Ingles was closed anyway. Vee got a delicious ice cream, which she shared with me, and we made it back to our hotel by about 7pm, with a quick stop at the SuperCor for some bread, cheese, beer, water, etc. The rest of tonight is creative time. I finished the Da Vinci code yesterday, and now Vee is reading it. I am writing some stuff. Tomorrow, we'll try to find something low key to get into before we fly to Rome.
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