So today is the national day of Spain, so it is a holiday for everyone and we don't have work or school.
There is a big parade every year, so I made plans with Emma to meet up and then we would go see the parade. Her host mother had told her where the parade would go really close to where they live so we met up 11 to go find it. We had some time so we stopped and got a coffee next to the road where we were told was to be the last part of the parade. We found the perfect spot on a bridge overlooking the main road, but then after a while when everyone on the road was walking away from us we decided to go down and follow them.
view from the bridge
After talking to a very nice policeman from Sevilla he told us that the parade wasn't going that far this year because of money and the crisis. So we headed up farther still and found another spot to sit to see the parade and also to meet up with Audrey who was on her way there. Then when we heard loud sounds in the distance but still couldn't see anything we asked another security guard and he told us that it was even farther up than the first guy had told us and that it was over.
We walked quickly up to where there were masses of people and could barely see, but saw the tail end of band and some of what I guess were the royal guards all dressed up and on horses. After that was a giant motorcade and everyone started getting really excited and screaming. The king and royal family are part of the end of the parade, and we didn't exactly see the king himself, but we saw the car he was riding in. That's almost the same as seeing the King of Spain right?
We finally met up with Audrey after that and headed over to the Museo Sorolla which was near by. It was free for everyone because it was a holiday, and was the painter's house converted into a museum. The gardens in the courtyards were very nice, and there were a lot of very large rooms inside whose walls were covered in his paintings along with other artsy artifacts that were in his house while he was living in it.
I really liked his paintings, and especially in the first room that showed his progression through the years, I could definitely see how he developed his style over time. It started out not as precise and then he got better and it all was much more realistic. His style in many of his paintings used broad brush strokes, and looking at small pieces up close, it is really surprising how he can get it to all work together so well and turn into such a beautiful piece of art. My favorite paintings of his were ones with both people and moving water in them, many of them with wind too because they were at the coast. I wasn't as fond of his landscapes.
The picture below has an uncanny resemblance for me to an exact location and view at Sea Ranch. Do you agree?
Then this afternoon when I was going on a run, this old man, maybe in his 80s, was walking along the same promenade along the river where I was running started talking to me. I took my music out of my ears and then asked him what he had said. He repeated himself and asked my why I didn't have a boy running with me and if I was running all by myself. This was in the middle of the day in a very popular and populated area so there wasn't any danger at all, I think he just thought that a pretty girl like me should have a boy running with me for the company. I told him that I sometimes run with other people but not today. I then told him that if he wanted to he was welcome to run with me. He laughed and told me that he couldn't because my legs were longer than his and then sent me off. It was quite a cute little old man encounter.
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