A Modern Fairytale

Because there is a lot to share I have posted 3 blogs in one day so don't forget to scroll down or you will miss out on all the awesome adventures!



This is where I sat every night with
Carles to read, listen to music and dream








The first few pictures you are about to view is the Paradise, as it has now become, where I spent the last weeks of a warm August, writing, resting and creating an everlasting friendship with one of the warmest hosts and most precious dogs I have met. View them and try to imagine the peace and happiness I felt there as the summer came to an end:

This was my very own writing room where the sun touched my
toes and I created words onto a blank screen. Beyond the windows,
purple morning glories, birds and Chet waiting for me so we could play.

And the Tale Continues

There is so much to tell about my experiences in Reus. The last week was filled with magic as I became more inspired and kept to my promise of writing every morning. The afternoons were filled with field trips in and around Reus where I saw some of the most incredible buildings I had ever seen. Carles had a wonderful way of explaining things to me and of getting in touch with people so I could see these spectacular places. One of the most awesome places was Casa Navas, owned by Mr. Quim who gave us a personal tour of the mansion/labriynth. He was an aristrocrat from a family that extended far back to the 12th century, or so he says and I believe him. The tour lasted for hours, the house was enormous and as I think back to it, it was a blur of rooms, an incredible collection of furniture dated to as far back as the 18th century, dark rooms and a cellar with both a room where the Dianes (a cult) sang to whatever it is they believed in and a war bunker that led to the center of the plaza during the civil war! It was breathtaking, mesmerizing, and frightening to feel all the history around me.
It is clear that my camera could not do justice to this home. Every room was carved with a different type of wood. This where the family and it's many hosts sat after dinner to sip on Cognac and smoke. Every corner was filled with art, whether it was wood carvings, stained glass or curving flowers cut into the walls and ceilings. The bathroom alone was a masterpiece, one of the many many bathrooms. I lost count of all the rooms. A house that breathed on it's own.


It had a small cafe of its own on the very top floor, my favorite room, where the sun played with the marble tables and an old piano. Everything was color ladden. It was Alice in wonderland, me being Alice, Quim the Mad Hatter and Carles Chester the cat as he grinned watching my eyes sparkle with amazement.And nothing beat the bunker where cobwebs tangled in your hair and
the temperature dropped to a chilling degree. Quim told us stories of when he was a child and remembered having to rush downstairs, sitting on the ground and feeling the vibrations of the bombs on his bottom, how you felt the vibrations first and then a few seconds later heard the bombs. He explained how the adults breathed fear and the children were fearless, a game, innocence. I was silent, taking in all the history surrounding me and listening to Quim speak.

Even More Modernism

After my Modernist experience, I have played with the idea that if writing doesn't work out for me in the end, I will turn into a Modernist expert. Okay, maybe not, but I swear there is nothing more glamorous than adventuring through a world of architecture and history I had no idea about. Yet there is so much life that still resides in this part of history, especially in Catalunya. Yes, Barcelona has La Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera, and Casa Les Punxes, but Reus has these other hidden jewels that don't compare and perhaps it is due to the private tours I got, Carles's generous attention, and the hidden corners that were unveiled for me. Whatever it was, I managed to fall in love with a small town and even imagine my future there in the long long distance and I am a City girl!
The day after the Casa Navas experience, Carles got us keys to Pere Mata, a modernist mental institution right outside of Reus where the nobility used to go to pass their days in luxury and recover. Half of the hospital is still operating but the part where the rich of the rich is now for show. Imagine, it was like Tomorrow, where all the famous and wealthy used to go to recover. It was amazing to have the place to ourselves and imagine what it was like fifty years ago. Peeking through keyholes and listening to the echoes was spectacular and of course, every corner was filled with art as well. I could easily have gone looney myself so I could stay here.
The last few days in Reus were stretched to their fullest. Carles and I decided to dedicate the rest of the time to eating, going to the beach and if even that felt tiring we simply laid by the pool like to happy children, splashing with Chet and talking endlessly about all the adventures. I was in a resort of joy and happiness. Although I didn't go far, I probably had the best vacations I've had in a long time and of course that has everything to do with the person who was in charge of me.
Without Carles I wouldn't have experienced this, I wouldn't have sat down to write, because he was the one that pushed me every morning to do it, because it was my dream and it couldn't go wasted. His advice, his company was worth gold and I never thought going on vacation was going on a new ride with a new friendship. The almost three weeks I spent there, in what I kept calling the country, was absolutely liberating and that is what I call a real vacation. And so next summer, I invite you to come with me or if you can't explore your own neighborhood, there are things to explore and you don't have to go far.
Gracies Carles!! and he would say,
"que dius? que tonta que ets!"
I love you darling!!