This is the residency in “Barcelona” where I currently reside. It’s called Mas els Igols which means, “swamp farm.” There’s no swamp to be seen, but it is most certainly a farm… of grapes… and wine. It’s a vineyard!
The reason “Barcelona” is in quotes will soon be apparent.
See all that dirt and stuff around the house? That’s grapes. Yeah. Grapes for wine. I’m in wine country.
See all that green stuff? Hills. Covered in green stuff.
You can see the distance from the residency to Barcelona here. It doesn’t look that far but the bus and train ride is pretty convoluted. You have to go up and around and back down to get there and it takes a damn hour and a half. BUT… it’s Barcelona. You can also see that the sweet little coastal town of Sitges is nearby. It’s a 25 minute car ride, I am told. I hope to get out there a few times while I’m here. Right now the water is still cold though.
This is the view from the little courtyard in between the kitchen/bedrooms and the studio spaces. This was the day I got here.
Same spot the following morning.
View of the other end of the small courtyard with a little of the upstairs outdoor patio railing in view. Dudes. This place is sprawling! There are 10 bedrooms and three large studios. There’s two garages and a shed and a pool also. I got to see the upstairs yesterday and it is lavish!
This is a big hunk of grapevine.
Our kitchen, actually semi-clean. It can get pretty disgusting when people don’t clean up after themselves. There’s a maid that comes once a week but I noticed the kitchen looks exactly as it was a mere day after she’s cleaned it. I’ve said hi to her twice in Spanish but she won’t even acknowledge me. I’m sure she just believes I’m a filthy pig. I swear I do my dishes as soon as I’m finished with them!
These are our dry food storage bins. They are named after the rooms.
My room. Cozy. Funny enough, the room (minus the bathroom) is about the same size as the one I had in Japan.
This is my own private bathroom in my room. The doors look like a closet, but surprise! Bathroom. To the right of the toilet is a sink and mirror. To the left you see that long white thing with the black at the bottom? It’s a shower curtain! Those multicolored tiles are the tiles for the shower! You can see that the bottom of the door is raised about 2 inches from the floor. I’m assuming that this is so the water from the shower doesn’t rot the wood. It’s crazy! I’ve never seen a place with a shower connected to the bedroom in such a manner. When you’re done showering you squeegee the floor.
A shot of our hangout room. All that wine is there available for purchase and it’s cheap!
New growth on one of the grapevines. I was hoping to see full sized grapes ready to go while I was here but the grapes don’t get harvested until September. Still, they’re growing pretty fast.
One of the outdoor hangout areas.
More grapes.
There’s a buncha stinky cows in that thar barn.
Nearby wildflowers. The red ones are poppies!
This is Dottie, the residency cat. I’m super thankful for her. We, as you can see, were instant friends.
I’m happy here. I think the two running the residency, Arnout and Iris, are very interesting people and I love their vision. The school they are running in the city is really cool and I’m having a good time stretching myself with the assignments I’m having the students do. Perhaps I’ll talk about the school in a future post. As always, stay tuned for more and thank you so much for reading.
Gatos, esposo, coche,
~S
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