November 05, 2009

A Quick Hola from Spain

Artwork at the Venice BiennaleReally, I just wanted to tune in and say that yes, I'm still alive and well...just filling each day on my trip with sightseeing, new food experiences, and, uh, not so much blogging. You can find a few posts on my personal blog, but I haven't even been great with that. I'm hoping to put another post up there tomorrow evening, if my eyeballs aren't completely shot when we return from the Prado!

In the meantime, I took a few book-related photos I wanted to share, and this seemed like the perfect place. You'll notice that the photo above depicts a different kind of "book-mobile"--this hanging sculpture was part of the Venice Biennale, which is, I believe, the largest international exhibition of contemporary art in the world. The sculpture here seemed to consist of a lot of translation dictionaries to and from various languages, which I personally enjoyed.

Book Vending Machine in SpainThe second photo is of a--honest to god--book vending machine. We found this contraption in a large indoor shopping mall in Madrid that was connected to a Metro station. We went in to find a bathroom, and ended up walking around a little and finding this. Of course I peered in, and what did I see but a copy of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (in Spanish, of course).

So, yep, of course I'm thinking about writing while I'm gone, but I'm fearing that this year NaNoWriMo will have to take a backseat to novel revisions for Flux and freelance writing work. I do have some interesting new ideas, though, that I'm still trying to work through in my mind. My handy notebook accompanies me, fortunately, although there's an awful lot of train schedules and random Spanish reminder phrases jotted in there right now...

'Til later! Hasta luego.

4 comments:

Susan Thomsen said...

Madrid! I am so jealous I spent the summer there a million years ago. Wave at the street San Francisco de Sales if you pass it. Subway stop: Moncloa. That was my stop!

tanita✿davis said...

*waving madly from Glasgow*

I'm going to find an EXCUSE to go to Spain in the Spring. I'll think of something...

C. K. Kelly Martin said...

Glad you're having fun. I've never seen a book vending machine before!

David T. Macknet said...

I keep trying to take a picture of one of those book vending machines - there's on in the Glasgow airport - but ... it seems that, whenever we're there, we're in too much of a rush to be able to take the picture.

Next time....