Highlights-Valencia Day 2

I walked to the modern art museum (IVAM). It was hot so I avoided the chocolate with churros stands, gelato shops, and souvenir shops and stuck to the shadows in the narrower streets. I walked through the mercado in the center of the tourist area. Bright pink paella? I passed.

1. You know you’re in Spain when …

you see Transformers

2. You know you’re in Spain when …

all the napkins are tiny.

Notable Items

The first exhibition at IVAM was the immersive installation called Radix. It was “an ecological fable that turns our gaze down into the depths of the subsoil, imagining a fictitious biome inhabited by beings that move between science and speculation and the observable and imaginary worlds …” This is Horton Hears a Who territory. I had other priorities beyond reconsidering limits between species and states of matter. I entered looking for the bathroom. After reflecting “on nature and the potential micro-worlds within it” as much as I was capable of, I meandered back to the Mercado.

I like going to big indoor markets to browse. I’m partial to Mexican markets, but I try to appreciate whatever I encounter. This one had various ready-to-eat foods for sale, but no place to consume them (sitting or standing). It was clear this was a design choice. Don’t Sit Here signs were plastered all over the steps outside. Many Spanish mercados are like that.

I bought some Jamón Iberico. The mercado vendors would scoop bright pink and yellow paella out of huge pans and put it in a box if desired. I didn’t desire. I have reservations about eating food that looks like someone spilled fluorescent dye into it. The sandwich shop across the street looked better. Spain has a law against coloring jamón, so I was safe there.

Mostly safe. I chose to eat on the terraza (outdoor table area) under an umbrella. Almost without exception, when I eat outside, someone starts smoking upwind of me. I used to eat with people who smoked immediately after the meal. I’ve become such a wimp.