A Postcard A Day - Friday 23 October 2026 - Friday Smiles and Face Off (photo heavy again)

 Hello lovely peeps,

Here I am again ready to share my postcard of the day and the smiles of this week.  Among them them are several faces for DVArtist's Face Off.

First off, my postcard:

Perfect for Friday Smiles! It was sent to me by my friend, with whom I visited Krakow. She bought it and secretly sent it to me. I suppose it represents Gene Kelly Singing In The Rain, and the words 'I'm happy again' are from that song.

That piece of street art can be found in Krakow on the corner of Meiselsa and Ul Bozego Ciala (I apologise to any Poles amongst you as I can't find those Polish characters on my keyboard.) 

From a website called SheWandersMiles I quote:

The Gene Kelly Singing in the Rain mural shows the infamous performance as he swings around a street lamp with the quote “I’m happy again”. The stencil art appeared in spring 2014 to portray a message about a city recovering from the horrors of the world war.

I did some digging online to figure out who created it. Originally, it was believed it was a Banksy giving it some notoriety although it is still shrouded in a similar mystery. Many believe Singing in the Rain was painted by Kuba, and a few thought it was Mr. Trololo. Some think it was inspired by Eduard Khil, Soviet-era singer, who replaced censored words in his “I Am Glad Because I Am Finally Returning Back Home” song with the “Trololo” sounds. His song re-surfaced in 2010 on the internet and became an viral meme.

No matter who the artist is, it’s become a well-known piece of street art in Kraków. On my recent visit in spring 2025 (see photo below), I noticed it had faded quite a bit since I first saw it in 2018. So go and look for it before it totally disappears!

The stamps on this card are the same as the stamps I featured Tuesday:

I wrote about it then.

What have I been doing here in Spain you might ask? Not much time has passed between now and Tuesday, but I went out on Wednesday with my firends from Intercambio (language chat group).

We decided to explore the area to the east of us and drove forty minute to Olula del Rio to visit the Ibañez Museum:

The museum's own website writes: Officially inaugurated on November 24, 2004, the Casa Ibáñez Museum is one of the largest collections of contemporary art in Andalusia. Created between 1996 and 2004 by Andrés García Ibáñez (Olula del Río, 1971),

a painter with a promising young career in contemporary realism, it opened its doors to the public on March 4, 2005. Since then, it has established itself as the most significant cultural institution in the Almanzora region and one of the most representative in southeastern Spain. It is managed by the Ibáñez Cosentino Art Foundation, an institution created in June 2005 and jointly owned by the museum's founder, Andrés García Ibáñez, and the Almería-based multinational Cosentino. 

The museum's holdings currently comprise over 1,200 cataloged works, more than 95% of which were donated to the Foundation by Andrés García Ibáñez. This is, therefore, the artist's private collection, encompassing both his own work and pieces by other artists, which he has amassed in just over a decade. 

Here we are in front of 'The Woman of Almanzora'. (I'm second from the right).

The sculpture The Woman of Almanzora, a work by Antonio López , is striking for its dimensions, eight meters high and 230 tons of marble, and welcomes visitors to this art complex that includes the Pérez Siquier Center and the Ibáñez Museum .

From there we went to a town called Albox, another 20 minutes to the east. There we had fish and chips. Well known among the English but the Spanish have never tasted it. There were a Spanish couple and a Catalan couple in our party and they all enjoyed it:

There was a lot of wind and the parasols were in danger of being blown away, so we had to sit inside. Believe me, in Southern Spain you don't want to sit in the sun.

I had a glass of cider:

After lunch we drove to Macael (5436 inhabitants), another 22 minutes by road.

Macael is known for its white marble. 

We found this pestle and mortar on a roundabout entering the village:

It has been made of white marble, with a gray base and a yellow pestle, the three types of marble characteristic of the Macael mountain range.

Wikipedia writes: The history of the municipality of Macael is linked to that of its main natural resource, Macael white marble.

Today, Macael marble is used for important constructions such as the Burj Al Arab hotel , one of the most luxurious in the world, rated (7 stars). This is thanks to the brilliance and purity of the white Macael marble.

The streets are literally paved with marble:

We found this street  and square among a housing estate.

In the middle there was a mosaic:

We left Macael and drove out of town to see one of the quarries. We saw part of the Cosentino quarry:

We had fun playing around on the blocks that were lying about:

As you can see, we have had a lovely day.

I will leave it at that. There are many faces for the Friday Face Off and at the end I will show you some funnies for you to smile at.

Take care and

Keep Smiling!

Lisca