Museu de la Tècnica

So, something magical happened to me today, and I wanted to tell you all about it.

I’m driving from Barcelona to the edge of Pyrenees, but my friend tells me to detour to the little town of Figueres, for the Dalí Museum.

I don’t know if I care much for Dalí, but why not? The drive starts off on a wrong wheel when I realize I made a reservation for tomorrow.

It fortunately there was another car with automatic transmission. So I drive up, and park next to the museum.

I don’t have internet because of another earlier snafu (bad SIM card), but I had the foresight to save offline Google Maps.

But Google Maps returns nothing for the museum, so I don’t know where it is exactly. I follow the sign’s directions the old-fashioned way.

I walk and walk. The cute downtown slowly disappears around me. At some point the signs stop talking about the museum.

The entrance is so small I could easily miss it. I was just lucky that it was on my exact path.

But small museums are amazing, too, and I didn’t have any expectations anyway.

I check in with an older gentleman, and pay the 3€ entry price. (No donation box as far as I could see?!)

He doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Spanish; he tells me something I interpret as “don’t forget about the second floor.”

I start with the first floor; it is pretty simple, kind of what I would expect from a little regional museum.

Second floor is filled with old clocks and sewing machines. It is kind of cool, but I go through it quickly.

Then I see that the stairs go up, still. There must be another floor.

And then…

I have never seen so many typewriters under one roof. Not even close.

At this point, I literally have tears in my eyes. I’m not kidding. This feels like a miracle.

I don’t even know what to do. There is tons of stuff here. Eventually, I compose myself.

There are like 2.5 old grainy-ass photos of it on the internet in total AND NOW I AM TOUCHING IT WITH MY OWN DIGITS.

Best yet, I have this place for myself. No one else is here.

This kind of feels like a dream. Not figuratively: I have had dreams like this, finding an awesome place that I didn’t even know existed.

But then I usually wake up, sad for a few hours.

Eventually, a lady comes by and she tries to explain some things to me, which kind of works…

…although the most I understand is her telling me “comprende” again and again. To which I smile and nod.

At some point, it occurs to me that she is not explaining anything. She’s just trying to kick me out… the museum closed a while back.

From the brochure she gives me on a way out, I realize I was insanely lucky. This museum is not usually even open on Thursdays.

I will share a few more out of hundreds of photos I took, but the story ends here.

What a crazy discovery. I have actually researched places with typewriters. This never came up!

I also asked my Airbnb host for technical museums specifically. She just rolled her eyes. (Over email.)

To think I could have so easily missed it… And, by the way, I never made it to Dalí Museum. This was surreal as it was. :·)

Is this like a 2D typewriter?

I have tons more photos, but I think this is enough. :·) Parting thought:

Now I am going back to some castle in the mountains that is sketchy af. If I don’t come back, please remember me through this thread. 0_O