Almost a year ago, I started to collect the "material" for this collection, for this post. We were in our homeland, walking one afternoon with other Hivers when I saw this composition of two blue, very simple but still so cute benches.

As you see, a bench doesn't need a lot of decoration or an expensive, industrial construction. A steel structure and a couple of wooden planks, and there you have it. The main purpose of the bench is already fulfilled even with this simplicity. Sometimes they can be even simpler.

What is important is that benches, of any type, serve for socialising between people, for resting when you find yourself already exhausted from walking, or simply for sitting and listening to the sounds from nature, enjoying the birds chirping in the forest, for relaxing, thinking or making decisions, for having a snack or watching a sunset. Yesterday I read in the book The Little Prince that he was able to see 44 sunsets in one day on his tiny planet... Maybe we can't move this bench so that we can see so many sunsets per day on our planet, but we can move and find many other benches, right? That sounds like... searching for benches and making a collection of them from all over the world!

That is how the benches from several different countries joined together to make a collection for the Hive Collectors Community's new monthly theme:

Benches

As a kind of public furniture found in the streets of your city, town or village, interesting, boring, nice or ugly, with messages, paintings or faded paint - it doesn't matter! They can come as a collection this July to the community. You might also find them on your trips or in the same neighbourhood, the choice is yours. My collection comes from different places, but I had almost a year of time to collect them. 😉

The first batch is coming from Krakow, Poland. We had our accommodation in the city centre and to get to the @krolestwo, where we had the Hive meetup during the @hivebeecon event in 2025, we always had to pass through the green belt that surrounds the old town. I don't know Polish so I am not sure what the messages say, but there were plenty of these benches. I am bringing just two out of many.

Btw, there was one interesting bench in Krakow with two statues sitting on it and "talking"... I am sure I took a photo of it two and a half years ago when we were there for the first time, but I can't find that photo anymore... I have searched for that photo for a while now, with no luck. 🤷‍♀ So, let's move to other benches from Krakow:

Is it a bench with speakers and solar panels? I hope it works.

This white bench can be found in one of the restaurants that we visited. The decoration in general in that restaurant was very cool.

The next bench is also coming from the same city. We saw it on one Saturday morning while heading to a museum. We joked that it was a perfect finding for Caturday, as there was a cat (also part of the artwork/bench) under the bench!

Moving to the next country and the next city. Budapest, Hungary.

It was a cold morning for a walk, but in the sun it was good. Still, we didn't take a seat there to rest as there were a lot of things to see around the city. All these benches can be found while you walk by the Danube River.

Later in the afternoon, we visited a square and park behind it. That is where I saw these modest benches with some paintings. They are not as cool as these ones from Zaragoza (I somehow know one Hiver can bring these benches in the form of a collection 😋) but still, they reminded me of the Spanish painted ones.

In this last part of the post, I will feature just benches found in Spain, although they are coming from different cities. The first section is a small collection of concrete benches with paintings on their backs, placed in front of the seashore in Calpe.

In the town we lived before, there was one wooden bench with a message on it: "happy to chat" bench. I am sure I also took a photo of it, and once again, I can't find it now... and the bench doesn't exist anymore, as the promenade was remodelled. Now the road where the cars could pass is also just for pedestrians, and some concrete blocks and kind of benches were added. At least I think they serve as benches. What do you think?

And finally, in our daily walks, we stumble upon hundreds of benches. Maybe they are not so special, but as I said, they have their purpose. But also, it seems some of them were used as canvases or spaces to write messages. I leave them here and of course, I will be waiting for your entries. Just go around your place of living and see if there are benches. You will see how a collection can be made. 😉

Single-seat benches.

Whistle for a match? ⚽️ Oops, it seems some birds visited the bench and... 🤦‍♀😂

Vivo en tus paredes (I live in your walls).

A blue one in the same street as the previous bench.

Cógeme de la mano... (hold my hand...)

Strange shapes for benches in one playground.

And my favourite bench from all of them. There are two of these benches with piano keys that I found, one in a park before we even decided to move here, and the second on a little square. I was happy to see it again a few months ago, and then I understood that this message is true, at least it worked for me.

La ilusión siempre vuelve (hope always returns).