Saturday 8 June 2013

Barcelona Baby... Ree POV

Barcelona might just be my favourite city so far - well in the top 5 anyway.

Visited here in 1993 or something and didn't remember much - except seeing a lot of people snogging everywhere - seemingly on every street corner - but that's not why I thought it would be nice to bring the family here.

I actually thought it would be nice to go somewhere with lots to see but that had a degree of difference from the other places we were visiting. It's likely other people in the world have had the same idea as it turns out Barcelona is the 4th most visited city in Europe at last count - after Rome, Paris & London (don't quote me on the order). Who knew??? The week we were there (and quite possibly on many other weeks) every hotel in Barcelona was booked out. My friend José told me. He knows because he books hotel rooms as part of his job and the week we were there he was attempting to convince a german violin soloist and his entourage that they had to stay in a youth hostel while they visited Barcelona to play with the Symphony orchestra.

 

Our week in a nutshell:

  1. Jose the Wonderful
  2. Markets with the locals
  3. Las Ramblas
  4. Markets without the locals
  5. Gaudi Gaudi Gaudi
  6. Catalonia or Spain - depends who you ask
  7. Old people dancing
  8. boys climbing up on men, climbing on bigger men, climbing on really big men
  9. Aquarium
  10. Park Guell and THE iguana
  11. Heavenly Sounds
  12. Hunting for churros
  13. The Virginians are here

When I went away the year after high school to Canada I met a bunch of foreign exchange students and fell out of touch with nearly all of them - OK - all of them.

But... I have thought about trying to find out what happened to José (from Barcelona) for ages. His name is not uncommon and Facebook didn't get me anywhere. Then quite by coincidence HE looked ME up a few months before we came away (because thankfully my name is less common) and so Barcelona turned out to be a reunion from 1987! Within an hour of arriving at our great apartment in the heart of Gracia (bit like Leederville without the nightlife - fresh produce markets, hip shops, bars and cafes and old family businesses) - José was at the door. So cool to meet someone you knew 25 years ago and just pick up where you left off.

 

 


He's a total champ and made our stay so much more than it would have been. He actually spent several years being a tour guide in Barcelona so when he led us out the door and off down the street he just started bringing every detail to life.

The local markets are brilliant. All enclosed and 100 metres from our door and full of every kind of spanish delicacy you could want to poke a stick at - the predominant features being gazillions of types of tomatoes, lots of cheeses, anchovies, preserved meat and fish and olives, and olives and olives. You could also poke sticks at snails, bread, organic milk, fresh farm eggs, freshly made pasta. Nobody there seemed to speak english (we're out of the main touristo area) - and that seems very charming when you have a native speaker leading you around; considerably harder when you go back on your own to pick up a few ingredients for dinner and you try to gesticulate "just normal cheese please".


Snails - runaway sale

 


7000 types of tomatoes - including these crazy ladies

 

 

 

Jose led us all over Gracia - to the best coffee shop, the best ice-cream shop (of course!), the best place to get proper tapas, wine and pasta and then gave us a run down of the social, political and architectural history of the area we are staying in all the while entertaining the kids and pointing out groovy things. We were exhausted. But prepared.

 

 

 

Next day we got up and got ready and, having been lulled into a false sense of ability to cope with no spanish language beyond "gracias", we set off to expore.

 

Las Ramblas is the most famous street in Barcelona - a kilometre long walking street for ambling basically. It's quite possible there used to be Spanish people there - but now there are just gazillions of touristos ambling - basically. Literally gazillions. We keep saying to ourselves "imagine this place in July when it gets busy!" Everyone strolls in one direction, toward the sea, and there are now souvenier kiosks all the way down this once-lovely pedestrian street selling much the same as the last kiosk - except we did find one place selling live turtles. That was a bit weird.

 

 

 

Ambling on Las Ramblas

 

 

So we ambled too - not point in fighting it.

 

We didn't make it all the way to the sea because we found a groovy market place half way down that sold probably lots of stuff, but seemingly endless supplies of juice. Every combination you can imagine in ready poured cups - and we got there at the end of their day so they were giving away 2 for 1. Excellent. The market has been there for over a hundred years and has a beautiful art nouveau entrance that you could easily miss if you got distracted by the hustle and bustle inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

hustle and bustle... and jostle

 

 

Many, many cups of juice

 

 

Very briefly need to touch on the art nouveau stuff. Barcelona had its very own artistic movement in the late 1800s. While the rest of Europe and then the Western World began exploring the style we now call "nouveau" with its trademark curves inspired by natural forms and structures - Barcelona had its Modernist period. It left a profound impact on the city and is still a major part of its identity today. Nouveau and Modernism was inspired not only in flowers and plants but also the curved lines naturally found in nature - a reaction to the academic and structured art of the 19th century. Architects tried to harmonize with the natural environment. Nouveau was also an integral part of the design of furniture of the day, with architects often designing not only the building but its contents - down to carpeting, cornices and even door handles. Antonio Gaudi was certainly the most famous Modernist from Barcelona. And he totally owns this town - even today. Can't think of another city where one person is so cited or revered... or visited. They run Guadi tours, he has his own museum, there is Gaudi paraphernalia everywhere you go - pens, books, scarves, prints, tea-towels, magnets, t-shirts, calendars - even the pavement all over the city is a reproduction of a tessellated flooring tile he designed for one of his apartment buildings. There's a picture of it above. He was a dude. Died in the midst of building the amazing, extraordinary, breath-taking, knock-your-socks-off Sagrada Familia - knocked down by a street car while he attempted to admire his work from across the street.

Needed to mention all that because I love his stuff to bits. Pics below from La Padrera - an apartment building he designed for a wealthy Barcelona family who rented out most of the rooms but kept bottom floor for themselves. He would take something like ventilation shafts and decide to turn them into mythical creature-like structures on the roof top. He added organic-curved lines to windows and rooftops even floor designs. Initially people were reticent to move into his apartments as they were concerned their "straight" furniture would not fit. He designed curved chairs and fixtures. He designed ways of incorporating heating systems with air flow and lighting. And than a covered chimney flu with artistically placed pieces of glass from green champagne bottles.

 

 

He was hugely prolific and as well as this place we visited Casa Batlo down the street - although the line to get in was a deterrent - Sagrada Familia and also Park Guell (the first private housing estate attempted in Barcelona which actually ended up flopping but is now a great place to take a day trip). More on Park Guell later...

 

So, the other thing to say is that Barcelona is a bit like WA - not in the sense that everyone has a four wheel drive and a flat screen TV - but more in the sense that we tend to think of ourselves as a bit removed from the rest of the nation and responsible for more of the nation's livelihood than we are given credit for and we occasionally talk about digging a metaphorical trench between us and them. Barcelonians are definitely not from Spain - they are from Catalonia. Their history is richer, more cohesive, their culture is more preserved than the rest of the nation - they are sure of it. They are the only territory in Spain to ban bullfighting and a bunch of other progressive stuff like that. The Catalan government intends to hold a referendum on independence from Spain next year (not because of the bullfighting thing - thats just a point of interest).

They have their own language - similar but not so similar (Jose says like Spanish versus Italian) - so when you go to say thank you in Barcelona and you wanted to speak Spanish you would say Gracias pronounced "grah-thee-us" which is a very cool word to say and I have been bugging the kids with my poxy Spanish accent for a couple of weeks and trying to get them to say it like me. But in actual fact - Barelonians don't dig that at all. They like you to say thank you in Catalan which is Gracias pronounced "grah-see-us" - and pronunciation is how they pick the Spaniards from the True of Heart. It actually seems to be a relatively big deal. Not the actual word "thank you" so much as using the Catalan language.

Food for thought - Does WA need its own language to truly raise our cultural status - or are 2 AFL teams enough?

Now the Catalans - and possibly other Spanish people - take their traditional dancing quite seriously. I only mention this because the next day in Barcelona we rounded a corner to discover hundreds of people that could have been our parents, or lots of friends of our parents, all dancing in a public square outside the Mayor's house. There was a band and the lots of people that could have been our parents or their friends were forming groups and moving in quite gentle circles using reasonably fancy footwork. The music was pretty jolly we thought but the look on their faces was anything but. I asked Jose to explain why nobody was having a good time or why the process of dancing didn't actually make them feel cheerful - but apparently its not something to be taken lightly. Even though they had all thrown their handbags in the middle of the circle. hmmmm.

 

 

 

Taking it seriously...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However a couple of days later we were treated to something that was quite ridiculous as we came around another corner, but at least was being treated with some more levity - well by some people anyway.

In honour of something we couldnt figure out, lots of smallish men and children were climbing onto the shoulders of slightly larger men, who in turn were on the shoulders of even bigger men and they in turn were poised on huge blokes shoulders - all standing in a ring. Live music played to assist them in their exploits and as far as we could tell there were teams competing to see who could get the highest - if someone started to cave in - they all had to scamper down as fast as humanly possible. Those at ground level not in the ring did seem to be able to offer support by firmly jamming their thumbs into supporting positions. Ouch.

 

 

 

Gonna skip the aquarium - kids loved it. Best take a look at their blogs...except to say that the Cuttlefish were very cute.

 

Sagrada Familia... Holy Moly

Can't describe it. Too beautiful. Will have to rely on pics.

 

I'm always telling the kids to use adjectives - so here goes my list: huge, majestic, breath-taking, serene, beautiful, clever, luminous, powerful... and still un-finished.

 

 

 

Its not what it seems... from the outside you get no indication of what awaits you

 

 

Shown here on a busy day with service going on - hard to actually show how large it is inside

 

 

Lying on the floor looking up - I didn't do that, just trying to explain the view...

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were there in the late afternoon and the light coming through those windows was amazing...

 

Sagrada Familia (Church of the Holy Family) has been on the grow since 1882. And its still not done yet.

Gaudi worked on the project for 43 years until his death and was about only about 1/4 the way through construction when he died. He is famously quoted as replying when asked why it was taking so long to complete "My client is not in a hurry". I didn't hear anybody suggest that maybe it was an act of God when he got knocked down by a street car because maybe even God got sick of waiting but I felt it wasn't my place to raise it. There is an estimated (or hoped for) completion date of 2026 to coincide with the centenary of Gaudi's death. You probably wouldn't have wanted Gaudi working on your home renovation I don't reckon. Holy moly.

And even though it isn't finished yet, UNESCO have already listed it as a World Heritage Site.

Subsequent architects and builders have used as much of Gaudi's original design as possible to continue the project, but there have been a dozen or so working on it since he died - and you could imagine that would lead to a bit of a mess and some disjointed features, but if so, it they were not obvious to me.

I think its the most incredibly beautiful place of faith I have ever seen. So there.

 

 

Drew and I and Dizzy Heights

On Saturday Zoe was feeling a bit under the weather and running a temperature so Lorry offered to stay home with her and Drew and I set off for the day exploring. We went to the local market to buy some fresh bread and cheese and tomatoes and maybe a cake or two, took our treasures up to Jose's for lunch then ventured further up one of the big hills behind Barcelona to Park Guell - home of one of Gaudi's pet projects and the iconic mosaic "Iguana" thats on every magnet, postcard and t-shirt in Barcelona.

 

 

It may LOOK like a gingerbread house, but...

 

 

 

Aahh - the famous Iguana

 

 

 

Drew now ON the famous iguana - poor Gaudi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View from Park Guell

 

 

Half a Symphony

Jose works for the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra - dealing with their travel to other locations and with any guest solists and conductors who come to work with the orchestra in Barcelona. The orchestra here is very popular it seems - they have a season that runs for 9 months of the year, they televise their performances live once a month and they perform 3 days a week during their season. Luckily for us they were "in season" and Jose managed to get us 4 tickets at the gorgeous new Auditori Hall of Barcelona decked out inside almost entirely from maple wood. You might think that late nights, classical music and an 8 year old boy is a potentially disastrous mix - and I would totally agree... but it's also hard to turn down such a lovely offer and I was keen to go.... Fortunately Jose speaks "kid" and just told us - "stay for the first half and then you go". Awesome. As it turned out Zoe was still feeling pretty lousy in the evening so, after a very big day (Drew and I walked about 5km home from Park Guell), the little man and I got ourselves tidied up and booted off to the Symphony just the two of us, while Lorry took one for the team and skipped a visit to the symphony.

To summarise: Beautiful concert hall, extraordinary German violinist - like totally amazing (came back for 2 encores that were just incredible, standing ovation stuff), not-so terribly squirmy son, but half a concert is enough.

Jose snuck up to sit with us for part of it and then ushered us out at half time and we said "Adios" - in a Catalan way. We were off to France in 2 days and he was heading off to his place out of the city for the weekend. So that was our reunion. If its Hope it wont be 25 years until we catch up again or we will be nearly 70!

 

 

Drew checking his "do" before the concert - he's very subway savvy these days

 

 

 

snuck in a shot before the show began...

 

Oooohhhhh - Churros

Well I was gonna tell you the Churros story but it's not that interesting. If you think of it when I see you next ask me and I'll fill you in. Just say "what was the churros story in Barcelona?" and I'll try and remember. Don't leave it too long though. And here is a picture in case I need prompting.

 

Sugary snack or Doggy Doo Doo?? You decide

 

 

 

The Virginians are Coming...

On our last full day in Barcelona our mint Virginian buddies arrived to travel with us up into the south of France and onto Paris. Lorry worked with Pradeep when we lived in NYC and at that stage he and Emily were engaged. Now they have 2 gorgeous wee ones - Grady who is 7 and Tilda, 4.

Drew and Zoe have been BESIDE themselves waiting to meet these kids. Hard to imagine they could be sick of hanging out with Lorry and I but it's just possible. For the last month any planning we were doing about what was ahead was couched in terms of "before the americans" or "after the americans" or "during the americans".

It was actually a very cool feeling to finally make our way to the massive Christopher Columbus statue at the end of Las Ramblas and see them waving at us across the street. Bit weird to then wait a full minute for the lights to change so we could cross the road, I thought the kids would literally drop dead from over-anticipation. Kids are awesome aren't they? Their brains just say "look a kid - we should play" and that's it.

 

Drew, Grady and Zoe shoot a busker. Well, they can be quite annoying.

 

 

 

So now we are "bonjour" to France and "Adios" to Barcelona (...and to Spain) (...and to Catalonia).

 

Ree - out.

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

PIC - Jo Nesbo picture

 

 

 

 

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