Barcelona - Barcelona, Spain and Canary Islands
Barcelona, Spain and Canary Islands
Stepping out into Barcelona was a huge change - a nice, mild, 18 degree winters' day and brightly shining sun to contrast the cold, dark days we have been experiencing lately. Admittedly, it was very mild in Berlin as well- 7 to 13C- but this was more like what we are used to for winter in Perth. Clutching our possessions to ward off pickpockets, we caught the airbus to Plaça Catalunya and were a bit dazed by the hustle and bustle - turns out Plaça Catalunya is right in the thick of things. We needn't have worried about thieves in the end as we escaped Barcelona and Spain today without an attempt on our wallets. After a bit of a walk, we reached the apartment door- hard to spot, we walked straight past it at first. Fortunately, the front door was deceiving and inside, the apartment was quite nice (apart from an almighty stench in the laundry area - I think it's the sewage). Anyone that's been to Barcelona will no doubt be familiar with the smell- you catch a whiff of it every now and then whilst walking. A tad off-putting, I'll admit. Seeing as I'm talking about the dirtier side of Barca, I may as well throw in the observation that spitting in the streets is very popular here. Not just the subtle siphoning of excess spittle into a bin or something, these people (mostly men I think) would really give it some and hoik up a big gob onto the footpath. Always something to watch out for, along with the dog droppings that dot the pavement. No matter, because Barcelonans often just walk on the road- particularly in the side streets where there is less traffic. We had a fair introduction to the Barcelonan stroll on our first afternoon. We attempted to join a walking tour, however the tour guide either didn't show up or we were in the wrong spot (I'm pretty sure it was the former). After waiting for a bit, and eating some churros with chocolate at the famous La Opera Cafe, we decided to walk to La Sagrada Familia - didn't look that far on the map but turned out to be about 7kms by my guess. Along the way, we saw the Barcelona Arc de Triomf - not as impressive as the Parisian one - that was built in the same spot that was planned for the Eiffel Tower. That's right, it was originally going to be in Barcelona, but they said it was too ugly and didn't believe Mr Eiffel when he said it would be perhaps the most well known structure in the world and attract a few hundred million visitors each year. A bit like Freo's decision not to draft Andrew McLeod and/or Matthew Lloyd, really.... Eventually, we came upon La Sagrada and encountered the first of our ill-luck in Barca- it was closed. Still a magnificent building to view from the outside, but after a 7km hike, we would have loved to get in and tick it off the to do list. We took the metro home.... Dinner was not quite as good as expected. I had a look on the net for good tapas restaurants and came across a place not far from where we were staying (in the Ravel). Cheap, but good and traditional was the vibe. It certainly was cheap (we had 5 tapas dishes and sangria between us for €20) but they were only mediocre, unfortunately. The menu was all in Catalan, so we didn't know what we were ordering, which was fun. Ended up with calamari (my pick of the bunch- not quite as good as grandpa's), tomato bread (Rhi's favourite), potata bravas (spicy potatoes), paella and deep fried whitebait (super salty, but not too bad). Big servings meant that we didn't finish and put off dessert for the next day. Which began with an excellent Spanish cereal called Master Crumble - well worth seeking out. Let's begin a segue and talk about the Catalans for a while. It turns out that my non-existent Spanish is not such a bad thing in Barcelona, the Catalonian capital. Catalonians hate the Spanish. They speak a completely different language that is more similar to French and Portuguese than Spanish and it is offensive to mistake a Catalan person for a spaniard. Sort of like the Canadian/American thing, but stepped up about a million degrees because the Catalans actually have a genuine reason to dislike the Spanish. They also have a very different culture - flamenco and bull-fighting are NOT Catalonian and therefore we didn't see the real thing (apparently). Bull-fights are banned in Barca now and the 3 stadiums have been converted into a museum, shopping centre and carpark respectively. They even have their own government that operates out of Barcelona - I think they're beholden to the Spanish government, but nonetheless it's interesting. There have been many conflicts between the two nations over the years, but the Spanish civil war (back in the 1800s I believe) was particularly nasty for the Catalans. Basically, a number of countries took sides in the conflict- the Catalans were backed by the Germans, who pulled out halfway through and this led to the Catalans being more or less crushed by Spain and their allies. They subjected to Spanish rule, became a part of Spain and have been a disadvantaged and mistreated people ever since. This was particularly evident during the reign of King Franco - another complete birk - who tried to quash the Catalonian culture by banning it (language and all). Anyone caught teaching/ talking/reading catalunyan was dealt with very severely (death in many cases). How long ago was this? Well, he died about 25 years ago I believe - meaning this oppression was taking place in the 1980s, which is really difficult to believe! He was replaced by good old Juan Carlos- a very popular king until he was found to have used large sums of taxpayers money to go shooting elephants and is now referred to as the elephant king. So it's only recently that the catalonians have regained a voice and their identity and now they are pushing very hard to become their own country- separate from Spain. The spaniards obviously don't want this because Catalunya is basically the only part of Spain that is actually above the economic crisis (due largely to tourism) - and as a result, 10c out of every dollar spent in Catalunya goes straight to the government- do not pass Go, do not collect €200. On the most recent Catalunyan Independence Day, around 2 million people took to the streets of Barcelona to demand independence. Considering the population of Barcelona city is only 1.5 million, that's quite an effort (the surrounding suburbs have another 4million or so admittedly). So,in short, expect to see a new country on the map within the next 10 years or so. All this was learned on the walking tour we took the next day. Once again, it was a free tour (meaning that the guide gets paid in tips) but this one turned out to be a bit of a fizzog. The guide was very nice (an Aussie named Georgia from Sydney with a very strange accent halfway between Spanish and Australian) but she just didn't have any of the enthusiasm that our other tour guides had. I think it may have been a laconic Aussie thing. Whichever way you look at it, I noticed that she certainly didn't rake in the tips at the end like Billy and Rob did... Nonetheless, we had a good tour - starting at the statue of Colombus - and learned some very interesting things (including the history of Catalunya). Among them were some examples of the troubled past in Barcelona - a wall built using Jewish gravestones (you can still see the Hebrew engravings on some), a beautiful little square that was often used as an execution site because it's easy to block off and the Plaça del Rei, where the mad queen Isabella (Colombus' lover) enjoyed watching Jews and Catalonians being killed in horrible ways. We also saw some lighthearted areas of the city (it's not all doom and gloom) including the grasshopper gargoyle, tuberculosis statue (built in honour of a famous guy who died from TB) and mandolin player gargoyle. And some interesting parts: The first century roman pillars, walls that were established by the Romans and then added to in a different style by various tribes that conquered the city and Santa Eulalia Cathedral. On a practical level, Georgia also told us her pick of the best tapas in Barcelona (we visited a place called Sensi that evening and it was arguably the best meal of the trip - so far... More on that later) On of the best things about the tour was that it was with a nice group of people- we got to know a guy named Nil (from Israel), who is currently studying medicine in Argentina and ended up meeting him and some others at a hostel pub that evening. Something we haven't done enough of on this trip in my opinion. Rewinding slightly to just after the end of the tour, when we decided to pay a visit to Gaudi's famous Casa Batllo. Once again, this man must have had a very strange/creative mind to come up with something like this. It's essentially a house built using the theme of water. There's a sea creature motif happening here, the light-well in the centre of the house is all in blue tiles, crazy mosaics on the front and back facades. It's simply bizarre on the outside and the same inside, but strangely beautiful as well. I really like the way he works with wood. Oddly enough, my very favourite part of the house were the doorknobs. The audio guide suggested that we have a try of them and I'm glad I did! Gaudi shaped the moulds with his own hands out of clay- as a result, they are perfectly ergonomic. Your hand slides right in and fits snugly... It was a wonderful experience, although perhaps you had to be there... The same was true of the bannister for the staircase- it was just made to be touched! Incredible. Although it was getting late in the day, we decided to try our luck with La Sagrada again - but again we failed, this time due to the queue that stretched around the building. We decided to drown our failure and sorrows in sangria. Earlier, I mentioned a restaurant named Sensi - and I'll start by saying that anyone who goes to Barcelona should eat there. It's not all that cheap, but the food is so delicious! We had: Mini chorizo in a great sauce Duck and sweet potato thingy (delicious - the only time I'm going to break my no-duck diet) Potato, bacon, Camembert and broccoli casserole Paella Sangria Bear in mind that this is tapas, so the dishes are small! For dessert, Rhi had the richest chocolate tart I have ever tasted and I had a killer cheesecake that was nice in that it wasn't overly rich like most cheesecakes. More Master Crumble set us up for a big day which began with a visit to the Picasso Museum of Barcelona. Picasso spent a fair chunk of time living in Barca in his youth and as such, they have a number of his artworks. None of the major, major ones but a fair few of the second tier. It was arranged largely in chronological order and this was interesting because it gave an idea of his development through childhood to his time at art school and on to the cubism that he is famous for. He didn't always paint wacky portraits. One painting I found funny was a portrait of a woman (can't remember her name). If you check out the photo, I can't imagine she'd be too happy with the artist's impression of how she looks... Rhi (being the artist that she is) was chuffed to see in the flesh (or canvas) some artworks that she studied and particularly liked. Having squeezed that visit in, we jetted off to Catalonian government square to meet up with the guide for our next tour- this time by motorbike. Never mind the fact that I've never driven one before, we're in a foreign country with unfamiliar road rules and they drive on the opposite side of the road, we decided to give it a try. After a slightly shaky start, I got the hang of it and with Rhi on the back, we zoomed around- much faster than walking and there's nothing like having the wind in your hair as you cycle along! It was the same tour company as the walking tour so the first couple of stops were pretty much the same, but luckily Adam, our Canadian guide was more charismatic than Georgia and we had fun. As we were on the hogs and able to cover more ground, we travelled up to La Sagrada Familia and had a spot of lunch before winding our way back down to the Parc de la Ciutadella, where there is an impressive crab shaped fountain. Here, we got stopped by a red light and had to guess at which way the rest of the tour group had gone (we guessed correctly) and Adam was on the ball and came circling back after 5 minutes or so to collect us again. The tour finished with a stretch along Barcelona's famous and completely man made coastline. Before the 1992 Olympics, Barcelona had a pebbly, rough old shoreline just like everyone else in Europe. The city didn't even face the ocean, but rather looked up at Montjuic. So basically, they re-orientated the entire city to face the ocean (who knows how?), loaned some palm trees from Hawaii (they've returned most, but still pay rent on some) and bought a chunk of sand from the Sahara desert (which they have to reclaim and dredge back from the ocean a couple of times a year. We sadly returned the choppers and made our way (on foot) to the metro and then on to Montjuic for an evening at the flamenco inside Poble Espanyol. I believe that Poble is a replica of an 18th century Spanish town (although it may be original and just preserved) now dedicated essentially to being a little tourist district. It's got all the gourmet Spanish foods, little pottery shops, woodworkers etc etc - all very nice but catered to the gourmet tourist more or less. So we strapped our trendy little cameras over our heads, and pretended we knew what a good coppa tastes like and then found our way up to the Flamenco de Carmen. We opted for the tapas and show when we booked- it was a bit better than the first tapas and not a patch on Sensi, but the sangria was nice. The flamenco itself was amazing - interestingly though, it was the first time on the trip that I felt quite uncomfortable as a tourist. I really felt like I had no context to place the dance in (it is a very emotional sort of thing) and therefore, it was a bit odd. I enjoyed it nonetheless- the musicians were great and the music has a distinct middle eastern tinge to it I reckon, probably because Spain is really southern and because it was once invaded and conquered by the Moors. There were four dancers - to my eyes, the first two seemed like the up and comers- quite flashy, but without the taste of the older ones perhaps. First was the woman in the red dress- a very serious dancer. Next, we were treated to a young lad who had all the chops and was very flashy and showy- great to watch, he went ballistic in the high energy parts and jumped all around the place. I had a sneaking suspicion that it was a rare performance by Rafael Nadal- he was a dead ringer for the tennis star! The third performer was my favourite- he seemed like the veteran that was just all taste, but he pulled mad shapes and cut the rug when he needed to. You could tell when they did something cool because the musicians and other dancers on the sidelines would yell "Olè" (or murmur depending on the energy of the dance at that point). This guy had them muttering away without even doing anything- he was just walking around and marking his territory at the very beginning and they were giving him the Olè! Lastly, there was a very graceful woman again - she seemed like a bit of a veteran also and got the Olè on the slow bits too. Interestingly, I read that flamenco in fact involves a fair amount of improvisation - by the dancers and the musicians. This was especially evident in the third performance - where the guitar player and dancer were really enjoying themselves by throwing rhythms at each other and reacting and playing off them. Very similar to jazz, really. With the performance at an end, we had a stroll through the Poble (mostly closed by now) and I resisted plucking an orange from one of the many trees growing in there. On the way back down, we were lucky enough to glimpse a performance by the Magic Fountain, which is in a beautiful spot by an old Castille, overlooking the city. What a treat, I have no idea how often it goes off, but judging by the number of people there, it might not be once a night. It was here that I discovered my phone does panoramas! Fancy that. It took a while, but I had really started to get into the life and buzz of Barcelona- just in time for our last day there. Waking up early, we fuelled up on Master Crumble muesli (having run out of cereal the day before) - not quite as good, but still a welcome change from croissants - and set off for La Sagrada once more. Arriving 20 mins before opening time, there was already a queue stretching around one side of the basilica. Thanks to Adam, we were well prepared for this and purchased our tickets from an ATM next the the church (yep, a bank ATM that sells tickets on the side) and skipped all the way to the front and straight in. Once again, we made sure to pick up audio guides - those things are worth their weight in gold I reckon - and started out with our tour of Gaudi's great masterpiece. It really is amazing- more lovely from the inside I reckon. Knowing that he wouldn't finish it, Gaudi left behind intricately detailed plans, models and sketches of how he wanted it to be. He also gave certain areas over to the imagination of his successors, which is a good way to go I reckon. You can probably see that the passion facade, designed by someone else (very cubist, angular and sparse in appearance - at the back) is markedly different to to Gaudi's flowing, smooth but visually noisy aesthetic of the nativity facade at the front (photos 4 and 5). Unfortunately, almost all his plans and models were burned during a civil war and so the architects today are basically trying to guess what he was after for most of it. The inside of the basilica is more or less a celebration of light - Gaudi was very interested in the interplay and behaviour of light within a building. He said "you need to have the right amount of light- too much light or not enough can be equally blinding". It's still very much a work in progress- some of the stained glass windows have yet to be designed, built and installed and a large proportion of the outside work needs to be completed as well (hence the cranes). It's the most visited church in the world regardless of that. Gaudi's love of nature is very much in evidence in the interior- the columns give the impression of trees supporting the ceiling - complete with knots in the trunk - and the ceiling itself looks as though it's composed of giant flowers and leaves. There's also many staircases that I would love to explore and some radical stained-glass work. We were lucky enough to gain access to climb one of the towers (well, we bought a ticket anyway). That was quite something! The views were great as you can imagine and we were able to look out of the little windows that are prominent from the outside. It was a real shame to see that some clonkers have graffitied the tower where there are no cameras in sight. You would have to be a lowlife to do that. Making our way back down, we finished the audio guide tour and made our way out. I would have loved to explored the crypts here (Gaudi is in there somewhere), but alas I didn't see the option for that and we had to be off to make our next appointment with Maria, our Spanish cooking teacher. We really enjoyed the class- in a great little purpose made kitchen and dining room. Most of the prep work was done already (meat chopped, ingredients laid out) so all we had to do was whiz through a few vegetables (including fresh artichoke, mum) and crack some eggs for the omelettes. We cooked: Dates wrapped in bacon (my favourite) Tomato gazpacho Spanish omelette Paella Catalan creme (Rhi's favourite) All was delicious and we left feeling very full indeed! An interesting culture difference that occurred to us as we were eating the meal. Some of the others doing the course were American (a family from Arizona and one from New Orleans). As the meals came out and we hopped in, the three Aussies in the course plodded along with each course until it was finished - the Yanks however, merely tasted each course- often eating half or less than half. No criticism intended, just an interesting observation - I know my mum made me keep eating until I'd finished my plate before going on to dessert... "When you have a big meal, you have a big walk". Doyle, 2012. We weren't intending to take a hike that was quite so enormous, but got a bit lost trying to find a little bar on the top of Montjuic. I'm going to accept total blame for this one - we took a premature turn on a street leading up the Mont and ended up traipsing round the mountain for a couple of hours, through a Jewish graveyard, down to the bottom of the mont and then back up again to where we started from. It was probably a solid 2 1/2 hours of walking - we didn't even find the bar in the end. The reasoning behind the trek was that it was apparently the best place for a sunset in Barcelona. Coupled with a glass or two of sangria and you can't go wrong...except when it proves difficult to find. On a positive note, we saw a beautiful sunset from the outskirts of the graveyard and had some top notch views as well. Footsore and forlorn, we trudged back to the metro and headed for home. Rhi was feeling a trifle off that evening, so instead of going back to Sensi as planned, we stopped off at a little bar close to the apartment for a simple meal. I was feeling like a glass of sangria - the bar only did sangria in litres or half-litres. So I grit my teeth (gritted my teeth? grat my teeth?) and set about getting through it. Now, those who know me will be aware that I'm not a heavy drinker and sangria is pretty potent stuff! This was a particularly nice brew and by the time I had sipped through a couple of glasses, I was convinced that I had ordered 5 litres and not half. Needless to say, Rhi found the situation very amusing and luckily, I managed to sleep it off before the 5am start and 14 hour pilgrimage to Nice the next day.