Quatre dies a Barcelona

Quatre dies a Barcelona / Quatros dias en Barcelona / Four days in Barcelona (this is how signs here often read, in this order: Català, Castellano, English)

Wow, we've already been here for four days? Time is flying by, and I can't believe we're already been here in Spain for two weeks. At the same time, it seems like two more months ahead is way too much, but at the rate our days have been passing, I'm not too worried!

Our place to stay here in Barcelona (the most expensive city in Spain) is a small room in our hosts' apartment, not much larger than the double bed that is in it. It's also on the "tercero" floor, which sounds like it's the third floor but really it's more like the 6th. There's the ground floor, then two more intermediate floors before "primero" begins and "segundo" follows. Oh, did I mention, there's no lift either so it's quite the fun workout. But for less than 50 Euro per night in a very expensive city, what can I say? It's totally clean, nice bathroom (with separate toilet in a different door), has some A/C, and is owned by a young gay couple (26 and 39 years old). We are in the heart of the winding web of alleys that make up old town Barcelona.

This neighborhood, known as El Raval, is THE definition of density to me ... we've been through many narrow streets in other cities, but this part of Barcelona, and neighboring El Gothic are really something to see. It's so dense, in fact, that trash trucks can't come through this part of town. Instead, there are these interesting silver pillars sticking up from the ground that allow you to throw your garbage down (like a trash chute in an apartment) - but get this: the trash gets sucked 1-2 kilometers out of the neighborhood to be picked up by the trucks elsewhere ... pneumatic suction garbage disposal? Pretty smart idea!

Trash gets sucked out of the old town

This being the city of Gaudi, we wondered past a few of the well known examples of his work: Casa Mila, Casa Batllo, la Sagrada Familia, and the Parc Guell. Of the lot, I found Casa Battlo to be the most interesting visually. I can definitely appreciate how Gaudi's work was shocking and totally new at the time of its creation (early 1900s) - the goal, it seems, is to avoid straight lines altogether and many of his buildings, to me, were inspired by very organic shapes like a sponge with all its holes, or cellular structures. This, in the face of the symmetry and formal balance of the style that was dominant at the time is definitely quite different. They were all cool to see from the outside, but for 16-20 euro per site (except for the park), we skipped on going inside ... I don't really feel like I missed too much, and I have a hard time justifying that much cash at each place.

 La Sagrada Familia - constantly under construction after Gaudi's death...

 Casa Battlo ... skull and bones façade with a roof that looks like a dragon's back

Casa Mila

Right in our neighborhood is the well known La Boqueria market which was overwhelming in the most wonderful way. Valencia may have a nicer building, but it's the vendors here that really make it awesome.

 Any kind of zumo (juice) you could want ...

We tried fruits we've never seen before, one of which whose name escapes me right now, but was like a brown bumpy fig-shaped thing which, when cracked open, had 3 orange-slice like flesh sections each with a seed in the middle.

It tasted like pineapple and lychee combined, but that description really does it no justice. It's from South Africa (or, at least the one we had at the market was grown there).

 We also had a "granadilla" - a smooth yellow pomegranate-like ball which had passion fruit style seeds/flesh inside. I was familiar with this taste when we lived in Hawaii since it was like Lilikoi (yellow passionfruit).

Of course there were plenty of stands selling fresh Zumos (fruit juices) made from yesterday's fruits (smart idea), but the one that takes the cake is the egg stand selling ostrich and emu eggs!!

Ostrich and Emu eggs (emu = black one)

Lunch was at the well-known Pinotxos Bar (catala for pinocchio) where we enjoyed the day's special of garbanzo beans with herbs and some kind of meat (jamon? prosciutto?) with fried lamb chops, all while watching the very busy market at work.

Food here in Catalunya is dominated by the sea and lighter flavors. One evening we went to a traditional Catalan style restaurant called Origens. There, we sampled local cheese/cured meats alongside a traditional plain "coca" (not cocaine!) - a local toasted bread which comes with a clove of garlic and a small tomato.

Local Catalunya cheese and meats

Here is a step-by-step on how to eat a Catalan "coca" "

 First, you peel the garlic and rub it onto the crusty, crunchy bread which grinds down the garlic and picks up the oils.

 Next, you slice the tomato, squish it, and rub the squashed tomato insides all over the bread as well.

Finish it off with some top-notch Spanish olive oil drizzled all over (extra for me please), a pinch of salt, and down it goes. S. had told me about this bread dish and I totally didn't expect to find it while I was here, but I guess it's a pretty common local dish.

 Our main piece of the dinner was a more dressed-up "coca" bread, this time topped with pulled duck, figs, and caramelized onions.

Ian is a happy camper 

Walking around these neighborhoods has been our daily activity in and of itself. There are sooo many cool little shops here. One was selling traditionally made, handcrafted Espadrilles (rope-sole shoes with canvas tops that come from the northern Spain/southern France Basque region) but this being Sunday, the workshop was closed.

 Not the same Espadrilles as from the actual workshop I tried to go to (there, they only cost 10 euro) but still pretty nonetheless ... this one is from La Rioja and is hand made as well

I did end up buying a practical souvenir from a cool shop: a wallet with coin pouch made by a company called Vaho which uses old advertising banners and cuts, folds, and sews them into wallets and bags. It's like the Germany-based Freitag company, but Freitag uses old truck tarps instead.

My little wallet/coin pouch

One thing about Barcelona: tourists everywhereeeeeee. It seems pretty impossible to step into a "local's" side of the city simply because it appears such a thing does not exist. There are simply more touristy and less touristy areas, but it's still all very touristy. We've walked on foot pretty much everywhere in this city (limit to limit) and if it's not Gaudi apartments or Sagrada Familiar in the north, it's the old town in the south - and if it's not Monjuic in the west, its the port and olympic village over a bit more to the east. What's more, even if I speak Castellano spanish or even Català to a store clerk or waiter, most of them immediately reply in English. I understand it's simply the result of tourism and it's just faster for them to get what needs to be done in English but it still makes me sad. My Català hasn't been used much aside from reading signs and menus - oh well. I find it pretty easy to understand with a French background. One sandwich shop worker (the well known Bo de B by the beach) was fun and even teased me "Wow! Català when I ordered and said "Si us plau" (thank you in Català). My proud moment of the week was going into the local pharmacy the other night and speaking with a pharmacist in Castellano spanish to describe the dry cough I've been having and getting her recommendation between a couple of different remedies (I ended up with an all-natural bee propylis pastille to dissolve in my mouth). My Spanish has come quite far in just two weeks!

We also saw a really interesting Argentinian film this week called Ausente ("absent") at the French Institute about a young high school student trying to seduce his swim coach (pretty sexy! haha) which was part of the Barcelona Gay/Lesbian film festival. The story was actually a really, really interesting look at how a child can manipulate the adult mind .... it was really well filmed with a great soundtrack that brought out the very creepy moments in the film.

From this point on for the next week it's a totally different ball game - we will be flying to Budapest in the morning, and I have tonight to delve into a language I have no clue about. This will truly be the first time I am somewhere where I haven't a clue about how to speak the language, and I'm sure it will be fun. Somehow, though, I know English will creep up along the way... for now, my great challenge is hanging our freshly washed laundry on the drying line outside with very limited clothespins!

Goodbye, Espana .. it's been a great two weeks.