The Old Countries

Dave in the Old Countries. Including but not limited to France, Spain, Denmark, Germany...

Sunday, July 16, 2006

City of Ronaldinho

Barcelona, the capital of Catalunya.

The two-euro-cent history lesson is that Spain is actually made up of 15 autonomous communities, each with their own people, history and often language. The most separatist of these are Catalunya, the Basque Country and Galicia. There's a whole militant history with the central Spanish government which at the moment is a little more amicable.

The cheap flights out of Paris are, unsurprisingly, at a horrible hour of the night. We flew Vueling this time and were pleasantly surprised by the quality, especially of the plane, a new A320. And we had a spare seat next to us which gave us more space for Nick to beat me at German Whist. Pretty sure he cheated.

However, arriving in Barcelona, it was far hotter than it had any right to be - all of 33 just after midnight! So lugging packs in search of Jo's apartment was a little wearying. Jo, who's a seriously great friend of Ange's, had been ridiculously generous in the offer of the floor of her apartment for the duration of our Barca time. How ridiculous became obvious as we finished the three-storey climb; with five people in the tiny aparment already (Ange, Dave, Rach, Cath, Jo) it was real squashy and ten degrees hotter than outside. Adding two of us, overheated from pack-backing, made it no better.

But we survived the night. And the next night, on the beach, we were to meet another horribly generous expat Barcelonian, Fred the American, a friend of Jo's. His apartment was not a lot bigger (though air-conditioned) - but he took in three of us for the rest of the stay, easing the squeeze somewhat. He slept on the couch, too!

Barcelona beaches are actually kinda crap, the sand is dirty and the Mediterranean water is lukewarm and wimpy. But the sun pounds down and the water gives you at least some respite. Plenty of nudity as well, but it's all very normal and becomes comfortable. Not that I actually did it.

Ahead of myself, first we saw some Gaudi. They love him, his buildings are everywhere. We saw the Gaudi Park, a nice oasis of green in a dusty city, and the Sagrada Familia, his magnum opus, a cathedral still being built from the great man's plans. It will be an amazing building when finished, so baroque and ornate, with bits which are frankly nuts. But it's nowhere near done yet, and if they keep letting tourists in like this, it'll never get done.

Next day, Rach and I went to Montserrat - a bite-size mountain an hour from Barça. There's a monastery up there, which is OK (though how many pretty churches can an atheist seriously appreciate?), but it's more about the views. Some amazing rock formations and peaks, and a pretty nice walk to the top, through varying vegetation. We took a cable-car and a funicular as well. A fun day, though pretty tiring. (For me, obviously, not so much for Rach because she's superhuman.)

Went to Figueras one day, this small town a couple of hours away was Dali's hood and remains dedicated to the man. The guided tour around the town and through the museum was pretty good, as there are plenty of stories behind him (date paste in his moustache, for instance?). And because he designed and outfitted the museum over the second half of his life, it's almost as weird as he was.

And there was tapas, paella, mojitos, pollo, all very Spanish. But more of those to come next - San Sebastian.

LATER:

Oh, yeah, there was that bar with the multiple rounds of mojitos. For those who don't know, it's all about the fresh mint. I thought it was funny as well when the guy went all Cocktail-style and started juggling bottles. Luckily, it bounced. And then later, on realising that we were Australian, he somehow comped us a tray of evil shots, free. The ones where you have to do the shot then put your hand over the glass, so you can suck up the gases with a straw. Quite dangerous.

1 Comments:

At 31/7/06 11:05 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Montserrat was way cool :-)

 

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