Visca Barça!

Barcelona 2. Madrid 0. Just what we Catalonians like to see!!! We just returned from the smoke-filled, jubilant local bar - and are now being serenaded by the honking of cars parading through the old city at 12:15am. It was an important game in La Liga and the last match-up between Barça and Real Madrid. The competition between the two teams goes beyond just soccer... for the Catalans, who want their independence from Madrid, it is something more fundamental and visceral to beat Madrid - their oppressors. The bar was full of chanting young men, singing with their heart full of pride and emotion, cheering on their team. In one corner of the bar, there was a group of young women, apparently out on a bachelorette night. This is how deep the devotion runs. The funny part was that the bride-to-be was wearing a bridal veil and full soccer attire, complete with shin pads, cleats, jersey and shorts. The kicker: she was wearing the white Real Madrid uniform of Cristiano Ronaldo (Madrid's best player). Her girlfriends must have put her up to it, as they were obviously Barça fans. Pretty sweet bachelorette party if you ask me. ¡Visca Barcelona!

Barcelona!

Barcelona is a fantastic city on the edge of the Mediterranean, nestled in a valley between two hills that rise up on either side; to the south is Montjuic and to the north Tibidabo. Our hotel was near the last stop of the metro line up towards Tibidabo. The neighborhoods up there are full of mansions built in the 19th and 20th century, where the rich families of Barcelona used to perch, lording over their city. On the first morning we ventured out in the late morning, had breakfast in a nearby cafe and took the metro down to Plaça Catalunya. It was a beautiful day so from there we walked the mile or so over to Plaça Espanya and the base of the National Palace on Montjuic. It is an impressive castle, but young, built in 1929 for the World's Fair. Now it houses the National Art Gallery of Catalonia. We didn't go in, but we walked through the grounds and up to the entrance where there is a fantastic view of all of Barcelona.

From there we made our way over to the Poble Espanyol - another construction made for the World's Fair. It is a mini village meant to represent, architecturally, all the regions of Spain. It was supposed to be dismantled after the World's Fair, but due to its success they left it standing to, as it turns out, lure Euros away from gullible tourists. Unfortunately, we fell for it. It's one redeeming quality was that it boasts one of the two traditional glassblowing ovens left in Spain. And the glassblowers were hard at work, making amazing glass figurines in front of our wide-eyes and open mouths. Three rugged middle-aged men, cigarettes dangling from their mouths and beer cans within reach, moved back and forth with red-hot globs of glass and created horses and flowers and vases and candle-holders as if it were no effort at all - in front of a goggle-eyed crowd.

At this point we were ready for lunch. So we hopped on the metro once more and made our way towards the beach. I thought it would be nice to have a picnic on the waterfront. I may not have mentioned, but this was Good Friday and big city or not, EVERYTHING was closed. This is Spain we're talking about. We were feeling weary and despaired of finding a place to buy a sandwich - when lo and behold, there was a cafe open. It didn't look promising surveying the counter but I asked anyway if they had any bocadillos. They did! They went in the back and whipped us up two bocadillos de tortilla de patata. Finally, pushing my luck, I asked if they had any beer in a can that we could take with us too. Two cans of Estrella coming right up. Success! This is Spain we're talking about. So we trooped down to the beach with our lunch fit for a king and found it mobbed. It was wonderful and the sandwiches were delicious, the beer was cold and the entertainment was very "international". There were several volleyball nets and one crew was playing as if they were playing soccer, without using their hands. Their control was incredible. There were a couple of topless sunbathers, and a family of five children playing in the sand right in front of us. When we finished lunch, we both put our feet in the Mediterranean for the first time. Brrr!

That evening we ate dinner in a Japanese restaurant that was so-so, but it was located in the Born neighborhood, which I find enchanting every time I am there. On the walk back, at around 11pm or so, we crossed the Ramblas and came upon a crowd of people and a religious procession for Good Friday.

The next day we got up and moving a bit earlier, with the intention of getting some breakfast and making Park Güell our first stop. It was nine years ago that I was last in Park Güell and I remembered it as this magical place, designed by Gaudi, with enchanted paths, forests and gardens and even the gingerbread house from Hansel and Gretel. All those places were still there when we arrived, but so too was every tourist in existence. It dispelled the magic to wade through a sea of people. So we didn't stay long. Next stop was the Sagrada Familia, another Gaudi masterpiece, albeit an unfinished one. The construction of the Sagrada Familia began in 1882 and is not expected to be finished until 2026. Antoni Gaudi, who died in 1926, was a brilliant architect who was very influenced by the natural world and always incorporated aspects of nature into the structures he designed. In the Sagrada Familia, one is meant to feel as if they are inside of a forest, the ceiling resembling a canopy of trees with little shafts of light filtering through. It is stunning.

The exterior portrays various scenes from the bible, chiseled into the stone facade. The three main facades represent the Nativity, the Glory and the Passion. They are moving in their artistic magnificence and the sheer magnitude of the project still at hand.

That evening, Saturday, we had the great fortune of attending a Barça game at Camp Nou. Our friends here in Solsona knew someone with season tickets and so we went for free and had really spectacular seats. It was Barça against Bilbao and it was a great game. Barça scored 4 goals and Bilbao 1 - apparently it is not very common to have such a high scoring game. How lucky we were to see so many goals! There was energy and singing and excitement in the stadium. It was a lot of fun.

We went back to Solsona that night and the next day enjoyed Easter dinner with Roser and her family. And of course we ate La Mona!

Bona Pascua! Buena Pascua! Happy Easter! 

Montserrat

We just got back from a wonderful long weekend in Barcelona - likely our last stint in Barcelona before heading back to the states. We started the trip on Thursday by going to Montserrat. The mountain of Montserrat is an amazing place - it rises up out of the river valley Llobregat and it's summit, called Sant Jeroni, is 1.236 meters above sea level. It's name name, "Monte" "Serrat" means serrated mountain and that is indeed what it looks like. From our perch in the castle in Solsona, Montserrat is sometimes visible in the distance and looks like line graph - up close it is stunning and almost surreal in its formation. There is a monastery dating from the 11th century that sits about 725m up the mountain. It is is a very spiritual place, even if you are not religious. For the Catalan people it is also a very important cultural symbol since during the Spanish civil war and the years of Franco, when their language was banned, the monastery preserved and carried on the language with its own printing press. We visited the art museum next to the monastery, which was surprisingly good, and entered the monastery to light a candle as is the custom. Next we boarded a tram that took us up to a summit of sorts, though not the highest point on the mountain. We explored the peaks and then hiked back down to the monastery where we again got into the aerial that carried us all the way back to the bottom. If you want to know more about Montserrat you should check out their website.

From Montserrat the train into Barcelona takes an hour and we made it into the city around 7pm and by 8pm we were checked into our hotel. Too tired from the day to think about venturing out for dinner, we just popped downstairs and over to a little bakery on the corner for a delicious baguette. We snacked on that along we some leftovers from the lunch we had packed and settled in for a good nights sleep, but not before catching a few minutes minutes of some Russell Crowe action movie from the 90's - dubbed of course. Sweet! The rest of the weekend posting is to be continued...

Flip Flops and a Walking Stick

Yesterday we decided to walk to Cardona. We were guessing that it was between 20-25 kilometers from Solsona - I say guessing because we weren't going by the main road, or como vuela la corneja (the actual translation for "as the crow flies" into Spanish is just "in a straight line" so I like my version better - more colorful). We were taking a dirt path that follows el rio negre from Solsona all the way to Cardona - or so we had been told. The river doesn't actually show up on any map that we looked at, but there is no doubting its existence, as we were soon to find out. This walk was the first of our training walks to prepare us for the Camino de Santiago, so we weren't messing around. We packed our backpacks as if we were really going - to practice with weight and stamina - and set off for the day. We left at 10am for what ended up being 8 hours of walking. It was really nice out, cool, but nice, and we had some adventures thrown in there by crossing back and forth over the river we were following. Most of the time we crossed we waded in with our pants rolled up, using our walking sticks to keep us upright as we stepped on rocks while we crossed through the current. I had brought my flip flops along, since I was packed for real, and we took turns crossing using these. Kristian first, since we trusted his arm more than mine to send the flip flops back across the river. Before we resigned ourselves to wading across, we had some fun searching up and down the bank looking for a better spot to cross and lugging fallen trees to the bank in attempts to make a bridge. Highly amusing - but in the end the only way was straight on through. We never did make it to Cardona, which was further away than we anticipated. After walking for 5 hours we came out to a main road and found a sign saying 8 kilometers to Cardona and 8 kilometers to Solsona. We decided to walk the last 3 hours in the direction of home and save Cardona for another day. Today we're feeling good, not really any leg soreness, just getting used to wearing the packs for an entire day. So it is looking good for the Camino!

La Mona and I don't mean The Monkey

There is a special cake made and eaten at Easter time here in Catalonia and it is called La Mona - which literally means monkey... but this cake has little to do with monkeys, except in as far as the children scamper around like little monkeys trying to get another piece of cake.

The Friday before vacation was dedicated to Easter activities. In the morning each class decorated its own mona. They made paper chef hats and went to town. All the cakes were put on display in the main hall and when the parents came to pick up their kids for the midday meal, there was lots of ooing and ahing. In the afternoon, the entire school trooped outside and each grade level had its turn to sing an easter song, called caramelles, and the upper level performed some Catalan dances in traditional dress. Afterwards, the cakes were brought out to the playground and each class devoured their own cake. They made short work of the cakes, so I didn't get a piece, but in the real life, the day of the Mona is Easter Sunday. So I'll get to try some then!

These are the sweetest two girls, both from Argentina, in 5th grade. The one on the left is gluten-intolerant so her mother made her a special cake so that she didn't have to feel left out while the others chowed down. She was so cute with her own little mona!

This is traditional Catalan dress for males.

Another Exciting Discovery at the Castle

The temperatures climbed to 18 or 19 degrees today and a warm breeze wafted through the plaza. We opened up all the Spanish doors in our apartment and let the springtime in! 

Later, we made a picnic and hiked up to the castle to spend a few hours in the sunshine. The trees are blooming and spring is really here.

On the walk up we saw the most curious thing. A line of caterpillars walking up the road - in  fact there were many lines of them, though most had been smooshed by passing cars. It was so odd and interesting, the way they stayed together as they moved, that we googled it as soon as we got home.

This is what we read: An innocent line of caterpillars on the move in the area of pine trees may not appear dangerous. Be aware, however, that these harmless looking creatures can present a serious threat to humans, and most especially, to dogs and cats. The caterpillars should be avoided at all costs but if humans or animals come into contact with them, emergency treatment should be sought immediately.

Each caterpillar has approximately 60,000 pointed defensive urticating (barbed) white hairs containing a toxin. They have been known to cause a severe itchy rash on humans that can last up to three weeks and can even cause temporary blindness and/or respiratory problems. A doctor should be consulted.

Kinda makes you want to just stay at home. Happy Spring!