Barcelona

1st April 2017

Barcelona is an exciting city. The feeling here is of excitement, friendliness, a vibrant city. Features such as la Rambla, the long pedsestrian mall with eateries all along it, squares with eateries all around them, buskers, jugglers, a tangle of different fashions, races, tourists and locals. We have spent 2 days here and really enjoyed it. 

Gaudy was an artist here a century ago. He was known for his eccentricity and brilliant colours. (I wonder if this is the origin of the English word “gaudy"?). He designed a cathedral (La Familia). This cathedral seems to me to be the opposite of reverence. In fact the spires here look decidedly irreverent to me - more like I would expect to see at a circus!

We have been pleased to find vegan outlets that we came across by accident. Our favourite place is a square where there are at least 5 cafes, and even a deli exclusively vegan or offering significant vegan options. Here you can sit in the sun with a glass of wine, great vegan food, and watch people. The  deli offers vegan sausages, cheeses, donuts, mayonaise, seitan steaks, tofu burger patties, various luncheon “meats"…  We also stumbled upon a vegan artisan beer bar, with burgers, wines, beers, all vegan. 

 

Last night we went to a Jazz Club. The trio performing was obviously very passionate about something, with interesting music but I’m sure we would have enjoyed it better if we could have understood the words,. But the words we did understand included “Syria", “support", “resistance” and the music evoked pain and aguish. I think we know what it was about, and we found it encouraging that the whiole world has not gone mad!

 

We saw a beggar today. He had both legs enormously deformed. Both knees were hyperextended, and the tibias deformed and different lengths. He could barely stand and had great difficulty moving about. He stood there patienty while masses of people walked past. Occasionally soneone stopped and gave him some coins. Joe couldn’t resist him and went over with his donation and asked about this story. He is Romanian. Four years ago he was involved in a 4-car pile-up on a highway in Hungary. And here he is. His orthopaedic outcome is disastrous by anyone’s standards and certainly unheard of in Australia where we have free public hospital treatment for all. It’s hard to imagine the impact of such as disaster on his life and that of his family.

He is not the only beggar we have seen though. There are people begging who are clearly immigrants/refugees. Most of them however seem to be trying to earn a living, by selling umbrellas, selfie sticks, flowers, or other random merchandise. They seem to be very polite, not pushy. On the trains we have seen people stand up and tell their story (in Spanish) and then walk around with his cup or hat. Some people have given to them, most haven’t,  but there was no anger or threat. And generally they seem to  be well dressed and groomed.They didn’t feel threateneing as the beggars seemed in Paris last year. And around the city we have seen stickers saying such things as “refugees welcome here” and T-shits saying something similar or urging “care”.

There are racially mixed couples around the streets too. It is quite intriguing to see a very black man and a blonde woman, with a stroller and chocolate coloured kids. Aside from a theoretcial fear that the world will one day be full of grey coloured people it is quite an intesting sight, and one wonders how the parents and grandparents of those involved have adjusted. 

 

On our last evening we attended a flamenco show. WoW! But it was not what I expected. I expected sensual, sexy dancing. But it was fast, dramatic, angry, with foot stomping, clapping, angry gestures. The story being acted seemed to be about the death of the family patriarch and the anger of his widow. Then there was some fury by the daughter and son - in - law. And the Flamenco guitars were amazing- so fast, and so accurate with the notes. 

 

It was however difficult to photograph, in low light and wth such fast movement. And they only gave us a few minutes for photos. ….

We enjoyed Barcelona.