Travels with Charley Part 2

So where did I leave off?  Oh yeah, we were on the plane to our second destination.............(those are drumroll dots) Barcelona, Spain!  The home of Catalan, Tapas and the 1992 Summer Olympics!  Just a quick aside, I learned the origin of the word "Tapas".  For those unfamiliar with Spanish Tapas, they are bite-size portions typically of meats and cheeses, finger foods if you will, generally eaten late at night and always with a beer or wine.  So the word "Tapas" essentially translates to "Toppers."  Years ago in Catalonyan villages, people would ritualistically head out to the pub for a drink or two and spend a few hours sitting over a warm beer discussing the happenings of the day.  The pubs were filled with not only meats, cheeses and other foods, but also laborers ripe from a days work in the fields.  So as you can imagine, odor often emanated from both the consumed and the consumer, drawing multitudes of flys and other unwanteds.  The waiters would then place a small plate on top of the beer of each of their clients to keep the pesky flys from entering their drinks.  Eventually someone came up with the brilliant idea of placing small slices of cheese, meat or other delectables on the plate, free-of-charge, for the customers enjoyment.  Beer with a plate of snacks on top.  Dual-purpose dining.  Obviously Tapas are now a tradition in most of Spain as well as the rest of the world, no longer free-of-charge or placed on top of the drink, but definitely still an enjoyable part of each evening.  I was told that in the more traditional sections of Catalonya, many villages still employ the complimentary nature of their Tapas, a free plate of snacks with each beer or glass of wine ordered.  Not a bad idea in my opinion.

So back to Barcelona.  Joel, Allison and I decided that we'd like to come to appreciate the nuances of Barcelonian culture rather than spread ourselves thin skipping from one destination to another, so we spent 7 days exploring the coastal city of Eastern Spain.  To keep this blog a bit shorter, I'll point out just a few of my favorite places and experiences.

1:  Parc Guell - This is a residential community-turned-park designed by the renowned artist Gaudi.  His architectural style is unique to say the least.  He didn't believe in squared or boxed figures, including corners of buildings.  Thus, everything appears to flow from rounded and smooth shapes, from one section to the next with seemless transitions.  If you've seen the Sagrada Familia chapel in Barcelona you'll understand his style.  It's was almost as if everything were made of ice cream and had been left out in the sun for too long, dripping and drooping.  The park itself was huge and beautiful, even where his structures weren't the prominent feature.

2:  Montjuic - Home of a few museums, which we didn't enter, but more importantly the home of the 1992 Olympic Stadium and facilities.  This was the first summer Olympics that I vividly remember watching, mostly the domination of Jordan, Pippen, Malone, Barkley, Bird and the rest of the Dream Team.  My childhood heroes.  You may also remember the old "Dan and Dave" ads featuring two decathlon athletes for Team USA.  Well I specifically do because my best friend at the time was called Dave, thus we were commonly known as "Dan and Dave," probably more because of our similarly extraordinary athletic prowess more than our names I would imagine.  Either way, the three of us were able to tour the original site of what I fondly remember as a special year of the Olympics.

3:  Spanish - Seems pretty self-evident right, being in Spain?  Well I obviously knew that Spanish was spoken there quite widely before arriving, but for those who don't know, I used to live in Latin America and have some experience with Latinos in the US, so Spanish has been a major influence in my life over the past 10 years.  So much so that my life in Edinburgh feels a bit lacking without it.  Re-entering a mostly-Spanish speaking culture again for the first time in a while was invigorating!  Though the city itself was comprised of mostly foreigners and international travellers, almost everyone spoke Spanish, thus filling my ears and my heart with a much-missed element in my life.  It reminded me of a people and culture that have impacted me greatly, giving me new incentive to finish my degree and pursue a path back towards this long-lost world.

Well, you can't have the good without the bad, so I'll raise only one contention with this experience.  Barcelona is exciting in its own right and for many reasons, but it lacks any singular or historical culture at the present, at least in my opinion.  Expectations are a fickle friend, quickly and often times letting you down.  I walked into Barcelona hoping for a rich Spanish experience, particularly a Catalonyan experience.  Instead I encountered a conglomerate of cosmopolitan world cultures interacting and creating the cultura mezclada that is Barcelona.  Again, this has a beauty of its own, but left me feeling a bit dazed and confused, much like opening a bag of mixed candies when what you really wanted was a rich, dark chocolate bar...still delicious but far too diverse and lacking distinction.  Obviously this critique is open to its own criticism as this was just my experience, but it was my experience after all.  

Aside from this one negative, we had a fantastic time wandering the streets, eating Tapas, shopping, seeing the architecture, interacting with the "locals" and catching up on life.  After our week and a half of exploration, we finally had to part ways, them heading back to Arizona (only after an unexpected day-long delay in Madrid due to mechanical failures) and me off to a final week of resting and relaxation in Berlin with a few friends of mine.

So that's my holiday "Travels with Charley" experience for you.  Obviously a much shortened version, leaving out all the gory details and dangerous shenanigans that my mother would chastise me for not only joining, but seeking out.  Don't worry mom, no hold-ups, sharks, sky-diving or illegal activities were involved in this trip :)  Just good, ol' fashioned fun.