Spain

After 29 hours of traveling Lily finally arrived in Barcelona – a bit dazed and very tired, but definitely pleased to be off the plane. She is going to spend the next 6 weeks in a Spainish/ European / English summer – a nice change to Bathurst in winter.

That is one of the main shocks for the body to acclimatise to – to replace the thermals with a bikini. The other difference is the time – but Lily has always been a good sleeper! - no problem going to sleep when the clock says rather than when the body says.

The days seem long though with lunch at 2.00 and dinner at 9.00. But it is light until so late here and the schools don’t finish till 5.30 and shops stay open till 8.30 – it is easy to do things later.

The food is a difference – seasonal and regional differences aside, the diet here is based on rice, fish, beans, bread, coffee, olive oil, bottled water, beer and wine. No too hard to get used to.

And the language of course – be limited to saying ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ doesn’t get you very far. Max is finding that he has to be the personal guide and translator.

And just getting around – the metro and buses are easy to use but you have to know where you are going. Even walking out the door – because all the streets around here are on a grid pattern, they all look the same and until you recognise the street names or different shops it is really easy to confuse them.

But Lily doesn’t have to do any of this on her own. At last Max has someone closer to his age to share converstations and experiences with, and we are really keen to have someone to show around, translate for, introduce to people and places, explain customs and share our Spanish life with.

The Spanish love their sports, and none more than football (soccer). We are drawing to the end of the soccer season and there is just one more week of interclub matches. There is a game on each weekend and lots of talkback and sports shows where everyone gets a chance to have their say. There is one show called ‘Don’t tell me…' (that you don’t like football). The second part of the name is not even used usually. There was almost rioting in the streets when Ronaldino was sent off a couple of games ago. The bars all televise the games and the atmosphere is almost as tense as being at the the game itself. Ronaldino does his share of TV ads, complete with mum and brother. The local tourist shops do a roaring trade of number 10 Barcelona soccer shirts. Sometimes you see a whole family of them!

Barcelona have two soccer teams. Barca (pronounced Barsa) and Espanyol which sounds like a spanish team and had us confused for a while until someone explained to us it was a local, home-grown Barcelona team. Everyone follows the soccer and it is important to have a favourite team and follow it religiously.

At the moment we are watching Nadal and Federer play the Roland Garros final. Rafa as he is affectionately called here is looking the strongest at the moment. The locals will be very happy tomorrow if he wins. He is their golden-haired boy who can do no wrong, and features in a series of TV commercials for Cacaulaut – (like Milo) and Nike and maybe some others too. He is in huge posters around the city and over the cover of magazines and newspapers all the time …. that is when the limelight is not taken by Ronaldino.

PS: Rafa won – so everyone will be in high spirits tomorrow.

You can’t get away from it – art is everywhere in Barcelona. From architecture, to lamp posts, from parks to street sculpture; it is just part of the life.

Barcelona being an old city has buildings dating back several hundred years, and these of course are majestic and ornate, but the buildings from the 21st century, especially the Modernist period, are the ones that dominate the streets. There are carved cherubs, stone flowers, ornate iron work, sculpted columns, spiral staircases and tile work. Gaudi was not the only architect to leave his mark on Barcelona - he was just the most extreme with his free-flowing style.

Modern buildings too, in many cases, spurn the idea of flat walls or unimaginative roof lines. An unusual balcony, a curved wall, a glass panel … there is often something a bit different.

The streets are also used as open air galleries and exhibition spaces. It is a lovely way to interact with the artwork. The works are appreciated by the tourists and locals alike and I think it makes for an interesting environment to be able to sit in the shadow of a sculpture and eat lunch or have a coffee, or walk past them as you go to and from work.

There is a new exhibition in Plaza Real starting today right outside our tango room. It is recycled 'rubbish' made into statues - much like the 1000 or so chinese soldiers all standing in order. I'll include a picture soon.

Even the graffiti is very good quality and more artistic than just names and writing.

It is fun and the teachers, Claudio y Diana, are very good, and very patient. There are about 5 or 6 couples and we meet for 1 1/2 hours each Tuesday in a room at the Pipa Club. When we arrived we discovered it was frequented by usually old, pipe smoking men. It has a Sherlock Holmes feels to it and the decore is of the same period. Fortunately though we don’t have to share their smoke and they only have to deal with our dancing when making their way to the toilet.

This is the beginners class so we are not the only ones who don’t know what to do. There are one or 2 other foreigners but the rest are locals.
We have learnt about 4 different steps and are slowly getting better at putting them together.

All the females wear high heels, so I have been trying to learn to walk/dance in my new shoes.

The steps look great and easy when Claudio and Diana do them … we have a long way to go. As well as the lesson there are open dance nights during the week where for an entry fee you can join in and practice your steps or watch how the good dancers do it.

I haven’t learnt dance before but I am finding it very enjoyable. After another 4 weeks we might be able to show off back home. It is a shame we won’t be here longer.

We have had our first visitor. Michael Agzarian dropped in for the weekend from Sweden. It is hard to image how close the countries are. He did have to get a few flights but total flying time is less than flying across Australia.
So for a few days we did touristy things like go out to restaurants in the centre of Barcelona, shopping, ice creams on La Rambla, sculpture exhibitions, travel the metro, walk the old quarters, lunch in cafes, and generally take in the sights. It was nice to have someone besides us 3 to share things with.

Without any Spanish Michael managed to make himself understood surprisingly well, always getting what he wanted in the end – shopping for clothes, getting the markets to sell him fish even though they were shutting, internet connection , haircuts, and a taxi to meet him outside at 4.30am.

(I am writing this as I watch the soccer on TV and Ronaldiño who plays for Barcelona has just got sent off. The crowd is going wild.)

We visited a monastery in the mountains about an hour outside Barcelona called Montserrat. It was an amazing place with sheer rock outcrops in strange and striking shapes. There were a lot of people there as well as school groups filling in their last weeks before the long summer holidays start.

The cathedral was beautiful with a long queue of people waiting to touch the ‘Black Virgin’ statue. A choir of alter boys sang and then also a choir from Slovania sang too.

We walked up the mountain a bit but you could really spend a long time there walking and seeing the sights.