Posted by Greetings from España. I’m in Barcelona for a few days vacation. My original plan was to spend a few days here then head south to Cordoba, Granada & end in Sevilla but I’ve fallen a little ill and may just fly back to London on Sunday instead. I bought some medicine and hopefully I’ll feel well enough to stay on.
I like Spain. I did from the minute I saw the mountain ranges from my plane coming in to Barcelona. Being from Pittsburgh, which is cut into the Allegheny Mtns (though they’re so old, they might as well be hills), I get extremely annoyed if the surrounding countryside of a city (if not the city itself) is flat and, thus in my opinion, boring. But you can see the surrounding mountains from Barcelona so I am heartened.
BCN has a cool flow to it. The ease of the city reminds me a lot of Buenos Aires but like BA there is also a style, a flair to it all. Most of the smaller streets are single lane, cutting in random-seeming directions thru the city. My hostel is on one of these streets, with its narrow sidewalks and all manner of plants hanging from the apt balconies that line the ‘carrer’. There are little Santa’s perched on people’s apt-side balconies, some made to look they were scaling the railing to get in. Somehow, I feel that our Glorious Leader back in the States would be proud of such a dual display of pre-emptive religiousness and capitalism. After all, what is the Christmas without something to sell?
One of the main drags, La Rambla, is akin to a more open version of Philly’s South Street, with interesting shops and restaurants and odd street performers (mimes!). The main attraction that I’ve visited is the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia, designed by the famous architect Antoni Gaudi. If you’ve ever read stories about the angels’ rebellions against heaven after the creation of man, then this is the place I imagine one side launching its attacks from. Needless to say, Maher was thoroughly impressed.
One of the things that strikes me wherever I go is the juxtaposition of the native culture with how it welcomes and assimilates (or sometimes doesn’t) its immigrant populations. In the US, there’s Jay-Z picking up the Knight Rider bhangra song, the influence of Latino players in baseball or the pervasiveness of Chinese food. In London, Brick Lane has become famous for its Bangladeshi restaurants and its setting in Monica Ali’s book of the same name. In Abu Dhabi, most of the Malay-looking fast food workers spoke fluent Arabic with the accent and all.
Here in Barcelona, I’ve wandered thru the narrow streets and heard people chattering away in Spanish one minute, in Arabic the next. I walked into a sandwich shop only to discover that the owner wasn’t Spanish; he was Bangladeshi, from Noakhali province even!! And then there’s the ‘stunning digestive pyrotechnics’ offered by a restaurant called Punjab-Latino. Imagine (if your stomach lets you) – Latino & South Asian fare together!! Aie de mi.
I don’t presume that Spain (or England or the US for that matter) has no immigrant strife; we know that’s not true but quite often, this ferengi can’t always tell who’s immigrant and who’s not. I was almost surprised to hear a pure Amrikan accent from an Asian chick asking me to take a picture of her and her boyfriend while touring La Sagrada Familia! What? No Spanish accento?
Peace. Paz. Paix. Salaam. Shanti.
