We speak Catalan

Barcelona is a big city to conquer in one weekend. I went with a girl from my program and another, the French girl whom we met in Cádiz, to a concert. We arrived just on time, like true concert-goers, two hours late and just as the band was coming on stage. WhoMadeWho put on a great show, creating a different vibe in this intimate venue (which pleasantly reminded me of San Francisco’s Warfield) than at South Pop. My friends and I made our way to the front row and at the end of the show, the guitarist reached out and shook my hand; I like to think he remembered us from Isla Christina, since we saw them after that show and told them how amazing their performance had been.

Friday was rainy, but we began our day with a free walking tour led by a Swedish man living in Barna (not Barça, he warned us—that’s the fútbol team) for the last six years. He took us to the Ramblas, a street filled with shops, famous for being famous; a mural that Franco installed as a middle-finger-esque gesture to the Catalans (Franco despised Barcelona, so he built an incredibly ugly building in the middle of the old town center, on which he placed another artistic battle: a mural created by Picasso mimicking (more like making fun of) the style of Juan Miró); he took us to city hall and the parliament, explaining the Catalan Independence flag and pointed out the many statues of Saint George killing dragons (the dragon is a symbol of religion, so this Saint was admired for defeating religions outside of Christianity); we walked down the Avenue, after which Picasso’s first cubist work was named: The Brothel of the Avenue.

After getting accustomed to the area, Kait and I explored little on our own until the evening when we ran (late again) to a bar at which we would learn how to make paella, a very traditional and delicious Spanish rice dish. The chef led us to a great market to pick out the seafood, stopping for fresh juice and to point out all the animal parts that we don’t dare to eat in the states. We went back to the bar for tapas and then he began his instruction; he explained the peppers and spices and the order of which to add different types of seafood—it was really great (and hot! Paella is cooked over three rings of fire in a huge flat pan). While we waited for it to cook, the bartender taught us how to make sangria, and we returned to enjoy the fresh seafood paella that I now (sort of) know how to make. After a nap at the hostel we went out for crepes and had a nice conversation with the woman working at the café, despite all we had heard about Catalans refusing to speak Spanish. Cataluña has a strong desire for independence from Spain; the official language is Catalan, which is more like French than Spanish. The Independence flag hangs from balconies all around the city, and there are some who prefer English to Spanish. This isn’t true for every Catalan citizen, but I definitely felt the distance formed between Cataluña and the other, more Spanish-feeling cities I have visited.

We chose a good weekend considering the rain stopped for the most part, and this weekend only included Mercat de Mercats: A series of tents filled the old town square with local tapas and cava (Catalan Champaign); we had coques twice because they were so delicious, and the vender made clear that they were not pizzas. We visited MACBA, Barcelona’s contemporary art museum, and the famous Picasso museum. On Sunday we spent hours at the Sagrada Familia, a beautifully wild work of Gaudi’s architecture that is still being built today. Gaudi spent forty years on this project, knowing he would not live long enough to see it completed. That didn’t seem to bother him though, as he didn’t want to take on the project alone. Gaudi wanted the input of future generations; he laid out his ideas and visions but encouraged the interpretation and contribution of later decades. After a weekend of art and architecture, my friend and I enjoyed café con leche in the same café that was like home to Gaudi and Picasso—the same building in which they spent their leisure and probably came up with the ideas that would change the world forever afterwards. I love the connections of art and history and the present that are so deeply rooted in Spain.