In truth these Tales should never be called Spanish, but Catalonian Tales are too long to say&spell. So Spanish Tales they shall be. I thought we were going to Spain. But, apparently, Barcelona is a capital city of Catalonia – one of the provinces of Spain, pretty much independent. And somewhat different from the rest of the Spain too. Catalonians speak different language and get upset when you call them Spanish…
As I don’t speak either Spanish or Catalonian, communication wasn’t really a problem to me. Now, that sounds bizarre…it is sad to admit that living in English-speaking country totally spoilt me and if for my first trips to Egypt, to France, to Germany I made an effort to get some basic skills in native tongue of the country I’m visiting, but later I just stopped going beyond few main phrases – there is no point anyway, since English has become truly international language now. (Still -shame on me!)
So, armed with few basic Catalonian phrases, having done my homework on what to expect in Barcelona, off we went to…Girona. Yeah, that was the airport of our choice, since the flight schedule was more convenient and it is only 100 kilometres from the capital. The other secret reason was that this gave us opportunity to visit something more then just one city – on our way back we’ve spent a day in Girona and even ventured to the small town of Figueres, not far from it. That was a day worth having. But all of this – later…
First – it’s Barcelona, of course. Barcelona (Barca, as they call her) is one bizarre city. Imagine big modern metropolis, straight wide roads, American style grid system of streets, pompous fountains, lined up palms along the full of light avenues…and among all these practical designs as of a sudden - truly odd places, buildings and monuments. As if some crazy artist ran around the city with the bucket full of paint, randomly spilling bright colourful stains everywhere.
Barcelona could be called World Capital of Modern Art. They just see Technology as a form of art. When somewhere else the factory’s pipes are just the big ugly things sticking out from the ground, in Barcelona they “grow” them into gardens, decorate them and convert them into natural landscape of Industrial Parks…the same goes about any weird technological construction, really. In Catalonia they never seem to keep a scrap yards, but rather - artistic workshops…
There are few famous names associated with Catalonia in general and Barcelona in particular. The most well-known - Antonio Gaudi, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Joan Miro. There are others, but my journey only scoped those, who were all crazy as well as geniuses. I also have few general observations about Barcelona, Girona and Figueres. So, tune in for more of the Spanish Tales later…
As I don’t speak either Spanish or Catalonian, communication wasn’t really a problem to me. Now, that sounds bizarre…it is sad to admit that living in English-speaking country totally spoilt me and if for my first trips to Egypt, to France, to Germany I made an effort to get some basic skills in native tongue of the country I’m visiting, but later I just stopped going beyond few main phrases – there is no point anyway, since English has become truly international language now. (Still -shame on me!)
So, armed with few basic Catalonian phrases, having done my homework on what to expect in Barcelona, off we went to…Girona. Yeah, that was the airport of our choice, since the flight schedule was more convenient and it is only 100 kilometres from the capital. The other secret reason was that this gave us opportunity to visit something more then just one city – on our way back we’ve spent a day in Girona and even ventured to the small town of Figueres, not far from it. That was a day worth having. But all of this – later…
First – it’s Barcelona, of course. Barcelona (Barca, as they call her) is one bizarre city. Imagine big modern metropolis, straight wide roads, American style grid system of streets, pompous fountains, lined up palms along the full of light avenues…and among all these practical designs as of a sudden - truly odd places, buildings and monuments. As if some crazy artist ran around the city with the bucket full of paint, randomly spilling bright colourful stains everywhere.
Barcelona could be called World Capital of Modern Art. They just see Technology as a form of art. When somewhere else the factory’s pipes are just the big ugly things sticking out from the ground, in Barcelona they “grow” them into gardens, decorate them and convert them into natural landscape of Industrial Parks…the same goes about any weird technological construction, really. In Catalonia they never seem to keep a scrap yards, but rather - artistic workshops…
There are few famous names associated with Catalonia in general and Barcelona in particular. The most well-known - Antonio Gaudi, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Joan Miro. There are others, but my journey only scoped those, who were all crazy as well as geniuses. I also have few general observations about Barcelona, Girona and Figueres. So, tune in for more of the Spanish Tales later…
