I’m heading to Spain in a few weeks for the Sonar Festival in Barcelona. It’s essentially a three day party across the city but we have a few extra nights in town beforehand to get to know the place a bit better. So, six nights all up.
Whenever I travel somewhere I usually try to learn a bit more about it before I arrive, then absorb as much as I can while I’m there. But seeing as this trip is more about partying than self-education, once I arrive I probably won’t end up learning about much more than local beers and bikini fashions.
So, tell me about Spain! I’m dimly aware of the Inquisition and the civil war, but basically I was never really interested in the place until I booked a ticket to go there. I’ve just picked up a copy of Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia to read before I arrive. I might also try to read For Whom the Bell Tolls, time permitting, just to get some perspective on the war, even if it is fiction.
What I’m really after are the fascinating little details, historical tidbits, trivia, etc. Local info on good places to eat, drink, dance = not so much. We’ll happily fumble through that when we get there.
So, I’ll start. Orwell went there to fight the fascists as an idealistic young man and got a bullet in the throat for his troubles. So he didn’t just talk the talk on how cruddy fascism is, he also walked the walk. Although talking the talk might have been a wee bit more difficult after that incident.
Even though you don’t want this type of info, I will throw this out there anyway—Do yourself a huge favor and be sure to get some cheap, cold cava instead of beer one night.
Spanish beer is not really to my tastes (though I guess Estrella Damm is pretty good) but cava (Spain’s version of champagne) is heavenly—Up there with the most delicious beverages I have ever drank…
Do you know if public drinking legal there? I’m finding conflicting info online. I have glorious visions of drinking on the beach, and cold cava sounds perfect for it.
If you have a topic search function on your television, just do a search for Spain and you will probably find a wealth of programs. Spain is the happening place! I wish I were going. Fellow Doper JoseB set me on the right track with his recipes for gazpacho, sangria and just the right Spanish music! Just today I watched the movie VickyChristinaBarcelona which was a lark!
Be sure to eat as many tapas as you can! Little sandwiches, but better than that!
Go to Amazon or a bookstore and get the best book on Barcelona that you can find. See the old and the new. If JoseB doesn’t respond to your post before you go, be sure to contact him. He is very kind and thoughtful. He’s smart too even though he did leave Spain.
Oh, and listen to Segovia’s recordings before you go. It will get you in the mood.
Xylo, I’ve never been given a problem drinking in public in Spain. Whether it’s legal or not, everybody does it, and the worst you’ll be told is to move it elsewhere.
After Homage to Catalonia, you might also try Pagan Spain by the American novelist Richard Wright. It’s a non-fiction account of Wright’s travels to Spain in the darkest days of the Franco dictatorship. The book documents a series of everyday encounters with ordinary Spanish people, and tries to make sense of the political culture of the Franco dictatorship. Wright has a distinctive perspective: he’s black, American, an ex-communist, an armchair Freudian who sees phalluses even in cigars. He isn’t as rigorously skeptical as I’d like - he credulously recounts the lie that Franco was a Jew twice. It’s not as good as Homage to Catalonia. But it’s worth reading for getting the human perspective on Spanish history and I would especially recommend it to someone traveling to Barcelona as Wright spends quite a lot of time (half the book?) in Catalonia.
I live near Madrid and the economy here is terrible and getting worse. Today I saw a man and his four-year-old daughter picking through a trash bin on the street.
That’s amazing, I had no idea. I see it was a major factor in the Inquisition, too.
Lots of good advice, thanks Zoe. This was probably the best peice though… I did exactly this before I went to Italy last year and it was great, but somehow it didn’t occur to me this time. And tapas is a major factor in my excitement!
Negative Lite, I’ve heard Madrid is pretty rough, or at least not in the same ballpark as Barcelona, but that’s terrible.
That book sounds interesting, I was chatting recently with a Portugese guy at work who was a dancer during the late Franco years. He was telling me how even though he lived in Portugal, the lack of support for the performing arts in Spain hugely affected his career. He showed me a photo of himself as a young man on stage, dancing in protest with a swastika armband. I’m from Australia originally so it’s incredible when I can speak with someone who puts a real-world spin on European history. I’m much more interested in the human side of these things. I’ll try and check it out before I head off.
You can’t visit Barcelona without seeing some of Antoni Gaudí’s architecture . . . especially Casa Milà, Casa Batlló, and his greatest masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, which is still under construction.
The food in Barcelona is awesome, incredible. To the point where I’ve been trying off and on to learn Catalan so I can get some authentic recipes.
The best source to learn about Catalan cuisine in English is Colman Andrews’ Catalan Cuisine: Vivid Flavors from Spain’s Mediterranean Coast, which has a lot of information about restaurants, festivals, culture, markets, and the like as well as about the food itself. Andrews can be a bit (OK, very) pretentious, but the book is an excellent source of information.
Spain has a number of tiny land holdings just across the Strait in Morocco including parts of the mainland, islands, and peninsulas attache dto the african continent by no more than a low-tide sandbar.
Also, every once in a while they consider building a bridge to Morocco.
The funny thing about Catalonians (natives of the Barcelona area) is that they act like everybody speaks Catalan. Even if you respond back in Castilian Spanish, they will continue talking to you in Catalan. Castilian Spaniards I knew attributed this to Catalonians being big fat jerks and also total snobs, but your mileage may vary.
I feel I must object. There is absolutely no evidence that Juan Carlos has ever stumbled while boarding or disembarking from aircraft. So clearly the reign in Spain never falls on the plane.
