Life in a year full of Saturdays: Barcelona

Bitch of a song cost me 40 Euros!

Barcelona (Spain)
03 JUL - 04 JUL

After a few days in Madrid and additionally throwing myself into the mix in Barcelona I'm finding that my Spanish is starting to come on reasonably well. I mean I'm not pulling off any suave pick up lines ....AS YET....but I'm being understood. It's kind of amusing pulling off a line and actually hearing yourself in a language that's not your mother tongue and then waiting for the acknowledgment to register on the face of your intended target. You're facing the litmus test every time you open your mouth, but I guess that's part of the fun. Sometimes you get it wrong and then they respond with a weird look and the word 'como', which is like a polite way of saying, 'Dude, WTF!!?'

On the 3rd of July my parents and I scouted the area around where we've been based for the last few days, Barri Gotic. The term of Barri Gotic refers to a number of streets around the main cathedral which have many buildings of medieval origin. The 'streets' around the area are really rather large lane ways, surrounded by particularly old buildings, although a majority of them would have been built sometime between the 1800s-1900's. Walking around the area definitely provides a type of charm which can only be categorised as old style Mediterranean. There are now of course many bars and restaurants in the area which draws tourists and locals alike right throughout the day and late, late into the darkness of the night and early morning. The street that I'm staying on, Carrer Ample, is located basically at the base of a 'triangle' which forms the Barric Gotic, the base being the port, one supporting side being Las Ramblas, the apex Plaza Catalunya and the other side being Calle Atocha.

We walked through the Gothic area for a few hours and I managed to stumble into a plaza that I was trying to locate on my last excursion to Barcelona back in 2008. Unfortunately I forget the name of the plaza (well, until just now, Plaza de Sant Felip Neri), but in the plaza exists a rather sombre reminder of Spain's dark history during the Civil War years in which a wall of one of the churches within the square is absolutely riddled with bullet holes. Asking around we found out that the wall was basically used as a backdrop for firing squads, a place where Franco nationalist forces massacred supporters of the Republican movement. A strangely quitet and haunting place for the most part, and strangely, eerily beautiful all in the same breath.

Streets of the Barri Gotic - Barcelona

Plaza de Sant Felip Neri - Barri Gotic - Barcelona

Entry to the Plaza de Sant Felip Neri - Barri Gotic - Barcelona

After a few hours back at the apartment Dad and I dropped down to Bar 32 on the Carrer Ample to watch the Germany v.Argentina quarter final. To our surprise and my mild disappointment Argentina didn't put up much of a fight. They received a fairly cheap goal early on in the first half and then were basically placed in a position where they were chasing the game right from the outset. They did have a decent period of play in the second half and looked quite likely to equalise in the first 20 mins before Germany again breached their defence. Argentina crumbled after that point and went on to lose 4-0, not a particularly flattering scoreline for a team that looked to have the skill and capability of winning the World Cup this year.

Later in the evening I caught up with Ali and her friends, Haley and Georgia, for dinner and what turned out to be several drinks too many. For the past few weeks Ali had been mentioning that her friend Hayley was single, and perhaps, required some hot Serbian cabanossi for a while under the wonderful charms of the 'muy calor' Barcelona sun. I'm not sure what type of 'word' she put in for me but for that evening at least I was as 'charming' and as capable as I've 'sometimes' been known to be and at a certain point after dinner I thought for a moment , just a moment, that the wild long locks of Senor Elisher had done their trick in terms of the ever flowing force of expert flirtation. It appeared, perhaps within the context of my own drunken excesses, that the lovely Hayley could possibly have been a convert, well, that was until the sangria, mai tai's and all other forms of alcohol that I thought were being used to my advantage all of a sudden became 'the great unraveler' of all things nocturnally possible and good. Never the less, we did somehow manage to stumble on a bar that was by chance having a salsa night, and hey now, guess who has some solid Intermediate salsa moves these days! I took both Ali and Georgia for a bit of a spin, and to tell you the truth, it ended up being a lot of fun, a great night all round in the city of Gaudi - so thanks to the girls for being my minders for the night, even if I didn't end up minding one of them for the rest of the night...lol....there's always the return match in Sydney. I'll be sure to get my protractor out and work on my angles before then!

Oh, what I did forget to add is that the girls and I kicked off with dinner at an Italian restaurant that night, not so much out of design but by way of haphazard fortune. We were actually looking for a place to watch the Spain v.Paraguay quarter final, of course a hugely anticipated event in Barcelona, not simply due to the fact that it was Spain playing but also for the fact that these guys are known to be perennial chokers, really, more so than Michael Hutchence. And for the first 2/3rd of the game it looked as though those magical world cup tendencies were coming back to haunt them. Paraguay received a penalty in about the 62nd minute and by some strange twist of fate did a Ghana on themselves and totally missed their God given opportunity to put themselves a goal up with just under 30 mins remaining. Unbelievably 1-2 mins later Spain also received a penalty and whist Piquet nailed the first shot, a few of the Spanish players had breached the line when the penalty was taken, meaning a retake. Taking the penalty once again was fatal and on this occasion Piquet crumbled, it was still a neutral 0-0 game with 25 mins left to play in regulation time. The crowd in the restaurant fell deathly silent at that point and it kind of reminded me of the eerie silence that graced ANZ stadium during the Australia v.Uruguay qualifier back in 2005. It was almost as if the collective conscience of the Spanish people were thinking, 'Oh great, we've just discovered a more creative and novel way to lose a game'.

As the game progressed the more I felt as though Spain were going to take this to penalties and of course find a creative way of 'fluffing it', but somehow, by some miracle, Spain managed to breach the Paraguay defence via the brilliance of David Villa. The bridesmaid underachievers (Second in line on that ranking only to Holland) had made it to the final four and had now given themselves a chance of making it to the final dance. If it was 2008 then I wouldn't hesitate in saying that the next game would be just a formality but Germany are looking formidable (well ever since their loss to SERBIA), and Spain, well for you I can say that you can still take solace in the fact that you'll still play a final match of sorts after the semi, a 3rd/4th place play off against Uruguay is beckoning. Who knows though, I'd love for them to surprise me and themselves by getting past the panzer squad.

The next day the parents and I jumped onto an open top, hop-on/hop-off tourist bus in order to check out the city and set our eyes on a few of Barcelonas' more popular sites. Our first stop was The Temple of Sagrada Familia, a work that Gaudi dedicated himself to until the time of his death. The Sagrada Familia is a church (or cathedral) built in a very specific, unique Gothic style, designed by the world renowned architect Antoni Gaudi. The project which he commenced over a 120 years ago is still under construction, a work in progress if you will, and he himself only got to see a small portion of the project completed before he died. When I was in Barcelona last I did make a passing visit but only viewed the church from the outside. Aside from its sheer size and presence what strikes you on closer inspection is the intricacy and attention to detail on the facade of the building. Looking at the north and south facade from a distance ,it really threatens to deceive. Without paying attention to the detail of the building you could really pass it off as being quite kitsch but when you take to viewing the building section by section then you can only be in awe at how intricate and detailed the facades are. One side, the 'Nativity facade' has two elaborate columns between three doorways, each filled with sculptures of different symbolic significance. It's obviously an understatement to call it amazing but that's exactly what it is.

The 'Passion facade' on the south side of the building was built to illustrate the last week in Christ's life. It incorporates a range of highly moving and emotive sculptures that are supposedly reminiscent of the artists and sculptors of the expressionist school. In terms of personal preference this to me was the more significant side and had a greater impact in terms of the total impression. Aside from its symbolism and representation of events, the sculptures themselves were fascinating and I had a real liking for the typical style used, i.e., strong angles, smooth lines, clear outlines and bold presence.

Passion facade - Sagrada Familia - Barcelona

As I mentioned earlier, the last time I was in Barcelona I decided to skip making an entry inside the cathedral, I now know that this was a HUGE mistake. Walking into its interior ,what captures your attention are the enormous columns of different colours, green, rose, grey and white that tower 20 plus metres above your head and then branch out in the same manner that the branches of a tree would, in order to support the roof, which in turn looks like a forest canopy. Again, this too me was just completely amazing. The outside of the building just doesn't even provide a hint and what you'll find on the inside. As we were later to discover, much of Gaudi's inspiration for design and form came from nature. Once you started looking at the number of elements that went into making up the interior of this structure you can tell quite easily as to where he derived his insipiration and how creatively he was able to translate it into such a magnificent design.

Spending a few hours at Sagrdia Familia was more than easy. We did manage to get to another Gaudi inspired destination further along the route of the day, a place named Parc Guell. This was a park constructed at the beginning of the 20th century by a patron to Gaudi, Count Guell. It was in fact a new city planning project that followed the model of English garden cities and at the same time is intimately and intentionally linked to the creative genious Gaudi since the park contains one of the houses that he occupied during the course of his life. The position of the park itself is also quite stunning, located on the west side of Barcelona, looking out over the city to the Mediterranean, the view is mesmerising and will be sure to place you into a trance like, contemplative state if you allow yourself to remain there for more than a few minutes.

Again, after wondering around the park for well over an hour we jumped back onto the bus and headed down to Port Vell and our apartment , the end of another huge day in Barcelona , a truly captivating city!