Barcelona

Kings Arrival in Barcelona

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

I’ve been up to Barcelona several times this past week which augurs well for 2013 I think!
We brought in the New Year with friends in Nou Barris – eating 12 grapes not just once but twice. Once for Catalan midnight and once for the UK one.
I have to admit cheating a couple of times and stuffing in two at once. Perhaps this means there will be some months in the coming year that get muddled up together!
Then I went back on Saturday 5th to see the arrival of the Kings – Els Reis.
We stood at the corner of Sant Antoni, knowing that the crowds of people were stretching all the way from the port to Montjuic.
It all began well, with the police on horses leading the way

There were lots of very colourful and spectacular floats


Notice the Xmas lights above this one!

The next one to pass got totally caught up in the wire. Lots of shouting from the crowd – Nooooooo!
Eventually the driver stopped.

They got free but the lights had now descended a few metres and the broken ones were dangling quite low.
Each float that now passed was greeted with sharp intakes of breath and relieved Ohhhhhhhs when they managed to get by. The performers often had to duck!
Eventually a council cherrypicker arrived and removed the middle section

Then the biggest King could continue on his route!

The arrival of the Kings means that children will get presents the next morning so the last floats are meant to encourage sleep and going to bed without a fuss. I thought he looked quite sinister though.


I don’t know what the giraffe and the elephant were about but they were massive and magnificant


Someone said they once had a real elephant for the parade.
Thank God those days are past!
In case, like me you are a lover of elephants here is a wonderful place in Thailand which rescues street elephants and gives them a home back in nature, for ever. Supporters raised money at the beginning of January to rescue a 70 year old female who had been begging on the streets for years. In 30 hours we collected enough to get her and treat her wounds. Wonderful the internet!

And the third time I went to town?  Next post 🙂

I can’t imagine a more inhospitable place for an elephant to walk than through Barcelona on the night when the Kings arrive.

The Station Milonga in Barcelona

~ Kate Wilson ~ Leave a comment

Last night I went to the Station Milonga in Barcelona with my friend Jim.
It was my first time there. It is in the restaurant right inside the Estacio de França

Have a look at their promotion video!
If you happen to go from Granollers as I did, you get the train to Passeig de Gracia, change platforms and then catch the next train to Estacio de França.  It takes less than an hour. Then you are right there – no need to walk or follow directions.
The station itself is wonderful – the last time I went I was catching the night train to Paris

The milonga was as advertised on the video – busy but not too crowded, friendly with lots of places to sit, lovely music and a good atmosphere. It costs 6 euros which includes a drink. Sorry this photo isn’t very good but I like the pink

Afterwards Jim walked me all the way to the night bus-stop on Tetuan.  Thank you Jim!
The bus took about 35 minutes to reach Granollers and I jumped out near the hospital, five minutes from home. I am so glad to have discovered an easy way to go dancing in Barcelona without having to stay overnight. I might even pluck up courage to go to this milonga alone – something I swore not to do again a few years ago. It’s horrible sitting there waiting to dance and honestly I don’t find the Barcelona scene very relaxed or open. But, in the end it doesn’t kill you and sometimes having one good dance makes the journey worthwhile.  Last night I had several!

Barça-Celtic

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

I was quite surprised when the Resident Adolescent agreed to accompany me to see this match in Camp Nou. It was us alone – just us – noone else to help or hinder us. It’s not like we are great friends. We’re not big enemies either but you know how it is with a 17 year old especially if they are not your own son?  The step mother/son relationship is not always easy and has a huge heavy weight of baggage attached to it. Too many unexpressed emotions and not enough shared experience to carry you over the humps. Then there is the teenage  refusal to communicate.  How on earth are you supposed to make friendly contact when you are creatures from different planets?  And we had never been out together alone before.

Well, perhaps going to see Barça play at Camp Nou might bring us together.

Amazingly, we had a great time. We travelled by train and metro and foot and stopped off for a drink and something to eat. You have to talk a little when you are sharing a patatas bravas!  We chatted.  I overcame my shyness enough to ask relevant questions about discos and DJs and exams and football and he overcame his enough to answer and even smile.
I didn’t retreat behind my Kindle and nor did he behind his mobile phone.
Success!
We had great seats, right behind the corner so we could see Messi and Xavi close up

We were surrounded by kindly good-natured Barça fans except for two feisty Glasgow wifies sitting behind us who bravely chirped “Cel-tic  Cel-tic” every time that the crowd bellowed “BARÇA BARÇA”

The only false move I made was to scream and shout when Celtic got the first goal.
‘Sorry! I know I embarrassed you. But I couldn’t help it’.  He was mortified but too polite to complain.
For a few golden minutes Celtic was in the lead at Camp Nou

Afterwards as we walked away from the stadium it was me who felt embarrassed. Somehow the loud drunken chanting and bravado of the defeated Scottish fans, although harmless, seemed immature in comparison to the quiet chat of the Barça crowd.  It’s not that they are quiet during the game – our neighbours kept up a constant steam of oathes whenever it seemed that Barça was doing badly.
I learnt some new swear words although in the main it was the usual, puta mierda, collons, Ostia, cony. But after the game – friendliness and calm.

In the bar before the match one green and white clad Glaswegian fan insisted on shaking hands with all the men at this table of Catalans. ‘Good luck to you all’ he said as he pumped each arm.

So it’s not lack of good will that makes the Scottish fans seem edgy and pugnacious but perhaps an excess of alcohol?  Or is it just a different football culture?  Or insecurity?  Or that strange inferiority complex that can afflict us?   It feels like an anger that can easily bubble to the surface – something in the tone even of the chants.  I can’t imagine ever wanting to go to a football match in the UK – the seam of aggression that lies below the surface would scare me but I don’t feel that fear at Camp Nou.  As I have said before, Scotland and Catalunya – not really that similar.

Barça – Glasgow Celtic

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments

Look at this!

I went up to Barcelona today to get the tickets and to check on the route. We had paid on the internet but ‘for security reasons’ you can’t print out the tickets at home. Tomorrow I need to accompany the Resident Adolescent to hospital for a check up and it leaves us very little time to arrive at Camp Nou, let alone have to collect the tickets so I decided to go up to town and get them first.  The football game will be our first outing together – just us two as his father is working!

From Granollers I took the train to Sants then a metro to Badal and a 10 minute walk to the stadium.
There were lots of Scottish people around, wearing green jerseys and looking at home.  Normally in the UK I’d run a million miles to escape football supporters but somehow here in Camp Nou they seemed more human and friendly.
I don’t fancy meeting them after they get a few drinks inside though.

I picked up the tickets after a fair bit of faffing around in the wrong queues and at the wrong gate. The place to pick up pre-ordered tickets is just inside Gate 14 and there are no signs leading you there.
Afterwards I did the journey in reverse, noting down times and deciding that if we catch the 7.30 train tomorrow we can just make it to see the opening of the match.  I took the metro from Collblanc on the way home which I think is slightly closer.

Now to decide what to wear to the match.  And who am I supporting?  It feels really interesting to have this match now – with all the Scottish Catalan connections around independence.

Should be interesting.

PS After I got home the hospital rang and cancelled the appointment – so we can leave early and catch the beginning of the game. Yippee!

Virtual Vermut

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

I am terribly behind in these posts – every day there is something new I want to write about and yet by the evening I am either tired and lazy or too engrossed in Trollope to download the photos.
So I thought a quick Virtual Vermut could be the answer and I can tell you lots of unrelated bits of news in one post!
For those who don’t know, Virtual Vermut is my name for a post written as I might chat to a friend over a drink in a cafe. It’s a chat, a chance to catch up with life.
So, although it is very late on a Sunday or more truthfully very early on a Monday, would you like to join me for a quick vermouth?

There is so much to tell you.
Home Life
As part of a much larger plan to make home life flow better as regards the Resident Adolescent, the three of us went bowling again a week ago. On Wednesday nights there is a special deal where you can play a large number of games for not too much money. The only catch is that the games are for two teams.  So with three people it meant two against one and we kept changing the combination so at one point I played against the two males and although I didn’t win, neither did I shame myself.
 It was only my third time at a bowling alley and my first time not using the side-guards. 
There is something very meditative about bowling and I need to breathe and centre myself before throwing otherwise I make a mess of it.  So true for many other things in my life as well!

Sant Nicolau again
The following weekend included a public holiday. Some people here worked through October 12th – Columbus Day –  as it is celebrates the Spanish State and the armed forces and so doesn’t have a good feeling in Catalunya.  Especially at the moment.
 But it is also my friend Tiffany’s birthday so well worth celebrating!
We took the chance to get away and go back to Sant Nicolau to look for mushrooms.
Blue’s statue is looking good and has a lovely solid presence in the garden

 The flowers were incredibly vivid in the intense autumn light

 There were some edible mushrooms in the woods, as well as a wild boar and a solitary hunting dog with big bloody jowls and a large bell around its neck. But the weather wasn’t really cold enough for a lot of ‘bolets’ although there was a beautiful line of them leading down to where Blue is buried


Back to Granollers and to our relief the house was fairly tidy and clean.  Perhaps adolescence really does begin to fade away in the late teens?  Or is it to do with the New Deal we have created?
The weather began to cool down and the shops to fill their windows with pumpkins and panellets

 Walking
At last we managed to organise a walk with Oreneta in the hills above the Maresme.
We reached a viewing point above Barcelona from where the city looks quite neat and small

Barcelona
Last Monday I went down for the evening to dance tango.  Wandering around Gracia before meeting my friend, I thought that if I ever get a flat in the city it should be here.   
It feels like Stoke Newington by the Mediterranean.
There were lots of Catalan flags hanging from windows.

 Imagine having a Palestinian restaurant nearby!

Milongas finish late so I came home for the first time on the night bus.
There are several that come to Granollers and I caught the 72 which takes 40 minutes from Plaça Tetuan to Granollers bus station.  What a peaceful way to travel and it only cost 3.70 euros. It is just as comfortable for sleeping as the train to Passeig de Gracia in which I can rarely keep my eyes open.

There is so much more to tell you but I know you have to get going soon so I’ll finish with a story about cats and dogs that happened today.
More Walking
Montnegre is a mountain range lying behind seaside towns such as St Pol and Arenys de Mar.  It is much quieter than the Serralada Litoral where we met Oreneta or the Montseny where we often go to the woods. After parking in St Iscle de Vallalta we followed a path up into the hills, passing a large property called Mas Olles. What the book didn’t warn us about was the pack of dogs that live there. First one barked in the distance, then another and another. One by one they all came thundering over the land towards us. I couldn’t count them – perhaps there were 15 or 18 – all large and all rather excited to see two people and a dog walking by

Luckily there was a stout fence but it’s impossible to know the stoutness of a fence until you have tested it. Once safely past, we discovered we had taken the wrong path so had to go past them again. Of course they had left an early warning party waiting by the fence just in case we did just this. I imagine it has happened before and this is their main enjoyment of the day.
It isn’t a place I would walk past on my own.
Later we found these wild cats on top of a ledge

 They looked very well but when winter comes I imagine they have a hard life.
So now good night and thank you for visiting and listening to these odd bits and pieces of life.
Have a good Monday – it is now definitely Monday morning!