Sagrada Familia

I've decided to skip a few days because I simply don't have time, at least not right now, maybe later I will revisit some events.


Currently I'm staying with Albert and Mar, which is better for me in some ways (wireless, heat, convenient location), but also less convenient for Wilbur, although there are many small dogs areas everywhere, we need to walk further to go to a larger park, like "Parc de l'Estacio del Nord".


Yesterday I spent most of the day with Maica, an old friend from highschool, and in the evening we went to get Wilbur and took him over to another friend's, Maite, also from highschool, coincidentally it happened to be her birthday. It amazes me, how easy we get along, it's as if we can just pick up where we left off, even though we hadn't seen each other in over 30 years.

This morning I had my own plans, and since most people have a hard time getting up early on the weekend  here, and I was not will to go late in order to avoid crowds. The Sagrada Familia, is one of the more visited churches in the world. Antoni Gaudi, was a unique architect from the turn of the past century, during the Art Noveau period, a similar movement in Barcelona named Modernisme, incorporated Nature in all it's form, so building had very organic shapes. 

reflection in the pond

Like many other geniuses in those days, Gaudi had health problems as a young man, and died after being hit by a street car, but because of his fashion sense, he was mistaken for a homeless person, and his friends discovered his absence 3 days later.


The construction of the Sagrada Familia, came to a halt due to bad economy, and during the Franco Reign of 40 years. I remember playing hide and seek with my friends in those first older towers as a teenager, as the building was abandoned. So it's quite exciting to see the transformation.

the Eucharist 

January 2011 started with the exciting news that the interior of the building was finally completed. However the exterior will be completed by 2025. To celebrate, the city was offering free Saturday visits during the entire month, and today was the last, so I was not going to miss the opportunity.


It feels like you're in the woods, with very tall concrete trees.

emergency exit

the alter

the windows

the elevator

the ceiling

exit door

A large part of the flooring is cork.

Now I will step outside to show you some of the sculptures.

pretty cool, don't you think?

                                        

January 25...observations

This morning starts with a croissant from this bakery, “forn de pa” , forn means oven and pa means bread, so it translates to bread oven; and a little coffee with milk, in this case I’m using “leche de avena” which is oat milk, since I was not able to find my preferred hemp milk.

Next is a visit to the nearest savings bank “la caixa” to open an account. While I was waiting by the boarding gate in Frankfurt, there was a free news paper stand, and they also have free coffee machines, and I noticed the headlines of one of the American newspapers, but now I can’t remember if it was Washington Post or Wall Street Journal, anyhow, next to President Obama and Hu Jintao, was an article about a possible bailout of these popular “cajas” savings banks. I mentioned it to Victor on the ride home, and he dismissed it as no problem, he says they’re always saying things, but they always solve whatever. Actually, later, after lunch, on the news, right after the bomb at the airport in Russia, they talked about this being only certain spanish Cajas, but the Catalan Caixas are ok (let’s hope, cause that’s where I went this morning).

can you find Wilbur in the distance?

Before lunch I went to take Wilbur out, to the beach for a little while, this area has no security guards, so taggers can sneak around to do there thing, and while I dislike the senseless ugly dribbles, there are a few graffiti artists that have talent.

These 3 tall towers were part of an old power plant, which the locals voted to keep as historic icon of what the old Sant Adria used to be like; they are also the tallest building of the city , over 200 meters.

Then we walked over to the Plaza de la Vila, were we strolled a bit a couple of nights ago, they had these cool water fountains that change shape and color, sorry I forgot to bring my camera that evening, but I’ll try to go back there later, when it is dark, because during daylight they don’t operate. 

Along the way, there’s a pedestrian street with local shops and bars, which Victor pointed out how empty they’ve been these last few weeks, because the new law that came into effect on January 1st this year, there’s no smoking allowed allowed inside, bars and restaurants. I was happy to hear that, but I didn’t say, as Victor is an avid smoker, but he makes his own cigarettes. And so now they have a few tables outside in the cold of winter, usually these tables have only been outside during the better weather.

Actually when we went to lunch yesterday at the Gallego, it was only because I had unexpectedly brought Albert over and Mari didn’t have enough food for all. She was conflicted, because she said Victor will not go there anymore because of the no smoking law. I argued that they should support their local businesses, as they are not at fault. He made an exception.

wedding dress

Now this is a rare find, a spanish gypsy wedding shop. Sorry the reflection of the glass takes a bit away from all the outrageous colors. Just check out those men's shoes.

mens shoes

men's wedding clothes

Day care for seniors, I don't think I ever saw this before; as most of you know, most elderly people live at home with the family; well now they have these centers where you can drop them off and pick them up later, just like you do with little kids.

I think it's cool, this way they're not so lonely when you're at work. And stay out of trouble.

Warning: Beth, Deborah, Denise and other horse lovers, you need to skip this paragraph.

Back when I was young living here, horse meat was rare, although I knew it was very popular in France, and you do see a wide variety of world wide foods now, but I was still surprised to see several horse butcher shops. I have never tried horse meat, and I don't think that I could, not knowingly anyway.

Wilbur at the beach

Registro Civil

January 24th

This morning I came to the Registro Civil, the place to be in order to become a Spaniard. The plan was to be here by 9am, but I made a mistake in going in the wrong direction with public transportation, so it’s 10am, however the big crowds and long lines are no where near as bad as I thought. By the time I left around 12 noon, there was a larger crowd.

Cristobal Colon

“Immigrants!” I’ve heard this complaint before, actually the first day out with Wilbur, as I chatted with a couple of spanish speaking neighbors with their dogs, born from southern Spain emigrants, what old Catalans like my grandmother would call ”xarnegos”. So, it’s a little funny to hear them complaining about all the new emigrants, as Spain, and Catalunya mostly, opened it’s borders a few years back to everyone. It had started with political refugees in the early 90’s, more so when Barcelona gained attention after the 92 Olympic Games, and hosted more countries than ever before.

The Government has been providing help and services to the new residents, so “some” resent them taking away, taxes...well you know, we have “some” also, all over the US.

But it’s actually quite nice, there’s less trouble on the streets than there was when I grew up here. The streets are cleaner, and we have a super cosmopolitan city. Of course it's not all perfect, and a few may cause trouble, just as some locals can do that too. It's just that when an recent arrived immigrant does it, they make more of a fuss.

And yes, everyone talks about how bad the economy is, but from my point of view, after having gone to the DMV last Tuesday in Corte Madera, to try to rectify the address of my vehicle, it made me sad to see the lesser people behind the counter expediting customers to the best of their abilities, while people in the waiting lines were complaining about them...really? how is it there fault? If you haven´t been, well many DMV offices are now closed, so people from East Bay have to go there.

So even though I’m tired, and apparently not paying enough attention to see where I’m going, I did see TMB (metro transport) security guards on the trains, and security guards everyday all along the park where Wilbur and I go to work, although these guys just inform you of the rules, they do “la vista gorda” in spainsh, meaning they don’t enforce certain things; like dogs are supposed to be on leash, but I asked a couple of these guys, and they said as long as I had my dog under voice control it would be fine, but if I saw a cop I should put the leash on or I might get a ticket.

Anyway, I created a bit of a stir, but they decided I am "español de origen", which is an easy process, all I need is my mother´s birth certificate (check), a legal translation of my birth certificate (to do list) and the empadronamiento (to do list), this is to register at the local city hall with my permanent address, so I need to work on that too. Actually, once I have that I can also register for CatSalut, Catalan Health Services (woohoo! I get health care) 


Leaving this place, I stopped at Albert´s place to use his wifi and post the previous blog, and then we went on his new scooter (keep in mind it´s still freaking cold) back to Victor´s place, to take Wilbur out first, and then go to the "Gallego" for lunch.


At 5pm I met my cousin Edward at his place, I was showing him something on my laptop and saw Jordi was online, so I skyped him for the first time since I left, it was also very exciting, since he had not seen Edward for so long, I can't even remember. Later Edward took me to an eco-foods store, but it´s lacking quite a bit. And back on my way to Victor's, in order to not be late for dinner (and Wilbur, as he's not allowed on public transport)

two days in

Mari usually goes to sleep early, right after dinner, just before 10pm; while Victor stays up to watch documentaries on tv till 2pm. But while she had gone to bed at her usual time, when we arrived from the airport around 1.30am, she got up to serve us some hot soup. I was so tired I didn’t think it was a good idea; but I was wrong, it made me feel better and refreshed, and slept very well on the air bed.

After breakfast, Wilbur and I went for a walk, and he seems to get along fine with spanish speaking dogs. There’s this river, just a block away, it called the Besos, and when I was young it was a toxic wasteland, with factories dumping shit, something awful, which made all the surrounding neighborhoods on either side of the river undesirable. 

Back in 2002, when Victor and Mari bought their new home, which is actually an old auto body shop, they did some basic work and transformed it into a cozy home and functional workspace. At that time they had learned that the city had plans to clean up the river, as they were building the “Forum”  just a mile away. However I don’t think anyone envisioned the incredible transformation.

This is the river Besos today, 
a nest for wildlife, birds of many sizes, and a preferred spot for joggers, runners, bikes and dog lovers. The few factories that remained, like this cardboard factory have cleaned up their act. 

And just before the Forum is a huge state of the art water treatment plant, right by the beach. Speaking of beach, it’s only a 15 minute walk, where we went to yesterday, and Wilbur dipped his feet in the Mediterranean waters, and did his usual barking at the waves.

My mother told me Victor is afraid of dogs, Victor told me Mari is afraid of dogs, however they are both very pleased with Wilbur, and are enjoying his company; so I was able to him with them today while I went to meet Belen downtown at Plaza Catalonia for tapas and strolling. 







Usually I while hope on the new streetcar that connects with the Metro, but instead I took the train today, while it runs less often, there were only 3 stops to my destination.

Did I mention how cold it has been, someone mentioned that I brought the cold, but I assured them, the Bay Area was perfectly warm when I left. It even snowed a tiny bit this evening, which is very rare here. Don’t worry, I have plenty of warm clothing.

on the plane

I have driven, or in this case been driven to SFO airport countless times; the first 12 years of living in the US, as I worked in receptive tourism, I probably went at least once everyday. But this time felt different, we left with plenty of time, even stopped a couple of times along the way, so it was relaxed, at least for me, Beth was still dealing with the occasional annoying driver, immersed in their cell phone conversation, oblivious to the rest of the world. 

I began to observe everything around me, as a lifetime of memories, stages of my life, 7 years in Larkspur, driving Jordi to soccer practice in Corte Madera, the Mill Valley Dog Park, which, BTW I saw myself in one of the recent pictures that Fred took over the 15th anniversary that he posted on yesterday, proof that I was there. One more time over the amazing GGBridge, I never understood why, other than perhaps paying the toll, how some people complain, avoid going to San Francisco, when it is such a treat to take in. The GG Parc, where paid $20 to reserve space for  Jordi’s 5th birthday party, and 19th ave, not a fan, most times I would take Sunset Ave instead. We pulled out on Serramonte to stop at PetSmart, as I forgot to grab some grub  for Wilbur, not that I needed it, but “just in case”, that brought back memories from when Yaya, or as Jordi called her Yaya Grossa would take a bus to go to that shopping center, and later I would go pick her up; she didn’t buy anything, she simply enjoyed going places, and a mall was just as good a place as any for her; when I wasn’t busy, on those rare occasions I would drive her along the coast or mountains, it didn’t matter where, she liked to be driven a look out the window.

The airport has been remodeled and extended over the years, unfortunately it is still an ugly place, just concrete everywhere, I tried to get Wilbur to go pipi before placing him in the kennel, he was already upset at me when he saw me putting that thing together, I kept saying: “go potty”, he was looking at me like: “are you kidding?”. I gave up, we went on the big hill this morning and that was going to be it. He has a travel companion, a super fluffy beautiful 11 week old white and black Aussie (this is no rescue, someone actually came all the way here to get him).

After security, I had a tortilla soup at Andale Mexican food, and I was pleasantly surprised. Lost track of time a bit, the aircraft was all boarded up when I got to the gate. I thought that perhaps this airline may a more leg room...not so much, but as it is not full they spread us out, so it is more comfortable.

Almost two hours into the flight, and the captain announces first in german and then english, that he already has turned the plain back to SFO, as one side of the jet is not de-freezing, and we have yet to travel over cold areas. What’s more surprising as I’m chatting with my neighbor is that nobody on board is complaining, everyone is calm, if we had italians instead of germans this would be much more entertaining. 

We start to get up to take photos, as a few minutes later the captain announces he needs to dump fuel in order to land safely, and you guys should see this, it’s like those firemen hoses trying to put out a burning building, but it’s freaking fuel, not very eco for sure. Check it out, that stream of white at the end of the wing...

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Well, I don’t want to bore you with painful details, but I’m in Frankfurt now, 6 hours later and my new connecting flight isn’t for another 3, and all I can think about is Mari’s “sepia and mandoguilles”, wish I had them right now; but if all goes well from now I won’t get to my uncle’s home till after midnight. They told me they have an animal lounge here, but I can’t visit it. I will say this, if you ever plan a trip connecting through this airport, don’t...it’s the worst I’ve ever seen.

oh! and Linda, sorry for not calling you back, my phone died as soon as we hung up, and so did my aisle companion’s.

almost packed

In 2007 I was on top of the World, I had realized my dream, helping to create a team of like minded people and opning The Green Home Center in beautiful San Francisco. 
But it was a short lived dream, and like many others I have become one of many unemployed.

So I have decided to embark on a new direction, although not quite sure where I will end up...

I've been in California for 24 years now; my son lives in Truckee and my mother in Squamish, all of which are beautiful places; and I have some really fabulous friends, so it's not an easy thing: to go, to leave. 


I know all of you are thinking: "Barcelona, such a wonderful city"; and you are right, it is, but still, as I've been walking along the San Rafael Ridge or Crown Road fire road above Larkspur every morning this past month with Wilbur and Maggie, occasionally Coco and Mowgli, sometimes with Beth, or with Denise taking trails behind Deer Park in Fairfax, I can't stop marveling at the moss covered trees, the thick and eerie morning fog, or when it drizzles you probably won't run into anybody at all. It's awesome.

            
Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

It's been an emotional roller coaster these past couple of weeks, cleaning out all my belongings, so many memories, little knick knacks, and gifts from great people over the years. I think most of my friends had a harder time than me during this "cleansing".

I'm leaving tomorrow 1/19 at 2.50pm, and I arrive 1/20 around 3pm, the overall trip is 15 hours, Barcelona is 9 hours ahead, so our 12 noon is 9pm there. My uncle Victor will come in his van to pick me up, so it won't be a problem to haul Wilbur's travel kennel, and his wife Mari, who happens to be a great cook is making me "sepia amb mandonguilles" (squid with meatballs) for my arrival, I will be thinking and salivating during the entire flight most likely. 

And that's all I know for now. As soon as I land somewhere and get wireless service, I will follow up. 

Thank you all for all the love and support. Be well.