There Goes The Neignborhood

Since I had an awful stomach flu this weekend, and although I only ever had a mojito once in my life before, this one will definitely be the last. However this is the perfect opportunity to walk you around my new neighborhood, which in part is because I am discovering it myself also for the first time.


Horta, back when my grandmother was a young girl, was considered a weekend getaway for regular folks, taking a long ride on a streetcar, to breath the mountain air, and also where some rich folks would have a second home.



Because of the expansion the city has gone through these past decades, these suburban towns have become neighborhoods of the big city, but many locals still consider their town to be independent of Barcelona, and so we see evidence of this, like this mural here, that has already been "touched up" by blacking over the catalan flags and some writing. Not everyone respects the artist's point of view.

Libraries have been popping up all over, some new, and like this one, some remodeled; and currently the only spots (other than some bars and coffee shops that have free wifi/internet. Actually the city had until recently many free wifi public spots, like parks, streets, etc., but of course the phone companies were not happy about that, and you can guess how that story went.

While you can't find organic food or products in regular supermarkets, there are many little herbal shops that sell these staples.

This is my street, Mas Pujol, a very quiet small street, and just one street over from the Font d'en Fargas, which is a very old water source that is public, so even though there is now a restaurant built around it, the access to the public remains open, as many of the older folk continue to go fill up their jugs from the fountain.

I love how most homes around here are houses as opposed to apartment buildings, some are the original old ones, some have been remodeled conserving the the original structure and facade, and others have been torn down to build new apartment buildings, although there is a height limit here in Horta, so the maximum is four story building.

I find doors quite fascinating

then of course the church around the corner

and the trash=grey bin, compost=brown bin, paper=blue bin, glass= green, plastic, tin and brix= yellow bin

and I bet you were thinking: where's Wilbur

Cigarette Butts

From what I'm seeing on my info sources, many Californians are worried about radiation, amongst many other things too of course, what I haven't seen is any news on Hawaii, they are hours closer in wind trajectory; if you guys know anything, send me a link.

Yesterday I met my cousin Edward for lunch, as he's been very busy with work, and also shuck up by the Japan disaster, as his soon to be ex wife is living in northern Japan, along with other family members who he has ties with. And while many Japanese have blind faith in their government, it is not the case with this family, but all they could do was to stay inside. 

Lunch was a "Menu del Dia" which is very popular in any bar or restaurant, particularly with the current economy. You have a choice of 3 first and second dish for a fixed price, usually around 10 euros; in this case it was 8.5 euros, and tips here are usually just change, so if you leave 1 euro, it's considered a lot.

Edward's work partner, Juanjo showed up as expected with a new device to show us, an ashtray. Do you remember in an earlier blog I mentioned that on January 1st this year a new law requiring no smoking in bars and restaurants came in effect? So now everybody sits (or stands) outside, regardless if it's cold or warm or rain. Of course some people are upset about this, not all, and as usual it takes time to adjust to these changes. As a matter of fact, during lunch, we were watching the news on tv, lot's of stuff on Japan, and in between some local tidbits, like a bar that was closed because the non smoking law was not enforced, also the government had lost over 100 million euros in tax revenues from people who had quit smoking. So the more recent problem is that since everyone is now smoking in the street, there are many more cigarette butts on the sidewalks for the city to clean up, right?…wrong, the city has decided that they will fine anyone who throws butts on the floor, but since that is difficult to do, they will instead fine the owners of the bars, restaurants or buildings that have excessive amount of butts.


So this is where the "new ashtray" comes into place, designed to be bolted onto an exterior wall. David (Guillermo's son, owner of the bar) and myself were playing devil's advocate, because the design of the ashtray did not work well with this particular bar, as we felt the protrusion could cause potential problems. Juanjo was sticking to his guns, saying that he could not ask the manufacturer for a redesign, just because of Guillermo's facade, and the product should be sold as is. But we had a good laugh at his expense.

Before heading back home, Edward and I went for a short walk, as he wanted to show me the interior design store area of the city, and also the Convent which our Grandmother Adela stayed at when she first arrived in 

Barcelona, as she came from Palafrugell from a poor family, so her mother sent her to work in the big city, and from there she was sent to work at our Grandfather's home. I had known this story all my life, but I don't remember anyone actually pointing out this building to me, which you can see is quite beautiful. Casa Golferichs is now an exhibit hall/art gallery, keep in mind that during the Spanish Civil War, convents were raided and nuns had to flee, so most became something else.




This picture shows the detail underneath the eaves of the roof.
A mixture of wood carving and old ceramic tile.














And this one shows how underneath the smooth broken asphalt is the old brick pavement that the Romans left behind. I remember when I used to ride my Vespa Primavera over the "adoquins" and I would shake/vibrate all over. On the other hand though, the old pavement was indestructible compared to the asphalt.

Finally I wanted to show you this new solution to another big city problem "tagging". Apparently these vandals seem to respect this other style of spray paint; so a new and more recent type of artist have stepped in to fill this need, they charge approximately 500 euros for each mural.

“EL FINDE”

Tossa de Mar

The weekend in spanish is “ el fin de semana”, so as part of my aprenticeship and transition, I’m learning the widely spread current slang, so if someone asks : como te fue el finde? it translates to: how was your weekend?

Mine was good, thank you very much. Friday morning I took Wilbur for a quickie to the park, because Victor picked me up at 9.30am, as I asked to accompany him to Tossa de Mar, in order to visit the art gallery where Victor is going to have a show starting April 30th through the month of May. This was going to be a short visit, because we needed to be back for lunch, as Mari was preparing a traditional fava been dish for lunch, which usually takes place between 2-3pm. So I left Wilbur home with Laura, this way I would be able to take the metro back home after lunch, because I believe I mentioned, while you are allowed to take dogs on the train, they are not allowed on metro and city bus unless of course it is a service dog.

Tossa de Mar

Tossa de Mar is one of those beautiful beach towns, about an hour away, and despite the proximity it is still quite charming, because while all the other surrounding towns like Blanes and Lloret de Mar have sprawled so much, and have enormous popularity with the summer foreign tourism, Tossa is a bit harder to get to, as the train doesn’t not reach, or the freeway doesn’t have an exit to. 

See http://www.tossademar.com/

We parked the van, called Joan, the owner to let him know we arrived and went searching for the gallery. Joan was dressed in a painter jumpsuit as he was in the midst of painting some walls in his hotel, which he later took us to see. First we talked about the gallery, the artists he represents, his buyers and his private collection. Joan likes to talk...a lot, but I must say I liked him, he just seems very grounded and honest, and he loves what he does, and he’s a good expert and source. He told us stories of the town, corruption and deception around art exhibits. We went around the corner to a coffee shop for a drink, and then the hotel, which is closed while he’s finishing up, contemporary and filled with his private art collection, mostly large art pieces, due to the fact that he’s had many pieces stolen from the walls; he even had a terribly heavy bronze sculpture taken by three tall Irish guys.

sign on church door above

Tossa de Mar

Tossa de Mar

So much talk, it was already 2pm, we had to leave as we were late for the fava beans, but first we went for a brief stroll to the beach, and as soon as I saw the castle on the beach, I had a flash back memory of a romantic weekend with my ex, as he notified me that he in fact was my boyfreind, which filled my heart at the time.

Later in Horta (my neighborhood) that evening around 8.30pm, I met at Plaza Ibiza with Carmen Villuendas, with Wilbur and my weekend bag, we went to Cabrils to meet Alicia at the Bar Concordia, where we met more people, had some hot “bocatas”(sandwiches).

Saturday it rained hard all day and all night, so Wilbur only went out for potty and stayed home, while Alicia and I went to a family event. It was a 5 year old birthday of one of her nieces, a table for 15, lots of drinking and food and laterwe played a card game named “podrida” which I had never played before. The elders (Alicia’s mother, father and 92yr old aunt) were surprised as I came in second the first game and actually won the second game, a little over 1 euro.

Later we met Carmen as we planned on going out, but ended up chatting until very late, and looked up camping bungalows to rent the night of the 26th, and settled for one in Montseny.

Sunday morning my friends were still sleeping, it was 10am, such a beautiful sunny day, I took Wilbur out for potty and bought some breakfast stuff at the corner market; I was not fully awake yet, so I didn’t realize the man standing at the register talking to the cashier was my ex. I heard “what are you doing here?” and then I recognized the voice. Completely startled, I wished I had looked at myself in the mirror before going out; oh well. He showed me where to get some fresh churros and as we parted I asked when he would have time for me, I just want to understand why he’s avoiding me “now”.

After a good breakfast, we went to meet up with Araceli and her dog Bruna, Carmen went to fetch her dog Nala, and the four of us and three dogs went to hike up to Castell de Burriac, and Araceli talked us into going through the woods rather than up the trail. It got very dense and we even climb up and around boulders, but we kept going up till we made it. I was scratched all over. We took the regular path on the way down, it was quick and easy.

Later that night, around midnight, Laura came home from Italy with Miquel, who I met for the first time. He was so excited to meet Wilbur and me, and begged me to play Mario Bros on his WII console. He is so damn cute!

Redwood trees

Font de San Joaquim

If you know what I know, then we were all wrong. You see I thought sequoia semprevirens only existed along the coast of northern California, however yesterday as I was hiking through the woods in Vallromanes with Alicia, and we went searching for natural “fonts” springs. First we came across the one named for San Joaquim, and a little later the one named for Santa Anna; and that’s when Alicia pointed out the two redwoods that she had mentioned to me earlier, so I was expecting at the most a 50 year old, yet these two beauties are well over 200 years old, which come to think of now, it had to have been soemone in Gaspar de Portola’s crew, maybe even Fray Crespi who accompanied Fray Junipero Serra and was the guy with the green thumb amongst the crew those days, in 1776. So if you think about it, this is all part of Bay Area history too. Cool huh?

Now, a moment that we’ve all been waiting for, (no Albert, not that one, not yet anyway), when we got back from our walk, Victor arrived and took me back to the big ol’ city, and this time he took me to my new home, yeay!. I finally got to open my bags and place things in a way I can find them. After a month of moving around, its nice to be able to put your feet up, and besides it gets a bit stressful trying to find the right place; it’s a bit more money than I was planning on spending right now (450 e/m), but I know if I can’t even feel rhe least bit happy where I am, I’ll be sabotaging any possibility of remaining here.

My Room

The Kitchen

The Balcony

Victor dropped me off and also a delicious artichoke omelette that Mari made, and I made accuantances with my new room mate Laura, a 28 yr old single mom, with a beautiful 5 yr old boy named Miquel; although he is currently visiting his grand parents in Italy.

The Living Room

After straightening out everything and having had some of the omelette, I took Wilbur out again to find the nearby park, and I found it, just two blocks away, and just as big as I remembered it, about the size of the San Rafael Ridge, so perfect, I’m in the city, but also feels like nature still.

Since this weekend is Caraval, I thought I’d go see the parade amongst the big crowds, so I took the metro to the Paralel, where they used to have all kinds of theatres in the old days, even a Studio 54 once, and there’s actually still the “El Molino” a Catalan version of Moulin Rouge, that has been here forever. And they had some entertainment, however the parade was a major disapontment as there were no floats, so while they had an extensive parade of people in costumes dancing, nobody could see anything because the crowds covered everything.

Vallromanes

with Alicia in Cabrera de Mar

A couple of weeks ago I had spent a weekend with my friend Alicia, it was one of those weekends when her 11 year old twins stay with their father. What I didn’t know is that Carmen Villuendas, another old friend, was going to join us, as she also lives in the area called Maresme, just north of Barcelona, I guess you could call it the “Marin” of this place. And Carmen has a 5 month old rescue named Nala.

Alicia and Carme

I had such a good time, we laughed so hard, it was very therapeutic.

The next day I found out that two more single women, old friends also live in this area.

So I started thinking that I should come live close to this area too. And I did find a great place, however it didn’t pan out, so in the end I agreed to move in with Laura in a neighbourhood called Horta, while still in Barcelona city, it is close to a large park on the hills.

Nala  

I had to leave Albert and Mar, they put up with me for an entire month. 

Since I thought I was moving to El Masnou, I had already made plans to stay with my friend Alicia for a week. So last Friday Victor came with his van, we loaded all my stuff, and arrived in Vallromanes, which is only half an hour from the big city, and as nice as it is, public transport from here is not ideal, since one must take a bus to Granollers and from there the train downtown Barcelona. El Masnou would have been great, as it’s the same distance, only on the beach, so the train runs right by the place I wanted to rent, but there was a misunderstanding and the girl who I thought was leaving March 1st, is actually leaving April 1st. “Mi gozo en un pozo” as they say here, which translates to “my pleasure in the well”. 

So I was going to spend a few days off and relax from the pressure, the first two days Alicia was off with some friends, a weekend that was planned a while back, while her kids, Berta and Eloi stayed with their dad Jorge. So I had the place to myself. 

That evening I had dinner with Jorge and the kids, and we played Monopoly.

Gascon's home

On Sunday Jorge was preparring a “calsotada”, which I explained is barbecuing spring onions and dipping them in romescu sauce. originally he planned this only for his older daughter Aida and her boyfriend David (I think) who are vegan, but as these things go, in the end were 20 some people, so Jorge had a huge box with 200 calsots. And while Aida and her group of vegan friends arrived first, they had already barbecued all the vegan food, which was fortunate, because later the carnivors arrived, and initially had a bit of a problem that was eventually solved and were able to cook the meats too.

Josep Maria stuffing his face

And in case you ever do have an oportunity to enjoy these typical onions, be careful, the sauce is very heavy, lots of nuts, and the calsots give you a lot of gas, so the digestion is problematic.

the yard between Gascon's and Coch's

Now remember that Jorge house shares the garden with my ex’s house, so naturally he was there too, as a matter of fact he came to fetch me; and as those of you who have skyped me already know, business as usual, so it was fun, and cordial, but that’s all, nothing juicy to tell, just a good time with old and new friends. And that’s all I can say about that...at least for now.

The bad news is that while I’m still working on the “becoming spanish” thingy, I found out the process can take about a year or so. This means that I can’t legally work, all I can hope for is finding things that will pay cash; which makes things a little harder. But I’ll keep trying.

And the good news is that despite all the fatty foods, croissants and chocolate cookies, I've have been loosing weight, my belly has shrunk significantly. I can only assume it's all the running up and down the Metro stairs.