Barcelona

It takes 16 hours by bus to get from Cadiz in the far southwest corner of the country to Barcelona in the northeast.  Fortunately our stop in Madrid broke up the journey perfectly in half.  Refreshed from our family visit and ready for something new, we made the long journey to the capital city of the province of Catalonia - Barcelona. The long distance seemed fitting as a symbol of how different the cities of Barcelona and Madrid are.

A view of Barcelona from Park Guell


Before I write about Barcelona, I should say that we were never planning on coming to this part of Spain.  Much that we had read about Catalonia gave us pause especially the high prices and the use of Catalan (a completely different language from Castillian Spanish) as their main language.  We originally chose Spain partly because of a desire to learn a language that would be useful in many parts of the world.  Catalan is spoken only in a few parts of Spain, Andorra and some areas in the French Pyrenees and is not learned or understood in the rest of the country.

The language isn´t the only thing that separates the Catalonians from much of the rest of Spain.  Catalonians tend to think of themselves as more "European" than Spanish and are viewed by many Castillians as more businesslike (or money-hungry, depending on your perspective).  This "differentness" has grown to be such a polarizing political issue that there is now an avid separatist movement.

Many of our Spanish friends from Pueblo Ingles told us that though Barcelona is great, they did not feel very welcomed there as they could only communicate with the locals in Castillian.  They expressed their sense that Spaniards from other parts of Spain were less accepted than foreigners who only spoke English.  We can´t say whether or not this is true, but our experience was that eveyone could communicate with us in Castillian and we were treated politely.

More importantly, we immediately felt that European-ness.  Barcelona was unlike any other Spanish city.  There was a distinct air of internationalism, a wide diversity of people, a mix of languages (especially on menus and shop signs) and a serious capitalistic intention.  Barcelona knows how to be customer oriented (i.e. offering dinner BEFORE 10 p.m.) and seems focused on making money at it.  It has a unique combination of Mediterranean beach town, historic central quarter, funky neighborhoods and chic (and ethnic) restaurants.  All of this makes it a great place to visit - and people do that in DROVES!  It is packed with tourisits and a stroll on the famous Las Ramblas is almost impossible due to the crush of people.  But it´s easy enough to get away from the crowd and wander the streets and parks, occasionally stumbling upon another stunning Gaudi-designed building.

Casa Battló - designed by Antonio Gaudì (1905-7)



La Pedrera or Casa Milà - also by Gaudì (1906-10)
This apartment building had a wonderful roof "garden" filled with fascinating chimneys and one really great guy

Despite my 24 hour stomach flu, we had a fun time being tourists and thoroughly enjoyed the staggeringly incredible Sagrada Familia cathedral, the most amazing fruit and veg market I´ve ever seen (they say it´s the largest in Europe), the beach, the colorful street performers on the Ramblas and stolling through the historic Gothic quarter.  Sadly, my stomach wasn´t up to sampling the cuisine that is supposed to be superior to that of the rest of Spain (our wallets were happy, though).

Las Ramblas street performers
 

La Sagrada Familia Cathedral has been under construction since 1882.  There´s at least another century of work to be done.  In the meantime, a visit is still awe-inspiring.

Next stop:  the institution.

Ah...family support

With spirits and energy levels flagging, a visit from my beloved Aunt and Uncle from California could not have come at a better time.  We met them in Madrid on their way to France and on our way to Barcelona.  Together, we re-explored Madrid (but this time without the peace of the summer holiday time) and enjoyed showing them around the city we had come to know and appreciate.  Autumn had arrived and with it, cold and windy weather, but also lovely fall scenes in Retiro Park.



We also had a chance to visit another recommended city, Toledo.  We spent a day as real tourists and made our way up and down the hills of the city, stopping at every place that boasted an El Greco painting inside (including his completely disappointing burial site - visible through a roughly-made hole through the wooden floor of an old church).  It was an attractive but exceedingly touristy place.
    

Thanks so much, Harry and Ellie, for taking such good care of us and allowing us to be your guides in Spain.  We also want to send a special thank you to our wonderful Spanish friends, José, Teresa and Sebastian for their wonderful hospitality in Madrid.  It´s always better to stay with friends!

Go West

Another location that topped the lists of Spaniards´ suggestions for our continued search for the "perfect place" was the area around Cadiz. Cadiz lies on the windy Atlantic coast of Spain and was recommended to us for its combination of warm sun and cooling wind. Furthermore, the people of Cadiz, the Gaditanos, are known for their irreverent humor and fun-loving nature (could Gaditanos be even MORE fun-loving than the less-than-serious Spaniards we had met almost everywhere else???)

We couldn´t find any hosts in Cadiz and we´re not looking to live in a big city anyway, so we contacted the owner of a boutique hotel (read: candles, incense and strong blocks of color) in a small, white village (please note that when I say "white village" I am referring to the color of the uniformly white-washed buildings). The guide books in English didn´t have much to say about the village, so we were quite surprised when we got off the bus to find a really charming and lovely place perched atop a small hill.

We spent the two weeks here painting (and I became a steam-iron professional). The hotel is for sale and the owner, whose attention was mostly spent on preparing for her new phase of life as a yoga instructor, wanted to spruce it up without spending too much money. She gave us a list of painting and cleaning tasks and left us to do our thing. It was enjoyable to be in charge of our own planning and to spend hours on the wonderful roof terrace but it was a challenge to rely on her to provide us with food provisions as it wasn´t high on her list of priorities.

It was fun to be in a little town and I must admit that I really enjoyed the freedom of walking down the street for supplies or just taking a stroll to the grocery store. For me, this was the most viable location in Spain so far. The town was close to beautiful, unspoiled beaches; there were lots of interesting activities on offer (I attended a day-long meditation seminar and an Astanga yoga class); there were incredible views of the mountains of Morocco across the Strait of Gibraltar from the rooftop terraces and I made a couple of really nice expat friends.

The highlight of our time there was spending time with Annie B, a Scottish expat who runs Annie B´s Spanish Kitchen cooking school from her home. Check out her website HERE. Her enthusiasm for all things was absolutely contagious and it was a delight to be with her. She even took us out for a day of driving around the mountains to see if there were interesting towns there.

So...why didn´t we stop looking and park ourselves there? Most importantly, Michiel wasn´t as enthusiastic about it as I was. What we are really looking for is a small home with a bit of land. In Spain, if you live in the town, you don´t have any land at all. Buildings are right next to one another and chances are very good that you won´t be able to escape the noise that Spaniards are so fond of. Additionally, the countryside around our town wasn´t very enticing - especially after we learned more about what how the famous Levanter and the lesser known Poniente winds make farming and fruit trees impossible to grow without some kind of serious protection.

We ended up having a great experience in this part of Spain and are very grateful that our Spanish friends recommended it to us, but the search for our perfect place had to continue. Next stop....Catalonia.

Granada and the Alhambra

As I mentioned, we left our "saviour hostess" for a bit and then returned. Upon returning to the area, we finally had an opportunity to spend a weekend in Granada. Many Spaniards had recommended this city to us and I had studied the Alhambra palace and fortress in Architecture School, so we had high expectations. Indeed, the city is incredibly vibrant - most notably because it is FULL of university students and tourists. It is also quite lovely, especially the old Arab Quarter.

The logistics of visiting this amazing Moorish wonder and the surrounding gardens (Generalife) are a bit tricky and guests are only allowed to visit the palace areas at a specified time but this ensures that the rooms are only crowded instead of incredibly crowded.  I´m sure that it would be a terrific experience to have the place to yourself on a warm evening.

One of the great draws of Granada are the free tapas. Every single bar that serves drinks offers a free snack with each glass of alcoholic beverage. The tradition comes from the desire to keep insects out of your drink so a little nibble on a plate would serve as a lid or "tapa" for your glass. These days, they don't serve the tapa on top of the glass, but they are still free in some parts of Spain. If this is the case, as in Granada and the Alpujarras, you can make a meal out of a pub crawl. Each round of drinks at a bar comes with a different tapa, so even if you stay in the same bar all night, you could have a variety of hams, cheeses, potatoes, olives or other items.

The other wonderful thing about Granada is that it is large and diverse enough to have some ethnic restaurants (other than Italian or Chinese - the extent of foreign cuisine in most of Spain). We took full advantage of this and after many months of Spanish cuisine, dove with gusto into a (disappointingly mediocre) Thai restaurant and a really good Moroccan place.

Our Saviour

Our saviour came in the form of a 60 year old British woman (thus the British spelling of savior), with whom we had already made contact through HelpX. We had planned on volunteering with her after 2 weeks with the previous hosts, but the circumstances required a frantic phone call to move our arrival date forward.

She quickly agreed and we took the bus just 20 minutes down the road to a much nicer little spa town, known for its bottled water. We were greeted by a whirlwind of energy, warm kisses on both cheeks and lots of chatter. As she drove us up the winding track to her lodging establishment perched high above the white-washed town, we began to breathe a sigh of relief.

The view

Her compound was an oasis of flowers and green in the desert (we soon learned that this oasis required 1.5 hours per day of watering!!!!) complete with 5 little, stand-alone houses (casitas). Each casita had a small kitchen, a bed and bathroom and a terrace or patio. The real gem of the place was the swimming pool and pool bar, stocked with soft drinks, beer and wine that were completely free for our consumption. Almost every night we ate dinner beneath the grape vines alongside the pool.

She often cooked dinner for her guests, who were mainly clients of local companies offering biking, horse riding or hiking tours and we were always invited to join. We were expected to assist with the prep and cleaning after these meals, but we were always treated like family and were free to enjoy our adult beverages while "working". Our hostess was very fair about the hours so that if we worked with clients at night (for example, Michiel and I cooked a Moroccan meal for her guests one night) then we could have a "lie in" the next morning.

We did a variety of tasks here and learned quite a bit about making and canning jams and chutneys, harvesting almonds and walnuts, and cleaning pools amongst other things. The hours were a bit longer than at other hosts, but the accommodation was great (once we moved out of her back bedroom and into a casita) and our hostess was incredibly generous with food and drink. We had coffee breaks and snack time and she was a big proponent of cooling off with a "tinto de verano" before dinner (chilled red wine mixed with lemon soda and lots of lemon slices).

Not only was our hostess generous with drink, she was also generous with her time. She knew that we were looking for places to live so she took us to look at various properties and land for sale. To top it all off, she took both of us out on our respective birthdays to enjoy the local tradition of free tapas with drink orders. (Do you get the sense that there was a lot of wine drinking here?)

On our two days off per week, we took the bus to the famous white villages in the mountains, did some hiking, explored the the little town, swam in the pool and did a lot of reading. There were other volunteers working here, as well as family and friends of our hostess and guests, so there was no lack of socializing opportunity.

Photos from the White Villages

We had originally planned to stay for 2 weeks, but we ended up returning here after Pueblo Ingles (the English Immersion program for Spaniards that we volunteered for). All together, we ended up staying for nearly 5 weeks and had a hard time leaving. In fact, we were even tempted to lodge-sit over the holidays while our hostess returned to the UK.

What made it possible to leave was the fact that we determined that the area was just too dry and extreme for us. The heat of summer lasted well into October and daytime temperatures could still easily reach into the 90s (35 plus degrees C). When we left, nighttime temperatures were falling below freezing and we could feel the bitter cold air flowing off the mountains.

We also had a hard time seeing ourselves thriving in this very traditional Spanish village. We didn´t see that we had much in common with the other expats (mostly older Brits who were into drinking and socializing and had lots of money) and we didn´t find the locals to be particularly intriguing, so we set off to the western region of Andalucia.