Barcelona

I would like to continue the theme of Jessica’s post about Barcelona.  This was an amzaing weekend excursion, although it didn’t really feel like the other places in Spain we’ve visted at all.   Driving into the city, we passed passed the plaza de torros, which had advertisements for upcoming concerts and events to be held there instead of bullfights.  The city blocks, as we discussed in Nuria’s class, are not squared off, but rather hexagonal in the form of “manzanas”, creating an open, modern feel.  This drastically contrasted the narrow, winding streets of Toledo and Andalucia.  And although tourism is a major industry for all of Spain, it seemed to be especially prevalent in Barcelona.  So many more people were willing to speak english, which was very surprising coming from 5 weeks in Madrid.  But the most shockingly difference of all was the soccer game on Sunday.  We wanted to go to dinner at a restaurant with TVs so we could watch the game.  I think we encountered only 4 or 5 restaurants on practically the entire strip of la rambla that were showing the game, all of which had no more room.  Besides this, when Spain ended up winning in a very excting shoot out, there was merely distant screaming and honking, but no crazy fans like in Madrid.  La plaza de catalunya was particularly quiet.  When we found a TV later that night, highlights of the game flashed to plaza de Colon in Madrid, which was of course going insane.  It was such a clear contrast and a perfect example of how Cataluna sees itself as very separate from the rest of Spain.

Julie