Nothing like it being the last few weeks you'll be in a place to get you off your culo and out doing the things you've been meaning to do all year. For me, one of those things was participating in some races through the city. During the second week of June I ran two races that started in Plaça Espanya: a Color Run 5K and the Bombers Cursa 10K the following Friday. During the Color Run, there are various point at which you are led through an alleys lined with volunteers that would throw colored powder on you. Kind of like a Holi festival-5K hybrid. The end result is you get covered with color, and you have fun. It was Isaac's first 5K and a good way to start because the crowds were full of people of all ages and abilities, and many people walked the whole thing. Isaac and I did some walking, some running. And plenty of picture taking. |
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Sometimes your Sunday in Spain could happen anywhere: reading and creating at home while the morning sun blankets your spot on the floor, a walk to the park, a good stick battle.
Being called 'Woman'
The other day at the grocery store I couldn't quite reach an item on the top shelf (a not uncommon occurrence for me), so I asked a store employee for help. Our dialogue went like this: ![]() Now that we have moved into our permanent home we are beginning to stock up on some basic supplies, which requires shopping, a topic worthy of at least one blog post. In Spain most of your shopping is done in small speciality stores. If you want to buy meat, you go to the carnicería; if you want bread, you go to the panadería; if you want to buy ink for your printer, go to the... store that sells printer ink. That one amazes me, but apparently Spaniards use a lot of ink, because these stores exist. (Another surprise: the quantity of electronic cigarette stores, evidently a big hit in Spain. I have indeed noticed much less smoking in 2014 than there was in 1996, the last time I lived here.) Mid-August is an interesting time of the year to attempt to get to know Barcelona as residents, and to settle in to daily life here. Most Barcelonians go on vacation during the August holidays, which can last for all of August and are especially observed during the middle two weeks of the month. Meanwhile, tourists flock to the city during this time, as Europeans take advantage of their own August holidays to visit. The end result is that the city is divided into two different worlds: the tourist areas, which are jam packed with tourists from all over, and everywhere else, which are almost completely empty. Many businesses close completely and the few that are open have modified hours. This has been challenging to navigate during our first few days here. Taking care of basic errands and getting to know the feel of a neighborhood is difficult when so many business are closed. Walking the streets of what I am sure is regularly a vibrant area, I often feel like one of the sole survivors of a zombie apocalypse. (I may or may not have been watching too much Walking Dead.) The other survivors and I walk the otherwise empty streets, our reflections in the darkened windows keeping us company, searching for an unlocked door leading to essential supplies. An occasional car speeds by carrying other survivors fleeing the zombies. I had a zombie apocalypse plan in place in Burlington (poison and lots of it- there is no way I’m trying to survive) but I don’t have a plan in Barcelona (almost all the farmacias are closed! and how do you say arsenic in Spanish?). Meanwhile in the tourist areas of town, we are surrounded by people, often shuffling slowly in the same direction, very zombie herd-like. While Parc Guell was beautiful and provided great people watching, it was certainly made less pleasant by the crowds and the 3 hr wait we had before we could enter the historical section that contains Gaudi’s buildings. An attempt to visit the aquarium on Saturday ended with a trip to the aquarium gift store instead, since we probably got as close to a real fish in there as we could have if we tried to enter with the zombie herd waiting in the ticket line. Apocalypse or no, we are figuring it out. The waterfront by the aquarium is fun to walk around, and we found a pop up inflatable amusement zone that was surprisingly empty of crowds, where Isaac did some air-blast-aided jumping on a trampoline. Then he and Felix did their best hamster imitation in large plastic bubbles floating in a small kiddie pool. They kind of suck as hamsters, but had fun trying. Parks are a great place for us survivors to spend time. We have a decent one right by our apartment and on Saturday spent time at the Parc de Joan Miro, where the boys created American Ninja Warrior style challenges on the climbing equipment and zip line. Afterwards we got to hang out by Miro’s gigantic mosaic sculpture Dona i Ocell (“Woman and Bird”). Our guide book tells us it is locally known by several other names that are easy to guess by looking at its shape. They are perhaps even more appropriate since the Parc is located in a part of L’Eixample neighborhood known as the Gayxample. On Sunday we headed to neighborhood of Gracia, where the Festa Major de Gracia is taking place, during which locals compete for the most elaborately decorated street. Here a good amount of locals have stayed put and the crowds felt less herdish. We walked through a dozen or so decorated streets and got to know the neighborhood a bit as we went. Our favorites were the streets decorated as the Amazon and Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. The boys enjoyed empanadas we bought on the street and I enjoyed the novelty of walking around with a cana (cup of beer) in my hand, if not the beer itself, as it tasted something like Budweiser. From the signs posted in closed business windows, a few that have been closed will open up this week. More survivors will slowly return to town, and the zombies will head back home too. By next week the city should be almost completely back to normal. But I’m gonna get my apocalypse plan together anyway, because you never know. Since this is a year of trying new things, maybe I WILL plan on survival. Better go do some push ups.
I could post photos from day 3 in Barcelona that showed us having a super fun time!! All the time!! Isaac did get to pose with a living statue on Las Ramblas that was truly impressive, we stood next to the Mediterranean Sea for the first time, and we ate some amazing gelato. BUT we also experienced a series of minor irritations. We just missed out train- twice. Not one but three of places we tried to go to were closed early for the holidays of August, while the tourist spots we visited were either packed to the point of not being fun or closed for renovations. It rained. The kids complained we were walking too much. The cork of the wine I was opening disintegrated into pieces and while getting out the sieve to pour the wine through I broke our only wine glass (taking us down from 5 to 4 total glasses in the apartment). None of us are sleeping well, our eating habits are all over the place, and despite all the walking (its too far Mommy!) I wasn’t getting much exercise. There are days, I think there are even many of them, where I could roll with all of this and still have a good time. But this day was not one of them. By the middle of the day, I was decidedly grumpy. Luckily the day did not end with a prized possession going down the drain, no soap got in my eyes and I was perfectly happy with the pajamas I wore to bed.* And things looked better the next morning. I also know that all of this is part of getting used to our new life here, and that at one point or another each one of us will go through our own funk as we adjust. Hopefully we can all help each other roll with it. *If you don’t get my “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” references, go read this book now. It should be a staple in every household. We have it in English and Spanish! Perhaps we will find a version in Catalan. |
AuthorMother, wife, previous and current Spain-dweller, excited to back here again. Archives
July 2015
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