El Raval

El Raval = a redefined neighborhood. Apparently El Raval Barrio was a bit dilapidated and a center or drugs and violence a few years back. Known for being once being the home for sex, drugs, and alcohol, as well as whatever else a sailor might want after a long journey, today it is a young and vibrant neighborhood, filled with young people on skateboards, amazing restaurants, home to a few departments of the University of Barcelona. It is also home to the Museum of Modern Art as well as the Centre de Cultura Contemporanea de Barcelona. After our field trip I took a friend to Bar Raval at the top, or bottom depending on your perspective, of Rambla del Raval to introduce him to tapas and Seafood Paella. Of course he loved both, but was unwilling to touch the balls of the cat, like we had been instructed to do during our field trip by a local, on our after lunch stroll.

            Our second stop along the field trip was the Maritime Museum towards the bottom of the Raval neighborhood. Built a few kilometers from the sea, the building itself was held up by gigantic arches, which helped to envision the construction of ships which took place there. Sitting outside the Museum was a replica of one of the world’s first Submarines, an interesting piece of history.

Back to the Future

            Entering the Museu d’Història de la Ciutat in Barcelona felt more like Robert Zemeckis’ 1985 film, Back to the Future, than a school field trip. Boarding the elevator inside the museum in the year 2011 and watching time fly back to the 1^st century BC as we descended to the old Roman ruins of the city was a humbling event. Resting a story or two below the modern bustling streets of Barcelona around the Cathedral and Placa del Rei, the rumored location of Ferdinand and Isabelle’s reception of Christopher Columbus, now lays the remains of the once bustling streets of the Roman city of Barcino, or rather Colonia Iulia Augusta Paterna Faventia Barcino. The old roman city was founded in 10 BC by the Emperor Augustus, hence the original roman name for the city. While Barcelona today stands as one the world’s most famous cities, back in the time of the Romans, it was a distant second to the Roman capital and port of Tarraco, current day Tarragona.

            Never the less, the remains of the roman city of Barcino on display beneath the museum gave us a glimpse of what life was like for the Romans. Surprisingly, society for them was not all that different from society today. On preserved display is a district of workshops and factories, including areas where clothes were washed and dyed. The large pits of the cetaria, used for salting fish and preparing fish sauce, garum, are still partially intact. Also on display are the old roman public baths used for bathing and teaching as well as a Church from the Visigoth period, around the 6^th century.

            But perhaps the most interesting part of the Museum were the displays of Children’s toys, trinkets, and tic-tac-toe boards, as well as women’s make up kits and jars. Such objects show you that while we live in a time very distant from the Romans, the structure and workings of society are not as distant. Today in Barcelona, The Government center, The Town Hall and the Parliament of Catalunya, as well as the religious center, all still stand in the same spot as it did for the Romans, in Placa St. Jaume. Children are still seen playing in the streets, although now more so with skateboards than tic-tac-toe boards. And women still parade into local beauty shops to buy their makeup. The large vats of garum have now been replaced by large vats of gelado. But all in all, the Roman city of Barcino does not seem to be all that different from the modern Catalan city of Barcelona.

Visit to Montserrat

Montserrat is a mountain chain north of the city of Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain. The main peaks of Montserrat are Sant Jeroni, Montgrós, and Miranda de les Agulles. It is most famously known as the site of the Benedictine abbey, Santa Maria de Montserrat, which hosts the Virgin of Montserrat sanctuary and which is identified by some as the location of the Holy Grail.

The term "Montserrat” means, "jagged mountain" in Catalan. My journey to Montserrat with the IES field trip was a pleasurable one. We began our day in Montserrat with a 3-hour hike around the mountain. After an hour or so bus ride and a 5-minute funicular ride up the side of the Mountain, we were given a brief lesson about the hermitages in the mountains surround the church. We learned that at one time many religious hermits had retreated to this place but that now there were none. The last one had apparently died at the end of the 1990’s. We were then taken to one of the still intact hermitages up on one side of the mountain. There were carved out steps in the side of the mountain. The most intricate part of the hermitage was the track that had been carved into the side of the mountain wall to catch rain fall as is poured down the side of the mountain and then was captured by a well that had been carved out beneath it.  Our second half of the trip was inside the art gallery and a visit to the Basilica. In the art gallery, we learned the story of the Black Madonna and then got into line to wait to touch the hand of the black Madonna statue, the only part left exposed by the glass case.

My first "taste" of Catalan Cuisine

While part of the onion family, Calcots are milder and less “bulbous” than onions, although before my trip to Valencia with IES I had never heard of them. At first I was quite turned off by the idea of eating a large onion. But once I tried it I had a blast. The traditional Catalan method of cooking the calcots is to grill them over a flaming barbecue while wrapped in newspaper, they are served on a terra cotta roof tile to keep them warm. Before eating, one must peel away the blackened outer layers, then dip the calcots in salvitxada, a sauce made of almonds, tomatoes, garlic, peppers, vinegar and oil. While I enjoyed the practice of eating the calcots and the huge mess it made, my favorite part was the sauce. When the waiter came over to clear our plates for the main meal, I made sure to hang on to my saucer of sauce.