Snails

Perhaps the most surprising cuisine I’ve come to enjoy while abroad are Caracoles, or snails. Never in my life before my tie abroad did I ever think I would ever eat a snail. In fact it was one of a few things I would have been ok with never doing once in my life. But on my weekend trip to Paris, my travel companion insisted that I try to special delicacy. Though reluctant at first, I finally gave in to the pressure and agreed to try one. When they were served they were still in their shells, though dead, and covered in a green garlic sauce. To my surprise I ended up loving them and eating a few more than my original one. In fact, I enjoyed them so much that when I traveled to Sevilla and encountered a restaurant called “Caracoles”, I knew exactly where I wanted to eat for the night. Ordering off the tapas menu, we requested a plate of caracoles, Iberian ham, green olives, and of course some nice refreshing cerveza. To our surprise though, we received a plate filled to the brim full of caracoles, rather than the ten we had received in Paris. And these were not covered in the same heavy green garlic sauce, but rather had been stemmed and soaked in a light olive oil sauce. These Spanish snails were delicious as well, but did not cover the taste of the snails as much as I had anticipated. I will certainly be more careful next time I order something so adventurous in Spain.

The Block of Discord

One of Barcelona’s biggest tourist attractions is that it is home to hundreds of examples of Modernista architecture. One of the premier and most famous gatherings of modernist architecture in the city is The Block of Discord, Illa de la Discòrdia. The Block of Discord is the name given to the buildings located between numbers 35 and 43 on Passeig de Gràcia that were designed by Barcelona’s three most prominent Modernista architects; Lluís Domènech i Montaner, designer of Casa Lleó-Morera, Antoni Gaudí, designer of Casa Batlló, and Josep Puig i Cadafalch, designer of Casa Amatller. However, these three are not the only modernista architects with a modernista building located on The Block of Discord. The fourth and designer of Casa Mulleras, situated between the other three buildings at 37 Passeig de Gràcia, is Enric Sagnier i Villavecchia. While Sagnier’s contribution is also interesting and worth looking at, the main attraction on the Block of Discord is Gaudi’s Casa Batlló. Built in the  20^th century, Casa Batlló looks like something out of a dream, rather than a building in a busy metropolitan city. The smooth and wavy façade on the first floors seem like water and the scally roof line seems as though it is the tail of a dragon. Walking through the inside gives the feeling of being in the children’s tale book Alice in Wonderland, with the arched hallways. The use of mosaic created from broken tiles, Trencadís, along the roof line and on the chimney’s is a direct link between Casa Batlló and many other of Gaudi’s works. But seeing Gaudi’s strange and beautiful style throughout a home was much more of a shock then his work in Park Guell, which seemed to blend into nature with a much smoother transition. Walking through Casa Batlló is almost an other worldly experience

The Olympic Games

In 1992 Barcelona hosted the Summer Olympics. This was a major event for a multitude of reasons. First, it was the first Olympics that no nation boycotted since the end of the Soviet Union and it was the first Olympics in which professional athletes were allowed to compete in. But even more evident than the Olympics themselves, was the atmosphere Barcelona projected as host of the Olympics. Less than two decades prior, General Francisco Franco was still in power as the dictator of Spain. The country itself was still recovering form the civil war, and was experiencing retardation of the economy, due to Franco’s isolationist approach. But in the few short years between Franco’s death in 1975 and Barcelona winning the Olympic bid in 1986, The country and the Catalan capital of Barcelona made great strides to replace itself amongst the ranks of the worlds top powers.

            The nomination of the city as possible host for the 1992 games was the spark that initiated the huge urbanization plan throughout the city. In preparation for the Olympics, Barcelona was completely transformed. The rundown and crime filled areas of El Raval and Barceloneta were cleaned up and turned into clean middle class areas. Restaurants and stores began to fill the available spaces and a new population of young people began to inhabit the areas. The orientation of the city as a whole was moved from an inward looking city to a sea facing Mediterranean city, especially with the construction of the Olympic Village and Olympic Port in the Poblenou area. On top of the renovation of the city’s most rundown areas, was the construction of new highways that ran around the city, rather than straight through it, allowing for a less congested city center and a more efficient means of delivery of goods by trucks to places throughout the city. The El Prat Airport was also completely modernized, and a second terminal was created, to facilitate an easier means for tourists to enter and leave the city.

            Another reason why the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona were so successful is due the city’s continued use of Olympic facilities long after the games. The most famous of the centers constructed for the games are on top of Montjuïc;  Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc , used for opening and closing ceremonies as well as track and field events, Palau Sant Jordi , where the American men’s Basketball “Dream Team” had their games, and Piscines Bernat Picornell, the Olympic pool. A main reason Barcelona was awarded the 1992 Olympic games, other than the fact that the then IOC president was Juan Antonio Samaranch, a native of Barcelona, is that it had already begun preparations, such as the Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc, for the 1936 Olympic games which it was supposed to host, until the start of the Civil War the same year.

            The true winner of the 1992 Olympic games seems to be the city itself more so than any competitor. While there were no athletic performances for the ages from the games that have made the games unforgettable, their success seems to stem from the city’s ability to transform itself into a world city and to project Catalan culture on a global level. The true effect of the 1992 Olympic games was the ability for Barcelona to brand itself as a cosmopolitan city and to create the infrastructure to support the mass tourism it now steadily receives.               

El Call

Prior to 1492 in Spain, Catholic and Jewish cultures co-existed peacefully. But during the reign of the Isabel and Fernando, after 1492, the situation changed completely with the beginning of the Inquisition. All Jews who had not been forced to leave the peninsula, were forced to change their religion. Many of those of chose to stay in Barcelona, however, continued their Jewish religious life in secret. Due to the persecution suffered by the Jewish community, much of their cultural and artistic legacy has disappeared from the city. However, many vestiges remain, especially in the Call neighborhood, the neighborhood of the Jewish quarter.

Medieval Barcelona

Through out the Middle Ages, Barcelona was influenced by the Islamic world and Carolingian Europe. Barcelona as the capital of Catalonia, came to govern a handful of territories which included places as far away as Sicily and Athens. During the middle ages, Barcelona was an extremely important trading centre for the Mediterranean. Today, throughout El Born or La Ribera areas of the city, the remnants of these times and influences can still be seen. 
The story of medieval Barcelona is fully evident in its Romanesque and Gothic buildings. Walking through the different parts of the city, you can fully understand the various changes the city has undergone from its once walled enclosures during the M, the Palau de la Generalitat; the Royal Palace and mansions on Carrer Montcada near the now Mueso de Picasso; the Cathedral and churches, such as Santa Maria del Mar, which had close ties with the bourgeois guilds.

            The appeal of the Gothic district of Barcelona stands out even more when compared to the gird like pattern of the Eixample area. The Gothic district, composed of dozens of tiny streets, that prohibit most forms of motor vehicles, is home to some the of the city’s finest restaurants hidden on these little tiny streets. One of the most interesting differences between Barcelona’s Gothic district and the Eixample area, is the conception of space. Many of the apartments in Barcelona’s Eixample area are big and spacious, each with its own personal water closet, or even two. But the idea of space was quite different in the Gothic district. Many apartments there today share one water closet with every other apartment in the building, usually located in the basement. Another major aspect of the life of the Gothic District in the middle ages is the idea of Guilds. Guilds were groups of craftsmen that worked as both a training and apprenticeship organization as well as a labor union to protect workers rights. Throughout the Gothic District are many apartment buildings that were, at one time the residences of the workshops. The workshop and store would be on the bottom, street level. On the first floor, would be the living quarters of the owner of the guild. These floors have the biggest rooms with the highest ceilings and also the largest windows. On the floor above that would usually be the living quarters of the manager of the guild. And beyond that floor would be the living quarters of the guild workers.

            One of the biggest examples of the Midlevel Times in Barcelona, is the church of Santa Maria del Mar in Pl. del Born. Designed by the architect Berenguer de Montagut, it is a perfect example of Catalan Gothic. It is one large room, with plane looking from the outside with no spires like in traditional Gothic churches, and contains introverted, rather than flying buttresses for support.  Santa Maria del Mar was the church in which the sailors and merchants of Gothic Barcelona worshipped, not those of the upper classes.

Courtyards of the Eixample

In 1859 Ildefons Cerdà’s plans for expanding the city of Barcelona were approved and the construction of today’s Eixample area began. His grid pattern idea for the city was to create a utopia based society. His original idea was to have a green and clean new city with constant open, fresh air. This new city was to symbolize the opposite of the old city and its terrible and crowded living conditions.

            However, due to a drive to generate as much profit as possible, Cerdà’s original plan for the Eixample area were completely scrapped. Today in the Eixample area, the only remains of Cerdà’s original plans are the outlines of the blocks of apartment buildings and store buildings and with rounded off corners of every block, originally designed to allow public transportation, then horse drawn buggies, to make easier rounded turns, instead of sharp turns.

            Other aspects of Cerdà’s plans were left out which would have drastically altered the way the area looks today. Buildings were to be constructed only two sides of every block in a checkerboard fashion so that there would never be two buildings touching each other, each having a small open green area in between. Instead, buildings were constructed on all four sides of every block, each touching the one next to it with no green open air space between them. In the middle of every block, in the interiors of the buildings were supposed to be private and public gardens, courtyards, to keep the open-air feeling of the new area. Instead, these planned courtyards were covered by single story structures that are manly inhabited by restaurants and stores.

            While searching the internet to find the few courtyards hidden in the Eixample area today, I found out a good deal about the city’s efforts to recreate these courtyards in an effort to lessen the densely crowded area that the Eixample has become. The organization responsible for this courtyards project is Proeixample S.A., a group made up of officials from the city of Barcelona and Catalan banks. Their aim is purchase land in the Eixample area whenever a part of a block, or manzana, becomes available due to a business closing down. They then convert the area into an open-air public park, usually with benches and children’s playgrounds. The costs for the design and layout of these converted courtyards are paid through the development and sale of the remainder of the area for apartment complexes and or other miscellaneous  public services.

            Since the beginning of Proeixample and this initiative, eight courtyards have been converted back to Cerdà’s original plan. The eight courtyards that have been recreated today are: Torre de les Aigues on Roger de Llúria, Casa Elizalde on Valencia,  Palau Robert on Passeig de Gràcia, Sebastià Bach on Rocafort, Cesar Martinell on Villaroel, Escola Carlit on Roger de Flor, Montserrat Roig on Roselló, and Manuel de Pedrolo on Diputació. While the courtyards in the Eixample area today are nothing spectacular, they are quiet and humble areas to escape the busy life of the city. The most interesting one I found was Torre de les Aigues. With an old water tower in the middle and a small wading pool, it was a refreshing break the apartment filled grid pattern of the city. It was also the only courtyard I found not cluttered with playgrounds and small children.

F.C. Barcelona Outside of Catalunya

Mes de un club: that is the theme of Barcelona’s powerhouse soccer team. Prior to coming to Barcelona, I would have considered myself a follower of Barcelona soccer. I would occasionally check the outcomes of matches and whenever a Champions League game was shown of ESPN in the US I would sit down and watch it. But after living in Barcelona for 4 months I feel as though I have the right to call myself a Barca fan. I’ve lived in the city, gone to a game, and seen the way the people of Barcelona care and truly live for this team. But what I did not understand until my trip to Seville was the passion in the rivalries throughout Spain.  Coming from the U.S., I understand sports rivalries: Boston vs. New York, Philadelphia vs. Dallas, etc. Some people even take these sports rivalries to the extent that they look down on their rival’s city. But no one in the U.S. is truly hates their rivals city or culture. I must preface the rest of this by saying that I know of the huge rivalry between Real Madrid and F.C. Barcelona, and I also know that cultural the two cities are far different and the people of each do not see eye to eye on many things. But what I did not know was how this sentiment of looking down on Barcelona, and Catalunya as a whole, extended beyond just Madrid and throughout all of Spain.

            While I was in Seville, I had the opportunity to watch a Real Madrid vs. F.C. Barcelona game. I expected there to be a crowd in the bar watching the game, but I did not expect it to be packed full of people, especially since Seville has its own soccer club. However, the bar was completely full of people, all cheering for Real Madrid. At first my friend and I were trying to decide if it just happened to be a crowd of Real Fans living in Seville or if there was a feeling of anti-Catalunya motivating their allegiance. Our doubts were soon answered when we overheard the bartender screaming at the television that Barcelona should not be allowed to win the Copa del Rey since they were not Spanish. It was at that point that we realized how people all over Spain felt towards the city of Barcelona. It was also the moment that we realized the real meaning behind F.C. Barcelona’s slogan, Mes de un club.