We just returned to our base here in France following four days in sunny Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona is only a 3 hour drive away from St. Papoul so it made a great side trip before we leave Europe at the end of October. How to describe Barcelona? A wild, whimsical city with a seedy underbelly - I think that would capture it. Wild because of the huge numbers of people, cars and noise and the bizarre performance artists that line the famous pedestrian street, La Rambla. Whimsical because of the unusual architecture of Antoni Gaudi, and the even more unusual art and sculptures of native sons Miro, Salvador Dali, and Picasso. As for the seedy underbelly part, what can I say? It's a port city with a big drug problem and cities with drug problems have lots of petty crime, pickpockets, bag snatchers, etc. When we spoke to the kids beforehand about always being aware and alert for these reasons, Jackson (bless his heart) asked me if the robbers would be wearing black and stripes so he would know who to watch out for.
But we did like Barcelona despite some minor problems like driving around downtown Barcelona lost for an hour. All the while we were a stone's throw from the hostel we were staying at but who could tell? The streets are not signed well and with cars zipping around you like hornets, you don't dare slow down to try reading any signage anyway. Throw in some sad news from home and add a dash of food poisoning and you end up with a decidedly mixed holiday.
The sad news is my Mom's husband had a heart attack and ended up in hospital in Saskatoon. My Mom & George just moved into a retirement residence in early September, less than a month ago. We are all hoping and praying he recovers enough to return to their new home soon.
About the food poisoning . . . let this be a lesson to all you kiddies out there. While Mom & Dad were happily munching on tapas of all variety, Mitchell and Jackson opted for chicken nuggets and fries one day. Guess who got sick? Moral of the story: always eat what the locals eat! Oh, and did I mention that we were staying in an el-cheapo hostel with a shared bathroom situation? This is not good when two members of one's family are vomiting. Sometimes the bathroom may be occupied, you get the idea. Cue wastepaper basket. Moral of the story #2: always ensure your room has a private bath!
The big highlight was, of course, seeing an Barcelona Football Club match at the enormous Camp Nou Stadium (seats 120,000 people). As you likely know, in Europe "football" = "soccer" and "match" = "game". Never mind that the seats were in the nosebleed section, the kids were beyond excited! Barcelona beat Almeria 1-0. Barcelona FC fans are extremely passionate and that would be putting it mildly. They scream at the players, they scream at the refs, they throw paper airplanes on the field (no idea what that's about), and they sing the anthem with gusto. Very different from a Sens game where half the crowd mutters the Canadian national anthem and the other half stand silently munching popcorn. The video clip shows the opening song. This clip is interesting to me because it captures perfectly the dynamic we often see between Mitchell and Jackson. That is, Jackson is trying to take in the event and focus on what's happening while Mitchell has taken in some of what's happening but would prefer to joke around, goof off, and tries to drag Jackson into that mode. Which is why we are more or less homeschooling them separately. Oh, but that would be another post for another time. Sigh.
Coincidentally, we learned shortly after arriving in Barcelona, that the Grand Finale of the Red Bull Air Race was on town. I thought this was funny since we wondered way back in August 2008 if we might stumble across another Red Bull Flugtag event and we did! We did not specifically go the beach for the airshow (over a million people did and we knew it would be insane), but you could not miss the roar of the aircraft flying overhead regardless. What we did do was stroll La Rambla everyday, visit Parc Guell (Gaudi's themepark, so to speak), ride the hop on-hop-off bus tour, and tour the site of the 1992 Olympics. And last but not least, we also spent time in a trendy neighbourhood known as the el Born barrio . . . seriously!
If you still have time before you must tear yourself away from this blog to get back to work, please enjoy our latest PhotoStory slideshow. Adios!
