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Published: October 9th 2012
THE MONTSERRAT SUMMIT!
A day trip to Montserrat (Serrated Mountains) brought us to the top of the cable car ride, where we can look down on the heavy clouds we've passed through below.When we came to Barcelona, we fully expected a warm, celebratory airport greeting from Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johannson, actors in the Woody Allen movie, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona". Didn't happen! They must have confused the flight numbers and stood at the wrong gate.
Oh well...we have encountered a number of other famous people on the streets and in the metro, cafes and restaurants. John Cleese of Monty Python fame ate paella two tables away from us at a restaurant near the beaches... Jason Alexander (
George on Seinfeld) rides the metro with us in the mornings...Salman Rushdie (
Satanic Verses author) strolls past us each morning in front of the cafe where we take our
cafe con leches before class.
Sorry... lies all (we think), but it is fun to celebrity watch and pick out similar looking faces while passing time on subways and in restaurants. In truth, Lady Gaga WAS here for a concert last night - she invited us for tea with her, but our smelly laundry washing was a wee bit more pressing...maybe next time M'Lady!! Oftentimes, we just sit in the sidewalk cafes and people watch as numerous sets of Dads (yes, strangely, mostly Dads) with 2
Maureen Brown Noses with the Instructors
David, Maica, Maureen and Arturo share a laugh in front of Babylon-Idiomas language school...could it be my zipper was unzipped??! or 3 little ones pass by... pushing bicycles, strollers, backpacks attached as they head off to nurseries or school.
This past week, our rotation of Spanish teachers had a change up as Natalia headed off on holidays to Granada in the south of the country. Her replacement was
Raquel, a lovely young mother of 2 year old twins named Hector and Hugo. Raquel's nurturing, bright smile was engaging even when she pointed out that the form of the verb you just used was
totally wrong. And in Larry's case this week, the opportunities to point out mistakes were plentiful...some weeks the brain just doesn't function so well - or maybe it's the aging brain??- and this was one of THOSE weeks!
One of Raquel's little boys had surgery on Thursday, and so we had yet another instructor take her place Thursday and Friday. In marched
Maica, a sturdy, stern-looking drill sergeant. Down to business right away for this lady...no smiles required! It struck us that there might be hard, serious linguistic slogging ahead.
Even harder than usual! Shortly thereafter, Maica had all 6 of us (two of our original 8 students left at the end of last
MEET RAQUEL
New-to-us instructor Raquel works her 'magico' with classmates Lea (Italy), Kim (Germany) and Maureen's arms!! week) laughing while competing in teams at the blackboard (whiteboard, actually!). VALE! First impressions aren't always correct...Maica DID have a sense of humour. This wouldn't be so bad after all...whew!
And of course, frenetic, crazy Arturo remained...well...frenetic and crazy Arturo! But an awesome guy and teacher.
We have had a little confusion in the local language. Many people know that the "s" sound in espanol is pronounced differently in Spain versus the Caribbean and South and Latin Americas. The normal "s" as we say it in English becomes "lisped" to sound like "th" in Spain.
If only it was so simple.
Actual "s" letters are spoken the same as we say normally...it's the "c" and "z" that get the lisp treatment. Therefore, Spain is "Spain", but "cervezas" and "Barcelona" become "thervethas" and "Barthelona". Our teachers tell us that the restaurant servers who say "doth thervezath" (should be "dos thervethas) are maleducado and
"th-tupido". Got all that?
But perhaps what you really want to know is, "what is the food like and how are the prices?"
Buen pregunta (good question!). Morning, noon, and night the most popular street foods are "bocadillos". Bocadillos are like little submarine
TAPA TIME!
A collection of tapas served at our neighbourhood cafe, "La Rambla" sandwiches made on little baguettes and stuffed with cheese and ham, or cheese and egg, or tuna, or Catalan-style cured meats, or whatever. They cost about $1.50 CAN and are consumed in bars, restaurants, cafes, and often people bring them with them from home for eating on the metro. The morning drinks are espresso, or cafe con leche, or cerveza (yes, beer for breakfast). Some will have both a beer and an espresso drink at their table (each of these usually cost about $1.50 too)...if this doesn't get you going in the morning, is there any hope at all?
Tapas are a common item in the cafes and restaurants (surprise?!). Small dishes of various meat or vegetable items, the one we see eaten most often is called "Patatas Ali Oli". We tried it once, but only once. Our vision of potatoes drizzled with a light garlic olive oil dressing evaporated in a moment. The camarero (waiter) slid a big heaping plate of deep-fried cube shaped potatoes with a
monstrous dollop of garlic mayo plopped in the centre of it all and then some ketchup layered over the mayo. This would be a gall-bladder stone sufferers worst nightmare. It takes
A Museum Just for Chocolate!
Who could possibly avoid a visit to a chocolate museum filled with history, movies and large chocolate sculptures like the one in the picture above? Best of all, lots of chocolate available for consumption (well, at a price! The heady, sweet scent of chocolate in the air took care of those worries.) at least 2 cervezas (sorry, "thervethas") to wash down the oily melange afterwards. Add into this mix the ubiquitous smell of wafting cigarette smoke in the streets and cafes and one might wonder where the current average age of mortality sits in modern-day Espana!
Barcelona is a coastal city and that means seafood is also popular,
paella being "el clasico". Most bars, restaurants and cafes serve a selection of different paellas. Paella is a yellow (saffron) rice-based dish usually with a variety of shellfish and other seafoods mixed in, served in a round, oven-proof pan straight from the oven. It's very colourful and fragrant, and ...
delicioso! Priced between about $15 and $20, it's a great deal and is often served with the fruit-fruit juice-wine combination of Sangria. In our limited time here we've labelled Sundays as "
Paella and Sangria Sunday". A visit to a warm Mediterranean beachfront restaurant in the district of Barceloneta is a paella lover's paradise!
All in all, food prices in restaurants and in the supermarkets are probably just a little bit lower than what we experience in Canada. This could be a result of the diminishing exchange of the EURO vs our dollar.
Montserrat Funicular Station
The up-mountain funicular train is one way to get to the Basilica that stands on Montserrat. We took the cable car for the higher views. Huge deficits in the European Union and 25% unemployment in Spain are good (for us) and bad (for Europeans) for keeping prices lower.
School's OUT! This past weekend we skipped town for a day and hopped aboard an out-bound train to Montserrat, or "Serrated Mountain". Only about an hour's train jaunt away from Barcelona, this high-mountain religious pilgrimage site built by the Catholic Church a ways back around 900 CE is now like a Euro-centric version of Macchu Pichu in Peru.
Dropped off the train at the valley town of Montserrat in the cool and damp air, we scrambled onto a cable car for a journey through the low clouds surrounding the mountain. Unprepared, others around us shivered in their shorts and T-shirts awaiting the departure of the gondola. Just a few minutes later our cable car pierced through the clouds and we were able to see a spectacular vista of the monastery Basilica and other structures built into and onto a steep mountainside, surrounded by verdant green, lush vegetation. Above the man-made structures a panorama of smoothly-rounded, serrated teeth projected high overhead.
After a visit to the Benedictine Abbey and the Basilica proper (because there was
INSIDE MONTSERRAT BASILICA
During a service on Saturday morning. a mass going on, we couldn't go behind the altar to touch the "
Black Madonna's Orb", a pilgrimage homage greatly sought after by the Catholic devotees ) we headed up some steep trails behind the Basilica. We climbed a significant distance until the sweat factor ground us down and we halted our advance. Others with ropes and assorted climbing gear (
and some with Barbie running shoes, damn tough little kids!!) continued upwards and we spotted many
dots high above that were climbers clinging to the Serrated Mountains vertical surfaces. Just another kind of pilgrimage by those whose religion took them higher to their God!
And so now, as most northern North Americans celebrate a day of turkeys and football and raking leaves, we have begun our final week of classes in Barcelona before we head eastwards for a short Glasgow visit with our architecturally-crafty son William who is studying for a term in Scotland.
Once again this week begins with both good and bad news.
The good news? Our language class now has 2 German male-types added in to bring the male/female ratio to a healthier 3:5.
The Bad news? Larry's harem has dissipated and there is now
MOUNTAIN TOP LATTE
Maureen enjoys her morning latte on Montserrat before we hit the Basilica and climb much higher still on the trails surrounding the religious site. a new battle afoot for Alpha Male in the group!! 😉 Watch the next edition for the bloodbath photos!
Maureen is now an ALMOST totally converted
tea granny to
cafe connoisseur and so the real job here in Barcelona is nearing an end. Just a few more days and we'll be saying "
Adioth" (OK, it really IS Adios) to "
Barthelona" and starting to work on our Scottish brogue.
Are there special schools in Glasgow for that?
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Cherie Miltimore
non-member comment
Great writing, great pictures
Thank you for such great writing ... I laugh and learn ... that pic of MONTSERRAT BASILICA AND MONASTERY is unbelievable ... is it your pic?