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Published: June 18th 2013
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Also Boqueria
One of the many eating establishments in the Boqueri. So much to tell - such an assault to the senses! So much so that now that I have had a chance to unwind and glass of wine in hand, it is rather overwhelming and a bit muddled in my mind.
Let me just start with overall impressions. CHINA! OMG so much of this takes me back to China. From the train ride into town, to the way the apartments are built straight up in little squares around each other, to the 13 flights up to my B&B, to the lay out of the little apartment that I share with a father/son combo from California, pair of Italian girls I have only seen in passing, and the owner of the B&B and his French bullbog Pierre who wants to eat my good running socks. My expectation was that the Europe was more like the US - or rather the US was modeled after Europe. The biggest similarity I see here is in how we look. I can walk down the streets of Barcelona and blend right in. Sadly that means people often speak to me not knowing I don't belong. In China there is no doubt who the foreigner is
Mercot de la Boqueria
Like Pike Place Market on a huge overdose of steroids! and they don't expect me to know the language. Now don't get me wrong - Barcelona is a lot different then China too. It's like the core is very similar but the sublties are different. The 13 flights of stairs are a beautiful very warm wood with brightly colored walls, not dingy cement often very dirty and sometimes smelling of urine. The sizes and lay outs of the apartments are very similar, but there is no squat pot here, the place is very clean, and there are no CHICKEN FEET or DUCK's HEAD in the fridge to be cooked for dinner. Also my little balcony looks out on a back alley where clothes are hung to dry just like China, but no unmentionables are hanging anywhere to be seen and the view is much brighter and not so dreary.
Then there is the trip to Barcelona Cathedral (I am going to the unfinished one tomorrow). It is also under construction with a lot of repairs being done. They charge admission so I didn't go in the main cathedral but rather circled it, which was actually quite interesting, and went into some smaller subsidiary chapels. Before I left I did
go in one and pray. Although tourists go in and out it is clearly marked as a praying chapel and a guard reminds people to be quiet.
That experience reminded me of my feeling about old cathedrals. While I am excited to see them as I am here and walking the Camino it is more with historic interest - not spiritual. I don't really feel God's presence in a lot of these places. I am afraid I have a bit of the Protestant attitude - the old Catholic church so often abused its powers and these old cathedrals feel cold and prison like to me. And what is with all the creepie gargoyles on a church?! That said I did go in the chapel once as a tourist and left thinking to myself "not feeling it, no place to pray here." However after circling the place and walking over an hour I came back to the chapel and went in and much to my surprise I had a very nice chat with God while noting to him that while all the other women in the mural on the wall were darker skinned as you would expect, the virgin of
el Gotic
El Gotic is the area just north of the cathedral of Barcelona. the chapel was lily white! God and I had a chuckle.
I have not yet experienced the food as I bought fresh veggies at the market and a mango for dessert and made my own dinner. I did buy some Catalunya Blanco Seco wine. Okay for 2 Euros! And the wine goes great with mangos!
I am going to make it an early night tonight as I only got about 3 hours sleep last night. Such a fun night - 3 hours we sat at the gate before we got to leave because of the earlier thunderstorm. The pilot did good though - we were only 2 and a half hours late getting into Barcelona. Then there was the hour I was lost in the train station. Beijing has Barcelona beat with there amazing subway sysstem that is very user friendly.
I found that pictures are very time consuming to load from the phone and difficult to edit. Also the blue tooth keyboard with the phone is not without its probblems. I will have to do much editing when I am home. Sorry for many errors I am sure you will find. Also the pictures are in
random order. I will add more tomorrow. I am pooped!
As I feared I went to bed early so now at 2:30am I am wide awake. Of course it could be because it's 5:30pm yesterday there. Well added more pics. Will title them tomorrow!
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