Barcelona: Christina´s Spanish Comedy Show

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Overview:

1. Welcome to Spain. The land of bulls, sangria, and really fast talkers. I was pumped to be off the translating hook. Christina was not so thrilled after her first few encounters (see more below). One of my first observations was that the Spanish do not know how to help out foreigners. Usually, when we ask a question to a native speaker, not in our native language we: 1. Speak slowly - so that they can pick up on our terrible accent and know we are not native speakers and would appreciate a slow response 2. Phrase our questions in such a way that we get one word answers in response. The Spanish didnt pick up on any of this. Christina would ask "How much?" and she would get an 8 sentence answer including everything from how it was a good price and the guy down the street cant beat it because he has a different wholesaler, etc, etc... By the end of the sentence the original price was forgotten.

2. Spain...also famous for "Manana" which means tomorrow, as in they'll get to it tomorrow. Best example of this is a church they started two hundred years ago and are no where near completing.

3. And you thought we took sports seriously. The Barcelona vs. Real Madrid game every year was described to me as Red Sox vs. Yankees only times 10. As a Red Sox fan who hates the Evil Empire, I had a hard time believing this. But after a little research it seemed to be true. The back story is that Barcelona, the capital of Catalan, wants to be its own country and Madrid, the capital of Spain is the enemy. Having given up the military approach, Catalan has invested all its energy in the annual matches between the two teams. A few highlights: 1. The opposing team usually enters the opposing city under armed escort. 2. Instead of pre and post game tailgates, they have annual pre and post game riots. 3. Once in a match a player had the following objects thrown at him while taking a corner kick - bottles filled with urine, a pig's head, broken glass, and garbage.

We arrived in Spain and Matt immediately tuned out, happy that I would finally have to take charge of translating for once. I was also excited because I thought all those years of spanish might finally come in handy. We arrived at our campsite just outside of Barcelona and went to grab some lunch. We sat down and Matt looked at me and I was crushed. I had no idea what the menu said AT ALL. Thinking my spanish had all been for naught, I explained to the waiter "mi espanol es horrible" and asked him to point to the dishes that were either chicken or beef. The waiter laughed and explained that the menu was in Catalan...the official language of Catalonia, a region in Spain. Awesome...finally a country where we have a chance at understanding things and they have a regional language. Anyway, it all worked out, but Matt got a hamburger just to be sure.

That afternoon we went into the city by train, which required us to buy tickets and for me to use my spanish. I walked up to the guy, who looked really bored, and said in spanish while gesturing:

Two tickets to barcelona, round trip.

The guy looks at me, a big smile comes to his face and he says "perfecto!" He was clearly amused by my spanish. He got our tickets and told us which door to go out, and smiled and waved good bye. OK, I didnt realize my spanish was funny, but I guess I can see how it might be.

We went into town and walked around a bit. We saw the old part of town and got our bearings for the next day before returning home.

The next morning we woke up ready to tackle the city. This of course required another trip to the train station, and guess who was sitting there in the window...the same guy. He sees me, and, I kid you not, his face lights up and he sits there ready for my spanish comedy show. Well he got it.

Two tickets to barcelona, round trip.

He grins, hands me the tickets, and says adios. I made this guys day again, just by talking...I didnt know if I should be offended or flattered. Oh well.
We saw all the sights in Barcelona, including the weird unfinished Cathedral started by Guadi back in the 1800s and which is still not done. We were happy to see work had progressed since my parents visit 30 years ago (we saw their pictures before we left), but it still looked like a big sand castle where someone had dribbled water on it to make "patterns." I guess the phrase "thats so gaudy" started for good reason.

We had lunch in town and then headed back to our campsite for dinner. After dinner we went to the port right across from our campsite and went to a local bar to see if a futbol game was one or something similar. We went to this one bar and I ordered in Spanish. The bartender was kind of bored so he asks me a question. I have no idea what he is saying, so i said my usual phrase, I am sorry, but my spanish is horrible, please speak a little slower. the guy kind of laughs (again with the spanish comedy show apparently) and asks where we are from. I say we are from the United States. He looks intrigued and says he is sorry and doesnt speak any english, but what state are we from. I say california and he looks really impressed. he starts asking me all these questions in spanish like do i live on the beach there. I say no, but my brother does, and by that time, the bartender has called over the manager, who apparently lived in California for a few years, so he is excited too. He asks me all these questions too, and i have to again explain that my spanish is horrible and to please speak slower. He does and we manage to communicate, but by then they have called over the waitress saying something like...look! these people are from california. She sings me a few lines from a red hot chili peppers song about california, and there the 3 of them are, all leaning on the bar talking with me in Spanish, fascinated both with the fact that we are from CA and, apparently, fascinated with my spanish. I am a bit overwhelmed and I look at Matt, and there he is, grinning. He says "One cerveza" because that is all he knows, and the bartender goes rushing off to get it for him. We ended up talking with the bartender almost the whole night, mainly because Matt kept telling me to ask him all these absurd questions. I think he was getting me back for Provence (see the Probence blurb). Once I had to ask the bartender where we could see a soccer game, where to get the tickets, and which were the best teams. I had forgotten how to say "game" so it was interesting, complete with acting out the sport, etc. It was a fun night.

We met up with our Spanish friends we met in Lucerne for breakfast the next day. They showed us around a bit, and promised to visit us in California some day. Happy with Barcelona, we left to make our long trek to the south of spain to meet up with our parents in Marbella. It was a long drive so we stopped only briefly in the town of Tarragona to check out their Roman ampitheatre on the beach and to spend the night, and then at one other small town along the way for the night. We pulled into Marbella 2 days before our parents arrived and camped at a great little campsite right on the beach 2 blocks from where we would be staying when they arrived.

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