TravelStream™ news feed for member simonharris on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/simonharris en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:24:07 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/2/1234213320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/2/1234213320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/2/1234213320/tpod.html Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:24:07 -0500 DREAM2010

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Seville, Spain

Knowing, as I'm sure you do by now, my profound love of Spain and Spanish football, I've been put in a bit of a quandary this week but I've come to a momentous decision. In the Spain v England game, I'm supporting Spain.

This has been a difficult decision but I'm decided. I've lived in Spain for over 20 years now and I have to admit that international competitions haven't been much fun. You see, I suffered from divided loyalties. Because I watch Spanish football every week, I knew the Spanish players much better than I did the English but for some strange reason I felt that by supporting England, I was somehow being true to my roots. I now realise that I was completely mistaken.

This summer I enjoyed myself so much. Why? Because England didn't qualify for Euro 2008 and this meant that I could put every ounce of my footballing soul behind Spain. It was absolutley fantastic. No arguments. No snotty Spaniards (there's always one!) coming up and telling me that I didn't belong.

And what's more, Spain won and they did it by playing the most gorgeous, delicious, sumptuous football ever seen on God's earth. You can tell I enjoyed myself, can't you?

So this game on Wednesday is a real test of my resolve. But if I stop and think about it, 5 of the Spain squad come from FC Barcelona - the team I support and, apart from my Catalan wife and daughter, my only true love - and another 5 come from Liverpool FC - my favourite team in the Premiership. I'd have to be mad to support England.

I'll be watching the match here in Catalonia in my local bar with all my mates and although I'll have to take some ribbing, I'll be shouting 'Come On Spain! Viva La Roja!'

PS: I won't be TOO upset if England win. I'm just looking forward to seeing a good game, really.
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Tallinn, Estonia

It was about 8.30 pm on the evening of Saturday 11 October 2008, when I switched on the TV in preparation for Spain's game against Estonia in Tallinn and that's when this journey began. Oh, before I continue, I suppose I'd better tell you something about myself.

Although British-born, I live in Barcelona with my beautiful wife and daughter and because of where I live, I seem to be getting a reputation for myself as a travel writer. Now this is really strange, because in actual fact I'm a total couch potato and in reality I'm a bit of historian that writes about a place that everyone wants to visit, which is lucky really. However, I get the feeling that all this is about to change.

My other big passion, call it an obsession if you like, is football. I know it sounds a bit pathetic to the uninitiated but I read the sports paper every single day of my life and in a perfect world, I'd be able to watch a football match every night on the TV. And that's the point - on TV! I live in Barcelona and although I'm an almost obsessive FC Barcelona fan, I hardly ever go to the Camp Nou and I don't think I've ever been to an away game in my life. I'm dreadfully lazy, you see. So when I want my fix of live football, the maximum I'm prepared to do is to walk 200 metres round the corner to watch my local team , Sant Andreu, who play in the Spanish Division 2B, which is like a regional third division.

Anyway, as Spanish television were waiting to receive the transmission of the game they showed a report of Tallinn. The images of the city were lovely and I started to feel a liitle bit jealous. And then to make matters worse, my wife turned to me and said that if I were a 'proper' travel writer, I'd go to places like that rather than staying in Barcelona all the time and I couldn't help but agree. And then an idea struck me. What if I started working on getting a reputation as a travel writer who also writes about football? This way somebody might even pay me to go and watch the games and write about the city, as well. I might even get invited to South Africa 2010 - a dream come true

Anyway, I was musing on this as the match kicked off. It wasn't much of a game, actually - it was all a bit too easy and as my mind was on other things, I didn't pay as much attention as should have. Estonia had a good chance in the 15th minute but not good enough to ruffle Iker Casillas. Then in the 34th minute, Spain went one up with a goal from Juanito from a pass by Xavi. If the result wasn't settled then, it certainly was four minutes later - Fernando Torres - Barengrub (nice name, that) fouled Fernando Torres in the penalty area and it was David Villa who put the ball away from the spot to make it 2-nil to Spain. I watched the last ten minutes before half.time but I was beginning to feel a bit peckish, so when the whistle blew I went into the kitchen to make a a cheese and bacon sandwich.

Feeling quite satiated (it was a big sandwich), I came back into the sitting room to watch the second half. Estonia had the upper hand for the first twenty minutes or so and Iker Casillas had to make a couple of saves, but then Carles Puyol, who's birthday it was, scored the third in the 69th. To be perfectly honest, the life went out of Estonia, after that, and the last twenty minutes were just a formality.

However, we can't complain really. Spain lead Group 5 with nine points from three games, we've had an unbeaten run of 25 games, we're now top of the FIFA ranking and and we look well on our way to South Africa 2010. I just wonder if I am too?





I would appreciate any comments on the content of this blog and if you would like to read more example of my writing on the Net, just click on the links on my profile page.

All the best
Simon Harris
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/1/1224709500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/1/1224709500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/1/1224709500/tpod.html Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:07:16 -0400 Going Native in Catalonia

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Catalonia, Spain

When you look back at Catalonia's rich artistic and cultural heritage, it's not surprising that Barcelona has become one of the style capitals of Europe. For more than a thousand years, the Principality has managed to pull in European and Mediterranean influences whilst somehow making them magically its own.


Catalonia's earliest definable architectural style was Romanesque, which resulted in the building of nearly two thousand churches and monasteries between 1000 and 1250. You can almost trace the Christians' victories over the Moors by observing its architecture. In the northern Pyrenean enclaves, such as the valleys of Boi and Aran or the small town of Ripoll, the churches are smaller and mesmerisingly simple showing strong French, or more accurately Frankish, influence. As the conquest moved further south and Barcelona's confidence as a Mediterranean seaport grew, the scale of religious architecture also grew in stature. Monasteries, such as those at Poblet and Santes Creus in the Province of Tarragona, are more ambitious and show overseas influence, particularly from Lombardy in Italy. The even more ornate Lleida Cathedral is another example of late Catalan Romanesque.


Given the sheer number of Romanesque buildings, the key to discovering architecture from this period is to get off the beaten track and explore the inland villages. Particularly in the north, these churches were once sumptuously decorated with murals and frescoes, but by the end of the 19th century vandalism and the elements had deteriorated them so much that they had to be saved. Using a process known as strappo, they were removed from their original sites and can now be viewed at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC) on Montjuïc in Barcelona and the Museu Episcopal in Vic.


Both these museums also contain wonderful collections of Catalan Gothic art, which dates from the late 13th to the early 15th century. Examples of this architectural style can be found in Barcelona, which in the Barri Gòtic contains one of the best-preserved medieval city centres in Europe. Most of the government buildings around Plaça Sant Jaume date from this period, whilst Santa Maria del Pi and the breathtaking Santa Maria del Mar are also not to be missed. Similarly, Girona Cathedral, which Gaudí cited as one of the essential buildings on the Iberian Peninsula, is truly awe-inspiring.


Following the death of the Catalan royal lineage and the accession of a Castilian to the throne in 1412, Catalonia entered a period of political and economic decline, which was accompanied a lack of artistic creativity. Consequently, the Renaissance and Baroque architecture is not on a par with Catalan Romanesque and Gothic. However, examples can be found, and a walk down Carrer Montcada in Barcelona will bear witness to this. For the later Imperial styles that followed Catalonia's annexation by Spain in 1714, you should visit the Catalan Parliament building in the Parc de la Ciutadella or the University of Cervera.


By the mid-19th century, economic prosperity triggered by the Industrial Revolution also engendered a cultural revival, first in literature and music and later, in the run up to Barcelona's 1888 Universal Exhibition, in architecture. This movement known as Modernisme was a Catalan Art Nouveau, which fortuitously coincided with the expansion of Barcelona's city centre into the Eixample. With over a thousand Modernist buildings, the style is one of Barcelona's trademarks, but the work of the three great masters Lluís Domènech i Montaner (1850-1923), Antoni Gaudí i Cornet (1852-1926) and Josep Puig i Cadafalch (1867-1957) and their collaborators can be found in the most unlikely corners of Catalonia. Much the same as with Romanesque and Gothic, the trick is to get off the beaten track and explore.


The Modernists were so prolific that it is impossible to catalogue their work in this short introduction. However, you can compare and contrast their styles on the Manzana de la Discordia, the Block of Discord, on the corner of Passeig de Gràcia and Carrer Consell de Cent in Barcelona. Within just a few metres of each other, you can observe the work of these three great iconoclastic architects.


Perhaps the least appealing of the three, at Passeig de Gràcia, 35 is Domènech i Montaner's Casa Lleó Morera. His other masterpieces include the Palau de la Música Catalana and the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau. A few doors up at number 41 is Puig i Cadafalch's striking Casa Amatller, while the most extraordinary is the Casa Batlló, next door at number 43, by Gaudí, who is of course better-known for the Sagrada Familia, Parc Güell and Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera.


By the beginning of the 20th century, Modernist architecture also heralded in a parallel movement in visual art. This group of Paris-influenced artists, poets and musicians was led by Ramon Casas, whose work can be seen at the Museu d'Art Contemporanea in Barcelona, and Santiago Rusinyol, whose private studio, the Cau Ferrat, is now a museum in Sitges. However, to get a real feel for the times, you should visit Els Quatre Gats, a bar at Carrer Montsió, 3, which is still open today.


It was here that a young Picasso, who spent his late teens and early twenties in Barcelona, gave his first exhibition. The Museu Picasso on c/ Montcada in Barcelona shows much of his early work, and although the collection includes few of his 'masterpieces', it gives a fascinating insight into the genesis of genius. For an even more profound understanding of the roots of Picasso's creativity, it is also worth visiting Horta de Sant Joan in the Terra Alta comarca in the Province of Tarragona. Picasso spent two extended periods in this small village, and it was here that he almost single-handedly invented Cubism. Picasso is quoted as saying, 'Everything I have learnt, I have learnt at Horta', and the village museum's collection of paintings of Horta's rooftops and people reflect this so incredibly clearly.


Another Catalan artist, who began working in the earlier decades of the 20th century and also maintained the Barcelona-Paris connection, was Joan Miró (1893-1983), whose designs and sculptures are scattered around Barcelona, the city of his birth. He also has a fine museum dedicated to him on Montjuïc. In a similar vein, the wildly eccentric surrealist Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) was born in Figueres, where he inaugurated his equally eccentric museum in 1970.


Going back to architecture, the 1920s brought in a new style called Noucentisme, whose clean classical lines can be seen on the slopes of Montjuic as you walk up from Plaça Espanya and in many 20th century government buildings across Catalonia. This was the last truly Catalan architectural movement before the bleak years of Franco's dictatorship. Franco and his henchmen were so hell-bent on destroying Catalonia's heritage that they changed all the names of towns and streets into Castilian, and showed a similar disrespect for the Principality's architectural legacy.


From 1939 to 1975, jerry-built housing and industrial estates sprang up around historic town centres, and it is for this reason that the word suburbi in Catalan doesn't mean suburb but is better translated as slum. Romanesque, Gothic and Modernist buildings were allowed to fall into a pitiful state and cynical speculation led to the construction of the eyesores that still line parts of the Catalan coast.


A lot has been done to improve things since the return of democracy. Hoardings have been torn down from historic buildings and facades have been restored. Green spaces have been created in the most depressing areas and the Generalitat has funded an ambitious project to restore statues to their original sites and build modern sculptures when this was impossible. So much has been achieved, but it is true to say that much of the damage done by nearly forty years of fascism is quite simply irreparable. So if you reach the outskirts of one of the town's in the guide, don't be put off by its down at heel appearance - Catalonia still contains beautiful wild green expanses and has many architectural jewels just waiting to be uncovered.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/2/1224141180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/2/1224141180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/2/1224141180/tpod.html Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:18:00 -0400 DREAM2010

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Barcelona, Spain

I went down to Frankfurt Anabel to watch the Belgium-Spain game in the end, and you really could tell it was a Wednesday night. When I got there about five minutes before the match started, there were only four people in, and none of them were interested in football - the rest of the futboleros must have been watching the game at home.

I didn't mind, though, because it meant that I could get a table right in front of the telly, and the Venezuelan barman, Angel (pronounced: Ang-Hell) wouldn't have much work so we'd be able to watch and comment on the game in peace and quiet. The truth is, Frankfurt Anabel feels pretty much like my own sitting-room on nights like this, but without my daughter continually telling me that football is boring and that the X Factor starts in five minutes!

Anyway, the game was about to start and I saw that Vicente del Bosque had fielded exactly the same side as against Estonia, so I was wrong when I said in my last entry that Albiol would come in for Juanito - nobody's perfect! However, I was a bit disconcerted at the beginning. Belgium were in red (Spain's normal colour) whilst Spain were playing in their away kit of yellow shirts and white socks. At first, I didn't know who I was meant to be supporting. I was a bit worried that the team in yellow were all over the one in red for the first five minutes - I think must be losing it.

Unfortunately, by the time I'd got my head round which team was which, a Belgian player was making a break down the left. The Spanish defence were all over the place letting Sonck run into a space that was not much smaller than the African continent to comfortably head the first one in for Belgium. And it was only the sixth minute. Oh God! I thought, perhaps I won't be wanting to go to South Africa, after all.

However, I'm as philosophical in my approach to football as I am in my approach to life. Belgium are the first decent side we've played in these qualifiers and it's time for the boys to show us what they're made of. Minor setbacks such as these are a tiny part of the process that builds character and turns a group of players into champions. Spain seemed to agree and were getting back into to the game, but then disaster struck again.

I didn't see how it happened but in the 16th minute, Fernando Torres pulled up holding his leg (Rafa Benítez will NOT be pleased) and looked at the bench with a pained expression on his face. He was coming off. Cesc Fabregas was already had his tracksuit off and was doing a few quick warm-ups. Now this was bad news. I turned round to to look at Angel. Words weren't necessary. The situation was grim.

The game restarted and although Belgium slightly had the upper hand, some good football was being played. The kind of football that any true fan appreciates -whatever the result! An attack by Belgium. An attack by Spain. A bit like a game of ping-pong, really. The best chance was Belgium's and our genius goalkeeper Casillas had to clear the ball with his head!

I have to digress for a moment now that I've mentioned Spain captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas. He's so brilliant that here in Spain people refer to him as Saint Iker. Anyway, during the European Championships somebody from the village he's from realised that there isn't a Saint Iker, and made a formal application through the local bishop to beatify him. The response was polite but the Catholic Church said that they didn't normally beatify footballers, especially ones that weren't even dead yet. Apparently, the village priest, a friend of the Casillas family and a confirmed football fan, was very annoyed and the follwing Sunday gave a sermon in church on the subject of injustice and misunderstanding. Can you see why I love Spain so much?

Anyway, back to the match. After about ten minutes, once Cesc had settled in, Spain's midfield started to put it together with Senna picking the ball up at the back of midfield and knocking it into the creation zone that had been the property of Iniesta and Xavi up until that point. But with Torres off Iniesta moved up to play as a false left winger, just like he does with Barça, and although the chances weren't coming yet, the football was really tasty. It was only a question of time. My mate Sergio, who'd just arrived in the bar, commented that, apart from the final, it was this midfield combination that got Spain through most of the European Championship, and we all saw the great football that they put together there.

Sure enough. Minute 36. A ball comes through to the midfield. Cesc picks it up. A perfectly-timed pass to Iniesta on the left of the Belgian box. Iniesta has no space but the ball is glued to his foot. He beats one, beats two, beats three defenders. He gets to the byline but the angle seems to tight. The Belgian goalie thinks he's got to centre and moves a couple of inches out to block the pass. But Iniesta shoots. The ball sneaks through the crevice and hits the back of the net. It's a goal. A goal. A magnificent goal! This boy has diamonds on the souls of his shoes.

I looked at Sergio. He smiled. There were no words to express what we'd just seen. Angel came from behind the bar to watch the repetition. 'Ala! Viste?' Belgium 1 Spain 1. The game wasn't in the bag yet, but if we're capable of that we're capable of anything.

Spain dominated the last ten minutes of the first half and when the whistle blew, I went outside to chat with some friends, who were sitting out on the terrace. They're great folks, but they don't like football. There's no understanding some people!

Back for the second half and the drizzle in the King Baudouin Stadium had become heavy rain. The pace of the match had slowed down. Neither Spain nor Belgium could play their game on a cloggy surface. Aware of the importance of winning the three points, the players began to get frustrated and there were a few nasty moments. Me and Sergio, with half an eye on the game, talked football. Favourite players. Legendary matches. A bit of a friendly 'I know more about football than you' moment. Knowing that he wasn't old to have seen it at the time, I told him that Iniesta's goal reminded me of the the kind of things Butragueño used to do with Real Madrid way back in the eighties. He said he'd videos seen on YouTube and agreed.

Our attention was taken off the conversation by a few chances from both sides. A couple from a black Belgian player, whose name I don't recall, and a couple from David Villa. However, both of us had the feeling that Spain would have to settle for a draw. We really needed the three points, though. Spain, Belgium and Turkey, three teams all in the running, but only two passports to South Africa on offer.

A tired Iniesta came off with five minutes to go. Dani Güiza came on. Only ten minutes to go. Probably not enough time. It had been a great game, though. It'd have been nice to come home with the points, but Belgium have still got to come to Spain, haven't they? Four points out of six against the Belgians would see us through safely. It all depends on the Turks, really. And then it happened.

Minute 88. A providential cross from the same Dani Gúiza flies high in the air. David Villa waits. The cross is perfect. Three inches in front of Villa's forehead. He doesn't jump. He doesn't move. He just nods his head. The movement is precise and clinical. And the ball is in the back of the net. Goal! Vamos! Vamos! Vamos España!

The goal wasn't like Iniesta's but it was brilliant in a totally different way. There were only a few minutes of extra time to play. And the result was more than satisfactory. Before I left the bar, the sports news came on and Turkey had only managed to draw with Estonia. I decided to fish 'Graceland' by Paul Simon from my CD collection. I hadn't listened to it for years. But tonight I'd listen to South African music before I went to bed.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/2/1224063900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/2/1224063900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/2/1224063900/tpod.html Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:05:59 -0400 DREAM2010

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Brussels, Belgium

Well, Spain take the next step on their journey to South Africa tonight and I'll be here watching the game on the box, as usual. Actually, I think I'll go down to my local bar, Frankfurt Anabel, or possibly Los Chinos - they've got bigger screen.

As it's a mid-week game, there shouldn't be too many people in, so I should be able to watch the game in peace and quiet, and write a decent match report this time. However, one never knows at Frankfurt Anabel because sometimes you get an onslaught of skinheads - they're nice enough (to me, anyway, because I support Barça and Sant Andreu) but they do make a lot of noise.

Anyway, I've been looking at pictures of Brussels and it looks quite a nice place. I suppose they must have chosen it as the political nerve centre of Europe for one reason or another. Although knowing politicians, I suspect that it became the capital of the European Union because of the quality of the beer. I don't think I'd like to live there, though.

In fact, we almost moved there once because my wife, who works for the European Secretariate of the Catalan Government, got offered the chance of a transfer to the Brussels office - she even went on a visit and said it was lovely. However, all our Catalan friends who live there (actually, they'd be a good source of photos) were feeling homesick because of the weather and I know exactly what they mean. That's the reason I'd never go back and live in the UK. It's OK for a couple of weeks but I just couldn't put up with ten months of winter. Not after twenty years here in the Mediterranean!

But what really attracts me about Brussls is the King Baudouin Stadium. I hadn't realised until I was reading the paper this morning that, until 1985, it was called Heysel Stadium. I imagined they changed the because it had come to be associated with the Heysel Disaster, but it's got much more history than that. I think it was opened in 1930 or thereabouts and, having been the scene of so many International and European duels, its status amongst the fans is almost mythical. Obviously, Heysel, or King Baudouin, is a place I would really like to go. You see, we football fans are a bit like trainspotters. We like to 'collect' stadiums, just so that when we're watching the game down the pub, we can say to our mates. 'Yeah, when I was at Heysel to see the European Cup Final in . . .' And then the word gets round that Simon really knows his football because he's been to X, Y and Z stadiums. In fact, that might be why I've become so sedentary in my old (well, not that old) age, because when I was younger I used to go everywhere. The thing is, though, I've never been to a match in Africa. Now, that WOULD impress the skinheads who come down the Frankfurt Anabel, wouldn't it?

Anyway, today I'm a little bit worried about the old King Baudouin, and that's not only because Belgium are the first decent side that Spain has had to face so far in qualifiers but also because of the state of the pitch. Even the Belgian players were complaining about it after the team's game against Armenia on Saturday 'It's scandalous,' said one of them, André Rieux. 'Against Armenia it was like playing in sand. It's shameful that we have to meet the best national team in the world on this pitch.'

Shameful! I quite agree. The reason why Spain are top the FIFA rankings is because, apart from a really classy goalie, we've got a magnificent midfield capable of playing the kind of one-touch football that makes you drool. Now that sort of skill is impossible to come up with if the ball won't roll and the turf lifts up everytime you try to shimmy-shammy a defender.

What's more, a dodgy pitch means it's much more likely that players get injured, and this is happening so frequently now in international matches that, in Spain, players getting injured in internationals is commonly known as the 'FIFA virus'. Now, this is particularly worrying for a Barça fan like me. We've got Xavi, Iniesta and Puyol all down as definites in the starting line-up and, what with the calendar we've got ahead of us in both domestic and European competitions, I don't want any of them coming back with as much as a sore leg.

Anyway, apart from that, the game should be good. Spain are the better side but Belgium need the points because they've got Turkey breathing down their necks, which all means that Vicente Del Bosque has got to field the best side he possibly can. I think, compared with the eleven against Estonia, Albiol will probably come in for Juanito but the rest of the side will be the same. So my prediction for the starting line-up is Casillas in goals, Sergio Ramos, Puyol, Albiol and Capdevila in midfield and Torres and Villa up front - pretty impressive, huh? However, I've got my doubts about whether Cazorla's really up to 90 minutes of international football and although world class on his day, I don't think Ramos is fit enough to last another full game or, if he is, he's going to have trouble doing so in the Madrid derby at the weekend (Bernd Schuster will NOT be pleased!) It's a good job we've got a strong bench.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the game tonight. I'll be down the bar with my mates, giving the tactical lowdown and having a few beers. I wish I was going, though. Just imagine - a walk around Brussels in the morning, a leisurely lunch and a few museums in the afternoon, then a few beers to put me in a footballing frame of mind and then the MATCH! By the way, does anybody know what the beer's like in South Africa?
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/1/1223503020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/1/1223503020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/1/1223503020/tpod.html Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:00:43 -0400 Going Native in Catalonia

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Catalonia, Spain

With a coastline that stretches 700 kilometres from the rugged Costa Brava on the French border passing through the Costa del Maresme and the city beaches of Barcelona right down to the golden sands of the Costa Daurada in the province of Tarragona, it is not surprising that Catalonia is a prime destination for tourists from all over the world - but the Principality offers the visitor much more than just its beaches. Skiing holidays in the Pyrenees, a weekend break in Barcelona or rural tourism in the Ebro Delta are obvious alternatives, and the diverse geography of the region along with its history, architecture and vibrant sense of its own culture make any stay in Catalonia one to remember. I should know I came here on holiday more than twenty years ago, and still find living here a continual delight.

Modern Catalonia is the rump of a Mediterranean nation that included Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Rosselló in the south of France and the independent state of Andorra, and an empire that incorporated Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, Milan and Naples, and for a brief period stretched as far as Greece and Asia Minor. Although remnants of Catalan dominance can be found all over the Mediterranean, in the present day, the Principality is now restricted to the top north-eastern corner of the Iberian Peninsula.


Given their impressive imperial history and their cultural and linguistic differences from the rest of Spain, the Catalans have long considered themselves an independent nation within the Spanish state, and from a geographical point of view it is easy to see why this is so. The Principality is clearly defined by the Pyrenees to the west, the Mediterranean to the east while the River Ebro forms its southern boundary separating it from neighbouring Valencia. Its northern border, however, allows easy access into France, with whom it has close historical and linguistic ties. So, while cut off from central and southern Spain by the Meseta, Catalonia is a 'terra de pas', a passageway, that links the mysteries of Iberia with northern Europe, and its geographical position explains much of its turbulent history.


Catalonia has a cultural flavour that is markedly different from southern Spain, and this is particularly evident both in its Gothic and Romanesque architecture and in the cadences of the Catalan language. One of the reasons for this is that both architecturally and linguistically, Catalonia received very little Moorish influence. The Moors began their conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 711, but never really succeeded in controlling Catalonia, and the reconquest of Girona in 785 and Barcelona in 801 meant they never had time to leave their mark. This is sharp contrast to the rest of Spain where their dominance lasted centuries, with the 'Reconquista' by Ferdinand and Isabella not being completed until 1492.


To this day, Catalan territory is divided along the lines established by the Franks and Catalan Counts in the 8th and 9th centuries. The comarques, of which there are 41, are similar to the English counties. They have their own identity based on geography, agriculture and commerce, and are governed by a district council made up of elected municipal members. However, for administrative purposes within the Spanish state, since 1833, the Principality has been split into the four provinces of Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona.


The Principality is one of the largest of Spain's 17 Autonomous Communities covering an area of some 32,000 square kilometres, making it bigger than many other countries in the European Union including Belgium, and with a population of around 7 million, Catalans comprise about one sixth of all Spaniards. The region is also economically prosperous, and, in Barcelona, boasts a capital that is on a par with any other major European city


Just as in the rest of Spain, the Principality has a regional government with its own President and Parliament. However, after the end of Franco's dictatorship, the Generalitat was 'restored' in 1977 whereas the other autonomous governments were not created until 1979 when the new democratic constitution was ratified by the Spanish Parliament. The Catalans are quite rightly very proud of their political institutions and democratic traditions. Els Usatges, for example, is one of the first documents to define the rights of the people and the obligations of their rulers, and predates the English Magna Carta by almost 150 years.


For long periods of their history, the Catalans have pushed for independence from Madrid. However, with the passing of Catalonia's updated Statute of Autonomy in 2006 and a new Statute in Andalusia this year, Spain in the 21st century is becoming increasing federal. Now Catalonia's cultural and linguistic rights are safeguarded, calls for complete independence are becoming less frequent, and what's more... Living in such a beautiful, diverse and prosperous country, who on earth would want to complain?

Going Native in Catalonia is available at http://astore.amazon.co.uk/nativespain01-21/detail/1905430302/202-0107032-6484653
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/1/1223819940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/1/1223819940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/1/1223819940/tpod.html Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:59:37 -0400 Going Native in Catalonia

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Catalonia, Spain

If you enjoyed my article on the history of Catalonia, here are some key dates that should stick in your mind.

100,000 BC - The approximate date of a Homo erectus jawbone found at Banyoles in Northern Catalonia. However, flint and other remains suggest that the region has been populated for around a million years.


10,000-500 BC - Berbers move up the Levante coast from Africa, Basques cross the Pyrenees and Celts come down from Central Europe. Separate tribal societies are formed, and the coastal tribes begin to trade with other Mediterranean peoples.


800 BC - The Greeks arrive first at Roses and then later at Emporion (modern Empúries) on the northern Costa Brava. The towns are little more than trading posts and the Greeks only have cultural influence over the tribes in their immediate vicinity. They do, however, coin the name Iberians which many centuries later would be applied to the whole peninsula.


821 BC - The Romans oust Hannibal and his Carthaginians from Catalonia and make their capital first in Empúries and later in Tarraco, modern Tarragona. They divide the Peninsula into two: Hispania Citerior (more or less modern Catalunya) and Hispania Ulterior (the rest of the Peninsula).


200-100 BC - The Romans build the Via Augusta road, which connects Southern Spain with Rome. The political and cultural process of romanisation is completed.


27-26 BC - The Roman emperor Augustus settles in Tarraco making it capital of the Roman Empire for a brief period.


20-15 BC - The Romans establish a small settlement called Barcino, which would later grow into the great city of Barcelona.


AD 300 approx. - Germanic tribes begin to invade and challenge Roman hegemony over the Iberian Peninsula.


AD 460 - The Visigoths take control of Catalonia making Barcelona their capital. They later gain control of the whole Peninsula and move their capital to Toledo.


AD 711 - The Moors invade the Iberian Peninsula and conquer territory as far north as Poitiers.


AD 759 - The Franks, under Pepin the Fat, retake Rosselló and move south reclaiming Girona in 785 and Barcelona in 801. The borders of Catalunya Vella are established south of the River Llobregat.


870 - Guifre el Pelós becomes first Count of Cerdanya and Urgell. He later takes control of Girona, Osona, Besalú and Barcelona. On his death in 897, the Countship of Barcelona and its vassals becomes hereditary and the Catalan nation is born.


897 - Guifre el Pilós is killed in battle against the Moors. Legend has it that the Catalan flag, La Senyera, is created when the Frankish King wipes four fingers of Guifre's blood across a golden shield.


985 - The Moors attack and control Barcelona but are driven back South within a couple of years. Lack of military support from the Franks provokes the Catalans to declare independence.


1060 - The establishment of the Usatges de Barcelona. This primitive document, which outlines the rights and responsibilities of the (free) people, predates the Magna Carta by more than 150 years and gives Catalunya a reasonable claim to be the 'Mother of Democracy'.


1112 - Catalunya extends its influence over the south of France through the marriage of Ramon Berenguer III to Dolça de Provence.


1137 - Ramon Berenguer IV marries Petronella of Aragon and the Counts of Barcelona become Kings of Aragon.


1148 - The Conquest of Tortosa and Lleida


1213 - Pere the Catholic is killed at the Battle of Muret defending his Cathar subjects against the forces of Simon de Montfort and the Catholic Church. Catalunya's influence in the south of France is reduced to Rosselló.


1229 - Jaume I better known as the Conqueror begins the conquest of Mallorca, to be followed by Ibiza and Formentera in 1235 and Valencia in 1238.


1282 - Pere II the Great conquers Sicily. Catalonia is now the most powerful Mediterranean empire.


1287 - Alfons II conquers Menorca.


1302 -1311 - The Catalan mercenaries, the Almogàvers, begin expansion into Greece and Asia Minor, culminating in the conquest of Athens and Neopatria.


1352 - The Generalitat is founded, and Sant Jordi (St George) is declared patron saint of Catalonia.


1410 - Martí the Humane, the last of the Catalan dynasty, dies without heir.


1412 - After the Compromís de Casp, Ferran d'Antequera, of the Castilian Trastàmara family, is elected King of the Catalan-Aragonese Confederation.


1443 - The conquest of Naples.


1479 - Fernando II of Barcelona and Aragon marries Isabel of Castile. The foundations for what will become the Spanish state are laid.


1492 - Columbus returns to Barcelona after the discovery of the Americas and the Moors are finally expelled from the south of the Peninsula.


1516 - Carlos I becomes the first Habsburg King of Spain, and declares that Catalonia cannot trade with the New World so driving the Principality's economy into decline.


1556 - Felipe II becomes King of Spain, converts the village of Madrid into his new capital and bans any Catalan trade with the Americas.


1640 - After a century of marginalisation, the Catalans take up arms against the Spanish state and the 19-year-long Guerra dels Segadors (The Reapers' War) begins. In the peace, the Spanish government hands over Northern Catalonia to France.


1700 - After the death of Carlos II without heir, the Spanish War of Succession begins between supporters of the Habsburg and Bourbon pretenders. Catalonia allies with England and Holland and backs the losing Habsburgs.


1714 - On 11th September, Barcelona finally falls to the Bourbon troops and the new King, Felipe V, exacts his revenge by revoking Catalan laws, illegalising the Catalan language and building the Ciutadella fortress and walls to keep the Catalans under control.


1737 - Foundation of the first textile factory in Catalunya. The industrial revolution has arrived.


1778 - Catalunya is allowed to trade with the Americas.


1793 - 1814 - A series of wars between France and Spain leave Catalonia weakened. In 1807, Napoleon occupies the Principality and offers to create an independent Catalan state.


1840s - Following its economic growth, Catalunya begins to rediscover its language and culture which blossoms in the 'Renaixença'.


1848 - The Barcelona-Mataró line is inaugurated and becomes Spain's first railway.
1860s - The people of Barcelona demolish the Ciutadella and the city walls; plans are begun for the expansion of the city with the building of the Eixample.


1888 - The Universal Exhibition heralds the arrival of a new architectural style known as 'Modernisme'.


1892 - The Bases de Manresa are drawn up outlining a Republican plan for Catalan autonomy.


1909 - Barcelona's workers rebel against being conscripted for Spain's war against Morocco, and week of street violence and church burning ensues. The week is known as the Setmana Tragica, the Tragic Week, and hints at the grassroots at the strength of feeling that would be harnessed by the far left and the Anarchists in the following decades.


1923-1930 - Miguel Primo de Rivera takes over as dictator of Spain. The Catalan language is outlawed and Catalonia suffers another period of harsh repression.


1929 - Barcelona hosts its second Universal Exhibition and work on the Barcelona Metro begins.


1931-1934 - Francesc Macià declares the Republic of Catalonia and the Principality receives a degree of autonomy within the Spanish state. Lluís Companys becomes President of the Generalitat in 1934.


1936-1939 - After an attempted coup by Franco's Nationalist rebels, the Spanish Civil War begins. Barcelona holds out almost to the end briefly becoming the seat of the legitimate Republican government, but finally falls after the Battle of the Ebro during which the Fascists received military aid from Hitler and Mussolini.


1939-1975 - During Franco's dictatorship, the Catalan language and culture is violently repressed. The Generalitat continues in exile under the Presidency of Josep Tarradellas.


1950s-1960s - Spanish immigrants flood Catalonia in search of work.


1960s-1970s - The tourist boom begins to transform the Catalan coast.


1975 - Franco dies and Prince Juan Carlos is appointed King of Spain.


1977 - The Generalitat is restored and, in October, Josep Tarradellas returns to become its first President with the prophetic words 'Ja soc aquí' - 'I'm here now'.


1980 - The first democratic elections are held and Jordi Pujol is elected President of the Generalitat, a position he maintains until his retirement in 2003.


1992 - Barcelona hosts the hugely successful Olympic Games. The damage of the Franco years begins to be repaired.


2004 - José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, a socialist sympathetic to the claims of Spain's stateless nations, is elected President of Spain.


2006 - Catalonia's new Statute of Autonomy is passed giving the Catalans the right to call themselves a nation.

Going Native in Catalonia is available here: http://astore.amazon.co.uk/nativespain01-21/detail/1905430302/202-0107032-6484653
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/1/1223585940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/1/1223585940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/1/1223585940/tpod.html Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:59:03 -0400 Going Native in Catalonia

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Catalonia, Spain

Though Catalonia has formed part of Spain for nearly 300 years, Catalans only grudgingly admit the fact. Current relations with distant Madrid are as good as I can remember, mainly because socialist President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has a very positive attitude towards the Catalans and their culture, and consequently treats them with the respect they deserve. However, his right-wing predecessor Jose Maria Aznar, who was Spanish President until 2004, was a different matter altogether. During his presidency, continual snipes at the Catalans including a proposal to impose the Spanish humanities and languages syllabus in Catalan schools and a ludicrous plan to divert the River Ebro south before it reached Catalonia brought back the ghost of Franco in many people's minds. The Principality has suffered too many periods of repression at the hands of the Spanish for the Catalans to ever completely trust Madrid.


Catalonia's independent streak is also justified by more than 2,000 years of history. When the Romans came to the peninsula, more than 200 years before Christ, they divided their newly-conquered territory into two; Hispania Citerior, which roughly corresponded to modern Catalonia, and Hispania Ulterior, the rest of the peninsula. Tarraco, present-day Tarragona, was the capital of Roman Hispania and when Emperor Augustus made the city his home in 26 BC, it was briefly the capital of the whole of the Roman Empire.


The Making of Catalonia
In 711, the Moors crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and swept through the Iberian Peninsula. They captured Barcelona in 717 and then crossed the Pyrenees and went as far as Poitiers before being checked by the Franks. In desperation the inhabitants of what was to become Catalonia turned to Charlemagne, the powerful Frankish leader for help in return for pledging allegiance to the Carolingian Empire. Girona was retaken in 785 and Barcelona in 801, and the province of the Spanish March, a buffer zone between Christian France and Muslim Hispania, was born.


The Spanish March was governed by local counts, who had political and judicial functions but were ultimately responsible to the Frankish king and were appointed and could be dismissed by him. The most powerful of these counts was Guifre el Pelós who managed to unite the counties of Urgell, Cerdanya, Girona and Barcelona, and so controlled a swathe of land that stretched from Barcelona to Perpignan along the coast and inland to the Pyrenees. It was Guifre's son, Guifre Borrell, who became the first hereditary ruler of Catalunya Vella, Old Catalonia. The next step on the road to nationhood came in 985 when the Moors, under Al-Mansour, managed to cross the River Llobregat and sack Barcelona. Having received no military support from the Franks, Count Borrell II declared independence, and although not recognised by the Franks until 1258, an independent state called Catalonia was born.


The next two centuries were spent consolidating their territory and pushing the Moors south towards the Ebro, and in 1137 Count Ramon Berenguer IV married Petronella, the infant daughter of the King of Aragon. His son, Alfons I, became the ruler of the most powerful state in Southern Europe, the Catalan-Aragonese Confederation, which consisted of Catalonia, Aragon and the whole of the south of France. With considerable help from the Knights Templar, the Moorish threat became a thing of the past.


Under Jaume I the Conqueror (1213-1276) the Catalans sought to drive the Moors out of the Mediterranean completely. During his reign, Catalonia conquered Mallorca in 1229, Ibiza in 1235 and Valencia in 1238. Furthermore, aware of the need for dialogue between the sovereign and his subjects, he instituted the Corts, a consultative body in which the three classes of the nobility, the clergy and the urban bourgeoisie were represented. Over the next century Mediterranean expansion continued with the conquest of Sicily, Sardinia and Southern Greece, including Athens, and the democratic processes were increased with the founding of the Diputació del General, initially a tax collecting body which was later to become the Generalitat, the government of Catalonia.




The Death of a Dynasty
Just when Catalonia's Golden Age was at its height, disaster struck the House of Barcelona. In 1410, Martí the Humane died without heir and Fernando de Antequera, second son of Juan I of Castile, was elected king of the Catalan-Aragonese Confederation. As Castilians, he and his successors had little knowledge of Catalonia's rule by consensus. They rarely visited their kingdom and imposed Castilian legislators who managed to incite the people so much that civil war broke out during the reign of the tellingly named Joan II Without Faith. Things got even worse when Fernando II, who had married Isabel of Castile in 1469, acceded to the Catalan-Aragonese throne. He immediately introduced the Inquisition, expelled the Jews causing an economic crisis, insisted that his subjects proved they had no Arab blood, and even though, after discovering America, Columbus had sailed into the port of Barcelona, Fernando and Isabel prohibited Catalonia from trading with the Americas.


Spaniards claim that the reign of the Catholic Kings marks the beginning of Spain as a nation. However, although from the reign of Carlos I onwards the Catalan-Aragonese Confederation was ruled by the same monarch as Spain, technically it was still an independent state with its own laws, and when it traded with the rest of the peninsula customs taxes were levied.


During the reign of Felipe IV, the monarch came under the influence of the autocratic Count-Duke Olivares, who when war broke out with France in 1635 demanded a disproportionate contribution of money and men. Since, according to her constitution, Catalonia should only pay those taxes which had been approved by her own government, the answer was a firm no. So, determined to bring his rebellious subjects into line, Olivares launched a campaign into France across the Pyrenees from Catalan territory in which 10,000 men who had been recruited against their will were slaughtered. Not satisfied with this sacrifice, he then billeted Castilian troops in Catalonia, who, in the true spirit of friendship, raped and robbed the locals. The situation came to a head in 1640 when the reapers, who gathered in Barcelona to work on the harvest, revolted, burned down government buildings and murdered Felipe IV's Viceroy. The destructive 19-year Guerra dels Segadors, the three-way Reapers' War involving Castilian, French and Catalan troops ensued, and in the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, Felipe IV ceded all Catalonia's French territories to the French Crown. Medieval Catalonia had ceased to exist.


Things went from bad to worse when Felipe IV's son, the half-wit Carlos II, died without heir in 1700. There were two pretenders; the Bourbon, Philippe de Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV, and the Habsburg Archduke Charles of Austria. Castile favoured the former while Catalonia the latter and, after allying with England and Holland, who feared a French-Spanish axis, welcomed him to Barcelona as Carles III of Catalonia-Aragon in 1705. The war of Spanish Succession broke out, and just when all seemed to be going well, the Archduke's brother died and Carles was called back to Vienna to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor. To the English and Dutch a united Austria and Spain was as unpleasant a prospect as a French-Spanish axis, so they pulled out of the alliance leaving Catalonia alone to face 200,000 Franco-Spanish troops.


The Breaking of Catalonia
The Catalans held out well considering the odds against them, but on 11th September 1714 Barcelona finally fell after a long siege, and Felipe V's retribution was devastating. The Generalitat and the Council of One Hundred were disbanded, Catalonia's ancient rights and privileges were abolished and speaking, reading or writing in Catalan became an imprisonable offence. All of Catalonia's universities were closed and replaced by the heavily-censored government-controlled University of Cervera. The Ciutadella, a huge fort, was built in Barcelona along with new city walls, which were designed not to keep invaders out but to keep the people in. Catalonia had ceased to exist and the Catalans had become the lost nation.


Although Catalonia's great literary tradition would be completely lost for the next century, the Catalans never stopped speaking their own language, which simply went underground and was spoken in secret, and being a canny lot, their economy was soon on its feet again. Now officially part of Spain, the Castilians could no longer excise customs taxes on Catalan products, and Catalan cotton, leather and wine, in particular, began to flood the Spanish market. Aware of the Catalans manufacturing skills, Carlos III allowed the Principality to trade with the Americas in 1778, just in time for Catalonia to take advantage of the Industrial Revolution. The economic boom was so successful that, with its cotton and textile industry at the forefront, Barcelona became known as the 'Manchester of the Mediterranean'.


Economic success brought increasing confidence and by the early decades of the 19th century, the Catalan language came out of hiding and began to be spoken in public again. The turning point came in 1833, however, when Bonaventura Carles Aribau, who funnily enough was working for a bank in Madrid, published 'Oda a la Pàtria', a poem that spoke of the homesickness he felt for his homeland. Although of dubious literary quality, the poem was written in Catalan and was so popular in Catalonia that it soon sparked a flood of imitators. These imitations slowly developed into a fully-fledged literary movement known the Renaixença, and by the mid 19th century Catalan poetry, prose and theatre were in as good a state as they had been 150 years earlier. The booming economy and literary Renaissance also brought the first rumblings of a new Catalan political consciousness. Catalans began to believe that they were every bit as good as the Castilians.


Like a Phoenix from the Ashes
It was in Castile that the next step on Catalonia's road to political recovery would be taken. Tired of centuries of absolutist misrule, which for most Spaniards resulted in abject poverty, many began to see Catalonia as an example to be followed, so when the First Spanish Republic was declared in 1873, it was not surprising that the first two Presidents of the Cortes in Madrid were Catalan. Although the short-lived republic only lasted a year, this brief period of freedom of expression allowed politicians from other Spanish regions, such as Galicia and the Basque Country, to consider the idea of federalism. These ideas did not disappear with the restoration of the monarchy, and as the century reached its close, a young Prat de la Riba formed the bourgeois Catalanist party, the Lliga Regionalista.


By 1906, the Lliga Regionalista had gained the support of Republicans, Socialists and Carlists as a respectable bourgeois group that could strengthen the cause against Monarchists and against the workers and their anarchist fringe. In 1914, Madrid decided to grant Catalonia some concessions, and the Mancomunitat, with Prat de la Riba as President, was set up. Although it was early days to re-establish the Generalitat, the Mancomunitat of Catalonia was a regional administrative body financed by local taxes, with its seat in the Palau de Generalitat in Barcelona.


The early decades of the 20th century were far from peaceful. The plight of industrial workers and the disaffected poor in Barcelona was taken up by the Anarchists and left-wing Trades Unions with often violent consequences such as the Setmana Tragica, the Tragic Week, of 1909, during which the streets of Barcelona exploded into street fighting and church burning. The whole of Spain was divided between Republicans and Monarchists, but at least Catalonia had gained a modicum of autonomy.


When Miguel Primo de Rivera staged a military coup in 1923 and installed himself as dictator of Spain, disbanding the Mancomunitat and illegalising the Catalan language once again, the divisions in Spanish society were deeply drawn. Primo de Rivera's dictatorship lasted until 1930, and after a brief return of the monarchy, the 1931 General Election returned Spain's ill-fated Second Republic. The stage was set for civil war.


With support from Madrid and the working classes in Catalonia, Francesc Macià, the President of the Generalitat, declared the Federal Republic of Catalonia on August 2nd 1931. Two years later a General Election returned a right-wing government in Madrid, which disbanded the Generalitat and called on General Franco to violently put down a miners' strike in Asturias. On October 6th 1934, the left-wing lawyer Lluís Companys declared the Autonomous State of Catalonia and he and his government were imprisoned. The Spanish General Election of February 1936 was won by the Popular Front, a left-wing coalition, and in Catalonia Esquerra Republicana, the Catalan Republican Left, won a landslide victory, even though its leaders were still in prison. Two weeks later, they were released and Spain's President Azaña reinstated the Generalitat and the 1932 Statute of Autonomy. On July 18th 1936, General Franco and four other chiefs of staff launched a military coup against the democratically elected Spanish Government. The Spanish Civil War had begun.


In Catalonia, the armed uprising against the Republic was rapidly suppressed by workers' militias and the Civil Guard, who remained loyal to the Generalitat. There was a lot of infighting amongst loyalist troops, and the Communists finally ousted the Anarchists as the main political and military force in Catalonia. Early in the war, the Spanish Government fled Madrid, first to Valencia and then to Barcelona, so the Catalan capital was effectively capital of Spain for a brief while. Things finally came to a head in the autumn of 1938 when the Catalans stood alone at the Battle of the Ebro against the Nationalist troops, who were aided by their Fascist allies, Italy and Germany. After months of fighting and many deaths, the Fascists swept across the Ebro and Barcelona soon fell. The Spanish Civil war officially ended on March 28th 1939 and on April Fools' Day of the same year, Franco declared 'peace' in Spain.


From Dictatorship to Democracy
The Generalísimo was particularly anti-Catalan, and as soon he was in power, he imprisoned, tortured and executed thousands. President Lluís Companys was captured by the Nazis in France, returned to Hitler's allies in Spain and duly executed on Montjuic in 1940. Catalonia suffered a period of political, linguistic and cultural repression, which remains the shame of the 20th century.


By the 1950s, though, illegal Catalanist groups began to take their first tentative steps towards organising an underground resistance. By the 60s, Abbot Escarré of Montserrat, who as a religious leader was under the protection of the Vatican, began to stand up to Franco, and act as a focus for moderate Catalans. In 1974, the clandestine Assemblea de Catalunya, in preparation for Franco's death, came out into the open under the slogan 'Liberty, Amnesty, Statute of Autonomy'.


When Franco died on November 23rd 1975, all sections of Catalan society were ready to take control of their destiny again. On September 11th 1976, the Catalan National Day, a million and a half people took to the streets. In 1977, President-in-exile, Josep Tarradellas, came back to lead the restored Generalitat, and a new Statute of Autonomy was passed a year later. On March 20th 1980, the democratically-elected Catalan Parliament formally opened under the Presidency of Jordi Pujol, leader of the Catalan conservative party, Convergència i Unió.


El Gran President, Pujol, led Catalonia from dictatorship to democracy, while the Socialist Mayor of Barcelona, Pasqual Maragall, set about repairing the damage done to the Catalan capital. In 1985, Barcelona won the nomination for the 1992 Olympic Games and, in the run up, the city was covered with the slogan 'Barcelona, Posa't Guapa' - 'Barcelona, Make Yourself Beautiful'. The Olympics were an incredible success and were seen by all Spaniards as an example that the New Spain should follow.


In 2003, Pujol retired and Maragall took his place as President. With the Socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero as President of Spain, there was a government in Madrid sympathetic to Catalonia, and a new Statute of Autonomy was passed in 2005. This allowed the Catalans to describe themselves as a 'nation within the Spanish state' for the first time in nearly 300 years, and with another socialist, Jose Montilla, elected president in 2006, the future looks bright, The Lost Nation has found itself once again.


Going Native in Catalonia is avalable here: http://astore.amazon.co.uk/nativespain01-21/detail/1905430302/202-0107032-6484653
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/1/1223678400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/1/1223678400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/1/1223678400/tpod.html Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:58:32 -0400 Going Native in Catalonia

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Catalonia, Spain

Many foreigners who visit or come to live in Catalonia are either unaware of the importance of the Catalan language or are worried that their minimal Spanish will not be understood by the locals. There is no cause for concern. Most Catalans are bilingual, and are surprised when they encounter a non-Catalan with a good working command of the language - although Catalan is spoken by around 10 million people, they are well aware that in comparison with 400 million Castilian-speakers, theirs is a minority tongue.


Since the passing of the Spanish Constitution in 1979, both Castilian and Catalan are official languages in Catalonia, and given that the Principality is a magnet for tourists, the Generalitat is investing considerable resources in the teaching and learning of English. Catalan children begin their English lessons aged four in most schools, and there are plans to stipulate a minimum level of English competence before university students can obtain their degrees, so Catalonia's linguistic future looks bright.


At the moment, though, you will normally have to 'get by', in Castilian. Apart from in the remotest villages, this should be no problem, as four out of the six major television channels that can be seen in Catalonia broadcast in Castilian to the whole of Spain, and the flood of immigration from the south that began in the fifties mean that many 'New Catalans' grew up speaking Castilian at home. However, out of politeness, it is not a bad idea to learn a few basic expressions. These should provoke a broad smile in recognition of the fact that you are making an effort, and if you are eating out in a Catalan (pero molt Catalá) restaurant, you might get slightly better service. I will include some basic vocabulary in a separate Catalan Phrasebook, but Si us plau (Por favor in Spanish) meaning 'Please' would be a good place for any visitor to begin.


Catalonia has suffered long periods of repression by the Spanish State, and apart from brutality and political violence, the target has often been the language. Catalan was first banned in 1714, when Philip V annexed Catalonia, and it was prohibited again under the dictatorships of General Miguel Primo de Rivera (1923-1929) and General Francisco Franco (1939-1975). The language is robust and flexible with a strong literary tradition, and although Catalans could be arrested for speaking it in public, the police state never managed to eradicate it from the private world of the home and family. However, even though Spain has been a democracy since 1979, many older Catalans are unable to read or write in their mother tongue as their schooling was conducted completely in Castilian.


Franco was particularly anti-Catalan, and his propagandists claimed that the language was nothing more than a dialect of Castilian. This fabrication was part of the fascist rewriting of Spanish history, and ignores the fact that the two languages developed from different roots, albeit both of Latin origin. When the Romans conquered Spain, they divided it into two provinces - Hispania Citerior comprising of modern Catalonia where Vulgar Latin dominated and Hispania Ulterior consisting of the rest of Spain where principally High Latin was spoken. The result of this is that Catalan has as much in common with French and Italian as it does with Castilian Spanish. A few examples should make this clear.


In literary Latin, the word metus, meaning 'fear', gives us miedo in modern Castilian, whereas the Vulgar Latin word pavor results in por in Catalan, peur in French and paura in Italian. Similarly, comedere is the root of comer in Castilian which means 'to eat', and the relationship between manducare and the words it spawned is obvious when we look at the Catalan menjar, the French manger and the Italian mangiare. If we are aware that phonetic changes in Castilian have often led to the substitution of h for f, it is easy to see from where hablar, the Castilian verb meaning 'to talk', derives - in High Latin it is fabulare. The Catalan, French and Italian words, parlar, parler, and parlare respectively, however, are rooted in the Vulgar Latin term parabolare.


Furthermore, Catalan is a pure Latin language with no Arabic sounds, unlike Castilian which was influenced by the Moors for 800 years, meaning that around 15% of Castilian words are of Arabic origin. For example, all Spanish words that begin with 'al' (alcachofa - artichoke, alfombra - carpet) have an Arabic root and the expression Ojalá meaning 'If only' is the contraction of an Islamic oath. In contrast, Catalan has much more in common with northern European languages, and if you can get to grips with its complex grammar and pronunciation system, it is actually easier to pass for a native Catalan than it is to pass for a native Spaniard.

Going Native in Catalonia is available here: http://astore.amazon.co.uk/nativespain01-21/detail/1905430302/202-0107032-6484653
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/1/1223896560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/1/1223896560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonharris/1/1223896560/tpod.html Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:57:53 -0400 Going Native in Catalonia

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Catalonia, Spain

Legend has it that whilst still a vassal of the Carolingian emperor, Guifré el Pelós (Wilfred the Hairy) Count of Barcelona was wounded in battle against the Moors. The appropriately named Frankish king, Charles the Bald, realised that without their leader the Catalan troops would be much less motivated on the following day. He grabbed a golden shield, plunged his fingers into Guifré's wounds and wiped them across the surface of the shield. The next day, the Catalan troops went into battle under the standard and won the battle. This flag is now the Senyera, the Catalan flag.
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