Gaudi and Gay
Trip Start
Jul 01, 2007
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4
29
Trip End
Nov 25, 2007
Barcelona,
Spain
Thursday, July 26, 2007
What is it about some English young men - there's a herd of about a dozen - mid-to-late 20's, all wearing mid-calf trousers, shaven heads, loud, and one wearing a horse's head (sorry, no pic as I lost my camera later). I feel like going over and telling them not to trivialise horse's heads - real ones (with dripping blood) should only be used for putting at the foot of someone's bed who you wish to terrify :).
God help the place where these boys alight - what will they do in Barcelona - I have a feeling they won't like the food, I imagine they won't go to museums or galleries or churches or savour the street life. So why are they bothering to go at all, other than to drink lots of beer in a warmer climate (I'm sorry I sound so pretentiously elitist).
There's also a group of young and old women dressed in cowboy hats and skirts and wearing t-shirts with 'Fiona's Hens Party' printed on them
Main beach Sitges
. They are in high spirits and look very determined to have a good time.I arrive in Barcelona and it's great to hear Spanish spoken again - I was becoming reasonably fluent by the time I left South America but I'm losing it rapidly as I've had no opportunity to use it since then. It's also nice to be able to afford decent food and wine again.
Sitges is around 1/2 hour from Barcelona by train and is a sizeable seaside tourist town. I haven't booked any accomodation so wander around the streets looking for somewhere to stay. I walk through an area where there are lots of male couples walking hand in hand - I find that the GBP (Gay Beach Party) 2007 festival is on, and what with the Sitges Tango Festival, and normal high season tourism, everywhere is full, but eventually I find a place, and a crusty old gent with a gravelly voice takes me up to my large and pleasant room.
I go for a stroll around the streets to get my bearings and apart from the usual tourist shops and boutiques, find that there are a disproportionately large number of men's underwear shops (or should I call them lingerie) with some very glamorous and funky underwear. I muse for a bit on whether I should update my wardrobe from the fairly ordinary underwear I normally wear, but I chicken out on getting models with zips, buckles, see-through panels, and glittery silver mesh.
So, the routine for the next four days works out like this: in the afternoon go to the beach for a sleep on the sand and a swim, around 7pm a tango dance party starts at the beach - dancing on the sand (and sometimes in the water), dinner around 11 or 12, then another dance party on the promenade above the beach from 2.30 to 8.30am, then go to bed until midday, then repeat
Sitges cathedral
. By the 4th day my eyes look like a road map, with main roads in red and secondary roads in black going everywhere. I meet Ana and Anja, who visited Melbourne last year, and Maya who I met in Buenos Aires in April. It's wonderful to catch up with people you've met in a different place. The Sitges tango festival is very international - there are lots of Italians as well as Swedish, Swiss, Germans, Norwegians, and Argentinians living in Spain. I meet Stefania and Claudia from Verona and we spend quite a bit of time together, swimming, sunbathing and dancing. One day we go sightseeing in Barcelona and a couple of musicians come busking on the train - they play several tangos for us and we get up and dance and entertain the other passengers.
There are 3 main beaches in Sitges - a long, straight beach along which runs a promenade, then there's a promontory with a church and some beautiful old buildings and below is the curve of beach where we danced in the evenings, then further along is a larger bay. One day I went exploring all the beaches and as I came over the high point and the last beach came into view, I thought I saw more than the usual amount of exposed flesh and more than the usual amount of men. I hesitated slightly, then bravely ventured down as I was really dying for a swim and nothing was going to put me off. In fact, apart from the first section, which was all naked men, the rest of the beach was full of couples, families and groups of friends, most people were wearing bathers but there was a fair sprinkling of people in their Adam and Eve costumes
Dancing at the beach
. It was all very peaceful and I had a lovely swim (in my bathers - what a chicken I am).After the tango festival I spend a couple of leisurely days in Barcelona. Unfortunately, I lost my camera so all my pictures of Sitges and Barcelona were lost - it's a terrible feeling losing all these images I had captured and not being able to show them to you but I have downloaded some pictures from websites and photographed some postcards, so you at least get something.
As most people would know the most well-known Barcelonian (is there such a word?) is Antoni Gaudi, and his works are studded throughout the city. His most famous work, the Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia (to give it its full name) was undergoing extensive construction, but even so you could only marvel at the imagination of this man. On my last day I went up to Parc Guell - it is a large park built on top of a steep hill, with an expansive view of the city below. It was full of people in good spirits, gently walking the curved, dusty paths, and admiring Gaudi's fertile imagination in the fantastical grottoes, walkways, terraces, artworks, etc. I am so sorry I can't show you the pictures I took. You will just have to come here and see for yourself. The atmosphere of the place is such that I sat for half an hour at the highest point on a cairn with 3 crosses, just peacefully looking out over the city and sea. A lone trumpeter was playing somewhere, giving a slightly surreal feeling.
Apart from the Gaudi designed buildings there are quite a few other interesting buildings and I will have to come back for an extended visit and try more bars and restaurants - there are lots of them and they look great - a huge variety of simple, but flavoursome food
2
. One day I ate razor clams - these are a shellfish that are around 5cms long and as thick as a little finger and I think are unique to this area. I overdose on bacalao (salted dried cod), which I love, prepared in many ways - as fried cod cakes, filleted, carpaccio (so thinly sliced it's virtually transparent), and the last day I load up on lots of tapas, wine and icecream, as it may be some time before I can afford to eat this well again.On certain main roads North African men lay out cloths on the wide footpaths displaying handbags, belts, purses etc for sale. The cloths have a rope in each corner and the street trader golds the ropes together in one hand like holding leashes. My assumption is that strret trading is illegal and if the police come they simply pull on the ropes to bundle everything together and run away - how simple but ingenious.
On my last night I go for an long walk around midnight. I come across a street full of Irish and English pubs with names like Molly's Fair City, Temple Pub, O'Hara's, and there's also an Australian pub. I go in to some of them ... looking for the horse's head. I am accosted on the Rambla by a lady of the night, who winks at me, then puts a hand on my shoulder and asks me if I want a girl - she is black and very attractive. In case you want to know I declined gracefully. I turned into alleyways where there was no one at all and I had no idea where I was, then turned a corner and it was bustling with life. I walked through a plaza where young people of bohemian apperance had spread out blankets and sleeping bags and were playing guitar and singing, and looked like they were sleeping out for the night.
This is my first experience of Spain and I have throughly enjoyed it. Barcelona is the capital of Catalunya and the people here are very proud of their culture. All signs are in both Catalunyan and Spanish and they have a very strong sense of identity. Unfortunately I haven't had time to learn more about but I will be back one day.
Comments
Ah, Sitges!!!!!!!!!1
Che Everard,
you bring Linda and me back to our month in Sitges, though we visited during winter. Then, we enjoyed empty beaches, wild waves, empty museums ... did you visit the museum of diaramas ... and empty beaches. Still, there was the echo of the high life, ghosts of summer festivals and parties unending. We rented an apartment in the warren of streets off the beach, loved the tapas, worked the metro system to visit Barcelona and danced ... swing.
Love your posts,
chau, chau,
steve