No rush - Our new routine in Barcelona
- mel poles
- Jun 13, 2020
- 3 min read
La Sagrera, Barcelona. June, 2018
"No rush of any kind is allowed, the food does not come in a can", is written in the gran via bar, Tapaspuma.
People find the time to go for tapas and a beer. I like that about Spain. There is a bar on every block and there are always people, usually outside, on the terrace. In fact, in the restaurant where I work, if there is no place outside, people sometimes do not even enter. Old people, young people. No matter age, race or nationality, everyone seems to enjoy this custom. Once, the wifi password was: "almenospideunacaña", (At least order a pint). I found it so funny and so accurate. I love this habit of drinking and getting a "tapa". I love that bread, cheese, ham and potatoes are like the ones who join the beer. That is kind of why I hired "bicing", the public bike service. I can do some exercise on my way to work and earn my "cañitas" (small glass of beer) and the tapas.
Now that we got into the routine, we can see some things from the inside. Everyone told us that it would be very difficult to find a job. That is complicated, indeed. But for now, we can say that it went well for us. That if you walk around, you will find something.
Ger was in a real estate agency with a fixed fee plus commissions. It turned out that it didn't work for different reasons and he looked for something else. He debuted as a waiter and ended up in an Argentine butcher shop ... I am in a restaurant that sells rather fast food, close to the beach. Two things I wanted to do: ride my bike to work and stay close to the beach. We will see if I can go out and throw myself in the sand after 8 hours of work...
We enjoy safety so much. We can walk around the city at 1 am without feeling insecure. Although we must take care of yourself as in any big city, we enjoy some more freedom. The day we went to the bank to open the account with our dollars, was kind of shocking for us. Because the cashier (the attendant) has the counter just at the entrance of the bank. This person counts the bills by hand and then these are sent to get inspected. So, during a term, of 20 days, we can not use that money in our account. Then cashier confirmed the amount outloud, (we thought: the people in line can see what you are doing!) and that made us feel a little vertigo. This situation is soooo different in Buenos Aires.
Barcelona is a very beautiful city in every way. Loud and lively like Buenos Aires, but as it is surrounded by the Collserola mountains, rivers and the sea, it is shrouded with a different charm. There are many green spaces to walk, cycling and not to mention history. Despite its modern façade, its essence dates to the end of the 1st century BC, when it was founded as a Roman colony with the name of Barcino. Reaching the Gothic Quarter was like immersing yourself in time. It is very crazy that the city is built one floor above of the old city walls. There is a place near the Barceloneta, it is called the Baluarte de Mediodía, where you can see the wall that protected the city in the coastal area, and it is under all the current buildings. That surprised me when I first saw it, because you are walking trough buildings and you find this city below the city itself. (Months later when I visited Rome the same thing happened to me, multiplied by a million).
Whenever we can we propose to get to a place and then have lunch or dinner there. We take our picnic and enjoy the view ... These are things that we can only do by being here with no time limit. We never liked the -20 days city rally- very much. I once read that "cities are not visited, they are lived". You can know it, like you know a friend. You learn to love it, sometimes you don't like it that much, but you learn to accept it and admire it and then you never forget her.
If you want to read a novel set in this mystical and wonderful city, I recommend Carlos Ruiz Zafón's novels. I was delighted with the four of them in the "Cemetery of forgotten books". And then of course, I visited the places the books talked about ...
コメント