The unanswered questions...

There are a lot of mullets in Barcelona. We're not sure if this is endemic of Europe itself...but clearly for some reason the "short on top party at the back" look has made a home here in Spain.
There are also a lot of women on crutches. Young and old. One crutch or two.
There are a lot of pastry shops, sausage shops and it's common to see people drinking beer mid morning, and yet hardly any fat people.

Why?
Is it that overpaid soccer stars with too much time on their hands have a lot to answer for?
Are crushed toes the price paid for the all access narrow alley vespa?
Are the Spanish on strict bran and wholemeal diets while cashing in on the tourist's belief that eating chocolate croissants daily is a compulsory national requirement?

These are some of the unanswered questions of Barcelona.

There are also a lot of dogs. Big, small, hairy, nude, well groomed and scruffy...

Here are a few of them.
















And here is what the one cat thinks of all that...



Barcelona is an amazing city. Beautiful food, beautiful people, beautiful culture and a deep, tragic and in some cases triumphant history. Hopefully we're back sooner rather than later.

We arrived in Madrid yesterday. Only here briefly before a day trip to Toledo and then down to Granada for 3 days. It's hard to believe it's already been a week and a half in Spain. The butchering the language tour continues...next up...FRENCH!

OUI!

Barca FC 2 - UD Almeria 0

We went to see Barcelona FC play Almeria Sunday night in what was a bit about soccer a bit about history and alot about sitting in a stadium of 90,000 people. We thought by going to a footy match we would be able to get the measure of people in Barcelona. You can tell alot about people at a footy match: how do they walk through the streets before a match? How do they queue for tickets? How do they find their seats? Are they talking to people around them or are they glued to the game? Are they drinking alcohol? How many men and women are there? Are there kids? Who is looking after the kids? What happens when the opposition scores a goal, do they whinge about the umpires? All these things speak about the nature of the people. With these questions in mind I think we can say that Barca fans are a fairly relaxed and happy bunch. They don't drink at the footy (no alcohol served) there was a mixture of men and women but probably fewer women than at an AFL match. They watch the game but they don't winge insessantly about the umpires...sorry referees...they meet friends at the soccer and have a chat and a laugh through out the match. Kids and their kiddy behaviour is patiently tolerated. All in all I think if this match is the norm people are pretty happy in Barcelona.



Historically Barca FC has been a bit of a gauge for the Catalonians as a group. In the late 1920's through to the 1970's when Spain was ruled by dictators and facists it was the Barcelonians who resisted. Catalonian resistance to dictatorships became pretty obvious in 1928 when the crowd at a Barca game jeered the Spanish national anthem. The dictator at the time Primo Rivera closed the stadium for six months in retaliation. During Franco’s dictatorship the Catalan language was banned so home games at FC Barcelona became expressions of anti-Franco regionalist sentiment where the people could safely speak together in their own language. Flying of regional flags was also banned, they were made to change their club name and the Catalan flag was removed from their logo. In their home stadium, the Camp Nou, the red and blue of FC Barcelona soon became a substitute for the red and yellow of Catalonia. The club was actually on tour when the Spanish civil war broke out and Facists killed the clubs president. The football team then became the symbol of pro democracy in Spain and fearing for their lives a number of the players sought refugee status in France and Italy.

In 1943, at Les Corts, for the first leg of the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey against Real Madrid, Barca won 3-0. Before the second leg, Barcelona's players had a changing room visit from Franco's director of state security, where he 'reminded' them that they were only playing due to the "generosity of the regime". Madrid won that game 11-1.



The other team playing, UD Almeria are a small merger club in it's first year in the Primera Division. They're holding their own so far sitting around the middle of the table...but as their top 4 position and champion status expects, Barca dominated the game, Thierry Henry and Lionel Messi scored, Barca eventually winning 2-0.

In awesome holiday fashion...i had the perfect opportunity to film the one true football moment...crowd reaction and the general heaven sent "We're all together as one" joy that is the soccer goal. Messi was tripped in the goal box and after typical remonstrating from the Almeria players was awarded a shot from the penalty spot. The crowd cheered, the players lined up, the referee blew his whistle and Messi took pause...a moment between he and the goalie was had...each trying to predict each others move. The shot was taken the ball sailing easily into the back of the net as the goalie hopelessly, predictably dove the wrong way. 2-0! The game surely sealed with only 10 minutes to go. The crowd went nuts. And i was capturing it all with timeless footage. We all went up as one, horns blew, children sang and men cried. The football gods had just presented us with mana from heaven. A memory to last as long as youtube.

I hadn't pressed record.