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| View of the cathedral from our hotel window (Barcelona, Spain) |
June 23, 2011
Yesterday we arrived in Barcelona by plane and made our way to our
hotel in the heart of the city. We are right next to an old cathedral (though
not their famous one), which we can see out our window.
Barcelona is in the province of Catalonia, where locals speak a dialect of Spanish called Catalan. It sounds like a strange hybrid of Spanish and French, and we can't understand or even read it. They use a lot of x's and those c's with the squiggly bit underneath. Luckily, everything is also in normal Spanish (Castellano) and everyone seems to still speak it as well.
Barcelona is in the province of Catalonia, where locals speak a dialect of Spanish called Catalan. It sounds like a strange hybrid of Spanish and French, and we can't understand or even read it. They use a lot of x's and those c's with the squiggly bit underneath. Luckily, everything is also in normal Spanish (Castellano) and everyone seems to still speak it as well.
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| Castellano (top) vs. Catalan dialects (bottom) |
We've done a lot of relaxing and a little shopping so far. Barcelona is large like Madrid, but where Madrid felt like New York, Barcelona feels like San Diego. We walked down the famous Las Ramblas, which is a major shopping street that dead ends at the port of Barcelona. One vendor was selling pets, including baby ducks, chickens, and chipmunks! The port was beautiful, and we sat at the end of a pier and watched all the boats moving about. We also got our first glimpse of the Mediterranean! To get to a sandy beach we have to take the subway, so we might try that tomorrow.
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| Port of Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain) |
We found a cheese shop today and bought a small wheel of manchego viejo for a very cheap price. We also got
some vacuum sealed jamón ibérico to bring home.
The meat shop where we picked it up had the pig thighs out on a table, and when
we accepted the butcher's offer to try some, he sliced that jamón right off in
front of us. Que bueno!
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| Spanish artisan cheeses (Barcelona, Spain) |
Shoe lovers will appreciate that Barcelona is home to the espadrille. We visited a famous espadrille shop, where they make the cords and the shoes in the shop. They had quite the variety for both men and women, and both Husband S and I now possess some very authentic Spanish footwear.
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| Espadrille soles at La Manual Alpargatera (Barcelona, Spain) |
In other fashion news, harem pants are a must have in Spain for the
ladies, and I may have obtained some during our shopping expeditions. I will be
trend-setting when I get back to the states!
We will be in Barcelona for another day and a
half, then we are driving to France
for a brief stay before heading back home. We don't speak a word of French
other than "oui", "no", and "fromage", so
hopefully they speak English or Spanish there too. We don't have reliable
internet here in Barcelona,
so all of you skypers will just have to tough it out.
Con amor,
K & S
Con amor,
K & S
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