Warming welcome

One advantage of having lived in this city for 3,5 months is definitely that you´re not only returning to the city itself, but also to places and people you became attached to. And that is great!

My arrival in Barcelona was already accompanied by a brilliant case of Spanish cultural behaviour: at the airport I needed to wait over half an hour for my ´suprise´-welcome committee Sandra, who could not top my typical Dutch punctuality: we landed 20 minutes early..

Starting with the baggage drop-off, a perfectly warming welcome night was ahead of me. At the apartment of Jonatan, I was first embraced intensely by the host himself. Followed by his friends Ricard and Gloria (whom I already met before), who wanted to know everything about my time in Amsterdam, asking me 100 questions in the Spanish I was just not totally ready for yet.. The three of them soon left to go to a marriage party and Sandra and I strolled through El Born to Rougebar, for a first and well earned Spanish glass of wine. In Rougebar I also enjoyed a warm and more than enthousiastic entrance: the first glass was ´de la casa´, the music playing came from a CD that I recently composed for Jonatan (and that apparently had found its way in Barcelonian nightlife already), and everything was put aside to give eachother an update of the last months.

At 23:00 Sandra and I left Rougebar to continue with the next episode of the evening: dinner with Juan, Carlos, Nina and Didac (already known from one of my former blogs about the extended Spanish Sunday´s lunch). We entered restaurant Salero, a trendy fusion restaurant in El Born with (for a change) rapid and attentive waiters.. And a relaxing atmosphere.

At the bar Sandra and I discovered a really old (and I mean REALLY old) perkament like book of over 1.000 pages (written by a Dutch guy!), in which you can find out if the date chosen for that evening is the correct one or not. This based on your date of birth and astro-signs. So, waiting at the bar for your table, you still have a chance to decide if you call it a day if the book is not really keen on your match..
Luckily Sandra and I don´t need a book to tell us that we´ll have a great night together, and with Carlos entering the restaurant in his well-known theatrical way, we were even more sure of the fact that this evening was going to be everything but a ´mismatch´!

After a very nice dinner, starting at 0:00, with more than enough wines, Carlos and Nina decided that they were in a ´Kate Moss mode´. And so we were first witnesses of a true (everlasting ;-)) catwalk show during which our two models showed their "sóóóó last season" fashion outfits. With us, naturally, as their well speeched commentary voices, and the personnel without words, able to do nothing else than turn the musical volume up and join us in drinking wines and criticising the two.

Finally, around 3:30, the restaurant-owner thought it was enough and we agreed with him in silence. What a night..

Welcome back Barcelona!

Contradictions..

Amsterdam, like a pitoresque village. Small, lovely, easy to get a grip on.
But the people, hasty and individualistic, living to rigid time schedules.
Barcelona, huge, imposant, world-city. Chaotic and busy, claxoning from queing traffic day and night.
But the people so relaxed and at ease, socially orientated, living the minute, without schedules, without a set calendar.
It should be vice versa, if you look at the construction, the frame of the two cities, but the cultural aspects seem to have conquered, and how!

Back in lovely Barcelona, after half a year in Amsterdam, I´m amazed for the second time by this bizarre phenomena.

While in Amsterdam you have a quick and polite chat with the barkeeper in your favorite bar when you haven´t been there in a while, before he runs off to continue his job, here in Barcelona everything will be set aside for an extended update. Somebody wants to order a beer? He or she will have to wait, because in that particular moment you´re the most important person there.
Might this be the answer to the more than common lame service in Barcelonesian bars and restaurants (I estimate that there´s a lot of money to be made in horeca consultancy here..)? If so, I am even beginning to appreciate it..

But still I am amazed by the contradiction between my two favorite cities. It´s not just the northern individualism that states the pace in Holland. Catalans for instance, are also individualistic people, especially regarding ´new blood´ in their environment.
It seems that individualism reckons with two different measurements: while Barcelonesian people see indivualism as a bit of privacy, in which family and close friends are the most important assets (individualism with a social topping so to speak), can we, Dutch folk, be individualistic in everything. For us, self development is the magic word, and the sooner we reach the clouds, the better. And if there´s no other way, we might even reach it regardless of others. YOU, as a person, always come first. Career & worklife are ranked high in our top 5: ´live for working´ might fit this view on life.
Here in Spain people work for a living, and family & friends are the number one.

Might that be the difference then? And if so, might we state that environment is not a major influence on behaviour, but behaviour and environment balance each other? That would then mean that even in an immensely chaotic and busy city like Mexico City, the ´mañana, mañana´, the ´relax and live the moment´ can be the main aspect of life.. And additionally, might it be just thát aspect, that makes a chaotic city more liveable? If that actually is the case, would then maybe the pitoresque, village-like frame of Amsterdam guard us running, hasting individualists against fatal burn-outs?

We can only guess...

Back for 4,5 weeks!

As some of my frequent blog-readers might have noticed: since I went back to Amsterdam in June, I tried to keep on writing my blogs on senoritacharlotteamsterda.blogspot.com. Alas, life there took a hold of me and I managed to write only one... Shame on me...

Now, back in Barcelona for a few weeks, relaxing in between projects, my taste for writing instantly has returned and on every street corner, there´s something interesting that triggers me.

So, off we go!

Cadaqués/Port Lligat, the white dream...

One really good thing about getting to know the Spanish, is that you get to live and experience places like you would never do being on a touristic trip. Last weekend I was invited by my Spanish friend Jonatan to come to Cadaqués/Port Lligat and stay at his aunt's apartment there.

Cadaqués is a tiny fishing village with only 3,000 habitants in comarca Alt Empordá (province of Gerona), only 2 hours to the north of Barcelona. The village is situated on a romantic bay and has been practically 'cut off' from the rest of the region until the end of the 19th century, which made the ancient caracter is still alive.


The village is not only inhabited by the kin of old fisherman's-families, but also attracted a lot of artists (some great names that came to/lived in and around Cadaqués: Federico García Lorca, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí). Life feels a bit bohemian there. The flower power age still flourishing. People are utterly relaxed and live their own peaceful life, enjoying the quietness of the rocky environment, floating on the calmly waving water, tasting fresh caught fish specialties.


Alas Cadaqués became more and more attractive for touristic visits since the early 1900's, so it's better to avoid it in the summer months.

However, being there in this time of year, strolling through the old narrow streets with caracteristic white fisherman's homes, up and down the old stoney pavements and looking at the overgrown walls from foregone centuries makes you feel part of a medieval, almost indisturbed quiet life.


Enjoying the kind hospitality of Belinda, Jonatan's aunt, which made sure we saw the best beaches, the greatest views and enjoyed the most tastful saucages and other regional specialities, I discovered another beautiful place in Catalunya.

Now, back in Barcelona, I can still smell the mouthwatering fresh scent of sea salt, herbs and fish & meat dishes.

Spain is definitely showing me her most precious assets...

Duende. The soul of flamenco.

Flamenco, the beautiful, caracteristic and sometimes almost mystic musical artform of the Andalucian people. Either you love it, or you hate it. I have assigned myself happily to the first category. Living flamenco, the music, the dance, the expression can almost cause a state of extasy, a feeling so profoundly that it is almost impossible to describe it... Only to feel it... This is true duende. An 'ole' sound from the public or the artists, a tear rolling down a cheek...

Duende.

I think 'duende' is not only about flamenco. It's more profound than that. It lives inside of you and in a moment of utterly and complete happiness it reveals itself. It's not a 'flow', it's deeper, more intense.. It's your heart, your being communicating, instead of your brain. It's the closest you can get to your inner self, it's a state of trance, a state of untouchable, undescribable emotional wellbeing...

Duende.

And I've felt it, lived it, breathed it...

Love is in the air!

Whereas I came here to study Spanish and relax, my second goal was to figure out where I want to be in a few years, which direction to take, which choices to make. But Barcelona enables me in this thinking process...

Short skirts and dresses, high heels and slippers, bare arms and legs, happy faces, whistling guys, all hidden signs of incoming summer in Barcelona. Butterflies are everywhere. Flying around in the parcs, landing on an intimate couple for a second to quickly continue their journey, making everything they touch sparkle and shine.


People seem more beautiful, dinner tastes richer, colours are brighter, wine flows more generously, nightlife is hotter.

And there's nothing more to be done than go with this flow, live this happy life. And therewith: no time for thinking, only for enjoying every second of it and once again fall in love with life, and with Barcelona...

Love is in the air!

Huishoudelijke mededeling.....

Lieve allemaal, even een huishoudelijke mededeling: vanaf heden zal ik mijn blogs deels ook in het Engels schrijven, zodat de internationale geinteresseerden niet meer buiten de boot hoeven te vallen. Het aantal drenkelingen neemt namelijk hand over hand toe...