“How was Spain?”
Andrew Diaz Wink
“How was Spain?”
I was asked this question what feels like hundreds of times after returning from a two week trip to the European country. While absolutely amazing is an honest answer, and one I gave to most that asked, the most correct answer would be: which part of Spain?
I’d argue that Spain is a country with more culture per capita than 99% of other countries around the world. Much like New York City, where each borough has its own sub-culture, Spain is a melting pot. Each of the 17 “comunidad autónomas,” or autonomous regions, has a life of its own.
I think the metaphor of a paella works well here. You have your rice, the architecture that brings tourists in droves from around the world; you have your seafood, the beautiful beaches backed up against ports and busy streets; and you have your spices, the food and music that fill the air with delicious smells and beautiful sounds. But in Spain, there are 17 different paellas, one for each region. Obviously two weeks is nowhere near enough time to become an expert of such a culturally rich country, but I’d like you to join me on an adventure through Spain as we experience some of the unique architecture, food, and music that each region has to offer.
The first stop on our trip is Barcelona, the capital and largest city in the NorthEastern region of Catalonia. It’s important to note that while technically part of Spain, Catalonia has a very distinct culture, including its own language, Catalan, which shares many similarities with Spanish, French, and Italian. As soon as you arrive in Barcelona, there’s an aliveness in the air that’s hard to describe. It’s as if the city itself is living and breathing. The Antoni Gaudi created and influenced buildings look like something out of a Dr. Seuss story, twisting and turning in ways that mirror nature, but are unlike anything I’ve seen anywhere else. Take Casa Batllo for instance, a building designed by Gaudi whose shape was inspired by the human skeletal system and designed in effort to invoke images of colorful coral. This blending of themes (skeletons and coral) is a great representation of the uniqueness that gives Barcelona its magic, where the tranquil, man-made beaches are a striking contrast to some of its more modern buildings. In Park Guell, another work of Gaudi’s architectural genius, people enjoy the colorful mosaics found on sculptures, buildings and benches that have the look and feel of a theme park right out of Alice in Wonderland.
Some streets in the city are world-renowned, like the Passieg de Gracia, and pass by upscale clothing stores, hotels and terraced cafes. Walking down the lively Las Ramblas, I realized just how large and active Barcelona is. Trees erupt from either side of the huge pedestrian walkway, where hundreds of tourists walk, talk and take photos while the locals sell hand-made products or advertise their shops and restaurants. Mercado de La Boqueria, which can be found while walking along Las Ramblas, is a bustling outdoor marketplace filled with everything from cured meats to freshly squeezed juices to pastries. In other parts of the city, tattooed locals walk through graffiti covered alleyways where the drone of mopeds seems to perpetually resonate off the stone walls. As we end our walk through Barcelona, we sit at a beach-side restaurant, which looks out onto the ocean, and we order a paella filled with fresh seafood that was caught just a few hours earlier.
Join me next time as we continue our road trip to the beautiful city of Sevilla, the capital of Spain’s region of Andalusia, and the home of Flamenco music.