Barcelona Without Words
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Category Archives: Barcelona
Looking Back at my School Years
The building in the back is my high school. It is called Institut Ausias March and it is located in the upper part of Barcelona, Spain. I went there between 1994 and 1997. The picture is taken from the park Cervantes. It is a public park, meaning it was and it is free to visit. If I look back at my school years, I remember this park more than the school itself. I ate my lunch here every day with my friends. We talked about our lives and walked in between of the beds of roses.
This is the bench we used to sit and eat our sandwiches. And then walk, for about ten minutes, as our breaks were short.
When you looked up you saw roses over your head.
This was (and is) the view of the park and of the city from where we ate our lunch.
I remember one year, it was my birthday and my friend Mireia brought me a container full of home-made Buñuelos. Then, I have just returned from a trip to Portugal where I tried Buñuelos for the first time and I guess I mentioned how good those were. And Mireia did them at home and brought them to school for lunch. It was a surprise and we ate them there on the grass, picnic style. I never forgot this one!
The park is in the upper part of Barcelona and very few people know about it. I have never seen tourists in the park. And many times our small group of three or four girls were the only people there at 10:30am.
Today I took my daughter to this park. Every day my belief in beauty becomes stronger. We need to surround our children with the most beautiful sounds, views, thoughts. Otherwise they will never be akin to the real beauty. The only way to keep them away from vulgarity, is to get their eyes used to looking at trees and flowers; Is to get their ears used to listening to the most beautiful music; Is to get their minds used to thinking about life, and magic and the power of the human spirit.
What haunts me about these olive trees is the round shadow they project on the grass. It reminds me of the rose window in the cathedrals. It makes me feel its silence and serenity.
At 10:30am you can still see the moon from the park. Looking back at my school years, I used to think in verse.
Today was just a day
The waiter placed the coffee and the desert on the table and I smiled widely and said “Merci”. This is what you say in Catalonia as “Thank you”. Why did I smile so widely? I looked at myself in the mirror this afternoon and smiled, just to see my face smiling. Lots of wrinkles all over my face when I smile. Also the smile does not look natural on my face. I should not smile if I do not feel like it. Looking without smiling is ok too. At least there are no wrinkles and I like my face then.
I turned 35. Today. I also turned to be a depressed person. Nope, not today, but over the past year or two. Depressed does not mean that I sit home and cry. On the contrary, I am always busy, doing something, taking care of something, talking, walking, meeting, drinking coffee and making plans. But when I am on my own I do not smile. And I do not like it. I used to smile to myself before all the time. And the only line that comes to my mind right now is “Life is not a walk across a field”, which is from my favorite poem by Pasternak.
We went with my family to Velodromo. It is by far my favorite place in Barcelona. I come here two or three times a week. It is thirty minutes walking distance from my house and a lot of times I walk here in order to do some kind of exercise. Thirty minutes here and thirty minutes back home is already something. I walk to the place even when it rains. And it is raining now.
Today was just a day. For some reason everybody expects you to be super happy and excited on your birthday. And I felt it was just a day. It was as good as any other day and I wished people would leave me alone and stop asking me to smile all the time. If I felt like smiling, I would have smiled myself. Thus, we went to Velodromo. Even if I feel sad, I come to this place and I start feeling better. There is something about the space and the food that makes me feel relaxed and be part of the people around. As always, the food was very good and the desert and coffee even better. They have one of my favorite Catalonian deserts El postre del musico (The musician desert). It is a selection of nuts and dried fruits and a glass of muscatel.
When the waiter left the desert and the coffee on the table I smiled widely and said “Merci”. And my family asked me what happy thoughts I was thinking to suddenly smile so nicely. And the truth is no thoughts. I just smiled back without thinking. It did feel really good to smile without any reason. I love this place.
El postre del musico (The musician desert) and an americano.
Ron Baba
A pear dipped in the hot chocolate and an espresso.
The menu in Velodromo had birds on the back. Which was great as the kids and me are working on a bird project at home. Those are single-use menus and people are welcome to take them (we asked). Last time we were here they had girls in bikinis with Spanish football club logos! We took some copies for our football loving friends in US.
Part of the Velodromo menu.
Velodromo. Tables on the second floor.
Sant Jordi, Barcelona
Yesterday was a very beautiful holiday here in Barcelona: Sant Jordi. It goes back to the legend of the cavalier Jordi that slaughtered a dragon to save a princess. From the dragon’s blood red roses grew and Jordi gave one to the princess. Since then on the April 23rd all men give roses to women. And women give men a book, to never forget the history and the legend.
Since I was a teen I found this holiday wonderful. The city is full of flowers and bookstands, everybody is cheerful, you give and receive roses. Somehow people are very happy. It is spring and there is no better way to feel it than seeing so many smiles and flowers around.
Downtown Barcelona is decorated and beautiful on that day. We did not have a chance to go to the downtown this year. We were busy with the kids, taking them to their Sant Jordi activities. However, we were glad to see that our part of Barcelona was beautiful and full of flowers too. Kids were dressed as princesses and cavaliers on that day, there were theater plays in their respective schools. My son’s daycare held hot chocolate and coca (Catalonia cake with sugar and pine nuts) for the kids and their families. And at our daughter’s art school they had an open-door day, inviting all the families to participate in making roses and decorating the walls with paintings. Here are some pictures from yesterday. It is Sarria / Sant Gervasi area of Barcelona.
Corner of Muntaner and Reus streets in Barcelona on the April 23rd
Muntaner street close to the plaza Bonanova
Sant Jordi red roses
The church on plaza Bonanova
Pan de la diada. Catalonian bread for Sant Jordi Holiday. It is made of cheddar and morcilla (blood sausage).
Book stands on the plaza Bonanova
Plaza Bonanova and Muntaner Street on Sant Jordi
Red roses from paper and cloth done by the kids at the Siena Art School on Sant Jordi day
Sant Jordi mural done by the kids at the Siena Art School on Sant Jordi
The last roses of the day were the ones painted by the kids on the walls of the Siena Art School.
This was one beautiful day of spring! And the festivities are going on for the rest of the week. It feels like every day is a holiday in Barcelona.
Between Love and Selfishness
When we talk about love a lot of times it comes down about satisfying one’s needs. Yeap, in the down to earth approach people are looking to satisfy their needs and desires. They want to hear nice words, receive gifts, be treated like someone special, be the one and the only, be respected, be comforted, be assured. In one word be loved.
This is not love. This is selfishness. And it is completely opposite to what love is.
Love in its essence is giving. Is the ability to give, to be generous, not to expect anything in return. To love is to be vulnerable. To be vulnerable over and over again, even if the other deceives us. To love is to hope. It is to hope that what we give will be accepted and appreciated. It is not about the hope to receive the same gifts in return. Love is never fair. This is why it is wonderful. It is our amazing ability to hope beyond our rationality. And as the life shows, this hope is stronger and more powerful than any rational thoughts or acts. Real love always wins (if one can use the word win here). You just have to ask yourself if what you feel is love (i.e. an impulse to give) or is it a desire to satisfy your needs, to validate your feeling and to get the same in return. These are the two ends of the same line. You have to figure out where you stand. Is it 80/20 or 50/50 or 20/80? The greater is the first number the happier you will be, as the first one depends totally on you.
This morning started at 6am with my son and daughter running around the house. They were excited to give roses to their teachers and friends. It is the Sant Jordi Holiday in Catalonia. As the legend says on that day a cavalier named Jordi slaughtered a dragon to save a princess. From the dragon’s blood red roses grew and Jordi gave one to the princess. Since then, every year on the April 23rd the men give red roses to the women. Not just to the women they are in love with or married to, but to many women that are part of their lives. And women give men a book (sometimes), to remind them of the legend and the cavaliers. It is a beautiful tradition, because it is based on giving. My 3 year old son jumped his way to the daycare with two red roses in his hands. One for his teacher and one for his 2 year old friend Paula. He was extremely happy all the way there and he was extremely shy when he gave the roses to the ladies. It is ok to be shy. This is what to be a cavalier means, to do good things to others even if you are shy or afraid or unsure. As parents I feel we should learn to give with love. This is the only way our children will be able to do so too.
Love (and giving) shows itself in small details, in our everyday life. It is not always easy to practice it. A lot of times we do not notice where we could give, we are too busy, too shy, too self-conscious, too rational. We also have to protect ourselves from the outside world, from others, and we wear our “street” clothing (our selfish selves) with a great smile and encouraging greetings. We become waterproof. We are aware of our needs and desires more than we are of love and giving.
Once I take my waterproof jacket off, I know that there is one single feeling that is able to illuminate me from inside. It is also the most important thing is life Love.
Note: As the author of this post, I have to add that this very morning I have been mean at least six times and more that I do not remember. To love and to give is not simple at all, it is natural for us to be selfish, but I think we should try to be better when we have a chance and can. If you consciously realize that you can change somebody’s day by giving (a smile, a rose, a nice word, an orange, a gift, some help), then do not shy away, do it! Sort of as a monthly experiment! I will do so too.
Love is an Intensifier
This is just a regular piece of bread, however, as the Sant Jordi holiday is approaching all the bakeries in Barcelona sell El Pan de la Diada (on the picture above). It is done with cheddar and morcilla (blood sausage). Overall it has a sweetish taste and if you close your eyes you will eat it as any other piece of bread.
Here is a random thought about love. I was searching for an old email in my mailbox this morning, and reread one that ended with the word love. This simple word at the end made the whole email intense and warm. When we add love to something we intensify the meaning, we make each word count more, we offer the feeling of home to the person on the other end. It is interesting to see how the meaning of the message changes if we sign it with hugs, yours, take care or just with our name.
Still love is just an intensifier. Without the subject, the message, the thoughts the word love by itself would not count. Well, may be it would ocassionally. Imagine you receive an email or a message with just one word love. It would make you smile and feel great at the beginning, but if there is nothing behind, the world by itself will become boring and everyday. The word love is empty by itself, however when the message is there it has an amazing effect. It becomes the most powerful, beautiful, desired and encouraging word one can give or receive.
The same goes for the picture of the bread. I sent it to a friend in Russia and she found it wonderful and loved the colors. Colors are intensifiers of our emotions. What we label as love are the new colors that wake up our imagination and curiosity. And there is nothing wrong with it.
I still believe that in a way life and love are about sharing the wine and the bread. And it is about smiling while eating.
Meeting People I do not Know
Saturday morning, 10:05am and I am sort of lost in Barcelona. The bus line that I was supposed to take is temporally cancelled and there are two people trying to help me to get where I have to get. And that is to meet fifteen people I do not know. And one that I do.
It was an invitation from my former college professor to get together at his place with a bunch of other folks to talk about cultural differences, judgments and how those affect our understanding of the world. And there we were, about fifteen of us sitting around the coffee table, sharing our perception of different life situations. And we really did not know each other. Lost in names and faces, we talked and listened. I wish I would have listened more and talked less. This is my most honest feedback to myself on today’s morning. Anyway, the things we heard and said were pretty obvious. Nothing challenging or that would change the way we act or think.
Walking back home I could not pinpoint right away what the value of this meeting was. And it occurred to me that sometimes it influences us to hear others say obvious things. It creates a sort of normalcy and the ground for trust. And within this ground we see our own opportunities for growth. The opportunity to be less judgmental, to be better listeners.
Another thing that triggered my mind was the idea of being judgmental. Is there a difference between an opinion and a judgment? From what I understand, and I might be wrong, opinion is how we see things from where we stand. We always have an opinion on the things we are aware of. Judgment, in turn, means judging another person for not seeing the things as we do. It means not accepting that others are looking from a different perspective. We have opinion about ideas and things, and we are judgmental about people and how people act (or react). For example, if I say, “This coffee tastes bad,” I am voicing my opinion on the coffee and my tastes. However, if I say, “You have no taste in food. This stuff is really good,” I am being judgmental. This is a very simplistic explanation, but it escalates to many other situations. The bottom line is that we do not judge ideas, we judge people. We also give people advice, which comes right after voicing our judgment.
Opinion is about ideas and thoughts. I think that the more opinions there are, the better. Listening to the opinions of others makes us richer, it challenges us and helps us to grow. There is nothing wrong with being opinionated. I think, passion is an opinion too, a very strong one, that has the ability to sweep others off their feet. Wondering if you can be passionate without being opinionated. Just thinking.
My Best Meeting Ever
My best meeting ever is a meeting with myself at the cafe. This is where I get really productive. This is when I really enjoy my work, my thoughts, my time.
During the rest of the day I am surrounded by people that expect me to listen to them, to reply, to interact. At the cafe it is just me, my coffee and my laptop. Yes, there are people around me, but these people do not expect anything from me. They are just there living their lives. What an awesome feeling! Wondering if it would be ok to tell the old men on the table next to me that I love him just because he sits there and reads the newspaper? Nope, I probably should not do these things.
They also play music at the cafe. It is great, because otherwise I would never listen to any music at all. I am generally too busy even to think about music, let alone to spare one minute to decide what I feel like listening to, and to actually find that song and hit play. Too many actions and decisions for me, in reality it almost never happens. Apart from music, they bring me coffee. At this cafe, as I come here every day, I do not have even to ask for it. The waiters are my friends. I know their names, they know what I drink.
Here am I on my meeting with myself. Working. And taking ten minutes to type this. Those who think that creating and running their own company is fun… Well, they are right, it is fun. It is hard as hell too. You just do not stop to think how hard it is while you are doing it. It means that your family sees you mostly behind the laptop. And you do not see them. It means that you only play with your kids in between of the meetings, emails and skype calls. It means that your personal life is none existent. You lose your family, you barely keep up with your friends, and the only time you get to breath is when you are in the shower. You wake up and you think about this great idea, thought, feature, you eat breakfast and you think how to bring it to practice or something similar. Nope, you do not think about what you eat. This is why you eat the same breakfast for ten years in a row, you simplify your life to the maximum in anything that is not related to what you do.
You live under a constant pressure. You get used to it. It is the pressure that *you* always have to do something. If you do not do it, nobody will. Thus, you just do it. You get used to the fact that your free time is when you let yourself “relax” and read a chapter of that business book that you wanted to read. And not be productive for two hours. Just be passive and read. All those great books about how to relax and take one day at a time really do not work. Your passion is what creates the pressure. Your passion and the urge to make it real. It is not about money. Hell no! Hard to explain. Most of all it is about gaining back a piece of your own heart.
The cafe is closing. The meeting is over. Out on the street and what a night!
Note: After I hit publish on this post the WordPress suggested I should add “mental health” to the tags. Hmmm…. made me smile more than think.
Hospital Waiting-Room Thoughts
This is one of my favorite books and its last pages had always impacted me greatly. Below I will post the English version of it. I know these lines by heart, however every time I read them, they are painful, as if I have stumbled upon them for the first time in my life. I am not suffering over them. I fall silent. If you read the last line with your heart you will feel that silence too.
This morning I was sitting at the hospital waiting-room. There were lots of kids with their parents. Nicely dressed and healthy looking kids. I was observing them, as they cuddled with their parents, as they watched cartoons, as they colored hospital coloring books. And I have faith that those kids will be taken care of. Maybe not all of them, but at least some, will read great books, will play creative games, will walk outside and observe people and life, will challenge themselves in the world outside of their house. They will think their own thoughts, speak their own words, create their own paths, they will help and inspire others. And there, in the hospital waiting-room, I thought that this was a pretty good progress that we as a society made in the past 50 years.
The thing that still worries me is the prevalence of the computer games over the on-the-street games, as well as the virtual world increasing dominance. I have nothing against the internet world. I think that the connectivity it offers us is amazing. It opens our generation the possibility to be in touch with others, to learn, to grow, to be independent and create our own value. It is great, as long as it remains the channel, not the final destination.
By that time it was my turn and I left the waiting-room and walked through the white door labeled as “Access A”.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
Here is the English version of the yellow boxed text from the image:
“I sat down face to face with one couple. Between the man and the woman a child had hollowed himself out a place and fallen asleep. He turned in his slumber, and in the dim lamplight I saw his face. What an adorable face! A golden fruit had been born of these two peasants. Forth from this sluggish scum had sprung this miracle of delight and grace. I bent over the smooth brow, over those mildly pouting lips, and I said to myself: This is a musician’s face. This is the child Mozart. This is a life full of beautiful promise. Little princes in legends are not different from this. Protected, sheltered, cultivated, what could not this child become? When by mutation a new rose is born in a garden, all the gardeners rejoice. They isolate the rose, tend it, foster it. But there is no gardener for men. This little Mozart will be shaped like the rest by the common stamping machine. This little Mozart will love shoddy music in the stench of night dives. This little Mozart is condemned.
I went back to my sleeping car. I said to myself: Their fate causes these people no suffering. It is not an impulse to charity that has upset me like this. I am not weeping over an eternally open wound. Those who carry the wound do not feel it. It is the human race and not the individual that is wounded here, is outraged here. I do not believe in pity. What torments me tonight is the gardener’s point of view. What torments me is not this poverty to which after all a man can accustom himself as easily as to sloth. Generations of Orientals live in filth and love it. What torments me is not the humps nor hollows nor the ugliness. It is the sight, a little bit in all these men, of Mozart murdered.
Only the Spirit, if it breathe upon the clay, can create Man.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Wind, Sand and Stars
Spring, Shadows, Barcelona
Seeing the world in black & white today. When you do not have colors, you see the details. Made me think about business. In any given company absolutely everything valuable should be in black and white: the structure, the information, functioning, navigation. Color should not contain any information within the text, on the website, in the ad, in the store. All information should be in black and white, and color should be added as an emotional layer later on.
I like the world in black and white. Do we dream in color? I think not. I can’t remember colors from my past night’s dream. Maybe we dream in concepts.
unrelatedtolife 