Where Is Darren Now?

Becoming A Casteller

2012-01-30T14:49:00.007+01:00

Ever since I first moved to Spain I've fallen in love with the idea of being a Casteller. Castellers, if you don't remember from the post I wrote back in November, are people who build human towers called "castells" (castle in English). The word Casteller itself essentially means castle builder in Catalan. Human castle building is a Catalan tradition, which goes back at least 150 years, where teams called Colles (koy-yahz) stand on each others' shoulders to see how tall and complex the structures that they build can be. I'm not sure why I'm so fascinated by them but I think it has something to do with wanting to be involved in an activity that's both physically and mentally challenging while also being uniquely Catalan.

I had first seen a Casteller practice about a year ago with the first real public display during the Diada de Gracia festival (same link as above). One of the groups that build castles that day were the Castellers Del Poble Sec, which is the colle from the neighborhood where I live. I went to join the group back in December and was able to practice with them for only one evening because they break for the holidays. After I returned from Christmas in Philadelphia, I went back during their first practice of the new year full of energy to part of this unique group and activity.

During our three-times-a-week meet-ups, the group practices building different castle configurations. Because I'm a newbie, I'm pretty much limited to being on the ground as part of the base support structure called the "piña". On a few occasions, I was part of the tower itself, meaning having people stand on my shoulders, as well as being up on the second level a couple of times (and with someone above me once when I was on the second level). This photo shows us getting the start of the second level in place (I'm off towards the right side with my hands raised):

There's been a few challenges to joining the group. First, almost everything the group says including 95% of the instructions are in Catalan, which I still don't understand very well. I am learning the Casteller vocabulary and instructions fairly quickly and folks have been great about speaking to me in Spanish and/or English to make sure I understand. It's also challenging to "break into" an established group that's been practicing together for some time. Again, the leadership and a bunch of other folks have been super gracious and welcoming. In this photo, three levels are in place and the fourth is on her way up:

It's funny because, while the majority of people are local to Barcelona, there are a handful of people from a bunch of other countries like Canada, the United States, France, and even Pakistan. I guess the desire to be part of the local culture isn't uniquely mine. :-)

I'll write more about my experiences as a Casteller as I learn more and have more chances to interact with the group. So far, it's been a lot of fun to learn something new and to be a part of such a warm and welcoming group.

No Pants Subway Ride

2012-01-27T16:45:00.001+01:00

Every day millions and millions of people all over the world take mass transit. They take the bus, trains, and subways to work, school, or to wherever. Pretty much no one thinks anything of it because it's such a part of the daily routine. About a year-and-a-half ago I learned about an improv group in New York that had been shaking up that daily routine a little. The group, Improv Everywhere, who does all sorts of public improvisational activities, picks one day each year when they "invade" the subway to ride with no pants!

Each year it has gotten bigger and bigger, spreading to more and more cities around the world. This year's event took place on January 8th in a record 27 countries with pants-free groups riding metros in 59 different cities, including one in Barcelona. The Barcelona group was organized on facebook and started its "mission" at Plaza Universitat right in front of the Universitat de Barcelona:

After about five minutes of introductions and some general information and advice given, the main group of about 70-100 people broke into two smaller groups and went down into the metro to each go in a different direction. It was funny to watch the reaction of the attendants who work for the TMB wondering why there was such a big group of people all entering at the same time. They definitely looked nervous.

Diana and I followed one group onto the L1 Red Line. Once on the metro and after about three stops, the group stripped down to their underwear. As is their tag line, We Cause Scenes, Improv Everywhere is very vocal that people not go naked as their goal with the whole event is to "cause a scene" and not get arrested. Watching the reactions of the people who just happened to be on the metro that day was priceless.

Improv Everywhere gives a lot of advice on how the mission should be done. Their goal is that the people with no pants blend in with regular commuters, ignore each other, and act like everything is normal. If they're asked where their pants are, the "actors" are told to respond something like "I forgot" or "I'm more comfortable this way". The group in Barcelona wasn't so nonchalant but they still had a great time and people's reactions were the best.

The event took place on Sunday afternoon but the metro was surprisingly crowded. From this angle, it's almost impossible to see that there are about 20 people in their underwear on this car:

The group we were with changed lines a couple of times and made sure to walk through the longest interchanges possible while in their chones. Again, the best part of the day was watching the surprised reactions of the people who just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

I know you're probably asking so, no, Diana and I didn't do the no-pants thing. We just tagged along with the groups and enjoyed the show. I was surprised by my reaction to the spectacle. As much as I wanted to, I was unable to take photos of people in their underwear on the metro. I'm still not sure why. As I've said a bunch of times before, Diana, fortunately, has ZERO fear of doing anything so she took the majority of photos that you see here.

There were a few notable "actors" that day with this guy "winning" best costume for his carrying a large painting with him everywhere he went and for playing the whole nonchalant role very well:

No matter what, Improv Everywhere has definitely put their spin on the day-to-day commute. If you get a chance, check out some of their other missions. They do some great stuff like Black Tie Beach, The Mute Button, and, probably my favorite, Star Wars Subway Car. Who knows, maybe next year I'll go all in and do the no-pants thing. Or maybe mix it up and go as a no-pants Darth Vader or something. I don't know. I guess we'll see.

Rosca De Reyes

2012-01-23T14:34:00.002+01:00

The final part of the whole Three Kings (multi) Day celebration was going to share a Rosca (or Roscon) de Reyes with friends. It was my job to bring the rosca to the party and this is the one that I bought:

The rosca, called a Tortell de Reis in Catalan, is a traditional, round bread-like cake that has candied fruit on top. It's eaten with family and/or friends to celebrate Three Kings Day. Since it's also a tradition in Latin America, I've have eaten it before back when I lived in both Mexico and in California.

There are two special treats hidden inside each Rosca. The first is some sort of item that represents the baby Jesus. I've seen mini Christmas trees, small baby statues, and even a little plastic baby bottle. The second item is a dried fava bean. Fava beans are probably best known by Americans for their being a part of one of Hannibal Lecter's favorite meals.

The rosca is cut into slices so that everyone has an opportunity to find a prize. Leiris did the slicing honors this year:

As it's an honor to get one of the two hidden surprises, I've seen two different approaches that seem to be popular when picking a slice. The first is the "oh-I-haven't-eaten-carbs-since-grade-school-so-please-give-me-a-little-piece" option and the second is "it's-a-holiday-and-I-love-me-a-tradition-so-give-me-a-huge-slice" option. This is Victor going with the latter:

So what's up with the Cracker Jack-style surprise, you ask? Well, in Spain, the person who finds the baby Jesus becomes the king or queen of the party and gets to wear the Burger-King-inspired crown that comes with the rosca. The tradition in Mexico says that the person who finds the baby Jesus has to prepare a feast for everyone else who they ate the rosca with. The person who finds the bean, on the other hand, has to pay for the cake. I'm not really sure who found the bean but I "ended up with it" since I had already brought the cake.

I didn't get to wear the crown this year but I know my luck will be better next time. Here's this year's Three Kings queen, Elisabeth, wearing her crown and showing off her prize:

Barcelona Three Kings Day Parade

2012-01-20T11:21:00.001+01:00

As I wrote in my last story, Three Kings Day is the celebration of the Epiphany here in Spain. The day celebrates when the three wise men came to give gifts to the baby Jesus. These days, for many people in Spain, it's a holiday that's shared with family and when kids receive their "Christmas" presents. If you'd like a little more background, you can go back and read that story.

Even though I'd had left my shoes outside the night before, there were no presents for me when I woke up. I guess I'm lucky though since I didn't get coal either. It allows me to believe, no, hope that, because I'm still relatively new in Spain, that the kings "just forgot" me this year. Other than the not-so-great start, the rest of the day was great. Our friends Carol and Juan came over with their kids to have dinner with us, which was a lot of fun. After dinner, we walked about five blocks to watch the big city-wide Three Kings Day parade.

The parade was similar in theme to the Poble Sec one that we went to the night before but, being the official city-wide one, everything was bigger and more deluxe. The kings came back for an encore performance but this time, their rides were even more spectacular:

The parade had a feel sort of like something out of a mini Cirque du Soleil with lots of fantasy-style costumes and complex equipment designs. It was at the same time very unusual and very cool. These are African drummers who are being pushed down the street on tall carts while they play:

There were a few different groups that had objects raised up high on long sticks. In this case, it was a flock of birds that "flew around" as the people walked along. A bit surreal...

I mentioned the overly complex machinery that seemed like something that an aspire-to-be Cirque du Soleil designer came up. Some of the floats were built on top of buses that had had their roofs removed and others were built on semi-trailer flatbeds. This float had a fairy character who was suspended about 20 feet out in front of the main vehicle, which was a very-large industrial cherry picker:

One thing that I forgot to mention in the last story is that every group and float that goes by throws candy out to the people who are watching the parade. The goal is to scramble and grab as much candy as you can just like someone beat open a pinata. The big difference with this version is that you're trying to scramble for candy among parade floats the size of buses, horses pulling carriages, and about a million people competing with you. Yeah, a bit scary...but...some person who's much smarter than me came up with the idea to mount catapults on top of some of the floats. With the catapults, the candy-distribution folks can launch candy way back into the crowd away from the dangers in the street. Unfortunately, there's a small risk of loosing an eye but who cares! It's fun!!!

There are a lot of similarities between how Christmas is celebrated in the United States and how Three Kings Day is celebrated in Spain. As in the Christmas carol Santa Claus is Coming to Town, these guys, who are standing on top of rolling ladders, are reading off the names of the Catalan kids who have been naughty or nice this year:

My favorite float of the parade, well, besides the grenade/candy launcher, was the coal-production one. On this one, younger folks were dressed up in their best Mel-Gibson-post-apocalyptic-slash-Willie-Wonka-Oompa-Loompa garb and were dancing to way-too-loud music. Following behind the float were members of the coal crew who were carrying lit flares, which you can see casting a red glow in the photo below. This photo in no way does what was going on any justice:

Going to the parade reminded me of parades that I've gone to in the past (way before this blog was even a bad idea). Some day I'll have to go to and write about the Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena California and the Mummers' Parade in Philadelphia. Both are New-Years-Day parades that are different because of their somewhat unusual themes.

Thanks for the fun time and for coming out and celebrating with us Juan Camilo, Ana Maria, Carol, and Juan:

Three Kings Day And Poble Sec Parade

2012-01-18T11:36:00.009+01:00

After returning to Barcelona and just as I thought that the holidays were finally over and that I could start to work off some of those eggnog calories, along comes the Three Kings Day celebration!

Three Kings Day, The Epiphany, or as it's known here in Spain, El Dia de los Reyes, is the celebration of the day long ago when the Three Wise Men, or, as I lovingly call them, The Three Wise Guys, gave some gold and two crappy gifts to the baby Jesus. The celebration takes place twelve days after Christmas on January 6th. (It's believed that these were the OG twelve days of Christmas and the commercial version that we have now, which takes place before Christmas, is probably a more recent "tradition".) On this day, the kings, who represented Europe, Africa, and Asia, arrived into Bethlehem on Camel Airlines, Air Horse, and Elephant Airways (I think they were airlines) after being guided by a particularly dramatic star sighting.

The celebration of Three Kings here in Spain starts the night before when everyone in the family leaves their shoes outside so that the three kings know who lives in the house. The kids then leave snacks for the kings and their camels...just like our Christmas traditions... And after everyone's gone to bed, the kings stop by at some point and, according to shoe size and quality, leave some gifts, which hopefully lean more towards gold and less towards the frankincense and myrrh (even the spelling of these words suck!). And again, just like in the "western" tradition, coal is left for the bad kids. Over time, of course, due to The Simpsons and other evil western influences, people in Spain are somewhat confused and some celebrate both Christmas and Three Kings, and others, who are not good people and don't want to shower the kids with gifts twice, celebrate one day or the other.

The two days of festivities kicked off for me with a Three-Kings eve neighborhood parade that winds its way around the area where I live, which is called Poble Sec. As with all proper parades, this one is led by some questionable Harley-types:

The three kings each has his own ride and all three have bunch of local kids with them. This is the "main" king with his court on a truck-based float:

One of the other kings was brought in via horse-drawn carriage. This shot is taken in the plaza in front of El Molino Theater:

The full parade was probably about 10-15 minutes long with a variety of floats and groups marching. A surprisingly large number of people were out watching it go by. Just a thought...the kids were visibly excited just like you'd see in the U.S. on Christmas eve. I wonder if their parents want to kill their kids by the end of the night too? Nah, probably not. They're way too cute in their little king outfits, right???

Pretty much every outdoor event I've gone to in Barcelona has had at least one drum group made up of teenagers. The wear T-shirts with devil logos (or other evil characters) and beat the living crap out of their drums. I'm guessing it's good for getting energy out of them but I can't imagine where they practice.

Like I mentioned above, the tradition of bad kids getting "a lump of coal" is part of the Three Kings Day tradition too. But, unfortunately, as part of the new European Union and Spain austerity measures, they've begun to use child labor to extract the coal. It seems somewhat ironic to have kids mining coal that will be given to other kids, or maybe to themselves if they haven't been good. It brings a tear to my eye...

The parade ended in a small plaza nearby where a long line of kids...

...was waiting for the three kings to arrive:

Just like millions of kids in malls do each year, they wait in line with their "letters to the kings" for their chance to sit on the king's lap and tell him what they want for Three Kings day.

On a side note, the king who was seeing the kids that day did an amazing job. He was very patient, put up with the crying babies without blinking an eye, and really seemed to be engaging each and every kid that came up. I was impressed. The whole event was a nice way to kick off yet another Spanish holiday.

Center City Philadelphia

2012-01-15T13:43:00.003+01:00

On one of our last days in Philadelphia, we went to breakfast with one of my longest-time friends, Joey, who I've known since I was a freshman in high school. Joey and I meet up for breakfast every time I'm in town at my favorite Philadelphia breakfast spot, Sabrina's, which is located in the heart of the famous Philadelphia Italian Market that I've written about before. I really like the food because of the variety of ingredients they use but, really, the portion sizes are scary! I took this photo of Joey, my dad, Diana, and I right after we ate but before we all slipped into food comas!

After breakfast, my dad dropped Diana and I off down the street from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Independence Hall is where the Declaration of Independence (from England) and the Constitution of the United States were both written and adopted. It's also the where parts of the unfortunate Nicolas Cage movie, National Treasure, took place. Regardless, it's cool to go inside to see how they've recreated the main meeting room to look just like it did when they signed the Declaration.

Across the street from Independence Hall is the Liberty Bell pavilion. The Liberty Bell, originally hung in the tower of Independence Hall, was made as part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of William Penn's (the founder of Pennsylvania) original constitution for the state. We didn't end up going inside during this trip because there was a HUGE line of people waiting to get in so I'm using a photo from when we were there last Thanksgiving (note that, at the time, Independence Hall, in the background, was undergoing renovations):

After leaving the Independence Mall area, we walked down Chestnut street all the way to Penn's Landing. From this spot, you can see the temporary ice skating rink, the Delaware River, the Ben Franklin bridge, and New Jersey on the other side:

Diana and I had visited many of the local sites last year so we didn't really have a plan of what to see and do during this trip. From Penn's Landing, we walked over to the Philadelphia Mint, which is one of the locations where they make U.S. coins. I had never gone to the Mint so I was excited to finally get to go in.

The tour is just okay with lots of displays of old coins, which I guess is appropriate, but the highlight, for me, was being able to look down on the production floor of the factory. You can see the incoming rolls of raw materials, the stamping operation where the blanks are made, the machines where the images are pressed into the blanks, and the finishing operations. Unfortunately, they don't give out samples AND you can't take photos inside because I guess they don't want people to be able to make their own money or something... Who knows. Oh, and yes, it was COLD that day.

We then walked up to the Reading Terminal Market, which is a large food market located in an old train terminal. It's similar to, but a much larger version of, the Lancaster Central Market. Every time I go there it's packed with people eating lunch, buying food, or just checking out the scenery. We were still stuffed from breakfast but not enough to avoid eating some cookies from the Famous 4th Street Cookie Company, which you can see on the right side of this photo:

By this time, it was getting later in the afternoon and we needed to get to the train to go back to my dad's house. On the way, we went through City Hall, which houses some of the city government of Philadelphia. When growing up in Philadelphia, I never noticed the architecture of the building but, after visiting France, and Paris specifically, I now appreciate the French-style architecture.

What's not readily apparent in the photo above is that there's something special about the statue of William Penn on top of the tower. If you stand in the nearby J.F.K. Plaza and look up, you'll notice Willie is quite the man:

Across the street from City Hall is J.F.K. Plaza, which is more commonly known as Love Park for the famous LOVE sculpture that you'll find there. I wrote about Love Park after visiting a similar park when I was in Peru last year. Oh, and my mom worked in that brick building just behind the sculpture for many years.

Thanks to my dad, family, and friends for making our visit to Philadelphia such a good time. We love and miss you guys a ton! See you soon!

Two Years Of Where Is Darren Now

2012-01-12T20:28:00.004+01:00

Two years ago today I was just south of Tel Aviv (Israel) writing the first post of this blog. I was there for the wedding of my friend Ruma's brother. Has it really been two years already??? Oh, what a trip it's been!

Let's review, shall we?

First, the easy stuff. The biggest change this year is, of course, that I got married to an amazing person. Diana has changed for the better how I view the world. She has a warm heart, a sharp mind, and absolutely no fear. I'm a better person for sure for knowing her. Thank you Diana for allowing me to be a part of your life. I'm definitely NOT perfect and I make waaaaay too many mistakes but you keep loving me anyway. I love you!

What else? Hmm...it all seems like a blur! Well, since starting this blog, I've written 260 stories including this one, which works out to about one every three days. I love that 49 (almost 20%) of them have been about food! To see some of the "best-of" stories from everything that I've written, check out this "7 Posts" story I wrote for a blog carnival. (Note that the posts that are the Most Popular and Most Successful have both changed since I've written it.) Regardless, I can't believe how much there is and how much I've enjoyed writing it all. The people I've met, the places I've been, and the things I've seen have been breath taking. They include stories about my visits to:

Canary Islands (okay, part of Spain, but still...)

People often ask me what my favorite place's been so far. It's a really hard question for me to answer because it depends on what you mean. For example, if you're talking in terms of overall culture or food, it's got to be Japan. If you're talking about the place that surprised me the most then it's Colombia. The place where YOU should go and you've never even thought about it then it's China. Best place to move to/live in/retire to would probably still be San Diego, Hawaii, Barcelona, or maybe Colombia, or maybe southern Mexico, or maybe Antigua in Guatemala. Argh! Too many good choices! See, it's difficult as they've all been my "favorites" in one way or another because I've met so many people and have learned so much in each place.

As I wrote while in Israel that day, "This blog is a place for me to record my experiences, memories, and what I've learned during my time traveling." So, what have I learned? The lessons that I've learned can be somewhat summed up in the following three ways:

1-Experiences are way better than stuff. I'd rather go to a new place, meet a new person, eat a new food, or so on than buy a "thing". Stuff "costs" so much in so many ways that I'm amazed at what I "spent" to maintain it for so long. I'm so much more content that the things that I need all fit into two suitcases and weigh around 100 pounds or so.

2-After that, it gets much "higher level". It's that the people around you are what's most important - family and friends - the people that you know and meet every day. If it wasn't for the people around me I don't know where I'd be.

3-Finally, the other lesson that is soooooo hard for me to actually incorporate into my life and brain is that I can't change what's happened, that I have to live in the present moment, and can only influence the future. I'm still working on this one every day and it's a tough one.

If you want to read more about why I originally left San Diego and what I've learned since, I recommend reading the story called "Done" that I wrote last summer. I think it's probably the best thing I've written and, for the most part, it's still very true for me today.

What's next? Diana and I are weighing our options. She's finishing up her PhD this semester and we'll be free to go and do what we want where we want. We're both looking for full-time gigs, and, if you've got any ideas and connections, we're open to hearing about them (hint, hint!). I know that for both of us we love living in Barcelona but the force (of family) is strong with these two (say it like Yoda). I guess we'll have to wait and see where life's path takes us.

I'd like to take a moment to thank all the people who have supported me on this journey. If you've: shared a meal with me, taught me about your life and/or your culture, talked with me, let me sleep at your place, invited me to a party, held my hand while I cried, played soccer with me, had a laugh with me, let your kids hang out with me, drank some wine with me, took a walk with me, or were just my friend, thank you! Without your love and support I would have never been able to make it this far. I'd also like to pause to remember those who are no longer with us. I miss you and still think about you each and every day.

Thanks once more for spending your time reading what I've been writing. I still hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I am living and writing it! What a wild ride!

Lancaster County & The Amish

2012-01-07T21:14:00.008+01:00

What do you think of when you see this sign?

Peeps from the Philadelphia area will probably know but for anyone else, there are people who live about an hour-and-a-half (via car) west of Philadelphia referred to as the Pennsylvania Dutch (also known as the Amish although they are just one group that makes up the PA Dutch). The "group" is made up of people from a variety of protestant religious groups and they live in and around Lancaster County. They're probably best known to non-Pennsylvanians from the movie Witness, which starred Harrison Ford as a cop protecting an Amish boy who witnessed a murder.

A couple of days after Christmas, I had the chance to go visit with some of my uncle's family who live near Lancaster so we left early and went to see some of Pennsylvania Dutch country, which is full of beautiful scenes like this one:

The Amish originally moved from Germany and Switzerland to Philadelphia in the late 1600s to gain religious freedom. As the city grew around them, they moved their farms west towards the city of Lancaster (and to other places in the United States), where many of the approximately 250,000 living in the U.S. can be found today. Ironically, Lancaster has become sort of an "edge community" of Philadelphia with folks commuting in towards the city and closer-in western suburbs. Every time I've been in Lancaster during the last ten years, I've heard at least one person remark on how the buggies block traffic on the local roads. The very lifestyle that the Amish tried to move away from!

I've always been intrigued by the Amish as they live "simply" and without many modern conveniences such as electricity. Actually, life on an Amish farm reminds me a lot of life on the farm in Chiquinquira except that in Colombia there's electricity. :-)

They prefer to not have their pictures taken, especially face-on, because, for them, it focuses too much attention on the individual whereas the Amish are a group-centered people. I tried to be respectful and took this far-away photo of one younger guy who's moving a buggy. I think it gives you a sense of their style with things like the straw hat and clothes as well as his full facial hair indicating that he's married (unmarried men shave clean). The cart he's pulling is painted in traditional black and gray, which is standard for the carts in this region, and is from a (for-tourists) buggy-tour operation.

Photo of me inside one of the buggies where you can see some of the what I'd consider to be fairly fancy interior fabric:

The Amish-owned farms in the area tend to be fairly distinctive for the clothes drying outside during the day. As with the majority of the world, they don't use clothes dryers.

The Amish's clothes also reflect their lifestyle and tend to be black and unadorned. If you look at the above photo, you'll see mostly non-patterned black clothing but there are some brighter colors too. Men mostly wear black and white and the women have a few other colors thrown in such as some blues and purples. Kids get a couple of more color choices such as green, yellow, and pink. For the most part, each local group sets its own limits for what's acceptable for the group in terms of "fashion", buggy styles/colors, behavior, and other life matters.

One of my favorite things to do when I'm up in Lancaster is to stop at some roadside stands that are set up by the Amish. Most of the stands sell homemade foods such as veggies, cheese, and homemade jams and pies like this farm that has "sho-fly" [shoofly] pies (but only on Friday and Saturday!):

Diana was amazed by the "trust" system that they've got at some of the stands. Because the Amish prefer to avoid the non-Amish for the most part, they leave their items for sale and have a container to put money in and to make change. This particular stand had a tablet of paper where they asked customers to write down what they were buying and how much money they were leaving. The white bucket was for the money. We picked up some Apple Butter, which is an apple-sauce like food, that cost about $2.50 U.S.

Another attraction that gets attention in this part of Pennsylvania are the old covered wooden bridges, which are similar to those featured in the movie (and book) The Bridges of Madison County. Although the movie takes place in Illinois, there are a bunch near Lancaster. Most aren't used any more and some, like this one just east of the city of Lancaster, are now on private property:

Our last stop before going to see my family was at the Lancaster Central Market, which is an indoor farmer's market. The market is the oldest farmer's market in the U.S. that's still in operation (over 250 years) and it's now housed in a 160-year-old beautiful brick building right in the heart of town. It was cloudy and rainy by the time we got there so the photo doesn't give it justice:

Inside, the architectural details of the building are just as nice as the outside. There are about 70 different stands that sell everything from fresh local meat and veggies to arts-and-crafts gifts. Yep, there's even a stand selling lattes although I didn't see eggnog ones on the menu.

The winning item at the market wasn't some strange fresh cow's head or even some cutsie arts-and-crafts thingamombob. Nope, in what reminded my of my friend Bruce, I present the bacon maple donut of Lancaster's Central Market, which can be yours for the low, low price of one U.S. dollar:

Unfortunately, I didn't buy one...as...umm...I didn't want to ruin my appetite before going to lunch with my family... Yeah, that's why. In retrospect, I probably should have as they look good! :-)

Would You Like Coffee With Your Eggnog?

2012-01-05T23:09:00.005+01:00

If you know me by now, you know that I'm addicted to eggnog. I'm not sure when it started but I've been that way ever since I can remember. I think that this is at least the fourth time I've mentioned it in my blog. Last Thanksgiving, I made eggnog from scratch for the first time and recently made it in Barcelona for a potluck-style Christmas party with friends.

Well, now that I'm back in Philadelphia and store-bought eggnog is cheap and plentiful, I've overdone it again! I'm sorry.

I. Just. Can't. Help. It.

Yep, I've managed to drink ONE-AND-A-HALF GALLONS (~6L) of eggnog in two weeks!!! If you're keeping score, I've put approximately 8,300 calories of the golden yummyness in my morning coffee! Oh, and that doesn't count the grande eggnog latte I had at Starbucks when I arrived into Newark airport. If I drop dead from a heart attack soon, don't be surprised...at least I was happy.

You know when you go to an Asian restaurant and they have that altar set up with a Buddha, incense, and some fruit? My altar would look something like this:

New York City

2012-01-01T23:48:00.004+01:00

I've always thought that my own personal version of hell would be to spend eternity in New York City during winter. So, what to do while back in Philadelphia? Diana's answer? Hey, let's go spend a nice winter's day in NYC! Yeah! The reality was that I was curious how I'd feel about it now that I have been living in Barcelona, which it turns out is, in a lot of ways, similar. You've got lots of people walking around, you've got the subways running everywhere, and it's just plain busy, busy, busy.

It takes about two hours to get there from my dad's house driving and about 45 minutes more than that via train. We opted to take the Riverline that runs from Camden (New Jersey) to Trenton and switch trains there for the rest of the trip up to Penn Station in New York. The train from Trenton was packed with tourists like us going to New York for the day. After arriving to Penn Station, we immediately took the subway down to the old World Trade Center to check out Ground Zero, the 9/11 Memorial, and the new Freedom Tower that's still under construction:

Unfortunately, you need to reserve a space in advance to visit the memorial so we just walked around the perimeter. About a block away is the now-famous Zuccatti Park where the Occupy Wall Street protests took place for a couple of months. It's fenced off and empty now and there's a strong, obvious, police presence I'm guessing to keep the protesters from moving back in. (I didn't see any OWS activity during the whole trip but I also didn't go looking for it.)

From Zuccotti, we went over to Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange building, neither of which I had ever seen before:

The NYSE building also was blocked off and had a ton of police around. I can remember back when New York seemed dirty and dangerous. Maybe New York's not that bad...hmmm...

The next stop was at the famous Charging Bull statue that's located about half-way between Wall Street and the southern-most point in Manhattan, Battery Park. The bull was also blocked off (sense a theme here?) but they were nice enough to decorate it for Christmas. Here's to a bullish 2012!

I had on a wool shirt, a wool sweater, and my down jacket but it really wasn't enough as it was verrrry cold and somewhat windy that day. Walking around Battery Park was extra-extra cold and windy so we didn't stay there too long. From there, we walked up the east side and across the Brooklyn Bridge, which was surprisingly less windy than Battery Park:

Once in Brooklyn, we took the subway back over to the city to go to lunch at Momofuku's Noodle Bar. This Asian-fusion place is not too far from Chinatown and was a recommendation of my friend, and former-NYC resident, Lubalisa. She had told me about the pork buns, which turned out to be incredible, and the kimchee noodle soup, which was even better than the buns. (Thanks Lubes!) We found it ironic that there was a kid wearing a Messi shirt at the restaurant (I now am 100% certain that it's impossible to get away from Barca, like when I was in Tibet and saw a car completely decked out in Barca stuff.):

Our late-afternoon lunch was a little pricey but worth it. I'd recommend it if you find yourself in NYC. From there we went up to the southeast corner of Central Park so that we could check out the 5th Avenue Christmas lights and some of the holiday store-window displays. I guess the store displays are famous but I didn't really know anything about them other than pretty much every department store in the world now has some sort of holiday window displays, which originated here in New York. I particularly liked the super-highly-detailed ones at Bergdorff Goodman, which, unfortunately, aren't holiday themed (yes, that's a life-sized mannequin in a store window):

What Christmas-time visit to New York would be complete without seeing Rockefeller Center? Not this one for sure! Even though I've seen the display there a bunch of times, it never fails to impress. The huge tree with lights, the folks skating on the temporary ice rink, and the 1,546,811 people in the square:

I saw two extra-cool things while at Rockefeller Plaza that didn't make for good photos. The first was where they've set up a film that projects about every 20 minutes on one of the neighboring buildings. It's designed to match the architecture of the building and has music playing along with the film. The other cool thing was a couple of Salvation Army bell ringers on one side of the plaza that were singing (and dancing to) Christmas songs. They both had amazing voices and were really good dancers.

We ended up staying there for about 30 minutes or so before heading back to Penn Station via Times Square. They've blocked off traffic from a couple of the streets in Times Square to create outdoor cafes and pedestrian plazas. The whole area is chock-full of tourists, folks selling stuff, and people busking for money. I was excited to finally see the famous Naked Cowboy, which was kinda' like seeing the famous naked guy of Barcelona. The (almost-naked) dude's pretty buff and cruises around playing his guitar and singing. I was cold in my multiple layers so I'm not sure how he does it in his little euro-style bathing suit. How's this for one of the last things you see before leaving New York?

It was a fun visit to NYC. Lot's to see and do with really good food too. I'm still not sure that I'd actively try to live there but I'd probably give it a go if I had the opportunity. That's a huge jump from it being my own personal hell, which says a lot!

Rudolph The Redneck Reindeer Music Show

2011-12-22T22:44:00.001+01:00

Christmas at home this year! It's nice to be back with family after having not been in Philadelphia for the last two Christmases (last year was Colombia and two years ago was Japan). All the old traditions are looking so good! Eggnog anyone?

And, what better way is there to celebrate both the season AND being back in the good ole' U. S. of A.? How about some Bluegrass and Country Christmas music? It's this slice of Americana that my dad had in mind when we loaded up the car and headed "down the shore" to the Albert Music Hall in the Pinelands:

The Albert Music Hall, not to be confused with Royal Albert Hall, is a community/volunteer-run music venue where each Saturday night they feature local musicians who play mostly country-style music. It's a fitting genre if you know anything about the Pine Barrens, also known as the Pinelands, of New Jersey. Think Deliverance and it'll be a good approximation of what folks from "outside" think about the area. Between you and me, let's just say that if you want a slice of real middle America without actually going to the middle of America, this is about the best place to find it.

The weekly show starts at about 8pm but my dad was adamant that we arrive early so that we could check out something called the "Tuning Shed". The shed, it ends up, is a large industrial-style garage next to the main hall where the musicians can warm up before going on stage. There's a combination of local folks "sitting in" and jamming with the performers and, since no one seems to be aware that they can go in and watch, it's a cool up-close-and-personal look (and listen):

After we checked out the Tuning Shed, we went inside the main hall to wait for the show to start. On the way to our seats, we stopped at the kitchen area and bought some hot coffee and a couple of pieces of what my dad told us was the best carrot cake since Hector was a pup:

Don't tell anyone but we stopped by the gift shop to look at some New Jersey Devil (which, I believe, is the patron saint of south Jersey) as well as Albert Hall merch, which we didn't end up buying...maybe next time.

In a bow to the modern world, the show started at 8pm with a YouTube video of some kids up in Alaska singing the Hallelujah Chorus. It was cute and the old folks enjoyed it, I think. Anyway, the "real" show began with the "Warm Hearted Christmas Carolers". The country-style band was made up of mostly of people from the same family with daughter number one leading the show and the granny-like mom belting out some serious tunage:

The WHCC played Christmas hits for about 45 minutes are were surprisingly good. The next band to take the stage, "The Santa Set", was co-led by Santa and a guy who was the spitting image of Don Imus:

The band, which wasn't that good, was nice enough to invite every kid in the place up onto the stage to simultaneously ring sleigh bells while they played. It was a madness-inducing hour but we hung tough in hopes that the effort would be repaid by any one of the following groups. Our prayers were answered when "Girls Night Out" took the stage:

This group, who was led by Joan Baez's sister (just kidding), were awesome. They played country-stylized Christmas songs and both their voices and music were top-notch. GNO finished up about 930pm followed by a half-hour break in the action, which is when we took our leave.

Being that I was a little scared that I'd either be killed by zombies out in the middle-of-nowhere Pinelands or fall asleep during the Rudolph-the-Redneck-Reindeer country-music Christmas show, I was very impressed! It was a lot of fun, the musicians and audience were great, and it was a nice piece of Americana for Diana's first American Christmas.

In case you're not too familiar with this type of music, here's a quick video I shot in the Tuning Shed:

...and, to celebrate "being home for the holidays", here's another one with the Santa Set during the main show:

Thanks dad for the invite and taking us to the show. We had a great time! Oh, and the carrot cake alone is worth the trip.

Christmas Party With Friends In Barcelona

2011-12-16T16:02:00.003+01:00

This past Friday I went to a Christmas party with a bunch of our friends in Barcelona. It was my first time at the party but they do it every year just before folks start heading out of town to visit with their families. Leiris, Elizabeth, and Senda (the resident pooch) were nice enough to host this year's soirée at their place near the Sagrada Familia.

Since it was pot-luck style, everyone brought their own specialty, which resulted in me eating "a little bit of everything" and ending up extremely stuffed by the end of the night. My contribution, homemade eggnog, got generally positive reviews and made me realize (again) just how addicted I am to it.

Thanks to everyone for such a fun and memorable evening! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to, and from (left to right): Marcos, Nadia, Vladimir, Pau, Pili, David, Andrea, me, Diana, David, Leiris, Victor, Elizabeth, and Senda (on Elizabeth's lap).

The Christmas Log That Poops Gifts (Tio Nadal)

2011-12-13T23:56:00.002+01:00

If you've been keeping up with your whereisdarrennow, you might remember that last week I wrote about a Christmas tradition where folks here in Catalunya put a Caganer in their nativity scene. A Caganer is a statue of a person, real or made up, taking a poop (caga = poop in Catalan). The idea is that the Caganer is "fertilizing the earth" as a gesture of good luck for the coming year. It's an odd tradition but aren't most traditions a bit odd?

Well, just when I thought that this "crappy" Christmas tradition is fairly unusual, I came across...another Catalan fecal-related Christmas tradition. Outside world, meet the Tio Nadal:

Yep. It's a log with a face, a hat, two legs, and most importantly, a blanket covering it's butt. Tio Nadal means "Christmas log" in Catalan, which I guess is similar to saying "yule log" in English. The funny thing is how, when you're a kid, how you make fun of "yule log" as in "I finished my morning coffee and went and made a yule log." Who knows, maybe they're related.

The tradition goes something like kids would go out into the woods towards the beginning of advent and find a small stick to bring home and put into the corner with a blanket on it (to keep it warm). The kids would then take care of it. Over time, assuming proper care and feeding, the Tio Nadal would grow in size until Christmas came. SPOILER ALERT: Kids skip the next sentence. The parents would periodically replace the Tio Nadal with successively larger versions until Christmas. On Christmas day, presents would shoot out his butt so size would matter and you wanted to take care of your Tio so that he'd be big and really full!

While out looking at Christmas lights with David and Diana, we went by the Santa Lucia market. There, up on a stage, where in the U.S. kids might be sitting on Santa's lap, there were kids beating on a giant Tio Nadal with sticks!

(If you look carefully at the right side of the round part of the sign in the background above, you'll see a Caganer doing his "duty".)

The violence that befalls the Tio Nadal is part of the tradition. The kids sing a song that basically says that if you don't poop me some candy (or presents of some type) I'll beat you with a stick until you "produce some" (out your butt).

Nice. Beating the poor Tio Nadal with a stick until he takes a dump. Welcome to CAGA-lunya I guess!

By the way, I think I found a suitable part-time job for me for next Christmas. I want to be the guy "offloading" the Tio Nadal at the Santa Lucia market:

Can I just say that I love me some unusual traditions, especially when there's kids involved. The kids that I saw were happy campers when they got their back-door-Christmas delivery.

"Hey mom, look! My lollipop's chocolate covered!"

Smashing Pumpkins Concert

2011-12-09T18:24:00.001+01:00

As Nancy Reagan never said, "Just say yes!"

This past Wednesday Pau called me up around 7pm and told me that he had an extra ticket to see the Smashing Pumpkins at Razzamatazz, a local Barcelona club. The catch was that I had to leave immediately because he was already in line waiting to get into the show.

No problem! I hopped on the metro and got to the club in less than 30 minutes just as he and Pili were approaching the front door of the venue. I'm not the biggest Smashing Pumpkins' fan but I am familiar with their material and do like a handful of their songs. Regardless, I was stoked to get to see such a big-name band at such a small venue.

With Pili and Pau waiting in line for a while before the show, we were able to get right up against the stage. We were close enough to lead-singer Billy Corgan to watch the massive spray cloud emerge from his mouth as he spit a huge hocker between each song!

The club is a relatively intimate space - my guess is that the place holds less than 3,000 people but I'm not really sure. The sound quality seemed to just be okay but that could have been an artifact of being so close to the stage that most of the speakers were pointed behind us. Also, it's standing room only with no seating on the first level but some folks sit on the floor along the railing of the second level.

Since we were against the stage during the whole show, there were no bathroom or adult-beverage breaks but no biggie. The band played just enough of their "classics", including two of their most popular during the encore, to keep the audience fired up. This one's called "Zero" and is one of their better known songs:

So, following along with my plan to try to never say "no" when someone asks me to do something new, I got to enjoy a great show with some great folks. Thanks for the invite Pau!

By the way, I'm so old that I can remember when it was absolutely forbidden to ever take a camera, much less a video camera, into a concert. Now, every person in the place is shooting photos and/or video. My, how times have changed...wait, where's my buggy whip?

Christmas Lights In Barcelona

2011-12-06T16:45:00.003+01:00

Just about two years ago I was in the process of selling or giving away most of my stuff as I was getting ready to start traveling for a while. On Christmas day in 2009, I was on an airplane headed to Japan for what was basically the start of the path that's led me to where I am now. Flash forward a year later and I was down in Colombia hanging out with Diana's family. During the whole month of December 2010, I took photos of Christmas lights pretty much everywhere we went and ended up putting some of them into a story called Christmas Lights In Colombia. I have no idea why but that post has ended up being one of the most visited stories on my blog.

This year, I decided that I wanted to do a story about Christmas lights here in Barcelona so this past Saturday night I journeyed out with David and Diana into the (not-so-cold) night to take photos of Christmas spirit. We started our walk around town at the top of La Rambla right near the Hard Rock Cafe and Plaza Catalunya:

Plaza Catalunya is considered the center of Barcelona and often has things happening during the whole year. Right now, they've got an ice skating rink set up in a large tent along with lights in (fake) trees (in the bottom left, you can also see the lights on the wall of the department store El Corte Ingles):

There's also a large Christmas tree covered with lights where we stopped to take a self-portrait (bummer I cut the top off!):

We then left Plaza Catalunya and walked over to the Portal del Angel (Angel's Door), which is a pedestrian shopping street that leads towards the Santa Maria del Mar church and Gothic area of the city:

Everywhere we went that night was busy, busy, busy. There were a lot of people out walking and shopping. It was a nice time and definitely got me into the holiday spirit a bit. The next photo is from Calle Feran, which runs between Plaza Sant Jaume and La Rambla. During weekend nights, they block access to private vehicles because of the number of people who are on the street.

I was surprised when in Colombia last year just how much decorating the city does during the holidays. Barcelona's similar in that they've got lights and decorations up on most of the major streets as well as these cutesy "Feliç Nadal" (Catalan for Merry Christmas) banners:

The decorations in some neighborhoods are themed. On Avenida Parallel, right near where we live, the lights have a theater theme since the area is home to a bunch of live theaters:

Over on the nearby Ronda de Sant Pau, which runs by the Sant Antoni market, the theme seems to be holiday food with what looks like a roast turkey (is turkey holiday food in Spain too?), cava (Spanish champagne), grapes (not sure why), and a Rosca de Reyes (a ring-shaped, slightly sweet holiday bread):

Some streets don't seem (to me) to have a theme but the lights, like these on Avenida Diagonal, are lovely nonetheless:

It was fun walking around looking at lights with David and Diana. The highlight, though, was our end-of-the-evening stop at the Cafe de L'Opera for some churros and hot chocolate. Yum!

I can't wait for Christmas this year. Bon Nadal (merry Christmas) from Barcelona!

Pooping In The Nativity Scene (Caganers)

2011-12-02T16:40:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I happened to walk by the Santa Lucia Christmas market located in the plaza in front of the Barcelona cathedral. There were a few hundred people checking out about 50-or-so stands that are set up to sell mostly Christmas and other seasonal decorations. I was super happy to see it because, now that Spanish Thanksgiving is out of the way, I'm definitely interested in seeing what Christmas looks like in Spain.

There were a couple of things that were unusual/unexpected about the market though. First, there are no food stands (yes, I was hungry at the time). Whenever there's something like this in the United States, there are always stands selling different food and drinks, especially things like hot cider or other seasonal drinks. I'm guessing that there's a rule against it as there are none, as in zero food available. Another thing that was unusual was something that I had heard about but hadn't seen yet and is interesting enough for this crowd to gather around:

What could possibly cause so much excitement that a bunch of folks are gathered around to check it out??? Caganers, which are small statues of people TAKING DUMPS...that's what!!! If you look in this photo, you'll see Caganers of all different things, from sports and political folks to cartoon characters:

Yep, pooping, haciendo caca, growing Shaq's arm, dropping the kids off at the pool, or pinching a loaf! I had no idea either! It turns out that Caganers (which roughly means "pooping person" in Catalan) have been around at least since the 1800s and are traditionally placed in a Christmas nativity scene "to fertilize the earth", which is considered good luck for the next year. The market had a bunch of Caganer stands mixed in among other stands selling items for a design-it-yourself nativity scenes:

Here are some Castellers doing their doody:

I read that the local Barcelona government caught a lot of flack a few years ago because they had built the city-funded nativity scene (pesebre in Catalan) in the main public plaza, Plaza Sant Jaume, but had failed to include a Caganer. They've since rectified the situation and now always have one. I found this year's just to the right of the exit:

Other than meeting all sorts of interesting people, the part of traveling around that I find most interesting are the traditions and festivals of the places I go (like this unusual one I went to in Japan). Add Caganers to the list! Here are some more examples that I saw in a shop window in the Gothic area of the city. I particularly liked the Darth Vader in this crazy cultural diaspora...

It might be tough to believe but this wasn't the only Christmas-fecal-themed tradition I saw yesterday...but you'll have to tune in next time to learn more... It appears to me that Catalunya is full of crap around Christmas time!

Eating At La Paradeta

2011-12-01T16:28:00.002+01:00

About a week ago I went to watch the Castellers with Diana, Bea, Toni, and Lena and afterwards we went to eat at La Paradeta restaurant in the Born area (near the Parc de la Ciutadella).

I'm not sure how many times that I've been there now but I continue to love it every time. After (usually) waiting in a line outside, you stand at a counter where there's fresh seafood on ice. You point at what you want and the guy gathers some up in a piece of paper, shows you how much he's got, and you say "that's great" (well, usually in Spanish) or "more"/"less".

This is an action shot of Diana ordering our lunch with Lena, Toni, and Bea mugging for the camera:

Once you're done ordering your seafood, you move around to the side counter and order your drinks and bread. The specialty drink of the house is a white wine in an unlabeled bottle that's fairly dry, pretty cheap, and (for the money) deeelish. At that point, everything gets paid for, the food gets sent to the kitchen, and you go find an open table.

It's a super casual place. Your receipt has your number on it, which they call as each item you ordered is ready. At a small window that opens into the kitchen, the cook takes your receipt, crosses off that item, gives you back your now greasy receipt, and "serves" your food. Actually, the way they serve the food reminds me a little of when I worked at Nifty Fifties.

We also took my family there when they were visiting Barcelona:

I know that Lena and Toni loved it and my family did too. In both cases, the favorite item was probably the Chanquetes, which are a small (two-inch long) fish that are breaded and fried. (Of course, what breaded and fried thing isn't really good???) On the other hand, the only thing that we ordered that my family wasn't crazy about was the mini octopus sauteed in butter. I think that Diana and I ended up eating the whole pile ourselves...

If you're in Barcelona and you're looking for a really good, not-too-expensive seafood meal that the locals eat, this is definitely it. Of course, if you do go after reading this, you'll need to take me too!

A Rockin' Thanksgiving With Victor!

2011-11-26T02:59:00.001+01:00

I can't believe another year's gone by and it's Thanksgiving time again. Last Thanksgiving, I was lucky enough to be back with the family in Philadelphia but this year it was Thanksgiving Barcelona style!

But wait, Thanksgiving's a purely American holiday you say? What's a gringo to do when it's time for turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and most importantly, pumpkin pie when he's in the land of sangria and tapas? Get yourself invited to Thanksgiving dinner...at the local HARDROCK CAFE (!!!)...by your friend Victor who spent his formative years in Florida.

Yep, the Barcelona Hard Rock Cafe offers a special "Thanksgiving Dinner" fixed-price meal that includes turkey with gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, string beans, cranberry sauce, and wine (we are in Spain after all):

Even if it wasn't my picture-perfect venue for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, the food (and the company too!) was surprisingly good, especially since we were at least 3500 miles from the United States. The highlight for me, though, was that they served what they called pumpkin pie but what I'd call a dense pumpkin cake. It was a bit sweet and not really too pie-like but it was really good. Diana was even kind enough to let me eat about a third of hers too. Pumpkin pie has to be one of my biggest addictions! Yum!!!

Thanks to Victor for taking us to Thanksgiving dinner this year. It was a rockin' good time!

Do You Want To Touch The Sky? (Castellers)

2011-11-23T22:51:00.011+01:00

Vols tocar el cel?

Yeah, my Catalan is a bit rough too. It translates to "Do you want to touch the sky?"

About 150 years ago or so people in the Tarragona region of Catalunya (not far from Barcelona) started engaging in Michael-Jackson-style street battles like in his Beat It video. But instead of tying their hands together with a silk ribbon and dancing in circles with knives, they built human "castles". The Castellers (pronounced "cass-tay-yehrz" and meaning "castle builder"), continue the tradition to this day. This past Sunday, after over a year of waiting, I finally got my chance to see it for myself.

The event took place as part of a festival in the Gracia neighborhood of Barcelona. Over the course of the year, each neighborhood has a big festival kinda' like a street fair that we'd have in the U.S. There's food, music, and lots of other stuff too. Finding the plaza where the Castellers were going to "perform" wasn't difficult as spotting them on the Metro in their tell-tale white pants and colored shirts was, umm, really easy. The Plaza del Sol was jam-packed with different groups each getting ready.

Each Casteller wraps a wide strip of cloth around their waist to provide support for building the castles. I noticed that each group was very tight-knit and that everyone was talking with everyone else while helping each other wrap up their waists.

Just before noon, the Colles (groups) started leaving the Plaza del Sol and walking down a nearby street on their way to the Plaza de la Vila de Gracia where the main event would take place. On the way, each group built their first castle in the tightly-packed side street. My first official Castellers event!!!

During the construction, each Colle's musical group would play a tune. They're sort of like a minstrel band and they play flute-like instruments and drums. I later found out that they are playing a sort-of Casteller's theme song called the "toc de castels" (castle song) and that they begin to play the tune as the castle construction reaches a certain level, which depends on the castle design and overall height, and continue until the castle is disassembled. There's also apparently a "toc de vermut" that's played at the end of the event that signifies that it's time to go have a vermouth...on Sunday morning!

Once the procession to the other plaza was done, the Colles each took turns building castles. When you look at the photos and videos below, keep in mind how tall these things really are and how much all those people must weigh! This was a three-people-by-seven-level castle built by the Castellers de Barcelona, a Colle from near the center of town:

Diana and I met up with our friend Bea who is an awesome photographer. She was kind enough to let me use a couple of her pictures. I like her photos because they have a very different composition from my typical photos. I particularly like this close up of the connection between the first and second levels of a castle showing how many people and the type of teamwork involved in building them:

The castles were...WOW! Watching how the structures are assembled and how the folks who climb up the outside to the upper levels move is pretty amazing. At the base, called the "piña" (pineapple), are lots of "regular" folks who form the support for the upper levels. The next couple of levels were mostly burly dudes. After that, it was mostly women and then younger girls.

The whole thing is topped off by a small child wearing a helmet called a Enxaneta (pronounced "en-sha-net-ta"). He or she, upon arriving at the top of the castle, extends their hand towards the sky to salute the crowd...in other words..."Tocando el cel" (touching the sky)!

The photo above is another one of Bea's.

I know I'm a bit crazy here but...I'm addicted! I want to be a Casteller! I don't know why...I just do. Let's see what happens!

And finally, I took some video that really shows what's going on. The first is the Colle de Poble Sec who are from the neighborhood where I live.

The next video is the Colle from Granollers, which is located about a half-hour north of Barcelona:

And finally, yes, the castles do fall. It's rare for serious injuries to occur but there were definitely some (relatively) minor injuries this week. This video shows the collapse of the one of the castles of the Castellers de Barcelona:

It was super fun hanging out with Diana, Bea, Lena, and Toni for the day. See if you can find everyone in this photo:

After we left the Castellers, we went for a great lunch at La Paradeta seafood restaurant. I took my family there when they came to Barcelona for the wedding. Thanks to Bea for letting me use the photos and everyone make sure to keep an eye out for a gringo Casteller trying to tocar el cel!

CouchSurfing

2011-11-21T10:05:00.001+01:00

Okay, so you're about to travel to somewhere that you've never been before. It could be for a day or two or even forever. You don't know anyone and you don't know anything about the place. You have no idea even where to start. What do you do?

What if I told you that there was a website where you can find somewhere to sleep (for free), learn about places to eat, make a friend or two to hang out with while you're there, and get a bunch of recommendations on what to do? Yes. Something like this really does exist. It's called couchsurfing.org and it's MAGICAL!!!

I've had an account for about a two years now and I love it. The first time I used it was when Diana and I went to China last year and we were looking for some locals to meet up with while we there. We ended up hanging out at a comedy club with a Colombian expat living in Beijing and had a fabulous dinner with an Australian woman and her Chinese husband when we were visiting the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an. Both "dates" were a ton of fun and we did things and met people we wouldn't have ever been able to do otherwise. This is us with Natalia in Beijing last year:

In case you're not familiar with CouchSurfing, it's a website where you create a profile and let people know if you have a couch or spare room they can use when visiting your town. You also have the option to set your profile to "Coffee or a drink" if you're not crazy about the idea of having people you don't know sleeping on your couch. They do have a eBay-like feedback system where people have the chance to give others the thumbs-up or thumbs-down, which, along with a detailed profile that users fill out, helps to reduce the likelihood of a really bad experience. The website is used by all types of folks--from low-budget backpacker types to people just looking to have a more "locals" experience. Diana and I are registered as "several people", which shows that we are a couple when you do a search for places to stay or people to meet up with.

The reason I'm finally writing about CouchSurfing is that just this past week we had another great CouchSurfing experience. This time it was with a couple (Toni and Lena) from northern Sweden that are staying in Barcelona for about two months while attending Spanish-language school. We had exchanged a few emails and finally met up to wander around Poble Sec (our neighborhood) for a bit and then come back to the apartment for tapas and wine. They're here learning Spanish so we made them speak mostly in Spanish with us even though their English is also really good.

During the course of the night, they told us about their hometown and about how they can see the northern lights, especially when it's really cold out. I think the scariest thing that they told us though was that the record low temperature for their town was something like -42 degrees Celsius (-44 degrees Fahrenheit!!!). I'm sure that when it's only like, oh, I don't know, 0 degrees, that people are out in their summer clothes... And, as with everyone that I know from Sweden (three people now), the conversation eventually turned to IKEA and Lingonberry jam!!! We even pulled out the recent catalog and talked about all the product names being places in Sweden. Too funny!

It was a fun time and definitely makes me want to do even more CouchSurfing.

Muchas gracias Lena y Toni! Let's do it again soon!

48 Hour Open House Barcelona - Day 2

2011-11-19T14:59:00.000+01:00

Day 2 of the 48 Hour Open House Barcelona (48H) started out a bit earlier than Day 1 because we wanted to see even more buildings if possible. At about 11am we were out in front of the Antiga Fabrica de Estrella Damm (Old Estrella Damm Factory) where they used to brew Estrella Damm beer before moving production to a more modern facility. The buildings now seem to mostly serve as offices and an on-site museum.

I've been to a ton of different factories all over the world and I love visiting them. The Damm factory was built in 1905 and is brick on the outside with traditional Catalan architectural features inside. The highlight of the building is just inside the main entry area where they have some of the old stills on display. It reminds me of the whiskey factories I've visited in Scotland and Ireland. Oh, and yes, that's Vladimir with a "sample"...at 11:30am. Gotta' love drinking on Sunday mornings!!!

The area under the stills has been turned into an industrial-themed museum and visitors' center. They've left the plumbing in place that was used in the brewing process, which is very cool to see.

One of my favorite parts of the museum is an area where they have the original artwork for their old advertisements. The ads are from waaaay before the days of computers and you can see the pen and ink work of the artists along with the pre-production (camera ready) cut-and-paste artwork. By far my favorite ad was this one with some Castellers drinking Estrella Damm while watching other Castellers building a human castle. The ad says "The beer of our land".

On the way out of the Damm factory, I spotted this beer-bottle chandelier hanging in one of the rooms. For some reason, it reminded of when I was a kid and my dad had a hat that was made from pieces of Budweiser beer cans that were crocheted together (sorry, no picture). The 70s must have been a crazy time!

Our next stop was at Casa Perez Samanillo, which is also known as the Circulo Ecuestre (Equestrian Circle club). Originally built in 1910 as a single-family home, it was converted into a businessman's social club in 1948. It's a combination of French and Modernist architectural styles and is impressive especially when viewed from Avinguda Diagonal. If you look at the photo closely, you'll see a very large mushroom shaped window on the first floor of the left side of the building, which is probably its signature feature.

Inside, the original rooms off the living room have been turned into a bar/cafe, meeting rooms, and a couple of libraries. Everything is ornate and highly detailed.

There are lots of interesting architectural details on the inside but the most striking are the grand curved staircase and a large stained-glass window, both shown in the photo below (although I couldn't manage to get the lighting right to be able to see the stained glass).

The Perez Samanillo house is an example of one of the buildings open during the 48H that's not normally open to the public during the rest of the year. The line to get in was a little over an hour long but it was worth it. We ran into Pau's parents in the line who were going to let us cut in with them but we were afraid that we'd get strung up by the 150 potentially angry Catalans behind them so we politely declined and went to the back of the line...and waited...and waited... One last photo shows the former living room taken from the top of the winding stair case.

Diana headed back to the house after we left the Perez Samanillo house and Vladimir and I decided to make our last stop of the tour the Parc De Recerca Biomedica De Barcelona (PRBB - Barcelona Biomedical Research Park). This modern steel research building is notable for its Pac-Man shape and its wooden facade. Seen from the side, it reminds me a little of the Jawa transport vehicle from Star Wars.

The tour covered only the exterior of the building since the inside is an active R&D center. It's designed to make use of lots of natural light and to have spaces to gather outside. There's even an outdoor conference "room" area at the end of one of the floors complete with tables, chairs, and a whiteboard.

While we were there, Vladimir borrowed my camera to take some photos of the architectural details of the building. I was checking out the views when he got this photo unbeknownst to me. I'm going to include it as part of my modeling portfolio! :-D

The whole building is very impressive and I like the way that they've taken advantage the building's location (right next to the Mediterranean) by having the center "hallway", complete with a large reflecting pool, open towards the sea. The bonus of getting to see a rainbow while there was just icing on the cake for a great weekend of architectural site seeing.

The tours and the event overall were a lot of fun. I've already made a mental list of the buildings I want to visit next year. Thanks to Pau for the heads up and to Diana and Vladimir for humoring me by going along!

48 Hour Open House Barcelona - Day 1

2011-11-13T10:39:00.001+01:00

Barcelona's known world-wide as being a fairly tourist-friendly city but sometimes, as a local (I can say that now!), it can feel like almost everything here is overrun with tourists. I think that "the powers that be" understand this and they regularly schedule events and other things for the locals. One of the recent ones was the 48 Hour Open House Barcelona (48H).

The Open House Worldwide organization's goal is to make architecture approachable for the general public and it currently holds events in twelve different cities around the world. Barcelona's is in its second year and is an opportunity for the public to get to explore FOR FREE 160 different local landmarks, which include some private buildings that are not open to the public the rest of the year and others that normally charge to get in.

Because of each building having different opening hours some really long lines, it was only possible to visit three or four each day. Although I could have written a complete story for each of the buildings that I ended up visiting, I decided to just do two quickie stories, one for each day.

Saturday was Day 1 and the tour began at Teatro El Molino, which you may remember is right in front of where I'm living now. El Molino is about 110 years old with the facade having more-or-less its current wind-mill-style form for about 80 of those years. The theater has been used for Spanish-influenced French-style cabaret (whatever that is) since 1908.

(On a side note, the Parallel/Poble Sec neighborhood where I live has a whole bunch of live-performance theaters. I keep telling myself that I need to look into them one day and maybe do a story about the whole lot of them.)

At each stop of the 48H the organizers had at least one person to lead the tours and give the history of the building. At El Molino, they had both the architect and the designer who were responsible for the most recent renovations. The only downside (for me) was that all the tours were done in Catalan, which just reinforced for me that it was definitely a for-locals event and that I need to learn more Catalan!

What I did understand, and from what Diana and Vladimir told me (both speak and understand the language), the tours and tour guides were excellent. After the guided part of the tour was over, we hung out for a little while on the terrace that overlooks the building we live in (the pinkish-red one in the back):

The El Molino is a very interesting looking building during the day but it really "shines" at night when its entire facade is turned into a giant video screen that we can see from the apartment. The images change about every 30-60 seconds and this moon-set (or is it a moon-rise?) over water being my favorite:

The second stop for the day was about two blocks from the apartment at the Sant Pau del Camp church. This Romanesque building is the oldest church in Barcelona dating from the 10th century (stuff's old here!). It's in surprisingly good shape with some artistic exterior features from the 13th century, like the carvings over the door, surviving to today:

The interior is fairly plain (simple?) but beautiful nonetheless. Our guide was awesome as he not only shared the history of the church, but also demonstrated some of its acoustics by doing some singing. The sound quality is amazing!

The church has a cloister that is accessible from a chapel off the main worship area. It's not the Alhambra but its 12th-century Moorish architecture is definitely a must-see:

We spent about an hour at each of the first two stops when Diana and I left to meet up with some friends for lunch. Vladimir continued on to some more buildings without us. After our lunch date, Diana and I tried to squeeze in two more stops even though it was getting late in the day.

Our first post-lunch stop was at the Torre D'Aigues (Water Tower) at the Catalan Gas Company's grounds near the waterfront. The tower is unusual not only for its shape but also for the exposed brickwork that gives it the red color. Unfortunately, we arrived about three minutes too late to get to scale the stairs to the top to check out the view. (I'll add it to the must-do list for next year's 48H.)

Just around the corner from the Torre is La Fabrica del Sol, which is the former Catalan Gas Company building. This brick modernist building, which has been renovated into a hands-on sustainable-energy demonstration museum/site, is very interesting looking both inside and out. We checked out the displays and went up to the roof to take in the view right around sunset. On the way out, I managed to get a photo of Miss Colombia who just happened to be hanging outside the building that day. What luck!

I mentioned it above but the folks who organized the 48H event did a great job putting together an exceptionally good website and catalog and making sure that there was an excellent tour guide at each building. If I were to make just one recommendation, it'd be nice if the buildings were open for more hours during the two days as many were only open for a few hours one day or the other, which makes it hard to see more than just a couple. But, it was a lot of fun, very educational, and I can't wait for next year's version!

Goooooal!

2011-11-02T21:35:00.006+01:00

I've been feeling more and more "at home" here in Spain and in Europe in general. I don't miss having a car. Exceptionally small-sized coffees don't confound me anymore. Light-weight "track-style" sneakers are looking ever more fashionable. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not quite ready for a man purse or anything, but, who knows, maybe someday I will. Actually, I do carry my backpack a lot more than I used to and it is a little big... :-0

Soccer's another one of those things that I'm paying more attention to than ever. Obviously, with living in Barcelona, the F.C.Barcelona is a part of everyday life much like a local pro baseball or football team is in the United States. Still, I don't think that I'll ever be the biggest soccer watcher in the world...but...could I be a big soccer player???

A few weeks ago Vladimir was going to his weekly soccer game and told me that they needed an extra person and asked if I'd like to play. I had a bit of a cold so I wasn't up to the challenge but I went along anyway to check it out. Well, other than the massive soaking I got on the way there on Bicing, I thought that it seemed like a great group of guys and that I wanted to play. Two weeks later on a Friday night at 8pm, there I was, out playing soccer for the first time in probably 30 years (that's me on the right side of the photo):

It turned out to be a ton of fun. The guys who play are all about the same age as me and pretty much everyone has a few more pounds and a few less hairs on our heads than we used to. One of the things that I was super stoked on was the number of countries represented by the twelve guys that night. We had British, Scottish, Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian, Uruguayan, Bolivian, American (me), and possibly more! (Side note: I'm continuously amazed at how "international" my experiences have been these past bunch of years. The world is definitely getting smaller.)

The weekly games are played at a rec center's outdoor field in the Port Olimpic area of the city. They've taken one full-sized soccer field and put three smaller fields separated by nets across it. This allows for three games at the same time. The fields are in great shape and have artificial turf with loose black rubber pellets that makes it a fairly forgiving surface for an old guy like me to fall on.

Like I said, I haven't played soccer for more than 30 seconds since I was a little kid. It's hard for people here to believe it when I tell them that soccer in the U.S. is mostly a kids' sport. The few exceptions are universities, the pro leagues, or adult immigrants to the U.S. that continue to play. They can't even fathom that most people don't watch the games on television...

Back when I did play, I was probably not very good at offensive positions (based on what I remember and how I played last week) so I ended up playing goalie a lot. Well, after about 15 minutes of non-all-star play, I found myself back in goal (again). It felt strangely familiar, like an old pair of shoes. After letting two shots into the net, I started getting into the groove of the position. The hardest part was making myself not be afraid of the ball coming at me at such high speeds. I think that I did better as the game went on and a couple of folks even said that I seemed (more) natural in goal. That's me on the left about to stop the ball from going into the net:

I can't express how much fun I had playing. I know I was terrible (at least one guy told me so!) but they didn't tell me to not come back. I can't wait to play again and maybe, just maybe, next time I'll hear GOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!

Thanks Vladi (with me in the photo above) for the invite and to Diana for taking the photos!

Bicing: Barcelona's Bicycle Sharing Program

2011-10-28T11:35:00.002+02:00

While in California this past August and September I spent some time looking to buy a new (or used via Craigslist) bicycle to bring back to Spain with me. The last bike I had was a very fun Cannondale mountain bike, which I sold to a friend from Calgary about four years ago, and I've wanted another one ever since but never really felt like spending the money. I love the idea of being able to cruise around Barcelona on a bike rather than taking the bus/metro everywhere and my past roommate David has a mountain bike and it'd be fun to hit the hills around surrounding the city with him. The city has built an extensive network of separated bike lanes like the ones in the photo below that make getting around on bike relatively safe considering the amount of traffic on the roads.

Buying a new bike in Spain is pretty much out of the question since, like most things here, they are very expensive. The same bike costs at least 30 percent more (as do lots of things) in Spain than in the United States so that's why I was keeping my eye out for something while I was back. I came close during September when I was up in Los Angeles visiting my friends John John and Stacey because I saw pretty much the bike that I wanted in a store right across the street from Stacey's brand new office near Manhattan Beach. But, since I've been trying to spend money only on food, housing, and travel, a couple-of-thousand-dollar bike just didn't fit with the plan...plus having to carry it around the world...

Fast forward about a month or so and I'm getting settled in to the new apartment when Vladimir offers to let me use his extra membership for Bicing (pronounced: bee-sing), Barcelona's publicly-supported bicycle-sharing program. I was stoked to say the least to finally be able to get out and around on a bike again!

Bicing is an alternative transit system for people from Barcelona (as opposed to a tourist-type bike rental program). You register online, pay 30 euros per year (approximately $42 U.S.), and receive a card in the mail that gives you almost unlimited access to the system. Spread throughout the city at strategic locations, near metro stations for example, you find metal racks with around 20 red bicycles attached to them. Taking a bike is as easy as waving your membership card in front of the sensor below the information screen (the blue LCD on the left in the photo below). The system assigns you one of the bikes on the rack and automatically unlocks it allowing you to remove it for use.

Your 30 euros per year gets you access to any available bike for one-half hour "for free". After that half hour, you pay about a euro per hour up to two hours. Because the system is really meant for short trips around town, I find it difficult to keep a bike for more than like 20 minutes and that's when I ride home from the gym. The map below shows where all the Bicing stations are. There are a ton!

The downside of the system is that it's popular :-) and sometimes the stands have no bikes available. I've only run into this problem a couple of times but all I had to do was just walk a couple of blocks to another stand. They have an app for your smartphone that shows you nearby locations with bikes available as well as available space to return bikes, which helps cut down on having to "look" for a bike.

The other problem that I've run into is occasional mechanical problems with the bikes but it's been maybe 10% so far and only once did it make the bike unusable. Maintenance of the system is done by technicians in roving vans pulling trailers full of bikes. They apparently get automatically notified of stations that are full, stations that are empty (or nearing empty), and bikes that have problems. The techs then move the bikes around and make repairs as needed.

A view of the bike lanes out front of my apartment:

Overall, I've been super impressed with the system. In a way, Bicing reminds me of the public book kiosks that I saw in Frankfort Germany earlier this year in that it's a cool system that's success depends greatly on the "maturity" of the people using it. Combined with the nice separated bike lanes, getting around via Bicing has been great. I love that it's uber cheap, very convenient, and that I am able to check out the city "above ground" for a change. And, the best part about cruising around on Bicing? It didn't cost me like two grand!

At The Vermouth Bar With Vladimir...And Why Drinking On Sunday Morning Is Good

2011-10-23T21:40:00.005+02:00

I mentioned in my last story about moving to a new apartment and how I love the new neighborhood that I live in. Everything that a person could need is probably located within a five-block radius. It makes me begin to understand how people can live in a place like New York City, which I wouldn't have even considered in the past. But this story's not about NYC but rather about how some things just give you that little kick once in a while.

So last Sunday morning the three of us were up early just hanging out eating our (new) customary Sunday-croissant-and-coffee breakfast when Vladimir asked me if I wanted to go for a vermouth. What? A vermouth? On Sunday morning??? Actually, I didn't even question it because my first reaction when someone asks me to do something is to say "YES!!!" no matter what it is (like when my friend Ruma asked me to go to with her and her daughter to Israel for her brother's wedding last year--an unexpectedly amazing time!!!) . I've learned that the best things happen when you least expect them and one way to make sure that more unexpected things happen is to say yes when someone asks you to do something. And off we went to a vermouth bar about two blocks away to have my first-ever vermouth:

I didn't know it at the time but going for a Sunday-morning vermouth is a tradition in Spain. If someone asks you to go get a vermouth, it's really an invitation to spend some time together just hanging out and talking. Family members and/or friends will go enjoy an aperitif before lunch at a local bar or restaurant (remember that lunch is usually 2pm or later here). I also didn't ever think of having "straight-up" vermouth as a drink because I've always thought of it as something that you wet a martini glass with before adding the vodka. (My dad has always said that the best martinis are when the glass is only wetted - is that a word? - down with the vermouth before you add the vodka; no more or you ruin the drink.) Anyway, at my local vermouth bar, they drink their vermouth on the rocks with a couple of olives and an orange twist:

The pub/bar/restaurant is called the Gran Bodego Elkano No. 45 (the 45 is the address - not at all like Roberto's or the other Mexican restaurants in California where they number them sequentially) and it's for sure an interesting place. It's decorated in what I'd call "early Spanish garage sale" in that every square inch of the place has pictures and knick-knacks (and maybe some junk...) hung on it:

Vladimir's a bit of a local in the place, which is truly amazing when you consider that it's a hardcore SPANISH bar, not Catalan but actual Spanish as in everyone there was speaking Spanish. I know that might sound a bit strange being that we're in Spain but, in case you're not familiar with Barcelona, the local language here is Catalan and it's verrrry rare to go to a place where the locals are NOT speaking Catalan (for background, go back to my stories about the Catalan language and/or Catalan independence movement). Everyone there was from central or southern Spain and we were definitely the only foreigners so, like I said, Vladimir fitting in is quite the compliment to his style and personality. Here's everyone's favorite Bolivian enjoying the Charcuteria (meat and cheese) platter with his vermouth under the watchful eye of Franco (!!!) (top, left-hand corner):

I'm a pretty lucky guy, I know. I'm having quite the adventure. Experiences and days like this one give me a nice little reminder of how lucky I am. I could have never, in a million years, thought that I'd find myself with a way-too-smart Bolivian somewhere in a traditional (Spanish) bar in Catalunya Spain eating a plate full of processed meats and a bunch of cheeses drinking vermouth on the rocks on a Sunday morning:

Whoever believes that drinking on a Sunday morning isn't a good thing probably hasn't had the adventure I'm having. For this, and a few other reasons, I think it's good to occasionally drink on a Sunday morning. SALUD!!!