Post Tagged with "Barcelona"

A Magical Midsummer Night

What are you doing tomorrow? The night of 23rd to 24th of June, many countries will be celebrating Midsummer Night, from Sweden to Brazil, from Chile to Portugal. Here in Spain it’s called the night of San Juan.

This has been a magical night for centuries. In different parts of Spain, you can hear many legends of encantadas, long-haired and non-human girls who suddenly appear on Midsummer combing their hair. More recently, this night has inspired the Spanish film “El Sueño de una Noche de San Juan”

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New life, new culture, new timetable

I originally came to Barcelona as an au-pair. My host family lived in the Catalan village of Cabrils, in North-East Spain. Arriving jet-lagged and starved to my new home, I was shocked to find that dinner time wasn’t until 9:30pm. Then, instead of dinner being the heartiest meal as in the States, it was light and Mediterranean offering vegetables and seafood.

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Can you learn Spanish in Catalunya?

My first encounter with the Spanish language was through a study abroad program in college. I spent three months at a foreigner’s school in Guadalajara, Mexico. This was quite brave as French had been my linguistic endeavor in school and I didn’t know a bit of Spanish. Everyone I spoke with had to repeat themselves at least once. It seemed the only word I could correctly use was “que?”

Before I knew it, my three-month exchange program had timed out just as I was getting the hang of the language! Luckily, I was given a second chance to master the Spanish vernacular in Barcelona.

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But just because Barcelona is in Spain doesn’t mean everybody speaks Spanish.

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Getting lost to find yourself

When we travel to a city like Barcelona, we want to enjoy as many highlights as possible. That is why we usually go to the same places and follow the same route that someone did before us. We want to see the tourist attractions; we don’t have time to waste. Sometimes, though, the highlight is not finding that particular cathedral but finding yourself by getting lost.

One of my favourite parks in Barcelona is definitely off the beaten track and it’s called Parque del Laberinto de Horta (in Spanish) or Parc del Laberint d’Horta (in Catalan). It’s located in a neighbourhood called Horta. You can get there with the green line, Mundet station.

I remember going there with my cousins when I was small. (more…)

A Taste of Catalonia

Barcelona Photoblog does exactly what it says – a new photo of Barcelona (nearly) every day. Through photos of his city, Carlos Lorenzo shows a taste of life in Barcelona. And there were some very tasty looking photos recently – the olives are just for starters.

The first months of the year are calcotada season in Catalonia. These calcots, which are a kind of cross between leek and onion, are eaten grilled as part of a traditional meal called a calcotada.

It’s not all about food – take a look at the Barcelonians for a fascinating close up of the people of Barcelona.

All photos from Barcelona Photoblog (with permission).