Barri Gotic
I haven’t given y’all a legitimate update in a few days so here ya go…
In Spanish class today, we took a tour of the Barri Gotic, or the Gothic Quarter. I expected it to be interesting, I just didn’t know how cool it would be. We got to hear a lot about the history of the oldest parts of the city. The Barri Gotic is the part of the city that was originally an old Roman colony 2000 years ago. We got to see plazas where they committed executions during the Spanish Inquisition, the site of the old Roman Forum, old columns that were originals from a Roman temple to Augustus (the caesar at the time Barcelona was founded). It was really cool getting to walk the narrow winding roads that people walked millennia ago. We also saw the palace that is (according to legend) the place where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella received Christopher Columbus after he returned from discovering the new world. It is a shame that I didn’t have my camera with me but rest assured that I will be going back to take pictures. There were a lot of old palaces and churches that easily date to the 1300s when Barcelona was a center for international trade and one of the powerhouses of industry.
Also, today was the beginning of a celebration that goes until Sunday. It is the festival of Corpus Christi, which celebrates the Eucharist and obviously the Body of Christ (Corpus Christi). Part of the celebration included covering fountains with flowers and something called the “dancing egg” which is something you will just need to see for yourself…..
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=-F3zJgbTE1I]
If you can’t tell, that is an egg that is suspended in the stream of water. And there is nothing holding it up besides the stream of water. Pretty cool. This video was taken 2 years ago in the courtyard of the Barcelona Cathedral. Getting a feel for the heart of the old city and seeing where the city got its roots from was a really cool way to understand its heritage a little better.
Oh, and P.S. I tried absinthe last night. After the soccer game, we went to a bar named Marsella which is supposedly the oldest bar in Barcelona. Trust me, it looks like it. This is apparently the same bar that Hemingway and Picasso would go to to become “inspired.” Now I know what you are thinking…. “absinthe? he must be crazy!!!” But the absinthe of today is much tamer than in centuries past. The reputed hallucinogen is no longer a part of the drink. It is basically just a very very strong liquor. You drink it by suspending a sugar cube on a fork over the drink and pouring water over the sugar essentially sweetening and diluting the drink at the same time. If anybody is wondering, it basically tastes like black licorice and is about 160 proof, so its best to drink slowly. This is a fairly accurate representation of what it is like to drink absinthe for the first time. Much scarier in theory than in practice.
Tomorrow I am waking up early and going to the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona which I have heard is very interesting. I honestly am not quite sure what they have there but you can expect to hear about it tomorrow night.
Morr