The General Election in Spain

A couple weeks ago, Spain had a general election in which they elected a new prime minister. Mariano Rajoy of the more conservative party PP will be the next PM of Spain. I found it interesting how regional the voting in Spain was. I was in Catalunya for the day of the election, and none of the main parties of Spain were voted for over there. They voted for their own parties with Catalan interests. The cover of the newspaper the next day in Catalunya made it very clear (in English, no less) what their voting patterns meant. Kind of refreshing that there are more than just two parties in Spain, actually.

It'll be interesting to see how the shift to the right affects Spain in the future, but I'm guessing it won't be as much as a shift to the right affects America.

Barcelona & Manresa

Gaudi Building. Illuminated to stunning effect.

A couple of weeks ago, I flew to Barcelona to see my friends out there and to see the city. I had never been there, but everyone had told me how amazing the city is. I bought a flight on ryanair for 24 euro roundtrip from Jerez and was on my way. I arrived in Barcelona at around 8pm on a Saturday, which was coincidentally the same time the Barcelona FC match started against Zaragoza. Any later and I would have tried to get a ticket. Bummer. Oh well. I made my way anxiously out of the airport to check into my hostel. Between the nearest metro station and the hostel and stumbled across one of Gaudi's famous buildings. Pretty cool.

The hostel was really nice and my friends Joe and Erica were already there. I got settled in and then we went with the group from the hostel on a pub crawl around Barcelona that ended at the club Razzmatazz. It was pretty fun. There was a huge bar that was in what looked like an old fish market or something. Really warehouse looking, with tons of picnic style tables everywhere on the inside and people drinking huge 5 liter tanks of beer and sangria. Party on.

The next morning I guess I must have slept through my alarm clock because I awoke to a polite French girl telling me that I needed to check out. 10 am is too early to check out on a Sunday! So I grabbed all my stuff, and Joe, Erica and I headed out to see a bit of Barcelona during the daytime before going back to his place in Manresa, some 90 minutes away by train. Barcelona is really pretty, but I can't really put my finger on what makes it special. It didn't really seem all that unique to me. Paris is ornate and beautiful, Lisbon is bright and fresh, Sevilla is typically Andaluz, but Barcelona didn't seem to have an identity that I could pick out. I kind of felt like it was a cross between San Francisco and Paris. Like as if someone dropped the city by the bay full of all it's political malcontents and artists in Europe and aged it a lot.

I may be delayed, but at least I have olives!

Heading to Manresa on Sunday afternoon we had quite the fiasco. The train line was undergoing repairs just before Montserrat, so they picked us up on a bus and took us to Montserrat, which is where most of the people get off. They didn't seem to consider what that meant for people continuing on, and they didn't have a plan. We got sent all over the area for an hour and a half before they straightened it out. Spain.

Manresa

Manresa is suprisingly beautiful and has a kind of compact feel to it that I liked. When you gotta walk everywhere its nice when things are close. Joe doesn't seem to like the place, but I think he was spoiled last year in Jerez de los Caballeros, a beautiful Extremeduran village of 10,000. We hung out for a bit with some of the other auxiliares and took in the christmas markets which are pretty much everywhere this time of year.
I stayed a couple nights just hanging out with Joe until I finally had to return back to Jerez for work.

The morning before my flight I headed back to Barcelona to see the Sagrada Familia before my afternoon flight. It was REALLY beautiful. Probably the brightest cathedral I've ever been to, and amazing colors. I took about 150 pictures in there and I don't think that was too many. Everywhere you look there is something interesting.

Barcelona we shall meet again, springtime maybe? More Photos!

Stop!

 If you happen to see something like this...

Reach into your pocket and find a euro, quickly. Give it to that woman and take your tasty treat. What are they? Castañas of course! Chestnuts! YUM! They taste like boiled potatoes

I never had chestnuts before a couple weeks ago, and I'm now making up time.