I apologize for the lack of a post, video, or anything else either Tuesday or Saturday (my tentative new schedule for content), so no excuses about it, and here we go.
Many people travel for some, if not all, holidays. My family and I never really did that when I was growing up, except for the Disney World trip on one of my first spring breaks that instead turned into us going yearly to visit relatives in an altogether different state. This year, however, being my first entirely on my own and coming from a different place in the world as well, I examined my options and thought about where I would want to and could go. I decided on Barcelona because I wanted to visit somewhere I hadn't previously, somewhere I had enough friends that I could stay with them and see the city from a more personalized perspective, it's one of the lowest-cost flight destinations from Lisbon, and because it's not nearly so cold during the winter as other destinations. Sorry, Paris, but I hate snow and temperatures that are in the single digits Celsius. So I'll be going for not quite three weeks, including spending New Year's Eve in the Catalan capital.
The idea that has popped up with one of my friends is to rent a car—it's apparently a cheap endeavor in Spain, so long as you return the car still in Spain—and get to know all of the environs of Catalonia, the region being sufficiently compact in size to take the time to drive around without spending a fortune or necessarily needing to spend the night away from home. If this happens, I'm hoping to also be able to see Valencia, since I'm unsure of whether I'll have the interest or equivalent amount of time to spend in Spain again, let alone appreciate it. I'm just not that roused by Spanish culture, the language, or the collective history, to be frank. I wasn't particularly moved by Madrid when I went to it, although it's a fine place, and that's a good summation of my feelings toward the country. My interest is primarily in regions that have stronger conceptions of independent identities, like Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Galicia. But then we would be getting into the social politics of what Spain is as a unified country and other things I'd rather not discuss on this blog, at least at the moment. Suffice it to say, I have tended to have more interest in other places. So that being said, the opportunity to take some time and really get to know a region of the country is a welcome adventure, because it is out of the ordinary for me and will be something I am entirely unfamiliar with; I speak no Catalan and have difficulties understanding it in writing, I understand Spanish just fine when spoken or written but do not speak it, and we have the aforementioned cultural reference regarding the country itself.
That idea is similar, coincidentally, to an idea that I've had in mind for a long time but for some very obvious reasons have never had the opportunity to do: renting a car and doing a road trip, Iberian-style. I would love to be able to get in a car and get to know much more of Portugal, go through Galicia, see the Basque Country, and beyond. Portugal is somewhat surprising in being a place that really requires a vehicle to see and do everything on offer, alas. That trip will be quite some time in the making, until then, Catalonia will be a sort of test run.
So in the spirit of moving around and seeing and doing new things, of course I've taken my blogging and videos into account. For you, the half-dozen or so readers I get consistently, I have a couple of questions: do you prefer reading posts or watching videos? If you prefer writing, how would you like to see Barcelona incorporated on the site? If you prefer videos, would you be interested in watching vlogs from Barcelona? Let me know in a comment, a personal message, an email, a tweet, whatever way you feel like contacting me.
Many people travel for some, if not all, holidays. My family and I never really did that when I was growing up, except for the Disney World trip on one of my first spring breaks that instead turned into us going yearly to visit relatives in an altogether different state. This year, however, being my first entirely on my own and coming from a different place in the world as well, I examined my options and thought about where I would want to and could go. I decided on Barcelona because I wanted to visit somewhere I hadn't previously, somewhere I had enough friends that I could stay with them and see the city from a more personalized perspective, it's one of the lowest-cost flight destinations from Lisbon, and because it's not nearly so cold during the winter as other destinations. Sorry, Paris, but I hate snow and temperatures that are in the single digits Celsius. So I'll be going for not quite three weeks, including spending New Year's Eve in the Catalan capital.
The idea that has popped up with one of my friends is to rent a car—it's apparently a cheap endeavor in Spain, so long as you return the car still in Spain—and get to know all of the environs of Catalonia, the region being sufficiently compact in size to take the time to drive around without spending a fortune or necessarily needing to spend the night away from home. If this happens, I'm hoping to also be able to see Valencia, since I'm unsure of whether I'll have the interest or equivalent amount of time to spend in Spain again, let alone appreciate it. I'm just not that roused by Spanish culture, the language, or the collective history, to be frank. I wasn't particularly moved by Madrid when I went to it, although it's a fine place, and that's a good summation of my feelings toward the country. My interest is primarily in regions that have stronger conceptions of independent identities, like Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Galicia. But then we would be getting into the social politics of what Spain is as a unified country and other things I'd rather not discuss on this blog, at least at the moment. Suffice it to say, I have tended to have more interest in other places. So that being said, the opportunity to take some time and really get to know a region of the country is a welcome adventure, because it is out of the ordinary for me and will be something I am entirely unfamiliar with; I speak no Catalan and have difficulties understanding it in writing, I understand Spanish just fine when spoken or written but do not speak it, and we have the aforementioned cultural reference regarding the country itself.
That idea is similar, coincidentally, to an idea that I've had in mind for a long time but for some very obvious reasons have never had the opportunity to do: renting a car and doing a road trip, Iberian-style. I would love to be able to get in a car and get to know much more of Portugal, go through Galicia, see the Basque Country, and beyond. Portugal is somewhat surprising in being a place that really requires a vehicle to see and do everything on offer, alas. That trip will be quite some time in the making, until then, Catalonia will be a sort of test run.
So in the spirit of moving around and seeing and doing new things, of course I've taken my blogging and videos into account. For you, the half-dozen or so readers I get consistently, I have a couple of questions: do you prefer reading posts or watching videos? If you prefer writing, how would you like to see Barcelona incorporated on the site? If you prefer videos, would you be interested in watching vlogs from Barcelona? Let me know in a comment, a personal message, an email, a tweet, whatever way you feel like contacting me.
No comments
Post a Comment