We went to Catalonia last weekend to attend a wedding between a Basque
man and a woman from Extremadura. The title phrase means "My hovercraft
is full of eels" in Catalan, which I found on a website of
useful Catalan phrases.
"Useful" is clearly in the eye of the beholder, but we certainly heard
lots of people speaking Catalan, and nearly all posted text was
exclusively in that language. Our trip was sandwiched right in between
last week's September 11th National Day and a massive public transit worker strike. There were between half a
million and
1.5 million people, depending on who you ask, marching in
Barcelona in support of an independent
Catalan state. The picture at right is from Reuters. Catalan is sort of a mix between Spanish, Italian, and French. I would feel for a moment like I could understand what I heard and then realize oh no, never mind. Something like 10 million people speak the language and it has a very strong presence in its territory. The Catalan independence movement has long been spurred on by linguistic concerns, but has become more popular since Spain's economic crisis has caused massive employment and draconian social service cuts in Catalonia, which paradoxically has less autonomous control over its public administration and tax structure than the smaller Basque Country, which is closely eyeing the goings on, along with other places like Ireland and Scotland that have independence movements of their own. In terms of our actual trip, we stayed in a gorgeous
converted farmhouse and enjoyed a pretty boisterous get together. In between, we very briefly walked around Banyoles, Girona, Borrasa, and Barcelona, and hope to spend more time in the area on another day. You can see that it's pretty pleasant from the pics below.
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| Sycamore alley in Banyoles |
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| Plaza in Barcelona |
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| Apartments along a canal in Girona |
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| Flags supporting an independent Catalan republic in Girona |
We went to Catalonia last weekend to attend a wedding between a Basque
man and a woman from Extremadura. The title phrase means "My hovercraft
is full of eels" in Catalan, which I found on a website of useful Catalan phrases.
"Useful" is clearly in the eye of the beholder, but we certainly heard
lots of people speaking Catalan, and nearly all posted text was
exclusively in that language. Our trip was sandwiched right in between
last week's September 11th National Day and a massive public transit worker strike. There were between half a
million and 
1.5 million people, depending on who you ask, marching in
Barcelona in support of an independent Catalan state. The picture at right is from Reuters. Catalan is sort of a mix between Spanish, Italian, and French. I would feel for a moment like I could understand what I heard and then realize oh no, never mind. Something like 10 million people speak the language and it has a very strong presence in its territory. The Catalan independence movement has long been spurred on by linguistic concerns, but has become more popular since Spain's economic crisis has caused massive employment and draconian social service cuts in Catalonia, which paradoxically has less autonomous control over its public administration and tax structure than the smaller Basque Country, which is closely eyeing the goings on, along with other places like Ireland and Scotland that have independence movements of their own. In terms of our actual trip, we stayed in a gorgeous converted farmhouse and enjoyed a pretty boisterous get together. In between, we very briefly walked around Banyoles, Girona, Borrasa, and Barcelona, and hope to spend more time in the area on another day. You can see that it's pretty pleasant from the pics below. 
1 comment:
I meant to go to Girona when I was in Barcelona but weather and timing prevented it. It supposedly has one of the better preserved Medieval Jewish quarters in the region.
D
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