On Thursday we arrived safely in sunny Spain, Barcelona el Prat airport. From there we were heading to Peralada to see Jack`s uncle Brian who lives there and also has a fashion shop called Lomet.
At first we had to take a train to the main train station in Barcelona, that was the easy part. After we had bought the tickets to Figueres and sat down nicely on the train, we decided to ask a local just to make sure that was the right train. Well, it wasn`t, we were heading to Manresa instead. We got off confused about where we were and how to make it to Figueres. Our Catalan wasn`t great and understanding the security guard explaining the way to Figueres was proving tricky, lucky for us a local had stopped to translate and by coincidence he was also heading to Figueres.
Off we went with our new Spanish friend. The journey was nearly 2 hours long and we are not quite sure if we would have made it without local help. We talked most of the way anything from Spanish politics to football. As we didn`t know much about Spain it came as a surprise that many regions of Spain wanted to become independent states. Catalonia, where we were currently staying has it`s own language as does the Basque and Valencian regions. Catalonian people don`t consider themselves Spanish, they are born in Catalonia, speak catalan and live in their own "country" called Catalonia. The travelling we have done throughout this region we have only seen a handful of Spanish flags and almost every house seems to have a Catalonian flag hanging on a balcony or from a window.
At the train station in Figueres Brian and his partner Ramon welcomed us to go for a nice dinner in a lovely local restaurant. Brian had also booked us a hostel which is literally above their flat in Peralada. Peralada is a small village close to the sea and Pyrenees. Everyone knows everyone and people are happy and relaxed.
No comments:
Post a Comment