Is good to have a work which permits you to travel. Is much better than stay in the office, no doubt about it… Escape from the routine and all. Although all that is tiring, is frustrating to be in such an interesting places and not having the time to “taste” them.. As the hours pass by the hope grows, always the hope of finishing work a bit earlier, a bit before gets dawn, then look outside the warehouse and see the palm trees and the winter sun of Canary Islands and not be able of getting out.
And it was like this in one week of November. Trough work I had to travel to Barcelona and then to Tenerife one week with 2 other colleagues from Compal Portugal.
Barcelona is another Spain… Madrid is an incredible city with an astonishing rhythm, 24h per day! The tapas snacks, the music, the positive way of seeing life, summing, the Spanish Essence. Nevertheless is not beautiful. It’s a city to work and to have a blast 7 days a week until breakdown, but there are a lot of other cities much prettier and with much more things to see and visit.
A good example of this is Barcelona. Beautiful city… Art and monuments can be found in every corner, in every house, in each wall… the city surprises you! It has mountains, it has water, it has a lot of colours. Madrid may have a lot of emigrants and a lot nations living together, but in Madrid you have to speak Spanish and like what Spanish like. Barcelona is another story. Multicultural yes, but much more open to other cultures, much more tolerant to emigrants and to speak other languages, English for sure. A fact that can be felt on the streets, on the cinema theatres with subtitling in Spanish or Catalan and not dobbing.
The hot topic of Cataluña independence, the fact that the youth is learning only Catalan, that on classes on universities Catalan is the only language spoken and the barriers to other Spanish workers to work in Barcelona if not speaking Catalan, I will avoid to discuss here in this blog. Too polemic for this space, better return to travelling topic…
My first time in Barcelona was on my first year of university and was a unforgettable trip just for the fact that I met 2 crazy guys that are today on the selected group of best friends. The weather wasn’t the best for Easter time and we had few time to visit and walk around town.
This time wasn’t different. After work there was only time for a walk on the Ramblas and in the Gothic barrio and one of those famous Paellas.
Another day, another trip! And how boring it is nowadays to get trough all the ceremony of catching a plane? Terrible…We left Barcelona where the airport signs are in: Catalan, Spanish and English. We arrive to Tenerife and we have: Spanish, German and English.
Germans everywhere and long avenues of hotels, beaches, souvenir shops and blackboards outside announcing football matches of Budesliga or Premiership and I caught myself thinking:
“I arrived to south of Portugal, Algarve!”
The differences are in the palm trees and in the fact that was November and were 26ºC and an humidity that gets your sweat stuck to ones clothes. Yeah! Canárias!
On the second day of work we managed to finish earlier and go discover the north of the island. “El Teide” mountains pick seen from everywhere and being the highest point of Spain catches our respect. As the majority of the winds are blowing from north the clouds get “stuck” in the mountain, which makes the north of the island of an exuberant green, while the south is dry and arid like a desert.
This time was only possible to see the north. The “Porto de Santa Cruz” is a German town with black sand beaches and warm water, but i liked more the capital city of the island. “Santa Cruz de Tenerife”. Without beach becomes less touristy, therefore with more monuments, less hotels, more old buildings, much more of local culture. The locals are really friendly and the accent much more melodic and easy to understand when compared with Madrid.
I keep the will to come back, but next time with more time to the vibrating night life and see the south with his white sand beaches and full dance floors.
I finish with a delicious detail… in Madrid and Tenerife people speak Spanish, but ask a Catalan which language is spoken in Spain and he will answer, Castellan. It’s a interesting country…
It’s not like the passion for Kraków, isn’t like the amazement for Amsterdam, but Madrid will always stay in my heart, for the fantastic and turbulent period I lived there.
