Listing Details
| ID: | 2076 |
| Title: | Lotus Reads |
| URL: | http://lotusreads.blogspot.com/ |
| Category: | Entertainment: Books |
| Description: | Book reviews from a lady of Indian origin whose culture shines through her writing. |
| Barcelona Diary (Sep 2011) Las Ramblas - 2011-10-03 17:25:00 |
| Las Ramblasin Barcelona is a large pedestrian street lined with restaurants, cafes, souvenir shops, flower kiosks and bustling with tourists, locals, hustlers and performing artists from almost every genre. Depending on whom you ask, you will be told that the promenade is either a "must-see" or "to be avoided at all costs". I tend to fall in the former category. While Las Ramblas abounds with pickpockets, Pakistani men wanting to sell you their Chinese-made toys and over- priced restaurants with bland food, it's a MUST for people-watching! And that's not all, Las Ramblas is dotted with some beautiful turn-of-the-century buildings like theLiecu Opera House (our apartment was right next door to the Opera) and theBoqueria Open Market,it also has some amazing art deco sculptures.  The very crowded Las Ramblas, tree-lined Las Ramblas, the nerve centre of Barcelona. At one end of Las Ramblas is the huge Place de Catalunya and at the other end, the old port. It would take you no more than 20 mins to walk the entire length of the promenade from end to end.  As I mentioned, some old and beautiful buildings line Las Ramblas. This patisserie here is called "Escriba" and every morning I would step inside for an almond croissant for breakfast, although Escriba is better known for their life-size chocolate models of famous personalities!  Human Statue 1 - Las Ramblas  Human Statue 2 - Artist - Las Ramblas One of the highlights of Las Ramblas was its open air market,Mercat de la Boqueira. After I was done buying my croissants at Escriba I would dash into Boquiera for some fruit juice. Boqueira is home to every conceivable fruit, sea food and ham and is an absolute feast for the senses. And if you understand Spanish it's an ideal place to eavesdrop on recipes! I was watching people buy mussels, it was so funny how everyone seemed to have his or her own way of cooking the mollusc!  Boquira photos courtesy my good friend, Anjum Poonawalla.  Remember when I said a walk down Las Ramblas yields unexpected surprises? Well, here's one! A modernista dragon designed either by Joan Miro or Gaudi ( I can't remember) for a former umbrella shop. Las Ramblas is full of little gems like this one...but you have to look for them...a veritable treasure hunt!  Modernista Dragondesigned for a former umbrella store. Las Ramblas is full of excellent finds like this one.  Another interesting building on Las Ramblas, the Eglesia de Betlem ...notice the beautiful green-capped portals and relief.  La Riera Baxia, El Raval. El Raval is a neighbourhood bordering Las Ramblas. Unlike Barri Gothic or the "Old Town" which still maintains its medieval charm,El Ravalis an edgier neighbourhood with artists and immigrants from Pakistan, Indonesia, East Europe and Morocco filling the apartment blocks down its streets. La Riera Baxia (image above) is a street in El Raval well known for its vintage stores. I was lucky enough to buy a Valentino bag here.   The streets of El Raval are very colourful both literally and figuratively. Throw a stone and it's bound to land on a graffiti-splattered facade. This is a really great neighbourhood to explore if you enjoy street art!   Housing project El Raval El Raval, because of its proximity to the City Center is destined for greatness. Infact, it's a district in the throes of transformation. However, at the moment, it is a barrio of great contrasts. Turn in to El Raval from Las Ramblas and you're suddenly accosted with high end boutiques, restaurants,cafes and art galleries..but walk to the other end and you see crumbling housing projects or dilapidated buildings in narrow alleyways.  Barri Gothic Square. Close by and housed in five adjoining medical palaces isMuseu Picassowhich is well known for its collection of Picasso's early works. The image above is a reprint of Picasso's "Self Portrait with a Palette" from 1906. (Unfortunately, you don't see the palette in this print )   |
| Barcelona Diary (Sep 2011) Bullfighting - 2011-09-26 14:33:00 |
Yesterday ( Sep 25, 2011) more than 600 years of history came to an end in Barcelona as the city hosted its last ever bullfight. It delights me to know that after this, no Spanish fighting bull or "toro bravo" as the breed is known, will be killed in the name of sport, art or tradition again, at least in Barcelona. The Catalonians are understandably proud to be the first region in Spain to ban bullfighting. Supporters of the sport claim that they (Catalonia) did it just to have one more thing to differentiate them from the rest of Spain, but activists insisted that it was voted out because it was a barbaric sport and had no place in an enlightened society.   Above: Barcelona's only remaining Bullfight arena, thePlaza de Toros Monumental. A very striking building made of bricks in the Mujedar (Moor) and Byzantine style. The ban will only affect "bullfighting" and not other sports in which the bull is involved, like"correbou" where the public chase bulls through narrow streets, or "bouembolat" where festivities involve attaching mini fire torches to the bull's horns.  Correbou (not my own picture)  Bouembolat : is a tradition that was first started in the Valencia region of Catalonia. In days of old it was not uncommon for people to be fatally charged by bulls as they walked along poorly-lit streets. To prevent accidents like that from happening, it was decided that bulls would be fitted with fire torches and that way, not only would they light up the streets but it would also warn people to their presence. Nowadays the lights aren't necessary but the tradition continues. Photo courtesy: Josep Llouis Sellart  Arenas de Barcelona, with its beautiful neo-mujedar architecture, used to be a bullfighting arena but has now been converted into a shopping plaza which houses an excellentDesigualstore. For the uninitiated, Desigual is a Spanish clothing store, known for their colourful, ultra-urban fashion with their headquarters and flagship store in Barcelona. More on Desigual when I post about shopping in Barcelona.   |
| Barcelona (Sep 2011) Gaudi's Casa Batllo - 2011-09-21 13:56:00 |
| What's the first thought that comes to your mind when I mention Barcelona? If you thought "Gaudi" you would be with the majority for Gaudi is synonymous with Barcelona. Everywhere you go in the city, you're never too far away from a Gaudi casa or sculpture. Infact, the road we lived on in Barcelona, Las Ramblas, has several little Gaudi sculptures, photos of which I will include later. Gaudi's work, which has been described as "Catalan Modernisme" is supremely original. Apparently he was inspired by a nationalistic search for a romantic medieval past and there are elements of medieval and surreal styles in a lot of his work. Below are pictures of Casa Batllo. I fell in love with this Casa the minute I laid eyes on it because it looked like a house out of a fairytale. Later when I was reading up on the house I discovered that this apartment block was designed to symbolise the legend of St. George killing the dragon, whose scaly back arches above the main facade.  Facade:It is said that when Salvador Dali saw the curving walls and windows of Casa Batllo he observed them as "representing waves on a stormy day". Because the spindly columns were sometimes compared to tibias, Casa Batllo was also called "House of Bones"    The Main Drawing Room: "One side of this room is formed by stained-glass windows looking out over the Passeig de Gracia. The ceiling plaster is moulded into a spiral and the doors and window framed undulate playfully."  The interior skylight at Casa Batllo...you can't tell from this photo but the blue gets more intense as you travel upwards. This is so that the intensity of light is equal no matter which floor you go to. Gaudi was a genius!  Attics: Don't the arches give one the sensation of being inside the skeleton of a large animal?  Some people say Gaudi created Casa Batllo after reading Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" and wanted the house to appear as though it were under water. In this case, the mosaic pattern could easily pass for a colony of brightly-coloured molluscs.  One of the most talked-about features of the house is theDragon's Back and Cross. The Cross was made in Mallorca but was damaged in transit . Gaudi apparently liked the cracked facade and refused to send it back for repairs.   |