WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12
Tension persists as we realize how much needs to be accomplished in order to make Milan work. I will try to stay in Italy with Chloe, apply for long term stay. We realized that if I am out of Europe three months and she is in Europe three months, our time allowances won’t jive. And then there is Hazel, who we have invited to come for Christmas and stay a month…a month that will now include Italy.
SANDMAN TOUR OF BARCELONA
Dizzying to move from what feels like pressing, unknown, future and plan-making to a walking tour with tourists, but there we were, starting near the Juamce Metro and Christmas Market next to the Cathedral de Barcelona, or the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia. First thing we hear about Jesus’s foreskin, a possession that has made the Cathedral famous. The Cathedral was built over 150 years and contains many different architectural styles and details.
POO FOR CHRISTMAS
Next up is the Catalan poo story, told to us next to a “shitter” by a log in the square. The tour guide explains that the traditional, red-capped, Catalonian peasant with his pants down, nearly sitting in his poo, and placed in the nativity scenes, is a symbol of abundance, the return of riches to the earth from where it comes. It’s good luck. Little pooping figurines are on sale everywhere, and not just with the peasant, but also celebrities and politicians. The log is hit after shitting and a wish is made.
SAINT EULALIA’S GEESE
Thirteen geese live near an enclosed pond and fountain in the Cathedral and religious pilgrimages and tourists travel miles to see them. The geese symbolize a poor Christian girl martyred at the age of 13. All this is slightly bizarre to an outsiders or “blowin.”
BATTLES FOR CATALAN
The tour includes stories of the kings and kingdoms that have controlled the city, of the moors and Castilians and Catalans. We visited the Cathedral Santa Maria Del Mar, the church of sailors, and the poor who lived in Barceloneta. The church was burned down when the poor were angry. In an open squrare near it is a monument to a mass grave of those killed by Franco, who ruled as a dictator until 1981. The guide told us stories of fascists stealing babies, and explained current politics, including that people hang yellow ribbons from windows in support of freeing the imprisoned and exiled who want Catalan independence. As he told us this, he spoke in a whisper, afraid someone passing by might hear. People are still afraid of openly expressing political opinions in Catalan.
MORE ART, IMAGE CREATIVE CENTRE AND CENTRE DE LA IMATGE
The tour guide had lunch with us. Then Chloe and I headed to the water, and wandered back into the city, visited the Imagine Creativity Center, where we entered a darkened room with lots of monitors displaying avante garde videos. Further up La Rambla Avenue, we visited the Centre de la Imatge in the Virreina Palace and saw two exhibitions, Loreza Bottner, an artist born in Chile who lived in German and explored transformation of the body through performance art; and a photo show of five cities in the UK depicting poor families.
It was night when we emerged from the museum, and walked the festive, Christmas lit streets, popping in and out of shops on the way home.
