As of December 7, we have lived in Barcelona for twelve months. To quote a line from a favorite movie, “Inconceivable!”
It started in early 2023 with us dreaming, “Oh my, what if we could be like Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, Salvador and Gala Dali, Pablo Picasso and Genevieve Laporte? What if we were courageous enough to travel thousands of miles from America, across the Atlantic, and live in a cozy flat in a Spanish city? To drink local wine, eat tapas, pintxos, and seafood, savor art, wander through streets thousands of years old, learn a new language, paint watercolors, write books, cook new dishes, and kiss and make love…shall we do it?”
To quote one of our favorite phrases, “What doth hinder us?” And so we exclaimed, “Yes! When shall we go?” Let’s go in December. We’ll sell everything, pack a few treasured essentials, and ship them across the ocean. We’ll bring our favorite couch, clothes, chairs, books, and a desk. We won’t need anything else, not a car, bicycles, trinkets, extra furniture, a mower, or anything.
In the following days, we spent an absurd amount of time selling our possessions, securing a Spanish retirement Visa, and locating the perfect neighborhood. Then, we blinked, nine months had passed, and we were on the plane. The dream became a reality. We moved to Barcelona; we became Spaniards.
That was one year ago.
We soon found that learning a new language has challenges, further compounded when we discovered Spain has multiple languages: Castillian, Catalan, Valencian, Basque, Galician, and Aranese. Not to mention the various regional dialects and minority languages. To our chagrin, we had spent months learning the foundations of Castilian (traditional Spanish), only to discover that our Duolingo lessons teach Latin Spanish—there is a difference—and our new neighborhood speaks Catalan, which is more like French than Spanish. ¡Loco!
However, we have not missed America for one second. We have done more in the past year than in our previous twelve years of life together. When we take the twenty-minute metro ride to the iconic Las Ramblas and Cuitat Vella (Old Town), it feels like we are in the television series Outlander and have traveled back 1,000 years. It is magical, surreal, enchanting, extraordinary, fascinating, miraculous, mysterious, otherworldly, mythical, and spellbinding—the adjectives fail to adequately capture the experience of life here in this seductive city.
We have discovered that a Spaniard’s life is marked by seasons, not days. That is why you see everyone wrapped in winter coats on an unseasonably warm day—you dress for the season, not the weather. And you dress fashionably. Our neighborhood in Barcelona is a high fashion-conscious district—much like Paris or Milan. Living outside and walking everywhere makes the climate a vital part of one’s life, unlike America, where one is isolated from the seasons in climate-controlled homes and cars.
I hope these brief paragraphs for each month help capture the magic of the past year. ¡Disfruta!
December (Diciembre)
We moved into a tiny (500 sq. ft.) but cozy temporal apartment in the Fort Pienc neighborhood (near Ciutadella Park, the Arc d’Trimof, and Old Town) while we hurriedly searched for a long-term flat. Familiar with Engel & Völkers Realty, we hired Eva, to navigate the languages and the unfamiliar rules and contracts. We utilize Wise for money conversions and N26 as our Spanish bank.
Highs: A presentation of A Christmas Carol in Catalan at the majestic Teatro Liceu Opera House, Christmas Dinner and New Year’s Eve Burlesque celebrations at La Whiskeria (soon to become our favorite bar), the Gothic Quarter Christmas Market, the Fira de Santa Llúcia, has been held since 1786, the fantastic Barcelona Christmas lights, strolling Parc de la Ciutadella, choosing our long-term flat in Les Tres Torres neighborhood, discovering the massive and chic L’illa Mall only two blocks from our new home, and picking out initial furnishings. We tasted a wine, Abadiá Mantrus from Ribera del Duero (4.50), which is our house wine to this day. The best December food discovery was the traditional Catalan dish, Calçots with Romesco Sauce. And we met up with Linden for dinner. They were an old friend of my youngest daughter. When I knew her as Lindsey, she had not yet undergone a sex change. Now, they seem so happy.
Lows: Finding out our furniture was arriving a month early, and we had no apartment to put it in. And the Spanish bureaucracy—so convoluted.
January (Enero)
Highs: Our first guests in our new home, Montecinos, Jonathan and Becky Ford. We saw an extraordinary video mapping of Gaudi’s iconic Casa Battló, explored the many shops in our neighborhood along Avignuda Diagonal, and chose furniture. We selected the peaceful Les Tres Torres as our long-term neighborhood. This pretty barrio is part of Barcelona’s fifth district, Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, and was the last of the independent villages annexed by Barcelona in 1921.
This explains why Sarrià retains much of its streets and buildings’ original flavor and personality. Foix de Sarrià isan incredible bakery founded in 1886 here. And it’s just a ten-minute walk to Mercat de Galvany. Before the construction of the market, which began in 1868, there was already an open-air market for farmers and fishmongers on the land where it is located. It is a building of great architectural value and is listed as an artistic monument. It is stunningly beautiful and quickly became my local fresh market.
We toured the Erotic Museum, which was a bit cheesy but naughty fun. We ate at Michelin-starred Tapas 24, and I joined the beautiful and historic Biblioteca Publica Arus. We celebrated New Year’s at La Whiskeria with burlesque and a new tradition of eating grapes.
Lows: Our furniture arrived on the boat wet, moldy, and damaged due to a leak in our overseas container three weeks later than we had been told. We were forced to live in our new apartment for a month with no furniture except a mattress and two chairs.
February (Febrero)
Highs: We began settling into our new home and neighborhood. I made my first Paella, we had drinks at Paradiso, the #1 bar in the world in 2023, we walked around the famous La Sagrada Familia, I did my first painting, Don Quixote, for the entrance hall of our apartment, we celebrated Valentine’s Day at the Oleum Restaurant at the venerable Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, and saw an amazing Flamenco Dance and Guitar performance at the historic Palau de la Música, and somehow snagged a table at EL XAMPANYET, how delicious! One of the most incredible events we have attended all year was the Great Library of Tomorrow Immersive Experience. And I had my first ever Tantric Massage (What a Surprise!)
Lows: Everything closed on Sunday.
March (Marco)
Highs: We had a traditional Spanish seafood lunch at a little hole in the wall called La Plata; oh my goodness! We discovered an out-of-the-way cathedral, Francesc de Sales, and we chose our butcher, Jesus, at Galvany Mercat and our fishmonger, Janet, at the Peix i Marisc. We found a Palace on our running route, the Palau de Pedrables. We took a short ten-minute bus ride to Mt. Tibidabo and explored the Temple, the amusement park and the eerily excellent automaton museum. We enjoyed the annual, vibrant Sarrià Street Market, traveled to Montserrat Monastery, one of the most beautiful places on earth, and began Spanish language classes at Camino School. We discovered new-to-us fresh vegetables like artichokes and eggplant at the market and finally finished decorating our apartment. And we discovered a legit hamburger place La Burgesa just a block away, and we realized the guilty pleasure of having it delivered to our door by the Glovo bicycle delivery service.
Low: American politics.
April (Abril)
Highs: We made great new friends in our Spanish class, seven of which have remained friends to this day: Paulette, Zena, Benjamin, Jing, Sven, Marzieh, and Armin. I began to grow my own psychedelic mushrooms (they are not illegal here), Gina got a cute as heck new haircut, I started a nude photoshoot for my birthday gallery, we went for the first time to our favorite nude beach, La Playa del Mar Bella. We celebrated my favorite festival, Dia de San Jordi, the day of books and roses.Our friends Paulette and Zena invited us to their apartment to meet their puppies and make us the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had. We revisited the Oleum Restaurant at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya to host my former vocal coach (1979) and his wife, Jim and Doris Burns, who were visiting from Florida. What a delightful and nostalgic visit.
Low: Unpredictable business hours.
May (Mayo)
Highs: A delightful birthday dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Maitea, with friends from our Spanish class, we enjoyed the 51st Feria De Abril de Catalunya, a festival of traditional Spanish food and dance, breakfast at our mercat, and choosing the best ground beef for my bolognese. We found a new close-by favorite sidewalk cafe called Semon, our friends Jing and Sven from China invited us to their home in Badalona for excellent Asian food. I had a great video chat with my dear friend Mark Jaffrey who lives in Cairo, and we enjoyed a lot of beach time. I ran my first race here, a huge 10K, that started right at our street, and we had friends, Paulette, Zena, and Benjamin, over for dinner. We escaped the city for a few days and explored the stunningly beautiful Costa Brava area and the exquisite Jardin Marimurtra, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. I also created a bronze nude male statue.
Low: No garbage disposal.
This was getting long, so the next six months will come next Tuesday. I hope you enjoyed this look back and that it helps you have a close look at real life in Spain.
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