Kazan — summer 2012

I rarely shop for myself, but when a trip is coming I do a quick eyeball of my wardrobe and ask, "Which of these would make my acquaintances most ashamed?" Then I buy something to replace them. So I now have new shoes, new shirts, new pants, and a new toothbrush. I didn't actually buy the new toothbrush, but I had my teeth cleaned yesterday, and the dental hygienist can't even look at me without giving me a new toothbrush or two. I would be offended, but she doubtless does this with everybody. And my dentist has informed it's time for two more crowns. She tried to sell me on porcelain last time. To hell with that! I want to fill my mouth with gold! Porcelain is for toilets, and I'll thank you for not comparing my mouth with one of those.

Another Russian acquaintance has requested a new iPad, so I'm carrying two to Russia. Hope the customs folks don't ream me about that. In the Frankfurt airport I'll buy cognac for my Russian landlord, and some European chocolate for someone else. I've bought perfume for various female acquaintances, and I think that about covers the gifts. If I were smart, I would pick up a couple of pocket knives just in case I need to give gifts to guys, but I always spend more of my time in Russia with women. Hmph. Wonder how that happens. Oh, yeah... language teachers are almost always women in Russia. Mystery solved.

Last summer in Russia I lost ten pounds. Of course, I gained it all back and more when I returned to Whataburgerland. I'm curious what will happen this year, so my official starting weight for the summer is 198 lbs. Embarrassing.

My travels today have been mercifully uneventful.

Phx-Chicago: 3.5 hours. Slept most of the way. Very short layover. Didn't even bother to eat.

Chicago-Frankfurt am Main: 8.5 hours. My seatmate on the left was Ardi, a dentist of Persian descent who lives in Denver and both practices and teaches dentistry. Pleasant guy. My seatmate on the right was Jan, a teacher of Spanish, French and English. Liked her a lot. She was heading to Croatia for some vacation action which was to include a dinner with 13 paired wine samplings. I hope she remembers the experience. Ardi and Jan completely justified the traditional male-female distinction of non-talkers/talkers. Ardi answered only when prompted, the pleasant and polite, and Jan talked my ear off. This was also my first flight on a 747, which frankly didn't seem all that different from any other plane, except that the experience of the landing was somehow gentler than I expected.

Frankfurt airport: I have two pieces of check-in luggage because I'm hauling textbooks to Russia in the second one. Didn't want to carry them to Barcelona, so I stored one in the "left luggage" department. That will be cheaper than even a one-way extra-bag charge. Then grabbed lunch at one of the restaurants.

The salad was unremarkable, except that the carrot strings were very, very long. Kind of irked me at first. Had to use a knife to cut the salad up. Took extra time. And then I reminded myself that I wasn't at Whataburger. Not every meal in life is supposed to go by in seventeen bites and four minutes. Civilized people slow down and take pleasure in the eating event. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that civilization thing.

The main course was a veal and mushroom combination in a very tasty veal gravy, accompanied by a potato pancake. Regular pancakes I can live without, but potato pancakes are a thing of glory, especially when dripping in veal gravy or sour cream. Glorious!

I still had some major time to kill in the airport, so I walked the length of the A concourse several times, thus reminding myself of the lesson that you should never wear new shoes on vacation. Break your shoes in at home for a month before hand. I'm probably going to have some major blisters tomorrow.

The flight to Barcelona I half slept through. Damn, but those Germans are efficient. They manage to service the whole cabin twice in less than an hour. The other day on "The Big Bang Theory" Sheldon commented that the Germans are a comforting people. My immediate thought was, "That's because you're not a Jew, Sheldon." But Sheldon could have used today's amazing customer service to support his point.

As we approached Barcelona I was very excited as we flew briefly out over the Mediterranean, although at this point we should probably call it "The Sea of ...". I've never been on this body of water before. The airport was very nice and had great signage. I found my way to the Tourism Bureau, where they issued me the transportation and tour tickets I had purchased. Then made my way to the other terminal where I connected with the train to downtown. My hotel is perhaps a quarter block away from the main trainstation. Let me tell you, that 5-day Barcelona Card is worth it just to avoid two taxi fares. The taxi prices are ridiculous here. Weird thing, though. I don't think I have ever felt as stared at as I did on the train into town. Wonder what triggered that?

I established myself in the Torre Catalunya, allegedly a four-star hotel, although I expect they call it that because they have four stars on the outside... Anyway, I registered. Romina, the clerk, made a good impression on me. I got to my room and none of the lights worked. Hm. That's odd. I go back downstairs, and she mentions that she forgot to tell me that one of the switches next to the inner lock is actually a card-key reader. It won't allow any of the electrical outlets or lights to work unless the card is inserted. Hm. That's kind of clever. That way when I leave the room with my card-key, all the lights and AC go off, saving electricity.

Finally in my room with lights working, I discover I forgot my power cord adapter. Asked the desk where to buy one. They simply gave me one for the duration. Spiffy! Then I asked where to walk first in the city, and I was told to wander down Avinguda de Roma. Found a tapas bar where I tried two types of tapas. The jamón ibérico and the chorizo (not like Mexican chorizo) were very tasty. Tasty, but not enough meat and too much bread. Gary Taubes would not approve.

I decided to plug in my Russian cell phone to start the recharge. It's been sitting in my home for a year, so I figured it wouldn't have any juice left. So I turned it on... lo, it has about a two-thirds charge left. And it immediately knows I'm in Spain and sends me a text-message saying I could use roaming in Spain via Movistar, which is one of Spain's largest telecom companies. Wow. So I go to the website or my Russian phone company to double check how much money I have left on the account. I had topped it off before I left Russia last year so that I wouldn't have to re-establish service when I returned. I had assumed that the amount on the phone would be drained by now, but no. I have a bundle or rubles left on it. Cool! I guess I won't have to buy a new SIM card for my few days in Spain after all.

Not sure what I will do tomorrow, aside from eat till I burst. Sunday is a slow day in Barcelona, and as long as I get rested up, I will be happy. So I'll wrap this up with a glarey view through my window:

One of the things that first strikes me about Barcelona is the trees. Streets often are lined with them, and the ones that seem the most common are the planteros (sycamores), with their spiky seed pods. They give a green-gold shade to the pedestrians below. But I'm particularly struck by the the number of trees in bloom right now. Everywhere you turn you see the brilliant yellow flowers of the tipuanas, a South American tree that grows well here; the flowers are the brilliant yellows of Arizona's palo verde trees.

Then there is a tree with beautiful purple flowers, whose name has eluded me so far.

From some vantage points the city seems like an indistiguished urban mass.

In the midst of it, though, you see odd building rise up unexpectedly, like the Barcelona Water Department Building that penetrates the sky like... um... a corn cob. Yes, that's it. A corn cob.

The Ciutat Vella (Old City) has narrow streets like most old European cities.

But then there is the area called L'Eixample, which was shaped by a 19th century urban planner. The gist of it is this:

The Eixample is characterized by long straight streets, a strict grid pattern crossed by wide avenues, and square blocks with chamfered corners (named illes in Catalan, manzanas in Spanish). This was a visionary, pioneering design by Ildefons Cerdà, who considered traffic and transport along with sunlight and ventilation in coming up with his characteristic octagonal blocks, where the streets broaden at every intersection making for greater visibility, better ventilation and (today) some short-stay parking space. (Wikipedia)

Essentially from above it should look like this.

(Picture courtesy of (Wikipedia)

So when you look through Barcelona and see a long street, stretching forever, garlanded by trees, that's part of the Eixample.

Here are some shots where you see how the corners shape the experience of the whole.

The combination of old city, Eixample and modern city give Barcelona a type of fascinating grace that is unique in my experience of Europe. When thinking of next year's vacation time, I've seriously considered going to Scotland, Iceland or Greece, but having now been here, I will seriously coming back here instead. After all, it would be great fun to work on my Catalan.

I returned to the Frankfurt airport in transit from Barcelona to Kazan. First I took some time out to see if I could find some free wifi. No go. In the meantime I glanced over at some recliner chairs, and a young father was nodding off. His daughter climbed onto him and fell asleep as well. I was so touched. Family scenes like this make me, a childless single man, very... hm... what is the word... it's like nostalgic for something you have never had. The decisions that have made me single in life were, for the most part, wise ones, but sometimes the could-have-beens do have their impact on me.

After that I again went to eat at the Käfer’s, the restaurant where I had had the wonderful veal the other day. Today I ordered the “Frankfurter schnitzel vom Schwein” (Frankfurt-style breaded pork cutlet) which comes with bacon-fried potatoes.

Notice in the upper left there is a square container with a light green sauce, a specialty of the house. Ohmigoodness, so interesting and good! I've been trying to figure out what it is. It's a very light sauce. My first sense was of freshly minced celery (not powdered), followed by a minced parsley impression, and the sauce must have been based on yoghurt or perhaps buttermilk, and then there was the slightest taste of banana, like the hint one gets from a not-quite-ripe avocado, and maybe the slightest taste of lemon, but that could be acidity from buttermilk or something else. One puts the sauce on the pork. Very interesting flavor.

From there I got onto my plane to Kazan, where I came to the conclusion that Russia has really changed. When I first went to Russian in 1986, most Russians never got to travel. In 2010 I was struck by how many Russian teenagers were travelling. And this time I was struck by how many Russian children are traveling. There were at least ten children between the age of 12 months (yes, I asked) and seven traveling. They wandered up and down the aisle, and Russian strangers and friends laughed and played with them. The Russian adults allowed themselves to smile in front of strangers. It was marvelous. To be honest, I have never had a less stressful flight, and the lower stress was mainly due to the presence of children that everyone would allow themselves to love.

There are moments when I think the world might be becoming a better place. This was one of those moments. And no, I'm not going to try to qualify that statement. Though criticism is necessary in life, it's also necessary at times to simply enjoy the good without double think. This is one of those times.