The Postcard Race : Round 9: Spring in Sao Paulo

Thanks to our guest mailers for round 9. Francisco (Frank) Rocco (my father) and Gabriel Rocco my only nephew for dropping the postcards in the mailbox.

We are spending time in Sao Paulo with the Rocco family and delving deep into kinship relations; more on that later...

Round 9 is " Spring in Sao Paulo". The first person to notify us (by telling us on the blog or emailing yvonne or rachel) that you have received the postcard and to relate the "Sao Paulo fact" on the back will win "something mailed to you from another country!"

Is the mail faster from South America then Europe? Will the post still favour those in the east? Please keep an eye on your mailbox; your postcard that will look something like the ones below.

Good Luck everyone!

Departing Barcelona; we will remember

Barcelonas are dawning fall fashions and have dressed the streets with festive decorations making it easier to believe that November is upon us. I have been eyeing warm jackets, fabulous boots, and scarf /hat ensembles with envy. We have sent our warm clothes home, the temperature is dropping and so it is time to trade fall for spring. Tomorrow we head to Sao Paulo.

The last few weeks we have been pretty relaxed. We have discovered the danger of feeling too at home; we think we know where we are going only to find we have walked in a large circle. (No prairie girls this is not a grid). Sometimes taking the metro is way slower than walking. It would take a long time to really understand the underground; knowing what car in the train to board so you get off nearest the correct exit at your stop.

Celebrating the The Day of the Dead in the Mexican tradition, Barcelona's "The Route of the Altars" has 20 different locations where altars are erected to honour particular people. I left an offering at Michael Jackson's alter and we visited a number of others. I think the originators of Michael's altar were less fans and more critics. We attended a concert at a community centre where Mercedes Sosa was honoured with an altar. We have also been taking in the culture by attending a number of films at the "In- Edit" Music Documentary Festival our favorite being "Johnny Cash's America" and most controversial being "The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector". As part of the Jazz Festival we got to see Concha Buika in the fantasy-land modernista venue "Palau de la Musica Catalana", she was doing a homage to

Chavela Vargas and has an amazing soulful voice.

It was so nice to find part of our community living here in Barcelona.

Megan and Abi cooked a delicious dinner. Talking and laughing and discussing

over a few visits with them, so at home but at the same time reminded us that we

miss our friends. We discovered how small Canada really is.

(what with Richard and the Hat Man). We are actually looking forward to visiting

Toronto if it could be timed with a Megan Abi dinner party.

We have been making a big effort, (sometimes holidaying is harder than you think), to have lunch out every day and take advantage of the "menu del dia". It allow us to sample a lot of dishes. locations and a variety of flavours. This fantastic phenomena surprisingly continues from a law decreed in Franco's time (something good that came from fascism?) that every restaurant must offer a reasonably priced lunch for working people.

Today over 62% of Spaniards eat "menu del dia". The price varies from 7.50 to 15 euros but always includes primero, segundo,wine or beer, coffee and desert. Lunch is a long affair, businesses close, people settle in for a 2, 3 or maybe 4 hour break. Restaurant la Catalan, Mason David, Anima, Ra,

Carmelites, Cafe L'Academie are some of the places we have enjoyed.

We found the Chinese (Taiwanese) restaurant: hot and sour soup, mao pao tofu and the like to scare away the cold and flu, as especially Yvonne, has been fighting off some bug. We also searched for the elusive Ginger Ale, a hard to find beverage when away from Canada Dry land. So as the doctor might order we spent some serious time under the covers, resting and reading the Steig Larsson "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" trilogy and have been enjoying the super hero gal and her many talents.

Today, I visited he San Antonio market sadly for the last time, but had fun getting all the ingredients for homemade chicken soup; which is sure to cure us of all ills. We had a pleasant surprise yesterday, since Janna came to town, the second stop on her European adventure; so it has been fun to see another face from home and walk around again with someone as amazed to see the beauty as when we first arrived.

Tomorrow we pack our now pretty empty bags and begin take the 14 hour flight which will begin our South American leg.

We will miss this oh so livable city and it's charms: the beautiful banners that turn into bags, the thoughtful creative people, my lovely hairdresser, the stalls at the markets, our washing machine and fantastic drying rack, the food, the wine, the beer to share, the cava and cortados.

"The Postcard Race" Round 8: Winner Announced!

We all know there are great benefits to living in New York City; they even have even Saturday mail delivery! Despite severe handicaps applied to ALL former winners of "The Postcard Race"; Szu and Alexis have succeeded in winning Round 8, The Barcelona Round! They are now 2X winners of "The Postcard Race"; something we NEVER anticipated happening.

Congratulations gals and special nod to those speedy, hard-working postal workers of NYC!

We will be searching the markets of Sao Paulo, Brazil for the perfect thing for you! Yes, Round 9 of "The Postcard Race " will find us on another continent; testing the postal service where ever we go!

The Postcard Race Round #8

October (and part of November) in Barcelona

Barcelona, the capital of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, is a bilingual city: Catalan and Spanish are both official languages and widely spoken. Since the arrival of democracy, the Catalan culture (very much repressed during the Franco dictatorship 1939-1975) has been promoted, both by recovering works from the past and by stimulating the creation of new works.

The Senyera (roughly meaning "signal flag" in Catalan), one of the oldest flags in Europe, is the Catalonian flag and powerful symbol for Catalan nationalism. Four bars of red against gold signifying fours rays of blood made with four fingers placed into the heart of a dying Catalan warrior and smeared on his golden shield.

St. George's Day is the National Feast in Catalonia. It is known as "Diada de Sant Jordi" in Catalan. In Barcelona, St. George's Day, 23 April, is traditionally celebrated by gifting roses and books to loved ones. Inspired from the custom, UNESCO declared the day as the International Day of Books.

Cava: A Spanish/Catalan sparkling wine was first made as early as 1851. The local Macabeo, Parellada and Xarel·lo grapes were well suited to this wine style. Catalan winemakers wanted to distinguish their wines from the French counterpart. They adopted the name Cava after the Catalan word for cave, where the wines were traditionally stored. In the past the wine was referred to as Spanish Champagne (no longer permitted under EU law), or colloquially as champaña or xampany.

Barcelona is studded with the work of Antoni Gaudi; 100 years later the buildings he designed are still daringly original, yet also lurid and fanciful. Gaudi's work was greatly influenced by forms of nature reflected by the use of curved construction stones, twisted iron sculptures, and organic-like forms. His use of Moorish elements, his colours, wrought iron, ceramic decoration seems to have its roots in something deeply personal, its iconography and shape coming from within him as though he were a painter or poet rather than a builder.

Joan Miró was a Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramist born in Barcelona. Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride. In numerous interviews dating from the 1930s onwards, Miró expressed contempt for conventional painting methods as a way of supporting bourgeoisie society, and famously declared an "assassination of painting" in favor of upsetting the visual elements of established painting.

Salvador Dalí, Catalan surrealist painter was best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. Dalí's expansive artistic repertoire includes film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media. Dalí, a colorful and imposing presence in his ever-present long cape, walking stick, haughty expression, and upturned waxed mustache, was famous for having said that "every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dalí." Dalí was highly imaginative, and also had an affinity for partaking in unusual and grandiose behavior, in order to draw attention to him.

Picasso demonstrated uncanny artistic talent in his early years. His revolutionary artistic accomplishments brought him universal renown and immense fortunes throughout his life, making him the best-known figure in twentieth century art. Arguably Picasso’s most famous work is his depiction of the German bombing of Guernica in the Basque region during the Spanish Civil War. This large canvas embodies for many the inhumanity, brutality and hopelessness of war. Asked to explain its symbolism, Picasso said, “It isn’t up to the painter to define the symbols. Otherwise it would be better if he wrote them out in so many words! He also said “ Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth”

Homage to Catalonia is writer George Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations in the Spanish Civil War. Orwell served in Catalonia from December 1936 until June 1937. Orwell joined the POUM rather than the Communist-run International Brigades by chance—but his experiences, and his narrow escape from the Communist purges in Barcelona in June 1937, while not challenging his moral and political adhesion to the cause of Socialism, made him a lifelong anti-Stalinist. Orwell was shot through the neck and was nearly killed. He wrote in Homage to Catalonia that people frequently told him he was lucky to survive, but that he personally thought, "it would be even luckier not to be hit at all."

In Barcelona, the Franco dictatorship was iron fisted and vengeful. Thousands of Catalan republicans and leftists were executed; exile and deportation the fate of thousands more. Publishing, teaching and every other public cultural expression in Catalan were prohibited including even speaking in the street. When Franco died in 1975, the people of Barcelona celebrate; by evening there was not a bottle of cava left in the city.

The 1992 Olympic Games, hosted by Barcelona placed the city and Catalan (distinct from Spanish) culture in the spotlight of international attention, made it fashionable and led to the biggest urban transformation in its contemporary history. Post-Olympic Barcelona is an elegant well-kept inter-connected city famous for its urban design.

Barcelona is a city with more than 2000 years of history; which began its expansion under the Roman Empire. But its first great moment is mediaeval and from there comes the power of its gothic. Barcelona’s gothic quarter still contains the most concentrated array of 13 -15 century buildings, the most complete in Europe.