Just googled Rizal and Barcelona and GASP!!! I promenaded at the same La Rambla that he used to perambulate at. The La Rambla is considered the centre of Barcelona which is near Placa de Catalunya; there was a little coffee house, called Cafe del Catalunya that Rizal used to visit to meet up with kapwa Filipinos (compatriots). I had espresso there, it must be a Filipino thing!!! 🙂 We stayed at Rivoli Rambla overlooking the Rambla itself and I can attest that the city never bloody sleep. Last Thursday there was a long parade mostly of students in protests. There were a handful of tents at the Place de Catalunya – their version of Occupy stay-in protest.
Rizal apparently thought at first that Barcelona was dirty and the people rather insular but he changed his mind fairly quickly. I supposed it is different now as Barcelona must be one of the super cleanest city in the world. And their street cleaners are beautiful young girls and gorgeous men. I must say that the Barcelonians are lovely, friendly, helpful and polite people. They offer elderly and those with young children seats in their public transport. Much, much, much better than the French….. Sorry Susie!!!!
If you had to go to Barcelona, make sure to get tickets to their hop-in – hop-off buses. There were so many places to see. I must say my slumbering inner Catholicism is very much awake at the moment. I visited so many churches that I ended up douching myself with holy water and touching feet of statues, etc. The churches are so beautiful, you can see that the state and its people look after the places so well. Even the smallest ones have vergers or sacristans on hand.
We also went to one of the monasteries, not the Montserrat one as the train or tram was out of season. You have to climb the mountains on foot!! eeeckkk We went to Pedralbes instead. It was so beautifully kept. I was thinking all the way the visit that I would really have been happy being a nun in there.
I wonder whether Rizal met or have heard of Gaudi?!!! Gaudi’s work is everywhere in Barcelona. A site that Christians must see is the Sagrada Familia. SF is just like the Collesium in Rome. You come out of the metro and they are there in front of you. I have to confess that at first I found the Sagrada rather alien. Sorry I thought it was rather hellish, it was so spikey, gaudish!!! But majestic all the same, very in your face. Once you get inside the cathedral, it was a totally different story. Very modern and high ceiling. GloriousIly religious with Jesus on the cross floating at the altar!
I love Barcelona. It is so clean and the people are so nice.
Very interesting. There’s a huge shop in Placa Catalunya called El Engles Corte. Is it their John Lewis and owned by the Brits?
I have been to Barcelona several times. I do like the La Rambla.
Yeah, I do like the La Rambla too. Barcelona is a place where you would like to go back again and again!
This is an email I got from a good learned friend – Fred Natividad.
There is a book, “Letters Between Rizal and Family Members 1876-1896,” which was put out by the National Historical Institute in 1993.
One letter in the book was postdated in Barcelona on June 23, 1882. The last portion of this very long letter was a travelogue devoted to Barcelona. Basically he was at first not impressed with the city, but after touring it his impressions became more positive.
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Excerpt from letter post dated at Barcelona, June 23, 1882
My dear Parents and Brothers,
I have the pleasure to write you today… snipped…
… I left Marseille by express train on the afternoon of the 15th, because all the trains that go from Marseille to Barcelona are express. … snipped
….. It was about 12:00 when we arrived at Barcelona.
My first impression of Barcelona was very unpleasant. After having seen Napoli and Marseille I found this city poor and vulgar. Its streets were dirty, its houses of poor architecture, in short I saw everything in an unfavorable light with the exception of the women who seemed to me more beautiful than the women of Marseille. I was very much disappointed especially when we arrived at the hotel where the service and accommodation were so poor that my companion Mr. Buil, chief of the telegraph office, said: “To come from Hotel Noailles and then drop into this!”
I was very sad above all when I looked for the persons to whom I was recommended and I couldn’t find them. I was not able to see a single countryman, and on account of the large expenses I had had in my trip and the many cheatings I suffered, only 12 pesos remained to me. At last I found the Jesuit fathers who received me well and showed me an inexpensive and Christian house where I got board and room for 21 pesos a month.
When I reached the hotel my companion, having received a telegram, had left hurriedly, carrying my coat in which I kept my passport, my gloves, and I don’t know what else, and in exchange he left me many of his things. I learned that he had been informed of something serious when I saw the telegram on the table.
Then I too left the hotel hurriedly, and in less than an hour my little money was further reduced by the dishonest hotel keeper, the coachman, and the porter who overcharged me. I moved to the house indicated to me by the Jesuit fathers and when the people there learned how much I had spent and paid the rogues, they exclaimed: “You have been terribly cheated. In fact they had taken advantage of your being a tyro!” Only seven pesos remained to me.
As I looked at the house to which I had moved — modest, humid, dark, and poorly ventilated — located on San Severo Street, a dirty and old alley; as I looked at the brick floor of my room, the straw chairs, the hard and not so tidy bed, not a mirror, an old and broken wash-basin placed on a stand made of four pieces of iron, I, accustomed to luxury and comfort, at least for the last forty days, became intensely dispirited and sad and more than ever with deep sorrow I remembered our house which is a thousand times more decent than that.
Then a thousand sad thoughts invaded my mind upon finding myself in that world hitherto unknown to me, without friends, without relatives, especially when the landlord came (for until then I had met only the landlady, a good and gentle woman) who was rough, coarse, ugly in appearance, when I saw priests come out from all the rooms and heard everywhere the harsh Catalan language.
Supper consisted of nothing more than a dish of vegetables and another of fish. I called the attention of the priests, the only guests of that house, and I observed that underneath that rough exterior a good disposition was hidden. Little by little those clouds were dissipated and they treated me with more consideration, especially a priest who had come from Cuba. Ah! I forgot to say that, having learned at the Jesuit College that Cuesta was boarding in the same house, I hurriedly went there to see my countryman, but I couldn’t talk with him because he had left for Manresa.
I stayed then at that house to await him and also for reasons of economy. The following day, provided with a map of the city, I began walking through the streets of that labyrinth to look for my countrymen. Some were still sleeping. I went to the hospital to wait for them there and after waiting a long time, I was shown the house of a countryman. I found Cabangis and since then I have had better days.
Successively I found the others who received me very well, who found for me more decent and cheaper houses. I met Cuesta who returned from Manresa. In short, since then until the present I like Barcelona and I’m getting to like it more and more. At present I occupy a room on the third floor of a building on Sitjes Street, number 3, together with Cabangis and other good students who are refined and courteous. I’m well served by a landlady, whose name is Doña Silvestra, who always says to me: “Don Pepe, do you want something? Have you already an appetite?” and so on.
I have somewhat written at length about certain things in order to portray to you the impressions and situation of a tyro. Now I know Barcelona a little and it seems to me large and pretty and I remember Marseille and Napoli (Naples) as a glittering and vanished dream. I’m beginning to discover in this city gems and riches; pretty and elegant houses of varied architecture, Arabic and Greco-Roman. I’m getting used to it and I regard it with pleasure.
The Jesuit fathers lent me money in case I should lack some and something happen to me. I have gone through their College and I’m making a study of various things to apply them there when I return. I’ve visited a porcelain factory which I liked very much and I intend to visit another of glass, clay, etc. Here are found many things which are applicable there.
When some of you want to write me, which I hope you’ll do every mail boat, address me thus:
Mr. José Rizal
No. 3, Floor 3, Sitjes Street
Barcelona.
If you could send me by registered mail through the next mail boat my birth certificate and a statement that I have my parents and family there, I would be much obliged.
I don’t know if you have received my letters; I’ve written you at Singapore, Point Galle, Aden, Suez, and this time at Barcelona. I expect by next mail letters addressed to Father Ramon Vilalta.
Every moment I’m thinking of what you would be doing at this time; I’m behind you eight hours, so that generally you are sleeping when I’m awake. I trust that you are all in good health like me who is putting on weight.
I’m sending the most affectionate regards to all of you and to all our relatives, and when you write me, tell me even about nephews and friends. Give my regards to the parish priest and to Captain Juan as well as to the others.
And bless your son who wishes only your happiness.
José Rizal.
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Fred Natividad
Livonia, Michigan