Thanksgiving in Barcelona

"How come there are no ovens in Barceloneta??" This was my hourly cry as I spent the last Thursday in November preparing for and cooking an American style Thanksgiving dinner in Barcelona last autumn.

When my brother and I decided to go travelling around Europe, we knew we wanted to spend a considerable amount of time in Barcelona. And we did. We rented an apartment in the beach community of Barceloneta and settled in relatively easily. That is, until we needed an oven.

Barceloneta is a great community to live in - it feels like a village within a city, not to mention you get to live on the beach, with the Mediterranean as your neighbour. We made quite a few friends in the area and really felt we had been accepted by the locals. We knew the men who lived on the beach and designed the sand sculptures. We were recognised and greeted by all of the local store owners. And most importantly, we were very well looked after by the two barmen, Joe and Victor, in our local watering hole, Ryan's Irish pub.

By the harbour in Barceloneta

Throughout the two months we were in town, we hardly ever needed an oven for anything. Sure, we couldn't make frozen pizza but that's hardly the worst thing in the world. However, it's impossible (honestly, it is) to make Thanksgiving happen without an oven and no one in Barceloneta seemed to have one. Not the bars, not our neighbours. All we could find was a microwave/oven conversion which was never going to be sufficient for a whole bird!

I was planning to serve up the traditional casseroles, side dishes and a turkey to a group of friends in our local bar. But there were several problems. 

I am a vegetarian so the meat wasn't all that important to me. But clearly anyone who has ever heard of Thanksgiving has heard of the turkey. Well, finding a turkey is not as easy as it might seem. Spanish and Catalunyans don't really eat very much turkey. And when they do, they don't eat it whole. We settled for a chicken instead.

Luckily, my friend Jodie had decided to come visit us for the weekend, and though she isn't American, she loves all kinds of meat so she saved the day by showing me how to prepare a roast chicken. Now all we needed to do was cook the blasted thing.

Jodie - the 'chicken chef'

Our hero of the hour was James, a local musician and bizarre bling t-shirt salesman that also frequented the local pub. Amazingly, James was the only Barceloneta resident with an oven... and he was willing to let us use it! 

So Jodie and I spent the day peeling potatoes, chopping broccoli, making cheese sauce for the macaroni and preparing a large chicken before setting off across town with our platters. We delivered the goods to James' kitchen and set the timers.

Thanksgiving preparations

And at 8:30pm on the fourth Thursday in November, we delivered an entire Thanksgiving meal to the punters in Ryan's pub on the beach. There were ten of us eating in total, only two of whom were American, and the feast went down very well indeed!

Lining up to get served

Enjoying Thanksgiving dinner in Barcelona!

Just goes to show that no matter where you are, and no matter how tricky it is to find an oven, with a little perseverance, a meat-eating friend and a very friendly t-shirt salesman, you can make Thanksgiving happen anywhere!

Sean emailed a friend...

My brother's friend asked for advice about planning a trip to Europe. This post is Sean's response--the pictures are what I felt corresponded:

If you want my personal feelings about the trip, listen up... or read up.

I started by moving to London, so that doesn't really count as a stop on the trip. Although, if you want to go there you should. It's pretty cool, but the weather is rough, and unless you have a lot of money, you're going to end up drinking wherever you are staying. (there is a bar near Oxford Circus called The Cock (not making it up), which is actually really cheap, go there!). The picture is of Little Venice, where my sister lived.

Things to see in London if you are touristy are Buckinham Palace, Parliament, the London eye, Covent Garden,  etc. Otherwise just take the Tube around the city and you'll find some cool places. Again, VERY expensive.

Next we went to Brussels, Beglium to see my dad. If you go there on a good day (weather wise) it is amazing. Great night-life if you know where to go (I recommend O'Reilly's, an Irish bar which also has a mini 'club' next door called Nua O'reilly's.) Cool people, good vibe, and you can sit on the terrace and look at some epically old architecture. I grew up there, so I love the place, but again, it's more about who you go with and when you go. Beer capital of the world!!!! Must see's are La Grand Place, Mond des Arts, and the maniquin pis... all spitting distance from each other.

Next stop was Berlin. Go with friends, and go to clubs, otherwise the place is BORING and not very scenic. I was there with my sister and was bored out of my mind. Avoid commercial hostels at allllll cost. Go to private ones, they're funner and better value. (That goes for everywhere if possible)

From there we went to Prague, which is pretty epic, has a nice Bridge and river, but again... not toooo much to do. (see blog for more details).

Budapest, Hungary is pretty sweet. First real fun I had on the trip since Belgium! Stay at the Maverick Hostel... it's AMAZING! I would live there if I could afford it. and go out to Buda (across the river) and see the old town... pretty stunning. At night, there is plenty to do, but I recommend a bar called Szimpla. It is the sweetest bar ever...trust me, if you are in Budapest... go there.

DO NOT GO TO SERBIA... (see my post on sister's blog)

There is a place in MonteNegro called Kotor which is beautiful and has a surprisingly good night-life, though I don't know if it's worth going to because it is out of the way. If you go, stay in the Old town. That's where its all at.

GO TO DUBROVNIK!!! It's in Croatia, and it's friggin sweet. Nough said. It is the most beautiful place on earth, and everything is dirt cheap.

OK, now I will go into some of the places you might actually go to haha.

ITALY:

Rome: go there. It is overwhelming, and go on a pub crawl... you will have the time of your life (they're illegal, but just meet at 9pm at the bottom of the Spannish Steps. EPIC.) Everything you see is older than time, and is still unbelievable. See the Vatican.. see the Sistine chapel... see the Colisseum. Trust me, it's a must see.

Florence: Unless you like art a LOT... skip it. It's only fun if you do what I did; find a group of Aussies, a group of Irishmen, some pretty girls, and roam the city at 4am.

Venice: Go. Don't argue, just go.

Now back to some more obscure places...

Milan is the fashion capital of the world, which means everything is very stylish, and too expensive... not my thing. Bologna is the food capital of the world, but be careful where you eat, because everyone there is competing for business, and we ended up somewhere rather disappointing.

Next, I went off with a bud to Nice, on the French Riviera. I was there two nights and it just kept getting better and better. Whoever claims that it is boring and filled with old people is an idiot. By that logic, avoid Florida while you're at it. I had an amazing time, both at night and during the day... it's awesome.

From there, we went to Toulouse to see some friends. It's kinda ugly, it's kinda dirty, there's not much to see, but I had a good time. I think the prettiest people in the world got collected up and thrown into Toulouse for an experiment... maybe to see if an ugly city could produce ugly people despite the best genes available.

Paris is Paris. I didn't go on this trip, but I've been before. Just ask anyone and they'll tell you you have to go. So listen to them, because my opinion is skewed by prejudice.

I went to the countryside in the South of France next. This was more of a necessity than a choice, because we have some family friends there that we had to see. It's really nice and quiet, but that's not really my thing either...

Spain! Spain is awesome and full of Spaniards... they don't speak English, they don't even speak French, and they don't like people who don't speak Spanish (understandibly... being from Florida where it's the exact opposite.) Just make an effort and they'll be nice enough. Didn't see Madrid, heard it's great, but it's landlocked... which is fine, unless you've heard of Barcelona.

BARCELONA! Go to Barcelona. I had never heard a bad thing about it, and I don't think I ever will. Go, stay wherever... best bet might be the Surf Hostel in Barceloneta, purely due to location. This is where I live, and I wake up with a smile on my face every... afternoon. (Living hours are rather strange here... wake up at 12, siesta at 2, then work til 11, go out at about... the next day). I love this city... walk around, it's not too big... see everything, or don't. Whatever, it's the chillest place on earth.

Places I didn't go to on this trip but have been to before are... well, several. I'll just mention Amsterdam because that's what you probably want to know about. It's ok. That's right I said it. If you're a pothead, you'll just appreciate the legality, not necessarily the quality of the weed. If you're not... well there's not much else to do. Drink... avoid hippies on their bikes, and try and find an umbrella to deal with the crappy weather. Night life is fine.

Umm... other places I would recommend  are Edinburgh, Scotland. It's really old and dark and scenic and I love it. I personally like Glasgow, but mainly because I have family there. Never been to Scandinavia... so I can't help you there. Dublin is cool... OH GREECE! Never been, but desperately wanted to. Shame, looks amazing. Haven't been to Portugal either, but I imagine that Lisbon is nice.

That's about it. If you have any questions, let me know. Have fun! Go with friends!   

Howdy friends

That's me, I like a good hat.

Someone told me, 'You should start a blog'. Not for any particular reason mind you. I'm not some clever bugger who entertains crowds with my wit or wisdom. I think they just meant, 'I'm not really that interested in listening to you prattle on about your upcoming travels, your life plans or your sudden determination to get back into music, so perhaps writing about it somewhere out there where people can choose or not choose to read it, would be a better idea.' So here I am!



The plan is to chat, observe, relate the stories of my daily life from now until whenever, and let anyone who's interested read and comment. I've just resigned from my job of two and a half years and am leaving London to go travelling around Europe for a month, with my very tall little brother. Following that, the idea is to head to Barcelona and attempt to learn Spanish while working in a bar. Most people might say 'Why pack in your well-paying job to jet off around Europe without any firm plans for the future?' I say, the job was in the public sector (if that's not a good enough reason to quit at this time, I don't know what is), I haven't seen half of the places around this continent that I want to, and it will be getting cold (even colder, August and already cold!) soon, whereas Southern Europe and Barcelona will have sunshine for a bit longer.

So off I go! Updates to come