by Oliver Benet
You don’t have to be genious to realize that this year 2020 has been a damned year.
So clearly, I start this column, that my friends of Democratic Gourmet gave me, to talk to you from one of the corners of Europe: Catalonia and its capital Barcelona.
A damned year, as I say, first of all remembering every one of the dead people worldwide, that has been taken by the fucking virus. A memory also to all those who have survived, who have passed hours inside the hospitals, isolated, away from their beloved persons and only having contact with the staff of the medical services.
They are true heroes, as heroes have been all the people who, while we, the citizens were confined at home, have done everything in order to help us maintain our whole structures of life and to remain alive even in a fragile way
Barcelona, like many places, has been extremely punished.
It was a pity to see how one of the top cities in the world, a city with an intense street life, was left so empty. Let´s see the emblematic places such as Sagrada Familia, Parc Güell, La Rambla, Ciutat Vella (and its Gothic Quarter), the modernist route of Gaudí and his school, its beaches, maritime area … and even the Camp Nou, the enormous stadium of Futbol Club Barcelona was left empty … without people, without tourism. It was frankly something frightening.
Barcelona, Barna as we call it, and Catalonia, will again be rich and proud (as our national anthem says). We just have to fight, to hope, to have no doubt that we will get out.
Through this column, I ll try to give you a summary of what was, is and will be. one of the most curious areas in Europe.
I am sure you will like it.
*Oliver Benet is a Catalan cook and writer of the book “Per què odiava en Ferran Adrià?”
