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gan, oot and noo!

May 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Now perhaps they don’t quite fit our normal customer profile, but nevertheless last November the cast and crew from MTV’s reality show Geordie Shore pitched up at GoCar HQ to do some filming for the current series. After we had found someone who could translate Geordie into English and we’re told to ‘haddaway an’ shite’ after turning on the safety video, they all headed out to ‘gan roond’ the city.

For those of you who haven’t stumbled upon the MTV ‘Shore’ phenomenon, let me educate you, pet.

Jersey Shore MTV MTV Geordie Shore MTV

As to be expected it all started over the pond in America. Jersey Shore hit the airways in December 2009 and followed eight housemates spending their summer in the US state of Jersey. They live together, go out together, sleep together and fight together. It is all mind-numbingly pointless and consequently became the most viewed telecast in MTV history.

Well the Execs at MTV, to their credit, realised that their British audience might struggle to connect with a bunch of American idiots, so set out to find the UK equivalent. After thinking about it for all of seven seconds, they plumped for Newcastle and never looked back.

Chris Hooton writing in the Metro described the show as “a gaudy kaleidoscope of six packs, shots, fights, simulated fellatio and exposed breasts,” but said that criticism of the show was futile given its intent, noting that “being shocked by the lasciviousness of Geordie Shore is like being shocked by the lack of nutrition in a Pot Noodle.” Quite frankly it would be a waste of ink to add my opinion, he is spot on!

MTV Geordie Shore Gaz MTV Geordie Shore Sophie MTV Geordie Shore Scott

So with a ‘Gan canny or we’ll dunsh summick’, Gary, Scott, Sophie and the others drove around Barcelona, annoyed everyone in sight and loved it!

As Sophie said “You can get the wind in your ‘air, wave at the locals, this is mint, I want wona of these cars to tak back ta Newcastle” . . . . . . . . or something like that.

 

Episode Link

Filed Under: Barcelona, GoCar Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

saints, sweets and horse poo

February 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment

This Saturday, in the barrio Gracia of Barcelona, is the festival of St Medir. Groups of locals ride around on horses and lorries, accompanied bands of wondering minstrels, throwing literally tonnes of sweets to people in the streets. All jolly good fun, especially if you are a five year old or have a toffee fetish, but it does beg the question, why?

St Medir Barcelona Sant Medir St Medir Barcelona Horses

Well the story comes in two parts, the first definitely falls firmly in the legend category, whilst the second is recorded as fact.

Jump back to about 303A.D. and we find the then Bishop of Barcelona, Severus being chased out of the city by a bunch of Roman soldiers. It was the start of the Diocletian Persecution, a rather dangerous 10 year period in Roman history that involved the capturing of Christians and either murdering them on the spot or if you had a coliseum nearby, feeding them to the lions and making a few quid on ticket sales.

St Medir Barcelona Severus and Emeterius St Medir Barcelona Hermitage St Medir Barcelona Medals

Escaping towards Sant Cugat up in the Collserola Hills north of Barcelona, Severus came upon a farmer called Emeterius (Medi in Catalan) planting fava beans in his field. Presumably surprised to see a bishop running past in the middle of the day, Emeterius stopped working to watch. A panting Severus explained his situation and surprisingly requested that if the Romans came by Emeterius should tell the truth and point them in the right direction. As the Bishop dashed off miraculously all the beans Emeterius had just been planting suddenly began to grow.

Sure enough the soldiers arrived and Emeterius did as he was told and explained that he had been planting his beans when the Bishop had run past and helpfully pointed out where he had gone. The soldiers seeing all the green shoots in the field thought that the farmer was taking the micky out of them and promptly arrested the poor fellow and carried on with their chase. In true Roman efficiency both Severus and Emeterius were later killed in Sant Cugat, the bishop firstly being flogged and then having nails hit into his head.

St Medir Barcelona Arm St Medir Barcelona Umbrella St Medir Barcelona Scarf

Fast forward a few centuries and the story had passed into legend and both Severus and Emeterius had become saints.

In 1828, a Baker from Gracia, who was gravely ill and coincidently a devotee to Saint Medir, (yes him of the fava beans) made a last ditch pact with his saint. If he was cured he would make a pilgrimage to the hermitage dedicated to the saint in the hills behind the city every 3rd of March, the saint’s official day.

Well two years later and the baker was totally cured. And so on March 3rd 1830 he mounted his horse and rode around Gracia handing out sweets telling everyone he was going to keep his promise. At one o’clock he set off into the hills.

Now the baker has long since departed this earth but his yearly ritual struck a chord with the locals and that is why this Saturday the streets of Gracia will be awash with children, sweets and horse poo!

St Medir Barcelona Band St Medir Barcelona Colla St Medir Barcelona Poo

So if you happen to be in the neighbourhood this weekend, trust me when I say, you will never get a better chance to wear wellies in public, trample over small children and scramble for Chupa Chups, without the remotest chance of getting arrested.

by

(adapted from an original article by the same author)
Filed Under: Barcelona, Catalonia, Events, Traditions Tagged With: , , , ,

canaletas, cules and ketchup

January 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Regular readers will have noticed I like to give a cryptic preview by way of the title, then attempt to weave the three threads together, hopefully into an entertaining read. For the newbies, it goes something like this.

Sat at the top end of Las Ramblas is an unremarkable water fountain with a street light plonked on top. The inscription encourages the passer-by to take a sip and thus guaranteeing a return trip to the Catalan capital. Now either the water has some special mystical power, similar to that used on professional footballers, resurrecting them after seemingly being at death’s door, in horrible agony, after one of their opponents sneezed near them or it is just a cunning plan dreamt up by a very forward thinking marketing executive in the late 19th Century, I suspect the latter.

What is true however, it is where the FC Barcelona fans gather to celebrate victory, protest defeat or just engage in passionate discussion about the events of the day. You see back before the interweb, faceplant and twatter, in the days when news travelled as quickly as a Brit faced with two millimetres of snow on the ground, the Barca fans would wait by the fountain for a chap (presumably with a booming voice) to announce the footie results. It was especially important back then, since to travel to an away game would have meant at least a four day donkey ride and selling some of your children.

The Barca fans are known as ‘Los Cules’ or ‘The Arses’ in English money. You might suspect this nickname was born in the smoky offices of Franco’s fascist government, but in fact, it comes from when the club played at its old Les Corts ground. The main stand had no rear wall and if you walked passed on match day all you could see were rows of backsides.

This week Los Cules were hit by three FC Barcelona bombshells. Superhero Pep Guardiola announced he was off to drink beer, wear tight shorts and manage Bayern Munich, first team goalie Victor Valdes said he was bored with winning trophies and watching Messi and wanted a transfer and on Saturday the team lost 3-2 away against Real Sociadad, who on recent form couldn’t spell goal, let alone score one. As you can imagine, it was one busy fountain on the Ramblas come Sunday.

Bayern Munich Pep Guardiola Heinz Ketchup

You might now be wondering, OK so you’ve covered the first two threads, what about the third. Well if all this Barca bad news wasn’t enough, my bosses added some more. I am sorry to report dear readers you will be hearing less frequently from me in the future. Apparently some techie wizard who has a bigger bottle of Heinz ketchup than me will be taking over the blog, and consequently, I will only get to scribe once a month from now on. I have been officially out-sauced!

See you at the end of February.

by

Filed Under: Barcelona, Catalonia, News, Sports, Traditions Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

skiing, snow and spain?

January 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment

My nephew Charlie has just returned from a week sliding down an Alp. His school, before letting loose two coach loads of kids on Italy, quite correctly inquired of each one if they had any skiing experience. “Sure” said Charlie brightly, “ I learnt in Spain”. I am told that the teacher patted him sympathetically on the head, told him to fetch an atlas and to stop drinking cider during school hours.

You (and he) might not have realized it, but Spain is really lumpy. In fact it is the second most mountainous country in Europe and for those of you who haven’t visited our fair continent, believe me that is up against some pretty stiff opposition.

So whilst the concept of dropping in over here to catch some rays, cool modernism architecture or three star cooking is pretty well accepted by the travelling public, strapping on a couple of planks, donning an outrageous bobble hat or heading downhill whilst balancing on an ironing board, is not something the visitor will naturally contemplate on landing at Barcelona airport.

Skiing La Molina

Yet dear reader, in just two hours driving from the Catalan capital, there are some fabulous spots to hit the piste. You could try out La Molina, the oldest ski resort in Spain and host to various World Cup events, Masella, a tree-lined resort with a top station at 2600 metres or catch the funicular railway in Ribes and enjoy the beautiful Val de Nuria. Empty runs during the week, Spanish sunshine and you won´t need to have any limbs amputated before paying for your lift pass and a cup of coffee.

But a word of warning. Last year Barcelona announced it will be bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympics in an attempt to be the first city on the planet to host both the Summer and Winter games and if recent history is anything to go by, what Barcelona wants, Barcelona gets. The prices will rise and the runs will get busy.

So if you fancy a sneaky couple of days skiing on un-crowded pistes, either to get back in the habit or to pick up a new one, then at the moment Catalonia is the place, get it while it’s cold!

Oh and welcome home Charlie, hope you had fun in the mountains mate.

by

Filed Under: Barcelona, Catalonia, Events, Sports Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

barcelona, banter and blogging

January 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment

What do you call two Spanish firemen?

No I haven’t lost the plot, well at least not yet. Writing a weekly blog related to our fair city of Barcelona can be a little tricky at times. Fortunately, more often than not, there is an event or theme to grab hold of and get the creative juices flowing. But what do you do as an impoverished blogger in the second week in January? Everyone has just gone back to work, broken most of their New Year resolutions and are looking at a bank balance that wouldn’t keep a teenager in download money for a week.

Well I could try lifting the gloom a little with some pretty photos and interesting facts about Barcelona.

It has 9 UNESCO World Heritage Sights, 10 official beaches, 2437 hours of sunshine per year, average monthly temperature of 15° and Portal de l’Àngel is the most walked street in Spain, 3500 people per hour!

May well come in handy at this weeks pub quiz, but equally may well have you head down, asleep in your sandwiches.

Perhaps I could tempt you into planning a visit. Extolling the virtues of spending a few days in Barcelona, one of the Med’s great cities. Las Ramblas, FC Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia, fabulous tapas, amazing festivals and kicking nightlife.

It would help bump my S.E.O. for sure, but the fact is, this is all sitting on my doorstep and you are sitting at least 1 aeroplane, 2 airports and a chunk of salary away, and that might provoke a smidgeon of jealousy and have you reaching for the “un-follow” button.

Maybe a light-hearted look at the inner workings at GoCar Barcelona is the way forward.

How we prep the cars, a picture or two of the interns and how we plan big corporate groups. It will definitely be a hit with the bosses, especially if I mention their names.

But quite frankly all the cool, fun stuff happens out on the road and you can watch a video or read our website for that.

So in a blatant attempt to at least bring a smile to your face before the end of this post, I have plumped for a gag.

What do you call two Spanish firemen? Hose A and Hose B!

See you next week, and I know, stick to the day job.

by

Filed Under: Barcelona, General Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

three kings, coal and cake

January 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Firstly a very ‘happy New Year’ to everyone on the Western calendar and a ‘hope December was fun’ to everyone else.

Here in Barcelona we are just getting ready for the Three Kings, the final phase of the festive season which involves even more presents, some fuel-based child abuse and of course a cake.

Before a big fat bloke and his little helpers muscled in on the act, the Spanish traditionally only gave and received presents on the night of January 5th. Why? I hear you ask. Well, this was the night that the three Kings arrived to honour the birth of Jesus with three gifts, only one of which I can spell.

So this Saturday night, children up and down the country will stick a pair of shoes by the window, stuffed with carrots and straw for the camels and hope they wake up to a nice array of goodies. Now if they have been good, there will be footwear full of presents waiting for them the following morning, if not, just a lump of coal.

Quite why coal is the punishment of choice remains a little bit hazy, but unless the offspring in question happens to own a steam engine or a power station, I expect the disappointment on their face after receiving a fossil fuel in their trainer is priceless.

Now the big difference between the Three Kings and Mr Claus is that the children get to watch the Royals rock up on their camels and ‘La Cabalgata’ or cavalcade is a tradition in every city, town and village in the country.

So Saturday afternoon a large ship will appear in the harbour down by Maremagnum with a very special cargo. Once ashore a caravan will make its way up to Placa Catalunya and onto Placa Espanya. The Three Kings, loads of camels, wagons full of presents, dancing girls, marching bands and a very, very large cart of coal will wind their way through the streets of the Catalan capital with their highnesses throwing sweets to the excited niños

Now if this wasn’t enough excitement for one January, the following day, families will gather together for the obligatory festive meal; children showing off their newly acquired presents, parents showing off their newly acquired overdrafts and single people showing off they can still function after a fortnight of festive partying. After a slap up something, the ‘Roscon’ then appears. This is a very large doughnut-like cake filled with cream or custard, topped with glacier fruit and a crown in the centre. Hidden inside are a small figurine of Jesus and a Faba bean.

The idea, apart from not choking to death (it wouldn’t be a Spanish tradition unless there was a small chance of fatal injury), is that the one who discovers the mini Jesus, gets to wear the crown and is blessed with good luck for the year and the one who discovers the bean, pays for the cake!

So this weekend in Barcelona if you happen upon a stray camel, a crying child holding a piece of coal or someone choking in a restaurant on a statue of ‘The Saviour’ you might not know what to do but at least you will know why.
by

 

Filed Under: Barcelona, Catalonia, Traditions Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,