Alain de Botton wrote a very entertaining book called “The Art of Travel”. I bought a copy in an airport departure lounge, hoping it would tell me what on earth it was I was doing there. I put the book in my bag, went to the bar and forgot all about it.
A few days ago, I rediscovered the thing, and started to read it, and I’m still thoroughly enjoying it. One thing I particularly like is his description of his time in Madrid. He woke up there and really couldn’t be arsed to go and see anything. When he did, his guidebooks would attempt to force facts and opinions into him – how tall the cathedral is, how this is the best building to see in Madrid. It wanted to leave him nothing left to discover, but instead he found his own questions about Madrid. These he found part of his ‘life-enhancing’ tourism. He asks himself why vegetables so under-represented in the Spanish diet, why are Spanish feet so small? Anyway, it’s very thought provoking.
I have abandoned my guide book to Girona, and tend to wander around. Today I wandered past the History of Cinema museum and went in on a whim. The man selling tickets to see a screening of a brief history of cinema in five languages asked me if I spoke Spanish. I replied that I spoke a little, just for a giggle, and being able to understand, “The goose is quick,” from my two minute Spanish tutorial. I didn’t expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition. But he then went on to ask all manner of things, which I nodded and shook my head at unconvincingly, until finally he pointed me towards a mirrored panel, which I thought he said was a door.
But this experience made me inquisitive in a slightly tangential way. Why had the jews been expelled from Girona? What was the 1492 edict of expulsion? Faced with finding answers to these questions, I felt my life enhanced. If anyone can tell me why Spanish people don’t like vegetables though, I’d be very grateful.