Natascha Kampusch

Natascha Kampusch is an Austrian girl who was kidnapped at the age of 10, in a small village near Vienna. When she was on her way to school, a white van stopped next to her, two man pulled her into the car and she was transported to a house, where her kidnapper had constructed a small and completely isolated room to keep her locked up. Last wednesday, after eight years, she succeeded in escaping.
This whole story keeps all German-speaking countries in a frenzy, since last week the media have been reporting incessantly about this issue...
To me all this has left me wondering what people ( or should I say human beings -even though I would rather refer to animals in that case) are able to do to others... I just hope this girl recovers from what she has gone through!

Living in Barcelona and being German

Taking up the theme I started in my last entry, I want to talk a little about the pros and cons of being German and living in Barcelona...here goes :


Pros

- being able to enjoy the meditarrenean climate
- the beaches
- the tasty tapas ( small portions of tortilla, olives, anchovis etc etc which you can get in almost every bar )
- the laid-back attitude of most Spaniards and Catalonians, in contrast to this distressing 'I have to be in control of everything in my life' German way ( but ok, I admit I do get distressed when the bus driver takes ten minutes for his cigarrette break before finally moving his a.. back to his seat and
setting off !!!!)


Cons

-the rent for appartments is absolutely exaggerated, just the smallest ones in
downtown are about 600 Euros
- there is a slight malign tendency towards everything foreign, even though you are better off being German than, let's say, Moroccan or Romanian...
- all the streets downtown are a quite stinking mess covered with litter which reminds you of Calcutta slums or similar
- there are pick-pockets all over the tourist 'hot spots'---one quite famous trick they do is spilling ketchup on tourist's jackets, and offering to help them to clean the jacket. Then there will suddenly appear a second 'partner' who grabs the handbag/ backpack...

Hommage to Catalonia

Ok, so for all the 'not initiated', a short joke as an introduction to the eternal fight between Catalonia and the rest of Spain.....

A guy from Madrid steps into a bar
in Barcelona. 'A beer please' he asks the waiter. 'Makes 95 cents ' the waiter tells him in Catalan as he serves the beer. The guy pays him 90 cents. The waiter remarks --again in catalan-'It's 95 cents not 90, there are still 5 cents missing'. The guest pretends not to hear. The waiter now, more angrily, tells him in Catalan : 'Listen, I'm not gonnatake this from you, you are already owing me ten cent, five today and five yesterday'. The Madrid guy still doesn't show any reaction. At this the waiter bursts out in pure Spanish: "Hey, you are understanding me perfectly, so pay me the money right now you bastard!!!!"
At this the guy from Madrid grins at him maliciously, takes out his purse and while he hands
over the money to the waiter tells him : "I knew you would end up talking Spanish to me for five cents, you loser !"

Welcome and Bienvenidos

Hi, so this is going to be the start-up of my very first blog. Hope everyone enjoys my ramblings about living in Barcelona and being married to a Moroccan guy...