If you go to London read González

Choosing a book to read is one of the hardest decisions you have to make in your life. There are so many and so good books that it is very difficult. Honestly, I think it is impossible to read everything you would like because there isn’t enough time. One of the problems is when you start reading a bad book and you feel that you are wasting your time. Fortunately, I have been lucky with my last choice. I was wishing to read it. Furthermore, the other I decided to go in the tube to read some chapters.

I don’t remember how or where but I found out that Enric González a Spanish journalist who now works for El Mundo had a book about London. As you know, England’s capital is one of my favourite cities and I like to consume anything linked to the city. I have to say that I already read a book of González about Rome that I really enjoyed.

I start reading ‘Historias de Londres’ and soon realized that I had made a great decision. It is a short book but it has many different stories about the city. González explains us things related to the history of the town, deeps in the royal family or he tackles two topics which I am very interested in: press and football. 

It is really fascinating how he explains the different newspapers that you can find in London and some curious stories about them. You can go back in time and imagine when Fleet Street was the capital of journalism. Something similar happens when he writes about football: all the main teams you can find in the city and a few ideas of them so you don’t hesitate who to support.

‘Historias de Londres’ is a book that you read fast because it is very interesting and also because Enric González writes great. He is able to build easy paragraphs with short sentences and usual words. Is a very simple style but really good; I think it is one of the keys of the book. He has the ability to be funny without really trying. I have enjoyed a lot this book for two reasons: the stories are really good and interesting and the author has a lovely style. It is a shame that you can only read it in Spanish but it is really worth it.

Good start

Today I will recover on my favourite topics: running. Autumn is a good time for runners, especially in a city like Barcelona as many of the popular races begin. In summer it is difficult to train with the heat and it is impossible to take part in a race because is too warm. When autumn starts, you see all runners back to the path.

When I started running seriously I used to take part in many races. However, in past years I have reduced my calendar to four main races: the Cursa de la Tardor, the Cros of Sants, the race of Sant Anton and the half marathon of Barcelona. I run them for different reasons: the first one because there are not many people and when you finish they give you a delicious sausage sandwich. The second one because is the race of my neighbourhood and I pass near home and I like the route. The third one because it was the first I ever ran in my life and the fourth one because I still haven’t achieved my aim. 

My calendar started I few days ago with la Cursa de la Tardor. It was my third time and I was hoping to do as good as last year when I ran near 46 minutes. Before I started I met Pablo former Espanyol Academy coach and a cousin of my mother in law. It was nice to see them.

I started back in the bunch but soon I got near the front. I looked my watch and I saw that I was going fast for what I am used to. This is a very hard race, with continuous ups and downs and even though it starts early it can be quit hard. I wondered if I would be able to keep the rhythm until the end. Jéssica and Mercedes, my mother in law cousin, helped a lot during the race with their support. 

I passed the 5 kilometres under 22 minutes and I started to think I would be able to finish under 45', something really nice for me in such a difficult race. I knew the second lap would be hard and I decided to join a pair of athletes that were running a bit slower than me but I thought it will be good to reach the final kilometre with more energy.

In the end all came out as I planned and I was able to finish in 44 minutes 15 second my personal best. Two minutes better than last year and nearly four than the year of my debut. I was really happy, exultant. I knew I was fit but I didn’t expect to do as well. After the 10 kilometres I really enjoyed my butifarra sandwich. I think I deserved it. 

The Cros of Sants is my new race. I don’t want to get obsessed with time but I am thinking that I will try to finish near 44 minutes. I know it is difficult but I have to try to keep these good sensations. Don’t worry, I will let you know.

Vienna

This summer we had doubts as to where to go. I like visiting cities in summer, walking around and learning all the history. Jéssica wanted to visit Prague so the decision was easy but everybody told us that with three days we had enough to see the city. I don’t remember how Vienna came to our mind and we started to consider it as an option. We started searching for flights and hotels and we saw that we could afford it and we decided to book everything. 

At first I wasn’t sure because I didn’t expect much. However, I was wrong. We arrived to the city by train and then we looked for our hotel. As it was early, we started the day visiting Schönbrunn Palace and it was then when I realised how important and historic is the city. You know when you go to the cinema and you expect a lot from a film and in the end it disappoints you? Sometimes it happens the other way around: you don’t expect much but once you are there you really like it. 

I started going through all the history of this city and I was really impressed. The Austro-Hungarian was one of the most important empires in history. We all know Sisi because of the films, but there is further more things to know. It was incredible to hear different stories about that period of our history. Actually, in Prague, some of the guides we had started to let us know all the influence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

I really enjoyed the visit to Vienna. The buildings were amazing. We visited a few palaces, we saw the Parliament, the City Hall, Stephan’s Cathedral, Karlskirche, the Belvedere Palace or the Kunsthistorisches Museum . One of the things that made me happier was to see Klimt’s picture ‘The Kiss’, one of the best art pictures I still had to see in person. 

I liked a lot travelling to Vienna. It was a city that impressed me and I wouldn’t doubt to repeat. Maybe nowadays it is not as important as it was in the past but I think that you should go if you have the chance you should try to go and visit it.

Prague: nice city

I know it has been a long time since I last updated my blog but summer it is a difficult time because all the work we have. I have a lot of things to write about but I will start explaining my holidays in Prague, a beautiful city that you should visit sometime in your life if you can afford it.

We arrived early in the morning and went to the hotel that was really nice. Only ten minutes walking from the city centre, we started visiting the Prague Astronomic clock, one of the city’s famous buildings. Afterwards, we decided to do the guided tour in the city Sandemans New Europe with Carlos who explained us a lot of interesting things. I strongly recommend you to do it because you receive a lot of information and you start knowing the city.

Everybody says that is a great city and I did like it. Charles’ bridge, the castle, St Vithus Cathedral, the city centre, Wenceslao’s square… a lot of interesting places to visit and spend some time enjoying them. We also visited different churches, the Jewish cemetery and the different synagogues or Loreto palace. A lot of places that are worth it and that you will like for sure. The only important place we didn’t get to visit was the Clementinum, an excuse to get back in the future.

As we had some time over we decided to visit Kutná Hora; a very nice city known because of a little chapel made of human bones, but that also had few other interesting monuments.

However, a lot of people say that is a cheap city and we didn’t found that cheap. It is not expensive but the prices were not very different from the ones here in Barcelona.

Prague was one of the cities I wanted to visit and I can delete it from my list. It is a small city where everything is in walking distance and that has a lot of nice things to see and a very interesting history. I think that is worth it to walk around the streets, the different squares and neighbourhoods and learn some of its history. A great trip to one of the most historical cities in Europe!

Can somebody explain it to me?

For a week we have heard on television that Isabel Pantoja, a famous Spanish artist, was getting out of prison. If you don’t know who she is, you just need to know that she is an artist who went to jail because of money laundering. After a great career as a ‘tonadillera’, she was involved in some dark business due to her relation with Julian Muñoz, a corrupt politician that also ended in jail. It is a long story and if you are interested you can read more things here.

However, for me, the most incredible thing is what happened last Tuesday. After some months in jail, Pantoja was given a permission to get out of jail for a few days. I am not going to judge if she deserves it or not. I understand that the judge made the best decision. Probably, there are worst crimes than the one she committed but the law is supposed to be equal for everybody. This is not the subject of debate.

In mypoint of view what is terrible is that a group of fans received her when she was getting out the jail. They were there outside the jail to give their support and to cheer her. I can’t understand! Obviously you can admire somebody because of their career or music, but I think that is terrible to receive here as she was a heroine.

This woman robbed and cheated. I know she is paying for it and that everybody deserves a second opportunity but I can’t conceive receiving someone that has committed a crime this way. Something similar happened a few months ago when Leo Messi went to court because of tax offense and hundreds of supporters went there to cheer him. I can’t understand it.

I know that in life you have to forgive, but what I don’t accept is that someone that has cheated us gets an ovation. I know there are bigger problems in our world but this type of behaviour says a lot of our society that is involved in one of the worst crisis of history but is not capable to condemn unfair and illegal attitudes of famous people.

Nice city and great guide!

This past weekend I discovered a new city: Dublin. Jéssica and I went with another couple to visit Marta, a friend of my wife who has been living there the last two ages years. It was a trip that I was looking forward to because everybody spoke well of Dublin. I have to say that it was worth it!

Our trip to Dublin has a lot of anecdotes. After we bought the flights, we started looking for a hotel. For a reason we don’t understand yet all of them were very expensive. Therefore, we decided to rent an apartment. We found one in the city centre very cheap and well connected, and we decided to book it. Everything looked all right until one morning that Laura told us that the woman had cancelled our reservation. Drama! We started looking again for somewhere to sleep and it was impossible to find anything. All the apartments, guesthouses and bed and breakfast were full and the hotels left were too expensive for a weekend. After a hard search we booked two rooms in the Ibis Hotel (30 minutes away from the city centre) with breakfast.

The Spire

We hadn’t started our trip and we already had many a lot of inconvenience problems. A few days later, we read that in Barcelona’s airport there was a strike and we also find found out that the tram that took us from the hotel to the main street of Dublin was affected on Sunday due to maintenance works. Hopefully, nothing affected us and we didn’t have any other inconvenience.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

One of the best things of going to visit someone is that they explain you a lot of things. Marta took us to the see the Spire, Dublin’s General Post Office where the Republic of Ireland was proclaimed in 1916, St Patrick Cathedral, the Old Library in Trinity College where the Book of Kells is kept. We also crossed the Ha'penny Bridge and went to see the Temple Bar, one of Dublin famous pubs. Marta took us to some of the nicest parks, we walked around the main streets full of life and we also met the Prime Minister. We saw one of Oscar Wilde’s houses and had time to go to a few pubs and walk around Dun Laoghai. Marta, who answered all of my questions, became a great tourist guide.

Temple Bar

Everything in Dublin is in walking distance and we had plenty of time to see the main attractions. Obviously, we couldn’t visit any of the museums but we had to prioritize. We finished tired because we walked a lot and we didn’t stop much but it was worth it. It was great to practice my English and enjoy a new country. After visiting Ireland, I only have Northern Ireland left as I have been in Scotland and Wales before. Maybe someday I will fly to Belfast to complete the five countries.

Ha'penny Bridge

It is not a big city but it inspires good vibrations and I think it is a good destination for a weekend, specially, if you find someone like Marta.  

I can’t stand Belen Esteban!

She is probably one of the most well-known women in Spain nowadays. Her gran success was being the girlfriend of a famous bullfighter, Jesulín de Ubrique, and getting pregnant of him. After the couple broke up, she started to appear in many TV programmes and magazines explaining things about her family in law and how bad was Jesulín with her daughter Andrea, who he didn’t attend as he should have. 

I am sure that if you are a Spanish reader you will know who I am talking about. If not, I will let you know: Belen Esteban. Everybody in Spain knows who she is. I am sure that very few people wouldn’t answer properly if we saw a photo of her. It would be easy to attack the Spanish society and I don’t want to do it, but I do feel sorry and I do think it is something terrible. 

I understand that people want entertainment. When you get home after work, you want to watch things that don’t take too much effort. Only a few people watch documentaries; I Know and as I wrote before I understand. However, this woman is too much for me. I can’t stand her! 

I have studied hard during all my life. In fact, I continue doing it. I have done a lot of efforts to get a good job and when I see someone like her: bad manners, illeterate, bad language and that looking I want to cry. I don’t like the programme she does, but I know that there are a lot of journalists that would like to work in TV and have the opportunity to work in these programmes about society and gossip.     

There is saying in Spanish that says “land for the farmer” (La tierra para quien la trabaja). I don’t totally agree with the sentence, because things require work and effort. Probably there a lot of people who haven’t had the opportunities to show their talent and they would deserve to have a better job.    

I am not criticizing the gossip programs. I know there are a lot of people that like them as there are a lot of people –I include myself- that like sports programs. What I don’t stand is that someone that hasn’t done anything in her life, apart from being the ex-girlfriend of a famous bullfighter, becomes someone famous and working in one of the main TV channels of the country.  

I honestly think it is a bad example for young people who can thing that life is easy; that is far from reality. We have a lot of problems in our society and we have to build references that really show things to us, not persons without any interest, manners or education. I am sure that in any other country you won’t find someone similar to Belén Esteban. I think we have to start changing and not turn into a hero or a superwoman a person that doesn’t deserve it; she is no example of anything. Don’t be wrong!