collserol

swung by julia´s pad en route to the mountain range surrounding barcelona. we spent the day hiking around collserol national park. i hadn´t realized until we got there just how much i´d assimilated into my daily experience the hustle, bustle and noisy racket of the city. what a treat to the ears and eyes to uncover a little slice of peace and tranquility. throughout the day we saw few other people on the trails. how perfect! we thanked our lucky stars that julia picked up a map as the waymarkers were conspicuously absent.

toward the end of the day, we found ourselves standing before a squatter´s house on the edge of the park. to ensure we were on the right track, we asked directions of maria, one of the house´s 3 residents. so very welcoming, she invited us in for a visit where we took a load off and restored ourselves over the course of the next hour.

maria told us that the house is officially owned by a major builder who has all but abandoned it as it borders on two areas, therefore building permission would have to be approved through two separate administrations - a near impossibility in espana. thus, the residents have built themselves a little haven off the grid, decking the place out with a functional toilet, solar panel, water well and self-sufficient garden complete with requisite ganja. really quite remarkable.

as much as i admire what they have accomplished, the squalour in which they live quickly turned me off. evidently, this is a problem as they cannot generate enough electricity and water to effectively keep everything in a reasonable state of cleanliness. but more than this, there was no radio, tv or internet access. eeeeeeekkk!! their forms of entertainment consisted of visits from we strangers as well as their guitars. a cursory look around revealed no books. without some purpose to keep my mind occupied, i would get cabin fever pretty quickly and would go stir-crazy, nobility be damned!

maria graciously set us on the right path to sant cugat a mere 20 minutes away. there we found a gorgeous XVth century hermitage in the middle of a hip hop happnin´ village featuring high end shops and beautiful people. the juxtaposition of maria´s squat against this shoppers´heaven was truly striking.