Category: Uncategorized

‘There’s none so blind as those who will not listen’

(Neil Gaiman, American Gods)

Do we want to wear glasses that we may see clearly or blinders that we may only see things one way?

Of late there has been huge discussion on censorship. Be it cancel culture, statues being pulled down or defaced, books being banned in schools/universities or podcasts being censored. Freedom of speech comes with a responsibility. Absolutely. It also comes with nuance and context and many other considerations.  But nuance, context and shades of grey don’t make the headlines, well, unless they’re about Sue Gray….

I listen to and read across many different channels/broadcast outlets from all sides of the political spectrum. I have listened to Joe Rogan from time to time. I sometimes agree with things he has said, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I think his guests have valid points and sometimes not. I do not believe he should be taken down and I believe that he is not really the issue. What is far more important than any single Youtuber or podcaster, are the algorithms that suggest content that reinforces rather than challenges. Content which can lead people down rabbit holes and in some cases make them into mad hatters. We are being distracted from the true issue by zooming in on one person rather than the larger discussion to be had.

Continue reading “Uncensored” →

(As a child, trusting I wouldn’t bounce off the big trampoline…as a child growing up in the 80s, it was a pre-nets, more Darwinian in terms of child rearing 😉

 

When I was young I enjoyed playing the game whereby I would fall backwards, trusting that friends would catch me. As I am here to tell the tale, suffice to say my trust was not misplaced. As a game it’s a useful analogy for both life and travel.

(I got bigger and the trampoline correspondingly smaller, but still managing to bounce through life 😉

In December I was chatting to a friend who has been enjoying some of the best years of her life in her forties. This was because she had stopped trying to control the world around her, fighting to ‘get ahead’. She had decided to trust; she had fallen back into the universe and the universe caught her.

Often people are scared of travel and by extension, scared of life. But what we’re often scared of is what comes next. Our fear of dying can prevent us from living, as we want to live in such a way that we minimise any risk of dying.

Part of our fear manifests itself in our reluctance to lean back and believe that the world is there to catch us. News outlets prey on our fear, portraying the wicked world out to get us. Cities have declared ‘no go’ areas, despite the constant comings and goings of the residents of such areas.  News photographers only ever employ a zoom lens, portraying a world in meltdown, and yet when we visit for ourselves we zoom out and see the whole panoramic. Living in Barcelona, I am constantly asked about the ‘Catalan situation’, but the reality is  (non-newsworthy) boring, with most going about their daily business and few streets dedicated to the (almost always) non-violent marches.

Governments issue warnings on their foreign office websites, warning people to be vigilant, to avoid certain places. All understandable advice, but in constantly reinforcing the negative rhetoric, too many won’t ever leave the ‘safe harbour’.

Continue reading “2020 Vision” →

What if there were a way for you to guarantee a one on one with your friend ‘Mona’ in Paris? Or an up close and personal with your friend ‘David’ in Florence?  An opportunity to stay in some of the best hotels and eat at some of the best restaurants, but all without paying a premium price? I have the solution: Welcome to Lucy Loves Travel’s winter collection.

Travelling better is also about understanding when it is best to travel. If you have the luxury of not being constricted by specific vacation times, perhaps it’s time to indulge in luxury travel at more reasonable prices.  Why is it that ‘out of season’ has been so ‘out of favour’? Isn’t it time to think outside the box, or in this case, outside the season? In Victorian times, the winter months were peak season, as the Vitamin-D-deprived English would escape to the south for some winter sun. There they would line the beaches of Nice on the Promenade des Anglais, or wander through Florence with their ‘Baedeker’ in hand.

Europe for and by the locals; authentic Europe. That is what most want to experience. And there is no better way to achieve this than by travelling at a time when the cities are ‘taken back’ by the locals. When cities once more empty out, the cruise ships are back in the Caribbean and you can get a table at the best restaurant in town. Enjoy guided tours whose routes are dictated by more than where the most shade is. Tours where a quick photo of a famous monument is no longer an oxymoron. Fewer people, temperate climates, a slower pace and a general feeling of relaxation; these are but a few of the reasons to travel in what has traditionally been known as the ‘off-season’

There has been a lot of press about the explosion of mass tourism and this is largely to do with people going to see things at exactly the same time of the day as well as in the same weeks and same months. The cruising market has exploded in recent years and cruise ship passengers, for instance, are constrained by the ship’s itinerary, which often sees them in cities early and leaving the city by mid-afternoon. This is because port fees are expensive and cruise ships have to get to their next destination, thereby requiring passengers to be back on board by 5 or 6pm. For precisely this reason, it is often better to visit a city’s most famous monuments in the afternoon, or, even better, to visit when the cruise ships are not in town at all.

Continue reading “Lucy Loves Travel: ‘A Company for All Seasons’” →

As the storm clouds gathered over Barcelona this morning, they were an apt metaphor for what was to come. By the end of the day, the gloomy sky was still in evidence, but the violence meted out by the National Police has become the real storm brewing.

In football terminology, football being the true lifeblood of this city, this was a game of two halves.  I saw a polling station in Barceloneta which remained peaceful through the day. The voters queuing up, were watched by four local police officers (Mossos d’Esquadra) who stood at a distance doing little other than chatting among themselves. The mood was upbeat. Initially there had been some technical issues (these were widespread at polling stations across Barcelona) resulting in the crowd chanting ‘votarem’ (we will vote). However shortly after, the polling station opened and those who were first to vote were greeted by applause and cheers when they exited, having cast their vote.  Returning here at various points throughout the day, I didn’t witness any violence and there were no Guardia Civil officers in evidence. Indeed, when a patrol car of the Mossos d’Esquadra passed through the throng, doing nothing to prevent the vote, they crowd applauded the car.

This morning I saw another neighbour, Maria, heading out and she said she had absolutely no interest in voting. Whilst she said she always voted normally, she said she would not be voting today as she did not believe in the legitimacy of the vote nor was she pro-Catalan independence. Chatting to a lady who was waiting to vote in Barceloneta, her feeling was that the pro-remain people who had attended a march yesterday, were largely from other areas and not ‘true’ Catalans. And yet, Maria would call herself a ‘true’ Catalan. Such divisions are rife in Catalonia.

Continue reading “A tale of two cities” →

 

Plaça Jaume , home to Barcelona’s city hall and government offices, was quiet this morning; the calm before the storm perhaps. There were a few anti-independence supporters, bedecked in the Spanish flag. One of the flags had a bull on, as if to reinforce the point; bullfighting, never much beloved by the Catalan, was outlawed here in 2011, but the bull remains a potent symbol of traditional Spain. Behind them the buildings remain covered in signs pleading for democracy. The majority of people in the square were various media outlets, waiting for the news. Most nights in my square, I hear the 10pm ‘call to pots and pans’ (‘cacerolazo’) and up and down my street posters for the referendum are put up and taken down in quick succession.

Speaking to my elderly neighbour, Carmen, she is unsure as to whether she will vote. She says she will decide when she wakes up. Her granddaughter and daughter-in-law are insistent she should and that she should vote ‘yes’ i.e in favour of independence. She remains unconvinced. She seemed to be favouring the ‘no’ campaign. She asked what would Catalonia do if it really did ‘leave’ Spain? Foreign companies would go to other cities. Would the region be able to support itself? She added, ‘I’m Catalan, but what’s my nationality? Spanish. And who’s counting the votes? Pro-Indepenence people, that’s who. The vote is against the constitution and I don’t agree with it, however, I will vote as my family wants me to’. In contrast, for another younger neighbour separation can’t come fast enough. His concern is more about what will happen to Catalans’ money given the seizing of the Catalan finances by the Spanish government which the government says is to prevent any public money being used to pay for the referendum. My younger Catalan friends tend to be pro-independence and pro-referendum. Indeed, a majority of Catalans are pro-referendum which they see as being pro-democracy.

Continue reading “A Catalan Calamity?” →