LGBT month - out! northeast magazine

travel
By Dr Mark Casey
Catalonia
I HAVE SUNG THE PRAISES
OF BARCELONA MANy TIMES
AND VISIT THE CITy QUITE
FREQUENTLy, HOWEVER I HAD
NEVER STEPPED OUT OF ITS
URBAN SPRAWL TO INVESTIGATE
WHAT THE PROVINCE OF
CATALONIA HAS TO OFFER
UNTIL VERy RECENTLy.
Heading away with friends for a 10 day
break we decided to fly to Girona, about an
hour north of Barcelona, and rent a threestorey
village house in the village of Biure
near to Figueres, the home of Spain´s most
visited attraction, the Dali museum. We were
there in August which is painfully hot, but it
offered a great escape from the sorry excuse
of a summer we´ve just had. Arriving in the
village we soon realised that the village was
in full swing of its fiesta weekend, which the
locals warmly invited us to get involved in.
The first activity was racing a clapped out,
retro Chopper bike up the village´s steepest
hill. Now, I am not one for macho stunts,
although my friends and partner are. The
contest consisted of the village´s children
and men competing fiercly against each other
and the unsuspecting ´turistas´! Surprisingly
my partner came third, which won him the
respect of the whole village for the duration
of our stay, along with the fact he speaks
Spanish well and could also engage with the
locals in broken Catalan.
Staying inland most days was impossible due
to the fierce heat, but having hired a car we
headed to the coast for some welcome relief
from the heat. One of the last major resorts
in Spain before hitting France, Empuriabrava,
was nearby which was grim to say the least.
22. Out NorthEast www.outnortheast.com