Eccentricity, Barcelona Style

At Comerç 24, a supposedly hot Barcelona restaurant, the dinner started with various single bites, including pulverized popcorn crumbs served in a small paper cone. The meal ended with an array of sweet tapas, including Crema Catalana (a sort of creme caramel type dish) foam. It was far from your normal fine dining experience, but it was damn good. At some point during the meal, my sister remarked that this seems to be a city that accepts its eccentrics, and even nurtures them.

This is not only apparent in this one of a kind dinner, but think about its influential figures—Gaudí and the other modernista architects, and artists such as Picasso and Dalí. They and their works are not what we would consider normal. The city is in fact full of various “eccentricities” (I use the term in as much of a non-offensive way as possible)—from street performers, some playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on accordion, others singing opera, and others playing with a giant marionette set, to the traditions of the people here. For example, in every Barcelonan Nativity scene, crouching behind the main focus is a crapper. It’s simply a man defecating secretly, and no one can really explain why he is there. Another similarly themed tradition is that there is a log in the middle of the table during Christmas that kids beat with a stick until it spits out their presents. Another inexplicable tradition that is, well, a little far from what we may consider normal.

So from the outside, the eccentricities of Barcelona may just seem strange, but it is really what makes this city so unique and wonderful. After all, which is more fun, a city full of redundancy and “normality”, or a city that may be a little “off” but gives you something new behind every turn?