We sat down at a table, just the three of us. The sunset over the coast, while in the distance mountains stretch along the shoreline into the horizon, coloured by the reddish glow of dusk, shimmering in the blue Medditerean below. We sat and chatted with one another, as the feast of seafood and Catalan delicaies was being prepared. Rare are the occassions when we are together, and rarer still it will become as we each go our separate ways. Dad has certainly already departed, and hence the empty fourth chair at the table.
...I glance over at the empty chair, and realise for the second time in as many days how much I miss dad. It was a subtle realisation, and though he has been gone for almost six months now, somehow the fact is really dawning on me that he no longer will return. And that is an empty and worrying thought... I looked at mum and brother, and treasured those passing moments we are still together, sitting so close to one another, sharing a meal. How we have all grown... how we have all changed!
There is a reason, I guss, behind these nostalgic sentiments has a reason.
Over the weekend, mum and brother popped over to Barcelona for a short visit, taking advantage of the fact that I will be here in the six weeks to come. For me, it was a welcome change of routine from the daily lectures and busy programmes that have been lined up, and at last I could get a good opportunity to really see the city, and all the beauty and excitement it has to offer.
The shopping did not really interest me. It was the architecture, the unique modernist movement that has made such an impact on Barcelona's cityscape and skyline that drew me in. They say every city has been scultured by artists, and certainly the likes of Picasso and Gaudi, to name but a few, are those whose names will be engraved in the buildings and public arts they have crafted with their ingenious imagination and extraordinary perception of reality beyond the conventional. Admitted, I may not always understand or see what they wanted to protray, but the colours, the wild shapes and unrestricted use of curves and lines without regard for symmetry or esthetic balance, pushes the limit of art to a level that makes one wonder and think about the reality of existence.
But Barcelona has many faces, and the old and gothic also had its magical lure. Its narrow alleyways and cobble-stone lanes hide mysterious history waiting to be told, it seemed. I wandered the streets, losing myself in admiring the sculptures of carefully crafted adornements to buildings, fine testament to the wealth and significance that the Catalonians place on art and culture. Every now and now, another piece of the city's history as a trading post and crossroad of migrating populations is revealed, behind closed curtains, in the stained windows, and in the architectural styles that range from the local to the exotic.
From the top of Montjuic, one has a wide view of the city. A buzzling sprawl of life and energy at my feet, with towering in the distance spires of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia in vast contrast to the Torre Agbar, the doned spherical roof of which is the latest addition to the city's ever changing and ever-growing skyline. The Old City is said to be the oldest and biggest medieval town in Europe, whereas a few blocks down is the revitalised development area of the marina, where modern malls and yacht yards attract buzz with tourists. The beaches along Barcelona's coastline seem to add vigour to an already vibrant city... not only in the crowds of people that sunbathe there daily but also in the way the remnants of the 1992 Olympics has transformed the beach boulevard into an exciting area for recreation and leisure, day or night.
It was in sharing all these with family that I realise how different it is from sharing it with friends. There is an unspeakable bond that cannot be described, that cannot be altered, or denied. And, at the end of the day, there are so many memories that are shared, and that make one another laugh and think back when shared. Over sumptuous meals of tapas, paella, and doses of sangria, we enjoyed one another's company........company that was only too short, and went by too soon.
