Reflections from Spain
Writing this title honestly feels pretentious. To put it bluntly, it makes me feel like one of those try-hard Substack writers (not to say that I am shading them, there are some genuinely good ones but I have so many thoughts about Substack, and the whole "intellectualism" and "anti-brainrot, analogue" movement that's currently taking over social media, but as usual, I digress and that's a reflection/thought dump for another day). But whatever, we move on because the jet lag is still hitting me pretty bad and I have been thinking about this for the last couple days.
Spain was really nice and good to me. I hadn't felt this healed and well-rested since the start of 2025 because my summer break and recent semester was honestly one Big Emotional baggage and I was not having a good time so I was already looking forward to this trip a lot. I loved the weather and the views, especially the long walks, the mountains, the rivers and god, the architecture. I'll start with Madrid because that's where we began our trip but every alley, street or corner I turned into would greet me with the most insanely beautiful details and exteriors. The exterior wall trims, the window sills, the roof, and even just the walkways and walls were all so insanely gorgeous. As someone who has grown up in a concrete jungle where boxy, rectangular flats and high rise buildings are the norm, seeing the vast amount of space or plazas, as well as the most gorgeous architecture gracing even the most simple things like supermarkets or banks was honestly life-changing. I think my local government would have an aneurism if they ever saw how much empty space Spain had for its people (and tourists) to just walk and frolick around in.
Don't even get me started on the churches. I'm not Christian or Catholic but the architecture for all the churches I walked past or visited were drop dead gorgeous. Granted, I did get pretty sick of churches toward the end of the trip but they were really beautiful, especially the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.
Most of the churches were built during the Gothic/Neo-Gothic era, with some being Baroque, Rococo or even Renaissance and seeing all the details up close was honestly insane.The funny thing is learning all this again actually made me feel sad or disappointed with myself at times because I was reminded how much I had forgotten about my formal art training and history of art knowledge. The Sagrada Familia was honestly just insane. Gaudi was truly ahead of his time and seeing the stain glass windows and the high ceilings healed something in me. I genuinely believe this could be like part of a new gen of the 7 wonders of the world or something because the fact that it is still being constructed based off his original plans honestly blows my mind.
Barcelona was really nice too and we got to explore more of the city cos we took a lot of day trips out when we were in Madrid. It was honestly fascinating to truly understand what it meant by how tourism was Barcelona's number 1 economy. I know there were the issues of over-tourism, and I could sense the hostility and displeasure of some of the shopkeepers or locals toward us since we were tourists, but I was just trying to also imagine how Barcelona would be like if they reduced the amount of touristy stuff and made it less catered to tourists and honestly, it feels bleak. I do find it fascinating that a large portion of their economy is truly dependent on tourism because idk, when you normally hear cities or countries say this, you can still tell tourism doesn't play that big of a role but in Barcelona, it was so prominent, more so than Madrid.
The main thing I wanted to talk about which spurred this reflection in the first place was the amount of interest and recognition Spain had toward Anthropology & Sociology. It was honestly fascinating and shocking in a good way. I can't read Spanish but I honestly WISH I could because every single bookstore I visited in Madrid and Barcelona had huge shelves and sections dedicated to Anthro and Soci. It honestly gagged me the first time I walked into the bookstore in Madrid and even though I couldn't understand 90% of the titles, I still painstakingly google translated titles that sounded vaguely interesting and I jotted them down. They had the classic theorists and their works like Judith Butler, Zygmunt Bauman, Durkheim, Geertz, etc. translated into Spanish, but they also had a lot of other books on feminism, cultures, Anthropology on Spain, Africas, ethnographies and so much more. Don't even get me started on the fact that there were whole MUSEUMS for it?? Like the anthropology museum in Madrid and the ethnography and cultural museum in Barcelona. I do wish I could have gone but I didn't want to subject my family to waiting for me or boring them with it. Honestly, idk if it's just a Spain thing or if Europe appreciates anthro and soci so much more but it felt so shocking and amazing to see how much emphasis (?) there was toward these disciplines. The fact that I even stumbled across an art exhibition in the park on the anthropology of emotions and family ties/identities was so insane. Plus, it was a really good exhibition and if we had been in Madrid longer I could have even stayed for the dialogue by the artists. Genuinely if I mentioned I was studying/studied these 2 disciplines to anyone right now back home, they would still either 1. ask what the hell that is, or 2. be severely disappointed and shocked at my choice. It was so refreshing just seeing how much more soci and anthro get acknowledged in Spain and I wonder if the rest of Europe, especially Germany where a lot of theorists and the founding fathers of Soci came from, does the same.
Another thing on this similar vein is that I loved how Spain really acknowledged and recognised the arts. Maybe it's a wider Europe thing too since a lot of famous painters/visual artists came from Europe + a lot of foundational art movements came from there but I felt so seen and happy at how the arts was something so natrual and inherent in the city. Arts is honestly just not it here, especially coupled with the conservative, traditional Asian values...the art scene in Spain felt so magical to me like I picked up quite a couple of prints and saw a really good mix of traditional and contemporary art by famous and non famous artists. People go to Spain to buy idk Zara, Pull & Bear, luxury goods but I went there and spent a good amount of money on zines, art prints and taking a shit ton of photos of really cool posters on the streets. Art didn't feel like something the government tries to push unlike at home here, and it just felt so natural and normalised in the cities if that makes sense. Maybe I'm biased but I genuinely believe that it's because again, a lot of art movements and great artists stemmed from Europe and the culture and perspective towards the arts is a lot more open and accepting as compared to Asian societies. I'm really glad I got to visit a ton of museums, especially the Salvador Dali museum because I honestly didn't know he built and curated his own museum and was even buried in there.
I'm honestly really sad winter break is ending. I blinked and then it was over. But again, I am so so grateful for this break because I haven't felt this well-rested and clean for a while if that makes sense. I sound like a broken recorder but truly, I really needed this break to be free and just relax and meditate for a bit, get back into my interests, start fresh and just be me.