Mainly on the Plain

Very little rain to be had at all in that country of Spain - at least that was my impression of the place having just visited it for the first time. The Costa Brava is a byword (or bywords?) for excessive tourist development and hoards of beer-swilling British and Scandinavians I know, but my Rough Guide Directions guide book led me to believe that it was this description was unfair and that it was much better than that and that all that business had kind-of calmed down anyway, seeming to suggest that all that crowd had de-camped to Ibiza or something. That was a very long sentence, so it was, but the point is that, first of all I like long sentences. But, the second, and more relevant point, is that the original description is one that I find to be the most accurate. Sure, there's rugged beauty to be had all along that coastline and it is nicely hot too - that's true. But, I just didn't warm to the place in the same way that I warmed to the Italian or French Riviera. I am inclined to blame Franco for the sorry mess that I think the Costa Brava is in. In the 60's, you couldn't really argue with him if he decided that such-and-such was going to be done. "Necessitamos muchos grandos, feos y sucios edificios para todos los turisticos que viendren a nuestro pais!" he would shout at the Catalonian councillors, banging his fist on the nearest hard object and farting simultaneously. But no-one dared laugh as they knew that he'd have their balls for breakfast (probably with some apricot jam) if they did, or if they spoke back to him in Catalan. So, built they were and I think that this practice of riding roughshod over people's concerns has left a general lack of concern for their local environment. Maybe I have the place all wrong, now, and stop me if that's the case, but here's an observation; I have considered for some time, that amongst Ireland's faults was a lack of civic sense of duty and littered and untidy towns and villages. But the Costa Brava area definitely has a lot more of that than I would have thought possible for what is a wealthy progressive place, by all accounts.

The other thing was the people. I was expecting a thoroughly friendly, happy-go-lucky bunch of Mediterranean folk, whose strong sense of independence made them even friendlier than the average Spaniard. What I got was a crowd who seem to want to keep to themselves very much and just don't seem to give a shit about you. Maybe I was in the wrong places: maybe on the Costa Brava, everyone is weary of foreigners. Maybe, I look a bit weird (I don't really! Ha ha!). Maybe they're just unfriendly fuckers. One thing I'm sure of; despite the faults of Ireland (about which I do whine from time to time), I know that if you were in an underground city car park in the sweltering heat with a bunch of irritable children and wife and your battery was flat, you would have a team of men to push you to a start within a few minutes. I had this experience in the beautiful city of Girona recently and it took about an hour of trying to stop people before finally one lady embarrassed her husband into helping.

Anyway, enough of all that blather; wasn't that one hell of a great World Cup? And the final was a cracker - particularly for a final, which are usually not one of the better matches. My eldest boy, who's 10, was extremely upset at Zidane's sending off. He didn't even want to shake hands with a nice ould Italian fella with whom we had watched Italy's masterful performance in the semi-final against Germany, such was the level of his sense of disgust at the cynical tactics of Italy. And, I have to say that I would come down pretty much on that side of the argument myself.