my first job in Barcelona..

In one of my previous blog entries I wrote about the time when I moved to Barcelona and my search for a job there. As you will remember, there were some pathetic attempts to get a proper job but in the end I managed to find something through friends as a court translator at the Court of Barcelona. So, let's do something different this time and let me tell you about that period in Barcelona. That was 02-03 so quite a while ago. I will always remember the first day I entered the building, passing through security and then going to the secretary to register myself. Of course, they were waiting for me as I was requested through the translation agency and they led me to a big room where I was welcomed by some officials who explained me what the case was about. I had to translate English-Spanish and viceversa as the detained person was from the Netherlands. He was caught with cocaine inside the bus at the border and was there for his interrogation. So I waited there, with the judge, secretary and the public prosecutor (called 'fiscal' in spanish) but no lawyer was present. I found that curious then but didn't think about it much.

Anyways, the police officers brought in the Dutch, who looked a bit scared as he was looking around trying to figure out where he was. I assumed he had spent the night under arrest in a wonderful little jail room called 'calabozo', which was one floor under the court building. They sat him on a chair, the judge sat at his desk and the public prosecutor just fired away with his questions as the secretary was typing everything on a old-fashioned typewriter (no computer!), one of the police officers stood by the door and the other one left the room.

- who is your contact person here in Barcelona?

- where did you get the drugs?

- why did say that the drugs weren't yours?

- if the drugs aren't yours, how come they were in placed in your seat? 

- for this amount of drugs you are facing at least 10 years in spanish lockup. do you know that? 

I tried to translate as fast as the prosecutor asked the questions. The Dutch really seamed nervous and was in a cold sweat. I hadn't imagined that an interrogation would take place like this. In the movies, it is always the police asking the questions, you know, the detainee sitting on the chair under a lamp. It wasn't like that at all. After translating what the dutch man had to say the prosecutor started again to fire away with the SAME questions!. This went on and on. In the end I got pretty tired repeating everything back and forth. At one point, the prosecutor stopped and told the police officer to take the man back to his cell. They thanked me for my services, which was a signal that we were done and that I had to leave. 

Not bad for a first day I thought. I went to the secretary to have the receipt signed and collect my cash. 

there's no place like home! this time for real!

I took some days off and flew back to Germany in order to visit my parents. I took my niece with me, who happens to be a black metal  fan14 year old teenager girl. I used to be a metal-head myself so I thought we would have some common ground to talk about. Boy was I wrong! I never heard any of the bands she was listening too and most of the times I had no clue what she was talking about. One time she tried to explain me the bands she liked, folk-metal she called it. Folk-metal?? really? there is a category called folk-metal? When did that happen???

When I started to name-drop all the cool bands like Tesla, White Lion, Skid Row, Buckcherry, Motley Crue all I received was empty, blank stares! Damn you Nirvana, for ruining a whole generation of brilliant music!!

I guess, generation gap caught hold of me. However, the flight itself was not so complicated. She had mostly her headphones on and was listening to some brutal guitar riffs while I tried to read my book.
Since my trip was not only for pleasure I had to drop off my niece at my parent's flat and go from there to various most interesting cities in Germany. But first of all, we went straight from the airport to my beatiful home town Unkel am Rhein. I'm proud to say that I was born there. It is one of the most beautiful towns along the river Rhine. And a very old one as well  with friendly people. It has a historical city center with traditional vineyards. There isn't much industry around except for some small factories in the neighbour-village so people concentrated on small art shops and wine-making here. Unkel is located right next to the river Rhine, 20 km south of Bonn. Very peaceful. If you ever get the chance to fly to Cologne don't hesitate to visit Unkel, you won't be disappointed. There are many things to see and to enjoy, so you will need time. There are one or two guesthouses and a nice hotel 'Rheinhotel Schulz' if you want to stay overnight. Also you won't go hungry there as there are splendid restaurants.

We even have a prision tower from the 17th century where allegedly Beethoven was incarcerated one night, however that could also be an urban legend to attract tourists. Anyways, I am going to listen to some good old rock music now and try to forget about folk-metal and the very fact that I'm getting old :-(