Shhhhh! Be very, very quiet. I am nourishing my inner aspect right now. Last week I mentioned that Thursdays are like my own little passive-aggressive holiday. Because every Thursday, I am guaranteed of at least two things: my next door neighbors will have a very loud band practice, and Gwyneth Paltrow will release a completely unaware snooty Goop newsletter. As soon as I read the inner aspect tagline, I want to beat her over the head. In an internet sort of way, of course. This is my sort of nourishment.
Today Gwyneth takes us on a Goopy tour of Barcelona. It’s about the best us plebeians can do, so we’re thankful for whatever little patronizing morsels she can give us. Lest you think a 19-year-old Gwyneth was staying at the Four Seasons and paying the locals to pave the streets in gold before she walked on them, her Goopiness talks about the rough times she spent in Barcelona, when all she had was a little bit of pocket money and a backpack. The daughter of a famous actress and a director. Something tells me Gwyneth would never suffer such indignities – why that’d be like pretending she makes $25,000 a year! – And she’s already told us she can’t do that.
Barcelona is a city full of wonder and beauty. I first went when I was 19 years old, with some train money and a backpack and not much else. I fell in love with the city’s passion for life, its food, culture, and of course, its architecture. Where else can you surf in the morning, do a master tour of Gaudí’s surreal buildings (the Sagrada Familia and the Parc Güell, just to name a couple), eat the best tapas of your life and get lost wandering the labyrinthine, majestic streets of the Barrio Gótico? It is a city worth exploring and falling in love with….
¡Que vagi bé!
Gwyneth
[From Goop.com]
Here are a few of Gwyneth’s suggestions for where to eat, stay, and what to do while you’re in Barcelona. It’d almost be enjoyable to watch her try to write for what she believes to be the common people. You know, if it weren’t so infuriating.
Inopia
I would fly all the way to Barcelona just to eat at this completely regular-looking, crowded, noisy tapas bar. I had one of the best meals of my life here, and every dish is a must-have: the croquettas, patatas bravas, tiny fried fish, olives, boquerones, pineapple with molasses and strawberries with sherry vinegar caramel (if they are in season). Their dishes are truly sublime. Go when they open at 7 p.m. because you can’t make a reservation and the lines are surreal.Can Pineda
Really traditional Spanish cooking, very old-school. Good rice with mushrooms. Chef Mario Batali, food critic Mark Bittman and Spanish actress Claudia Bassols went during the filming of our PBS food and travel series, Spain…on the road Again.Hotel Arts Barcelona
I adore the Arts. It is a big hotel done RIGHT. Amazing views, beautiful rooms, great service. It’s where I bed down in Barcelona most of the time.
[From Goop.com]
Ahh, nothing like some good old fashioned name dropping to nourish the inner aspect. Two of Gwyneth’s friends contribute their own picks for the eat/drink/stay categories, and somehow they come off so much better. It’s probably just because I know it’s not Gwyneth saying it, but somehow I’m thinking, “Oh what great ideas, even if I couldn’t afford it,” whereas with Gwyneth I’m thinking, “Why you conceited little…”
Next week Gwyneth promises us her favorite cookie recipes. Which, based on the general tone of her other emails, she must make all the time. You know, since she manages to go everywhere, do everything, and see everyone. How she has the time to fit in writing a sanctimonious email every week I’ll never know.
Here’s Gywneth leaving the Byron & Tracey hair salon in Beverly Hills on March 25th. Images thanks to Pacific Coast News.
She still doesn’t get that her tips include getting on a plane first. In this economy people do not want to go away where they can’t spend freely.
She should have listed biking and hiking trails all over instead. She is dumb and cookies are better off baked in the colder months. She should be giving recipes to fruit drinks for the summer and melon carvings to be creative with kids. Just dumb. Instead she uses her goop to show off that she was an exchange student. No creativity.
LOL JayBird, she really has gotten under your skin.
Personally my favorite was recommending a restaurant which is only open 6 months of the year and is impossible to get a table at. That was very helpful if only to show us places she has been that we will never, ever go to.
She forgot to mention the many talented pick pocketers in the beautiful city of Barcelona.
“How she has the time to fit in writing a sanctimonious email every week I’ll never know.”
Well that is what we normal folks call ‘multitasking’, for example right now I am doing charts, making phone calls, blogging, paying bills and praying to god that the wildly aggressive German Shep bitch who just had gastropexy this morning isn’t gnawing through her basket muzzle in an attempt to eat the fingers off of one of the nurses or techs. I so wish I was multitasking along Gwyns lines instead.
ri-i-ght. i’m sure goopy wasn’t there 24 hours before she was calling rich daddy for money. i think the conversation went something like this:
goopy: daddy, diasters! ok,turns out the youth hostel is only one star in the zagat guide!
daddy: ok, sweetie. the four seasons is right around the corner. just check in there and put it on my card.
goopy: super duper, daddy! the other disaster is my backpack thingy…did you know i have to carry it? on my back? like i was working class or something! now that my friends aren’t around to see i need some real luggage.
daddy: ok, precious. there is a louis vitton store across from the hotel. just go there and put it on my card.
goopy: thanks daddy! but, the train thing? i have to ride on it with real spanish people, and some of them look kind of poor. what should i do?
daddy: hire a car, princess. just put it on my card.
goopy: ok! thanks, daddy. being independant sure is easy.
daddy: ok, my ray of sunshine. mommy & i sure are proud of our independant little traveller!
barf.
To the original kate- keep it coming..
:::I first went when I was 19 years old, with some train money and a backpack and not much else.:::
notice she didn’t mention HOW LONG she lasted in that situation … i’m guessing till lunch…
That skinny bitch could have packed all of her clothes in a tube sock. The more I read about her the more I can’t figure out which one was the smart one between her and Bradley.
Gwyneth, as dumb as the day is long.
Hurry everyone, fire up your ovens to heat the house and start baking cookies next week. Don’t forget to crank up the AC. Always remember, June is not for ice cream and sorbets but for baked cookies and pies.
@ the Original Kate: ehehehe. luv it!
you guys are right about the baking. i am a pastry chef and i am forced to bake pies in the summer, and it is not fun. gwynnie might have thrown in a tip: if you must bake cookies in the summer you would do well to refrigerate your batter overnight. also, for pies you should always chill your rolling pin in the fridge for several hours before you roll out your dough. it will make your life much easier. trust.
she’s not dumb but Ignorant – but i am amazed how someone so privileged can’t see that her privilege has created her silliness…this is the beginning of the end of my interest in these idiots – she would have so continued to garner my respect (via “shakespeare in love”)if she didn’t f”in feel the need to show a moral superiority (or as she may say, an “opinion”) – OVER her, she was never much to look at, but she had the acting going for her, now she is just lame, every gal i know is lovelier and less maintenance-ridden.
she’s totally cool.
Backpacker my ass. You don’t go traipsing across Europe without travelers checks.
“I would fly all the way to Barcelona just to eat at this … tapas bar.”
How much pointless air pollution has she contributed to?
most places don’t even take travelers checks. its really not that hard to deal with barcelona without that much money, but as somebody else said, its easy to leave without any with all the street thieves.
I would also fly to Barcelona just to eat a particular sort of tapas, just as I would fly to the Caribbean to bask in the sun for a weeks. Unfortunately I can´t afford it, and I don´t know many people who can. I think it comes from Gwyneth never having known a normal, unprivileged lifestyle. Most people in this situation simply shut up and do a lot for charity. She´s really gathering a lot of negative karma with Goop.
It’s sad, as a Barcelona resident, read all this comments about street thieves, of course it’s also sad to notice that no one said that MOST of them are not spanish but illegal inmigrants from Morocco or Romania .Just because of our inefficient Justice they feel safe to do as they please in Spain, so our politicians are the ones to blame.
Does she have any clue how annoying she is?
What does she know about surfing. Or eating for that matter.
I don’t get all the animosity towards Gwyneth. There are many people who still take vacations and have worked hard to have a nice life. So saying that everything she recommends is totally beyond the reach of everyone is silly and petty. I myself worked my a$$ off to get through grad school and have a good career, and I don’t want a newsletter recommending motor lodges at the local beach. So, I read GOOP. Because I love to travel and cook and I might just look up that restuarant she recommended in one of her newsletters. Now I won’t be staying at a $1,000 a night hotel she mentioned in Paris (which doesn’t make me angry), but she offers less expensive alternatives too that I might just check out on my next vacation.
If GOOP (cooking, foreign travel, a bit of luxury) is not your thing, then don’t read GOOP! Some people just get off on bashing others who have more than they do. It is a choice that you have whether or not to read this newsletter. I don’t subscribe to AARP bc I’m not older, I don’t subscribe to a newsletter on rap music bc it’s not my thing. What kills me is that so many people KNOW what Gwyneth’s likes are (and her life) and still read GOOP just to bash her. I think a lot of the hatred is good old fashioned jealousy. Why WOULD she recommend going to the local beach and eating at Hardee’s? It’s not her life. And that is okay too. It takes all kinds to make the world go round.
As for specifics — El Bulli IS the most famous restaurant in the world! I’m not a movie star, but I am a foodie, and this was a totally appropriate thing to be listed and something on my list of things to do before I die. No list of Barcelona would be complete w/o it. Even Anthony Bourdain went there on No Reservations and he famously tends to go more lower end on his show.
Spainard, don’t take silly comments to heart. I love to travel and am dying to visit Spain. Your country is well loved in America! Not only is it home to arguably the best restuarant in the world, but to some of the most famous architecture. Every city has problems. Heck, I got pickpocketed in Florence when I was visiting on the street by some gypsies. But it’s still my favorite city in Italy!!
Anthony Bourdain also sat on a kitchen floor with some Eskimos in Quebec and ate seal brain. What a foodie he is.
I don’t take these comments to heart, 😉 it just saddens me that people who come to visit the city where i live, get robbed or abused just because our govermment is unable to deal with this (big) problem. After sending my comment I just want to clarify that I’ve nothing against immigration, I’m against illegals who are breaking our laws every day and just don’t want to respect our rules of conduct. My best wishes and hope you could come to BCN one day and have lots of fun !!!
spaniard – i suspect all the people going on about crime/dirt/problems in spain & elsewhere are the same ones who go on cruises and tour buses with other americans, stay in 5 star hotels, eat only in american style restaurants and get pissed when people don’t speak english. i have backpacked to many countries and have never had a problem. i have been mugged twice in my life -once in new orleans and once in my own hometown of DC! but i still love both those places and would never use one person’s actions as a measure againt an entire city. don’t let the ugly americans get you down. and before i get jumped on by the ugly americans i am an american too.
Spaniard, it is somewhat disingenuous to act like the only people committing crimes in Barcelona are Eastern European immigrants.
@Spaniard – People make the same inane generalisations about eg. London, based on a tiny handful of experiences, rarely their own. Crime is everywhere, most of us with a bit of nous know how to avoid it. And if it happens to us (and it has happened to me), it’s unfortunate and inconvenient but never a reflection of the city or the people or the country we happen to be in at the time. I’ve got friends in Barcelona and have always had the best times there.
I’ve never said they are the only ones, I’ve just said that magribians and romanians commit most of them,I’m tired to see them day after day “working” in the public transport,along the Ramblas, etc,and if you try to warn the victims they threaten you, it’s just a fact, of course i’ve never said all the spaniards are saints, the only thing you have to do is forget the political correctness and take a look at the police statistics in the city, oh and of course talk to the residents.
Spain has bullfighting and running with the bulls. I won’t support that country and Madelyn, El Bulli is the most famous restaurant in the world? I bet you are Gwyneth herself. Why all of that oil in your legs on the tonight show last night? Why don’t you invest in a good bra to lift those saggy flapjacks of yours?
Blueskies, they’re called Inuit. Eskimo is an antiquated term.
“most places don’t even take travelers checks.”
Well of course not. Small shops will want local currency. You go to a bank or money changing booth at the airport and cash your travelers checks there. Jeez, I thought that would have been obvious.
“I would also fly to Barcelona just to eat a particular sort of tapas,”
I wouldn’t, no single meal is worth that kind of pollution. Hell, I even buy locally grown produce to help the people trying to cut back on the diesel fuel used in cross country trucks. One careless, self-serving polluter like Paltrow probably cancels out the efforts of dozens of normal “green” people when she decides she needs to fly half way across the globe in a private jet because she’s feeling peckish. She must have the carbon footprint of a small village. God, this planet would be better off with her.
Thanks, Orion but I know this. Eskimo is a Native Indian slight meaning ‘raw meat eater’ but I try not to confuse people on the boards with ‘Inuit’ and I am part Inuit and boy does my dentist know it!
Gwyneth is still dumb, though.
Very mature Blueskies…not I am not Gwyneth. But I notice that my post really irritated you, because you have made not one, but two, snide comments to me on this post. Very telling. Something I said must have struck a chord.
I was married to a chef for 5 years, and I waited tables at many fine restaurants to put myself through law school. So, over the years I have developed an interest in food and wine. It’s sort of a “hobby” of mine. And yes, El Bulli is considered by many to be the best restaurant in the world. Most people realize that saying something is the “best” is an objective opinion, which you are of course free to disagree with. Perhaps you’d like to share your picks for the most famous/best restaurant in the world? Or does it make you feel better to go around and “bully” people on these boards and leave snide remarks?
Please no more stories about little Miss Hollow Actress. Okay anyone who is best buds with Madonna, me no like.
You people are just a bunch of haters. Get a life instead of criticising everybody else. I’m not saying Gwyneth is an angel and that I like her Website, but I really think she’s a nice person and she knows that she’s leading the life of an elite and that she’s extremely lucky. My advice to you readers is : stop following celebrity gossip and get a life. And Gwyenth, I really admire you and think you are nice, but I’d love it if you would take part in charity or volunteering activities more often. That’s one way of making a difference in the world.
Thanx
Patty
Funny, just this afternoon a rather nutty guy in a bar told me how she recommended this bar a few streets from here (I am in Barcelona). And he said he had been there recently and that a beer was only 1.90 euros, which is not bad. So his take on her was that she was pretty normal and not just going to impossibly elitist places.
I don’t like her acting, but I’ll give her this: of a thousand ignorant backpackers visiting Spain with no clue of the culture and linguistic identity and no interest in either, Paltrow is a rare exception. She is tuned in to both, speaks great Spanish, still has personal contacts with the family that took her in as a youngster. Meaning shed is way more respectful than 99% of young visitors, however cool they think they are. So give her credit, because next time you come to Spain, however you manage on whatever budget, you will almost certainly be a greater cretin than she is, however “out of touch” or “ignorant princess” you may think she is.
I’m a fan. She’s really cool.