A few months ago, I had the chance to spend three weeks in sunny, veg-friendly Barcelona. I owe this good fortune in part to my choice of career, since in the freelance life there isn’t all that much to stop you from packing your bag and heading somewhere new—like a turtle with its shell, you really only need your laptop with you (although mine feels about as heavy and cumbersome as a person-sized turtleshell).

The most tangible result of my stay in Barcelona is the VegVacations feature I wrote for the December 2016 issue of VegNews, which has just come out. In it I describe Barcelona’s main attractions and neighborhoods and recommend some things to do and nice veg eateries to visit.

Barcelona certainly has some beautiful architecture, fascinating museums and great restaurants. But what I’ll remember most fondly, what made my stay truly meaningful, are the great people I met there. Some were locals, some expats. All were warm and welcoming individuals, each using his or her own talents to make the world a better place for people, animals or both. I’d like to introduce a few of them to you.

Petronila — organic coffee from a women’s cooperative in Guatemala 

Petronila is a lovely person in many ways, but one of her best qualities has to be her great patience. As she was my host in Barcelona, we had many opportunities for small conversations between our various comings and goings, and she handled the many gaps in my rusty Spanish with good humor. She even managed to make sense of what I said when I accidentally inserted Spanish-accented French words into my sparkling conversation. Hats off!

As we shared our backgrounds, Petronila, who comes from a coffee-growing region of Guatemala, told me about the coffee import business she was in the middle of launching: El Café de Petronila. All organic and fair-trade, her coffee is sourced from a cooperative of women coffee farmers in Guatemala, helping ensure a decent income for these rural workers. The company name Petronila chose has special significance, for it not only refers to herself but is also an homage to the grandmother for whom she was named. Below are a few photos she sent me of the coffee farmers at work. The coffee, in case you were wondering, is smooth and delectable!

Roberto — messages of hope for animals on T-shirts and billboards

It was at the Feria Vegana, Barcelona’s twice-monthly vegan fair, that I first met Roberto. It took some time before I could approach the table where he sold his screen-printed T-shirts, since quite a few people were already crowded around it when I arrived, rummaging through the stacks in search of the perfect message, color and size. When I finally pushed my way through, I understood better—these were some cool designs!

Roberto began his screen-printing business, Serigrafia Vegana, about two years ago, first selling his merchandise only at fairs and then branching out into online sales as well. Most of his designs center around the idea of animal liberation, with elegant illustrations of birds flying free and messages reappropriating traditional sayings involving animals. One such phrase is Fueron felices y comieron perdices, which literally means “They were happy and ate partridges”. Often appearing as the last line in a happy ending to a fairy tale, it is equivalent to our “And they lived happily ever after”. The updated, kinder version on Roberto’s shirts is Fueron felices y liberaron perdices (“They were happy and FREED partridges”). That’s more like it!

A native of Uruguay, Roberto has been living in Spain for 10 years but doesn’t believe in artificial borders and prefers to consider himself a citizen of the world. Fair treatment for immigrants and refugees is another cause that’s dear to his heart: one of his bestselling T-shirt designs reads Ninguna persona es ilegal (“No one is illegal”).

In spring 2016, together with three other local activists, Roberto launched the Liberación Animal Ahora project to raise awareness of animal suffering by placing billboards in the Barcelona metro. Similar display campaigns in other countries, including France this past summer and right now, have proven effective at reaching large numbers of people. Funds to rent the advertising space were raised in just 13 days through donations from people in the animal-rights community, and Canadian photojournalist and activist Jo-Anne McArthur granted the campaign the right to use a poignant image of a veal calf from her We Animals project. The billboards went up in May and the campaign was a success, bringing the plight of animals to the awareness of thousands of metro users every day.

Side note: The Feria Vegana is a fun event to visit if you happen to be in town when one’s taking place. People from the city’s vegan community bring home-made food, clothing, jewelry, soaps and other items to sell, and there’s often live music too. For those of you wanting to practice your Spanish, it’s also a nice chance to meet locals (many people also know English, and I even happened upon a French speaker there). Check their Facebook page to find out when the next one will be. In the meantime, a few photos:

Àlex — a sanctuary for abandoned and homeless cats

I learned about El Jardinet dels Gats, a cat sanctuary in Barcelona’s old town, on Facebook while planning my trip and immediately contacted them to arrange a day to stop by. I met with co-founder Àlex (pictured here) and Venezuelan-born volunteer Johanna, who showed me around the sanctuary and explained its history and how it operates.

El Jardinet dels Gats (Catalan for “the cats’ little garden”) is a non-profit organization founded in 2008, when the sanctuary was set up in the yard of a former kindergarten. The El Jardinet team rescues stray and abandoned cats from the street and gives them a temporary home in the garden, where they are fed and cared for by sanctuary volunteers and staff from a local veterinary clinic. At first, incoming cats can be quite wary of humans (with good reason!) and shy away or hide, but most eventually warm up to their caregivers and end up becoming socialized. After some time in the garden, cats move on to foster homes, where they continue to be socialized until they are adopted. The non-profit occasionally holds special events to raise funds and adoption fairs to help find new families for its cats.

Since its founding, El Jardinet dels Gats has rescued and saved over 1,000 cats. If you’d like to make a donation to help them help more cats, please visit this page. The cats thank you!

Tim and Julien — eco-friendly business reviews and sustainable massage services

I met Tim online prior to my trip as I searched for interesting veggie-type people to hang out with, and got together with him and his partner Julien one evening for dinner at the amazing Rasoterra. As we chatted and sampled each other’s dishes, they told me their story. They moved to Barcelona two years ago (Tim from Belgium and Julien from France) and have been loving it there, thanks in large part to the city’s relaxed pace. Soon after their relocation, Tim founded Good Goal, an independent site offering unbiased reviews of eco-friendly, sustainable and community-oriented places in major cities around Europe. These include craft beer makers, vegan and slow food restaurants, hidden green spots, specialty coffee bars, slow fashion shops and green hotels. The site also features a blog, and Tim has recently launched a series of pocket guides to sustainable options in various cities.

Julien runs a massage institute, Under Pressure Massage, with a sustainable, eco-friendly approach, using only organic massage oils and creating a relaxing ambiance with candles he makes himself from recycled oils. He offers various types of massage (Californian, Ayurvedic, Thai and more).

Ales and Laura — healthful living-foods cuisine prepared with love

Among the many restaurants on my itinerary, one of the ones with the highest recommendations from local friends was Petit Brot (Catalan for “little sprout”), a living-foods eatery and cold-pressed juice bar with a focus on optimum nutrition but also a definite flair for flavor and creativity. After my very tasty and colorful lunch (a beet soup, curry over cauliflower rice and a raw version of crema catalana), I chatted a bit with the owners. Ales, who hails from the Czech Republic, and Laura, a native Catalan, first took an interest in a different way of eating after seeing a video featuring Gary Yourofsky. As they were especially intrigued by the health benefits of juicing and a vegan diet, they soon began investigating raw foods. This led to their opening a restaurant of their own in Barcelona. Now, more than one year on, their business is flourishing and the lines at the juice bar are getting longer and longer as locals and tourists alike flock to Petit Brot to experience this type of cuisine for themselves.

Slowly Veggie

This last item isn’t about anyone I met, just a cool find that I wanted to mention. During my stay in Barcelona, I learned about a Spanish version of Slowly Veggie, a newish vegetarian/vegan food magazine we already had in France in a French version. I soon found a copy at a newsstand in the Gràcia district and of course could not resist adding it to my collection of food magazines from around the world. The concept is great for people who are just discovering plant-based eating, since the first half of the magazine features vegetarian recipes and the second half vegan ones—allowing people to get an idea of both. The photography is beautiful and quite a bit of creativity seems to go into the dishes. Slowly Veggie is also available in German, Italian, Romanian and Polish. If you speak any of these languages, check out the sites as there are some free recipes there. Here are a few of the dishes that caught my eye. Perhaps they appealed to Sésame, too… in any case, he was kind enough to help me with this photo shoot back home in Paris.

Barcelona is a truly beautiful and very veg-friendly city with a dynamic community of people working toward a more eco-conscious and compassionate. Perhaps you have read my VegNews article, or even feel inspired just by this little post. Either way, I highly recommend putting Barcelona on your list!