Barcelona round 4

I also have holy week off and did some traveling. I was in Barcelona for 5 days, which was a lot especially on my own. I have a friend I met up with one night, and some friends from Malaga were also in the city for part of the time, but for all accounts this was the first time I had really traveled by myself. Now, I absolutely love Barcelona. It’s my favorite city in Spain, and possibly the only one where I could really imagine myself living. However, I know it pretty well by now and I’d been to most of the big sites already, essentially eliminating a lot of the activities for a solo traveler in a foreign city. What I ended up doing the majority of the time was hang out on “La Rambla” street and many of the parks to people watch. Back at UCLA I would do this almost every day at Bruin Plaza for an hour or two while I ate, and I thoroughly enjoyed it in Barcelona, a city full of variety and unique (friki) tastes.

It’s almost not fair to call it Spain because it’s so much different than every other Spanish city I have been to. There’s something about it; something about observing daily life and wandering the various neighborhoods. It’s so cosmopolitan and seemingly modern & progressive while steeped in rich history and a well-preserved culture. Navigating the twists & turns of the medieval Barrio Gotico, I wouldn’t be surprised to run into a group of pre-teen skaters wearing the latest in American gear. Or strolling along the Barceloneta beach, one of the newest and seemingly prime touristy spots, which is actually a very typical lower-middle class Barcelona neighborhood where the men gather in the park to play chess and the multi-colored apartments are lined with laundry hanging out to dry.

The city is huge, yet somehow retains its own unique identity. This sense of identity is not felt in Madrid, and the one found in Sevilla is similar to other Spanish cities. What Barcelona has is a personality all its own, and something about it makes me feel at home. Who knows? Maybe I’ll have a chance to call it that one day.