Barcelona

Barcelona is one of my favorite cities in the world. It has a remarkable amount to show off. A beautiful mix of new, old and older and art is interwoven in the various cracks and crevices, on the streets, the walls, in the museums, parks and sometimes it is the buildings themselves.
We got lost right away, but after that I took Krystin to Las Ramblas, the main celebratory (and tourist) strip. On one side of the street the roads lead to the gothic quarter, on the other side within blocks to the large hill that overlooks Barcelona (and is home to the Olympic stadium) the road its self leads to the harbor on one end with a pillar topped by a statue of Christopher Columbus pointing west and at the other end to the main square of Barcelona. As if that weren’t grand enough they have added in to the harbor a strip of man made land that houses an IMAX theater, a mall, an aquarium, and several dance clubs. Along the street of Las Ramblas are bird cages, street performers, flower sellers, artists, and more. Lining the street are hostels, restaurants, clubs, and tourist stores.

Me and Krystin got in a fight (a reoccurring theme) so we didn’t spend much time together in Barcelona… but I went to two bars, talked to an Englishman and an Australian about life and comedy, went to Park Guell where I saw central or south American dancers perform in bright colored costumes, La Sagrada Familia Cathedral where two bronze painted street performers acted like biblical character statues and gave out crosses to those who gave them money, watched skate boarders wearing hip hop skater gear and grunge skater gear (clothing styles looked like early 90s and late 90s “skate wear”), Saw a statue of little red riding hood and a wolf, saw an anarchist/activist house with the words in English “resist” painted on, another street performer dressed like bill the kid (American cowboys), African art for sale, an animals rights protest, a stencil of MR T painted on several walls, other stencils of Bush and bombs painted on the walls as well as graffiti that said “fuck cops” in English…

The Imax showed American films, but for far more money than an American theater, the mall had a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream store in it, the night clubs (from pervious experience) had 4 different types of music, 1 rock, 1 american country, 1 salsa and latin, 1 techno.
English is very commonly spoke in the tourist section of Barcelona, at one point I ran in to a group of college ages guys (all American) singing their school song (all drunk).
Prostitutes and drug dealers proposition people in English first. Many of the street performers are not Spanish but live there (seen them multiple times on various visits).
Most of the restaurants are catered to Americans and other foreign tastes. I think there was even a new sushi restaurant in a mall on Las Ramblas.

I tend to like getting lost in Barcelona, so I did that a few times on my way to other places, and some interesting things I found was the economic level seems to drop the further you get away from the main area… (if still in the city) when you exit the main city and go to parts of the suburbs –it seems very similar to the US, where you wont see a car dealership in the middle of downtown, but you will in the suburbs.
The stores seem a little bit more run down in certain areas, and it is clear that tourists don’t do there often…
I went to several 1 Euro stores, all run by Chinese people in Barcelona, and it reminded me of what Pietro had said about cheap goods being brought in by the Chinese. (I tend to buy socks and art supplies).
Another interesting thing, noticed both on this trip and others, is that in Spain one of the national foods is Paella, and they seem to have a standard picture regardless of what else the restaurant sells. (the marketing company did a really good job of getting to many different businesses.)
Tapas is a Spanish tradition, but in central Barcelona seems to be mainly enjoyed by wealthy people out on the town for the night. Many of the bars seemed especially fancy, the people would wear nice clothes etc.
We ended up at a pub called Manchester I think, and the Englishman I was with, did not seem to think it was very English-like…

Barcelona is very much an international city, loved by Europeans and others alike. It has a very welcoming attitude regardless of what you are looking for. It provides comfortable settings that Americans can relate to, and seems to even use those American themes to welcome others (country bar, little red riding hood, cowboys, English language) topped off by a statue connecting Spain to America through an Italian on top of a column.