Barcelona

I've now been in Barcelona for just over a week. The guidebooks duly note that Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia are not like the rest of Spain and "almost feel like another country." There's no almost about it. Barcelona and Madrid are very, very different cities. And not in the way that say Seattle and New York are different cities, it's more like how New York and London are different cities. I could waste a lot of pixels comparing Madrid and Barcelona, but I'd rather just talk about Barcelona on it's own. If forced to choose just one word to describe Barcelona I would quickly settle on humanity. The city is nothing if not living reminder of everything that our race has to offer (both good and bad). Barcelona is one of the most diverse cities I've ever seen. Located at the crossroads of Spain, Catalonia, France and the Mediterranean (and of course a major tourist destination for the rest of the world), there are more colors, cultures and languages than I can count here.

This teeming mass of people provides a wide range of experiences. With so many people out and about (and they're always out and about) there is always something to do. One of my favorite ways to kill an hour is to grab some gelato and stroll Barcelona's famous Las Ramblas. Simply put, Las Ramblas is where the action is in Barcelona. Street performers, restaurants, merchants (selling everything from souvenirs to birds to bootlegged DVDs), and who knows who else mingle with an unending stream of tourists. I walk through Las Ramblas every day and every day I see something new.

On the other side of things, there is no down time in Barcelona. Like all Americans, I appreciate a little Colin-time and love my personal bubble. There are no such concepts in Barcelona. There is just no way to escape all the people. I can't even find peace and quiet in our apartment. We have to keep our balcony doors open to keep the room tolerably cool. But the open doors welcome in the outside world. Kids scream, mopeds squeal, and (my personal favorite!) construction workers fire up the stone saw to cut through another slab of concrete. And it all sounds like they're actually on my patio, directing their outbursts straight into my ear.

So there's no respite at home, how about peace and quiet in the park? Sadly, it's not to be. Barcelona, like most large cities in Europe, ran out of foliage long ago and is now desperately clinging to any remaining shrubs. A stroll through the park kind of feels like a museum. The grass is fenced off and frequent signs remind everyone that walking on the grass is prohibido. Instead we get to walk along the carefully groomed walkways, keeping an eye out for the rest of Barcelona, who

Barcelona is an amazing architectural city, though. American cities are inherently dull because there really isn't much history in them. Barcelona, like everything else in Europe, has thousands of years of history. But it shows that you don't have to be old to be interesting. Barcelona has managed to preserve it's history while embracing new architectural ideas and movements. The most obvious example is the modernisme movement — highlighted by Antoni Gaudí — which took place just 100 years ago. My sister and I spent last Saturday visiting some of Gaudí's work (including Park Güell, the Block of Discord, Casa Milà, and the Sagrada Família). It's amazing to see not only his incredibly unique vision, but also to see the crowd that it still attracts, a hundred years later. It gives me hope that American cities will someday realize that architecture can be unique, functional, and visually pleasing enough to draw a crowd.