Poble Nou

Barcelona, España

On this whirlwind tour, Barcelona suffered misconception similar to Brussels. How could it be otherwise, when the city is built on a few snippets of internet, a few personal experiences of people who are not at all like you, and a travel resume that includes nothing approximating Flanders or the Iberian peninsula? I watched an excellent video called Bye-Bye Barcelona, reflecting on a huge influx of tourists that annually outnumbers the local population by a factor of 3 to 1 (is it more? less?); I enjoyed a more positive take on the place, as reported by expat Brazilians, O mundo segundo os brasileiros – Barcelona, which I have to admit was colored pretty heavily by the culture doing the reporting.

Flying in, yes, I saw the gridwork avenues, the sundried walls, Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia snuggled (suffocated, or so I imagined) by hoards of camera-clicking, superficial tourists that in any case could not obscure its fantastical spires; could see the mushrooming phallic tower, the surrounding mountains, and the institute where Cata will be interviewing — it is literally right at the water’s edge. I saw all of this, and those pre-travel stories and videos I had consumed began to take a back seat to reality, made space for a good breath of Catalonian air, to say goodbye to what was imagined, and begin a conversation with what is. The moment of arrival is such a feeling, as though nervously going on stage with a play you have painfully rehearsed for a couple of months: it’s time and all the neurotic noise simply fizzles out shh-shhh-shhhhhhhoop!

While Barcelona suffered misconception, I wasn’t rudely shoved toward disappointment, rather welcomed in the direction of delight. Another vote for keeping our expectations in check when we travel through life (there have not been enough votes to keep my imagination at bay, to date).

What a city. While it must suffer problems common to any modern-day urban center – the low-rent abuses where those who are kept from affluence are crowded onto hillsides or far from services; lack of clean water; an overabundance of petty thievery called in by the flood waters of tourists that arrive this time of year – the areas I have visited thus far were graced by urban planners who thought of quality of human interaction before prioritizing the movement of workers to factories. While the older parts of town are tight, and full to the brim with families, they feel light, spacious and comfortable. Comforting, in fact. After my days up north, the sensation is one of homecoming.

I walk through the streets shaking my head.

It certainly can’t hurt that this is a beach town. Two blocks from our borrowed apartment in the Poblenou neighborhood is a wide grass walkway, laced with bikepaths, promenades for families and their children (or couples caressing, or solitary men or women in contemplation). As you can see from the image at the top, it stretches itself like a lazy cat along the waterfront, basks in the sun. A well-designed metro system gets you to and from the strand with little difficulty (and low cost), walking through neighborhoods and down avenues lined with trees, where cars are disallowed.

That spacious feeling has been cultivated, and perhaps is part of the culture. Whatever the source, I don’t know that I have walked in a city as generous with its spaces as this one. Even in my little touristic hometown of Newburyport, Massachusetts, there seems to be a little bit of a snarl, an ever-present struggle between the current billionaire that owns the town (Koch, bought off a previous billionaire who bought its decadent bones for a song) and the people living here. There is the constant squeeze: where can I find a dollar?

Well yes, of course it exists here. Still, something is vastly, centrally, overarchingly different, and it can be tasted in the air and felt in the spring of the step the moment you hit the street.

A few more images from two days’ rambling around town. If I were a better people photographer, you’d have more faces and fewer objects; but I always feel a bit like I am invading privacy, or project my somewhat private self onto others. I suppose they might just light up and enjoy the exposure… I’ll leave that to my more extroverted photog friends. If you have a photo zoom feature in your browser, you may be able to hover over each image, below, to see the full shot. Otherwise, clicking on any image will open it in a new window. You are welcome to download and use these images if you’re that kind of internet blogger – please include artistic credit if you do.