When you're in Barcelona, look up. The architecture is stunning - everyone knows about Gaudi and Art Moderne, but even buildings that don't belong to either or those categories are really lovely. There's so many balconies! The best ones have clothes hanging from them. Also, saints - we're staying on the 'road of the arc of Saint Eulalia', the patron saint of Barcelona (or one of them) and there's an icon of her with her special 'X' cross in a little alcove tucked above street level.


Or rather, don't just look up, look around. Barcelona just buzzes with people - a lot of them are tourists right not, of course, but they're tourists from everywhere, crowding streets and sidewalks and the marina and the beach and definitely crowding all the famous sites. And to take advantage of the tourists are buskers, con artists, a gazillion hawkers selling on the street (or in the alleyways, from which you sometimes hear a whispered "hash") and lots of people dressed up at statues or in other fantastic costumes attempting to glean money from the tourists passing on La Rambla. My favorite was one dressed as the Predator who was messing with people, touching their faces and their hair.

In terms of sights, we've been walking everywhere, enjoying the gorgeous older part of the city including the fantastic Modernista buildings, the highlight being the Sagrada Familia, which Josh called the most incredible work of architecture that he's ever seen (but he's Spanish, so who knows if there's a little bit of Nationalism mixed up in that opinion). We've been to Park Guell, the Arc de Triumphe which is more fun than the French version, the beach (flat, rather boring, very busy including hawkers selling beer, massages, coconut and other treats), the very large flea market, the Picasso museum tracing the artist's development from a young age, the Barcelona Cathedral, a pastry school with a window you can look into, lots of alleyways and peoples' laundry, bars, tapas and wine, shopping at the food market in the center of the city (cheese, fresh figs, jamon serrano so fine its like prosciutto, the waterfront with sellers that put their wears on blankets with ropes attached to each corner so that they can pick up and go at any moment, and and more that I can't remember. That was certainly a very long run-on sentence. Its been a long three days.

Generally, I like Barcelona quite a lot. Its very alive and vibrant, full of people and bikes (yay) and things happening all the time. Its also colorful and funky in a very Mediterranean way, and the food is quite excellent. Its very, very full of tourists, though, which might be the only downside although its sort of a big one. It may well be exhausting living in Barcelona, but its perfect for a visit, and it is truly beautiful. Also, its probably quite different in the off-season. Yesterday we heard two Bob Marley songs played about 100 meters from one another down the boulevard leading to the beach, catering fairly clearly to the tourists in the tropical, sunny atmosphere in summertime Barcelona. It would be interesting to see at other times of the year.

Tomorrow its off to Venice, where I've never been, and an apartment overlooking a canal (smelly, or awesome?). Hurrah!