that was my quote of the day as we walked down this street in barceloneta on monday, my last full day in barcelona. apparently, twenty years ago there was no beach. barcelona was just a massive port of trade, but now the beach is a draw and augments the city’s debaucherous reputation - giving a daytime leisure equivalent to bcn’s world class nightlife. it’s like los angeles but spanish - and with more art. cities are like cake batter. you add various elements to affect sweetness, texture, etc. the addition of hollywood to any beautiful beach town will inevitably lead to a kind of sourdough, bitter, fluffy cake. in other words - barcelona is like the los angeles you can actually live in.
but would i actually live there?
that’s the question i ask whenever i go to a new city. barcelona was kind of my main reason for coming to spain at all. i had heard so much about it and i wanted to see if it lived up to all the hype. as you may have read here, my first impressions of barcelona were not necessarily the best. thankfully i was able to meet some amazing people that showed me an amazing time, and now i have a markedly higher opinion of the city. as for permanent residence, i can’t really say. madrid seems to still be my spanish love, but the art scene in spain definitely lives in barcelona. as a designer, it would absolutely be the most fruitful place for me to be in spain. from the galleries and shops in el born, to the contemporary art museum in el raval to poble nau’s open studios, barcelona is a perfect climate for new and innovative design.
my new friends in barcelona include print-makers, painters, documentary film-makers and dj’s and they all absolutely rock. from lovely dinner parties to tapas to all-nighters at razzmatazz, every social interaction i experienced was genuine, non-pretentious and fascinating. if by any chance any of you are reading this : you’ve got a place to crash in nyc! (that means you, clare, becks, tom, james, dix, ninian, john, hiroshi, steve & all you other awesome folk!)
at long last, here are my pics from our visit to ‘temple expiatori de la sagrada familia,’ the unfinished masterpiece of catalan architect antonin gaudí. they’ve been working on it for over 100 years and it should be finished in about 20.
so we got to barcelona yesterday, via ryan air from madrid to girona - a small airport about an hour and a half south of barcelona - and then a cheap bus ride. apparently it’s very expensive to fly directly to barcelona (which of course has it’s own airport) so most people fly to girona or reus.
yesterday i was in a pissy mood for some reason. maybe it was our frat-house hostel, homesickness or worries of spending my last dime on tapas and having to sell my body on the street to get back to lyon at the end of the month. in order to ease my pain, jess and i had dinner with the gays in the gay-borhood of barcelona which has a catalan name that means “left of the example” at this fabulous and cheap cafeteria that was packed. an injection of gayness got me through the night and today, after doing some much-needed laundry, i booked it over to casa mila by gaudí.
learning about this building in high school got me pumped, and i gotta say, the slides just don’t do it justice.
i went to toledo almost ten years ago when i came to spain on a high school field trip and just had to go back. this little old (stress OLD) town is by no means a tourist trap, despite the throngs of dutch folk wandering around getting sunburnt, and happened to be the home of cervantes and a whole bunch of kings of spain. here are some stunning photos (if i do say so myself) of the walled city on a hill :
in 1808, the citizens of madrid rose up against the french who occupied their city. it sparked the spanish war of independence. the above photo was taken at the plaza de dos de mayo in malesaña, the neighborhood in madrid where we stayed and explored in depth.
wikipedia says :
The 2nd May was chosen as a public holiday in the region of Madrid. The place where the artillery barracks of Monteleón was located is now a square called the Plaza 2 de mayo, and the district surrounding the square is known as Malasaña in memory of one of the heroines of the revolt, the teenager Manuela Malasaña, who was executed by French troops in the aftermath of the revolt.
Several memorials to the heroes are located over the city, including the Monumento a los Caidos por España.
more photos in and around malesaña on this national holiday of independence, and (go figure) one of the largest parties in madrid.
the faux-rusted facade of this office building - a branch of la caixa, a catalán bank - sits on top of what appears to be a much older building. a perpendicular wall sprouts colorful vines and foliage.
it makes me think about the idea of urban vertical farming or just basic city beautification.
it seems the most successful public works projects bring nature back to urban spaces. and this, even though it is a private endeavor, makes everyone stop and look - and what’s more, inspires a sense of sustainability and diversity of life. no need to repaint a big, ugly concrete wall for a new look. just replant.
spain is hot - and the temperature of design is warmer than in most other places. art and design on the street in madrid is bright, enticing and brilliant.
so the other day jess and i wandered around various touristy sites in madrid and candidly snapped pics of some of the male eye candy indigenous to the region. enjoy!
