Barceloning
Barcelona is a hot hot hot weather city and that is the sort of city that makes me tired and worn and smoggy like a humidinataur, whatever that is. Thankfully, the meditteranean is only a short walk from the apartment in which I am staying on Via Laietana with Kevin (my cow orker) and his wife and kids and now parents. We are squeezing into the small space, completely furnished by IKEA, and it is frankly quite delightful, they are wonderful folks. Spain beat Russia in the semifinals (?) last night, and all the while I was out walking around on the boardwalk and in the alleys and there were 3 goals scored which I knew because the entire city erupted for each one, whether watching the game or not. The soccer support system of Barcelona (and surely all of Europe) spreads like a virus, within seconds all humans know what is going on in the game.
I´ve been doing mostly touristy things here, but a little bit of playing as well. Lucy and Leo are learning to play little little violins, and currently the song they know is twinkle twinkle little star, so we made an arrangement for three violins and three voices and performed for the family on my birthday. We have hopes of going to play on the street for only 5 minutes, once through the song, but it may well be that none of us have the guts. Leo is 5 and Lucy is 7 so they have a good excuse in that their bodies aren´t big enough to hold large quantities of guts, but I have no such alibi. But because they are so darn cute, we could make some mad euros, and then buy ice cream with them.
There´s a huge bike culture in Barcelona. Or maybe it´s not a bike culture, maybe it´s just a very well accepted and encouraged mode of transport. Bike lanes are plentiful and wide and respected, and there is at least one citywide bike sharing program called bicicle. A flat fee of about 30 euros gets you access to heaps of special bikes all over the city anytime you want. Lots of bikes ride on the sidewalk too, which I think I heard about on the radio sometime back. Barcelonian pedestrians were upset because even though bikes are good for riders and the environment and the traffic, they ride too fast on the sidewalks and knock people down. It´s not a huge deal, but laws are useless here and probably any attempt to remedy the situation would be ignored.
Gaudi is everywhere but way too touristy. But gee he had a fine sense of style. The Park Guell is most beautiful, a place originally designed to be a place for people to build homes, but which would have cost too much to live in, so is now simply a lovely park with beautifully molten public buildings.
Internet time is almost up, so I leave it at this for now. Today´s agenda: the beach, and a little bit of cheesy tourbus experience which I hate but for some reason bought a two-day ticket for so as to ride around with the family yesterday. It´s not a good way to see the city at all, but it is all right for transporting myself from one place to another.
I´ve been doing mostly touristy things here, but a little bit of playing as well. Lucy and Leo are learning to play little little violins, and currently the song they know is twinkle twinkle little star, so we made an arrangement for three violins and three voices and performed for the family on my birthday. We have hopes of going to play on the street for only 5 minutes, once through the song, but it may well be that none of us have the guts. Leo is 5 and Lucy is 7 so they have a good excuse in that their bodies aren´t big enough to hold large quantities of guts, but I have no such alibi. But because they are so darn cute, we could make some mad euros, and then buy ice cream with them.
There´s a huge bike culture in Barcelona. Or maybe it´s not a bike culture, maybe it´s just a very well accepted and encouraged mode of transport. Bike lanes are plentiful and wide and respected, and there is at least one citywide bike sharing program called bicicle. A flat fee of about 30 euros gets you access to heaps of special bikes all over the city anytime you want. Lots of bikes ride on the sidewalk too, which I think I heard about on the radio sometime back. Barcelonian pedestrians were upset because even though bikes are good for riders and the environment and the traffic, they ride too fast on the sidewalks and knock people down. It´s not a huge deal, but laws are useless here and probably any attempt to remedy the situation would be ignored.
Gaudi is everywhere but way too touristy. But gee he had a fine sense of style. The Park Guell is most beautiful, a place originally designed to be a place for people to build homes, but which would have cost too much to live in, so is now simply a lovely park with beautifully molten public buildings.
Internet time is almost up, so I leave it at this for now. Today´s agenda: the beach, and a little bit of cheesy tourbus experience which I hate but for some reason bought a two-day ticket for so as to ride around with the family yesterday. It´s not a good way to see the city at all, but it is all right for transporting myself from one place to another.
posted by SK at 5:16 AM
1 comments
