brian's blog

Barcelona is cra-zy. I wasn't even aware that it was in a region of Spain (Catalonia) relatively distinct from the rest of the country -- its culture is independent from the rest of Spain, and the language, Catalan, is a bizarre mix of Spanish and French. The atmosphere here is electric; there's a vibe here that Paris can't even match. I can't quite pin down why. Maybe the Mediterranean air adds something.

Along the main drag, Las Ramblas, fancy storefront shops compete with street vendors selling, principally, birds and flowers. Street performers with fantastic costumes (golden warriors, Egyptian princesses, devils, Michael Jackson, clowns) stand as still as mannequins until a coin is dropped into their respective buckets, at which point they come to life for a few brief moments. And pickpockets (Las Ramblas is reputed to be the worst street in Europe for silent thefts) work the crowd behind the scenes. We observed one clean and stylishly-dressed guy, about our age, as he walked through the crowd & pretended to watch the peformers, all while his eyes furtively darted across potential targets (backpacks, confused tourists, open pockets, etc). We never saw him take anything, but he seemed patient.