Barcelona is easy to fall in love with. Her elegant facades, warm sunshine sprinkling on the alleys of Barri Gòtic, xurros for breakfast, lunch and dinner (!), blocks and blocks that feel like miles and miles of the shiniest names Gucci, Prada, Hermes, then the beaches, shorelines that light up at night, transforming the city into a different place than what you would have seen in daytime. She’s so edgy and blunt, but also pretty and shy.
It’s easy to fall in love with Avinguda Diagonal, the broadest avenue in Barcelona where cars coast down non-stop, blasting music and rushing to find parking, but still leaving space for bikes and pedestrians to enjoy the space as well. Bikes aren’t afraid of cars! They co-exist in such spacious networks of avenues and carrer’s (streets), decorated by homes and apartments that unapologetically carry the breathe of Gaudi. Or maybe being a tourist has imprinted Gaudi into everything I see and hear in Barcelona!
Even when it pours down on Barcelona, there’s paella stores, mango mojitos, even McDonald’s that never sleep of course, supermercats that offer an astounding range of hard liquors for the night crawlers, a tucked away bar owned by Norwegians serving tortillas (the egg kind). Perfume is in the air, everyone seems to be walking in leather shoes and wear Massimo Dutti. Of course that’s the shopaholic in me speaking, but being in Barcelona makes me want to look and feel cool, stylish, trendy. Because the city is. And if you had walked down the street and saw a girl or boy like that, how can you not take a second glance.
And then there’s the Catalonia independence day – which I mistook for a football game, super offensive to the Barcelonians – when the streets that are normally so busy, become three times as hectic and loud. Try making it through Les Ramblas without stopping and pondering if you should spend a few euros on a scarf that says BARCELONA, or get inside La Sagrada Familia without waiting a few hours and then realizing that inside the church doesn’t feel like a church with the, seemingly, tens of thousands of selfie sticks pointing against the beautiful colours of heaven. The city seems to never sleep, or rest, or go home.
It feels like half of Barcelona is tourists. Who is a true Barcelonian? I could only guess that they would be one of those people waving the Catalonian flag, but then they are separatists, and only represent one part of Barcelonia. I don’t think there was a part of the city that isn’t crowded with guests from everywhere – and I love hearing undiscernible sounds of languages – but something tells me I didn’t actually experience Barcelona.
So they city I fell in love with at first sight is probably not the city I saw. But if I did find Barcelona in its true form – whatever that may be – I could love her as well?
So I tried to look for the ‘real’ parts of Barcelona – in a bookstore, Laie, at el placa de la cultura. Three hours in there and I hunted for books, publications, texts, colouring games, maps, atlases… whatever that can explain the city to me. How is it so urbanized? When did the city start planning for bike lanes? Which part of the city survived the wars? What is authentic Gaudi? I eventually found a book, ‘A new urbanization metabolism’, that I hope will let me see Barcelona away from Barcelona, away from the boutiques and lines of tourists, so I can understand the city for what it is.
In the end I don’t think you could experience Barcelona without knowing its affairs, past and current, and fully comprehend the eagerness of the people. What are they thinking when they march down the streets with the flag of Catalonia? Hopefully the next time here I won’t be hypnotized by the colours and excitement – but learn about the city, for real.
