Barcelona
is the popular holiday destination for European shoppers, diners and
party goers. I think all the Spanish locals must pack up and leave
town, as the thousands of European tourists pack the streets to the
brim. It's difficult even to make our way down the famous tourist
street - Las Ramblas. In fact, the first day as we're walking down the
street I got plowed over by some guy not watching where he was going
and he took off a piece of my toenail in the process. Easy to do in
Barcelona, the streets are like a circus. Every few meters there's a
new act: Edward Scissor Hands stands frozen until someone tosses him a
Euro and he flies into action; a huge obese balloon clad women in tight
pink spandex outfit poses tongue in tongue with a tourist for photos;
break-dancers draw large crowds, cheering them on as they fling their
bodies across the concrete; a man in body paint stands on a pedestal
with a huge round exercise ball painted like a globe resting on his
shoulders and back; random backpackers performing hacky sack moves to
music for Euros; a woman adorned in plastic bottles representing a
space creature; Flamenco dancers performing small numbers; a man
painted and dressed as a garbage can squeaks and jumps out of the can
to scare passer-byers; and our favorite, a belly dancer that thrusts
her body in non-graceful, non-belly dancing like moves seemingly to
have full body convulsions. All this and more happens all day and all
night, while pickpockets and bag snatchers go to work on unassuming
tourists.
The
beach promenade here is no exception from the circus culture. In
typical European fashion, most beach goers have slathered up their
bodies with SPF 0, 2 or 4 oil, and are sprawled out on the sand
attempting to expose every white crevasse to the sun, to tan the areas
they've missed the day prior. A very large man lays sprawled eagle,
teetering on his beer belly, arms and legs fully extended to ensure his
underarms and area between his legs are well exposed. Women are
topless and butt floss is the norm. The photo on this blog, however,
we think captures the most bizarre, latest fashion, and certainly one
we've never seen on a beach before. And one that this man could not
bear to wear for too long, as it was probably very painful for him to
wear, and equally painful for others to watch, and in a flash he
stripped it off completely on the boardwalk and then proceeded to drink
a beer at the local beach bar in just a towel, which was a much better
look for him.
Barcelona
is a city that never sleeps. We are renting a studio apartment
overlooking the well known Placa Real. It's for us, and our friend
Deanna who has come to visit from San Diego. Little restaurants with
outdoor cafes line the four sides of the Plaza, making this a high
volume, people watching extravaganza. It's a great way to wear away
our jet-lag, sitting out at the cafes or "cerveceria" with tapas and
sangria in hand on a beautiful summer night. The festivities continue
all night and morning. We hear partygoers still living it up at 4:00
a.m. At 10:00 a.m., still intoxicated tourists are promenading their
walks of shame from the past nights adventure back to their hotel rooms
to sleep off the edge, wake up around 2:00 p.m. To do it all again.
The sun doesn't set here until 10:00 p.m. and that's when dinner
starts. So between 2 and 10 it's a drinking fest in the tapa bars,
placas and beach pars. Welcome to Spain. Welcome to Barcelona!
