Heartsong Family Traveling Circus

Barcelona, gem in the crown of Catalunya!

Barcelona, sparkling city by the sea!

Barcelona, Mediterranean Mecca of culture and cathedrals!

Music, dancing, art, architecture, tapas, vino - where you can turn the corner and stumble into a sculpture, or a festival, or a concert, where the plazas come alive at midnight and life spills out onto the streets, like a desert flower releasing its fragrance into the night.

Alright, enough of that.

Barcelona was our little tourist binge. Full disclosure, I hate being a tourist. But of all the places to be a tourist in the world, life as a tourist in Barcelona is pretty fantastic. It’s full of surprises, and full of adventures.

Sure, it’s a difficult adjustment. Shops and restaurants open and close at weird times (like pretty much whenever they want), especially the ones that don’t just cater to tourists. And while there is a lot of great food here, the tourist places are pretty boring. Most of the major attractions are overrun with tourists, all hours of the day.

We crammed ourselves into a tiny AirBnB room in a tiny apartment, in proper Barcelona style. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was authentic, including the ceaseless noise (music, construction, general yelling and shouting) at all hours of the night (and day). It’s not cheap here, but it’s not outrageously expensive. And getting to walk the streets of the Gothic quarter and feel like you’re in a surreal time warp movie set is incomparable. Then you see the Segrada Familia and feel like you’re staring through a tear in the time-space continuum into an alien space opera. Worth it!

Fun fact about Barcelona - Spanish really is not the primary language. It’s Catalan! And Catalan is very different from Spanish. I think it’s closer to Portugeuse and Italian, especially in pronounciation. Most people speak Spanish and Catalan, but it is disorienting to constantly see signs written and hear conversations in Catalan. Catalonian pride is big here, along with the constant push for independence from Spain, and people are not shy about repping their Catalonian nationality.

It’s also a lot harder navigate here without any Spanish. In Portugal, almost everyone had functional level of English, but not so here. Not even in shops and restaurants, though for sure in tourist info kiosks and whatnot. Thank goodness I did some Spanish practice before we arrived. Although I did get thrown for a loop when I tried to listen to people’s conversations and didn’t realize they were speaking Catalan… I just thought my Spanish was really bad! After about a month here, I could pretty much immediately differentiate between the languages, but it took a lot of eavesdropping-- I mean ear training ;)

Still, Barcelona is a big, tourist-filled city. I think we both agree that we crave something a little more... relaxed, private, and off the beaten path. So we pushed onwards after a week in Barcelona, to a tiny village (150 people) near a tiny medieval town, just a bit further South in Catalonia. But we'll save that for next week, and for now, you get to chew on these great PICTURES!!