It's a long running joke between my friends and I that whenever I visit a new city, I fall swiftly, naively and single mindedly in love with the place and declare each time 'I could TOTALLY live here'. Just in the last few years, I can recall with hazy memory wholehearted declarations to move places such as New York, San Francisco, Hanoi, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, Sucre, Wellington and even Bendigo.
Invariably, the sheen of said city wears of as I become disillusioned with loud traffic/crowds/hectic streets (NYC), lack of ability to purchase simple beauty products (Sucre) or restaurants shutting at 8:30 (Bendigo). Not one to break from tradition, I have now loudly proclaimed my love for Barcelona to anyone who will listen (at this stage, only my beloved, since I have no one else to talk to, and believe me, he's sick of hearing it) and you guys, almost a week in, I STILL think I could totally live here.
Let me explain. This may take a few posts.
The restaurants....
Not just the tapas and paella combination that seems to haunt the most touristy echelons of the city, but the richness in flavour and diversity of Catalan cuisine. Seafood is king, and I don't mind that one bit. I'll go into the food itself in a later post, but some of the places we've eaten are below:
The streets
Barcelona is obviously known for it's Gaudi architecture. For me, it's more the way that the city fits together, full of plazas and wide, tree lined boulevards that makes it so unique. Perhaps this isn't so atypical for a European city, but Michael and I (being Australian) have remarked several times that the city's layout seems to invite a sense of community. Yes, that's me in the last photo, standing outside our apartment building looking suitably smug. YOU GUYS I TOTALLY LOOK LIKE A LOCAL, AMIRITE?
The routine
Although jetlag has prevented us from engaging in any real way in the typical life you might expect in Barcelona, it (ought to) go a little something like this - wake (late), take coffee (and a cigarette, judging by most locals), work (or not), lunch at around three, walk dog, rest, take dinner at 9 or 10. No one here - no one - seems rushed, stressed, whatever. I'm sure I'm guilty to some extent of naively romanticising European life here, but it just seems to .... work.
I'm not saying that I'm going to quit my job and run away to learn Catalan (well, maybe I am saying that, just a little), but it's very easy to see why this city attracts a huge number of expats in any given year.
The downside?
The only thing that I would say is the that quality of tourists is, on average, low. Any number of travel websites have run articles about how Barcelona's unparalleled popularity as a tourist destination (particularly with young backpackers lured in by the prospect of beaches, parties and cheap booze) appears to be threatening the cultural fabric of the city. For the most part, it appears that most tourists are loud, obnoxious and drunk, acting like idiots and urinating/vomiting in the street. Don't get me wrong, I'm not judging - on my first trip Barcelona almost ten years ago, I was very much this person - loud, obnoxious and almost certainly drunk at any given time of day (though I would like to think I retained bodily functions). But to stroll through areas like Las Ramblas and Barceloneta gives you a strong indication of the exactly how many tourists are visiting this city, and yes, you can see the negative effects of tourism very prominently. Has it killed the vibe of the city? I don't think so. But it necessarily begs the question of how to keep tourism alive without pissing of the locals and ruining the good aspects of a city. Having travelled quite a bit over the last couple of years, I'm not sure I can name a single city that has dealt with that issue effectively. It's easy in Australia - we don't have centuries and centuries of rich history or tradition. I would say that a large part of the responsibility lies with the tourists themselves - respect local culture, don't act like an ass, and learn at least some local language and don't behave like the city is your own personal toilet. Simple, no?
