Barcelona

I've been back in France for a few days, but the hostel's wifi has been really shoddy.  I finally decided to just sit in a nearby cafe to write this.

Barcelona has the imagery of multicolored buildings in small streets with laundry hanging out the windows.  And it did not disappoint.

An interesting thing I found is that, like most South American cities I visited, there's one main square and street in Barcelona, with most of the rest of the city being much more toned down.  So, that is definitely a result of Spanish influence (and of course colonialism), and not something they themselves designed.  I doubt any large traditional South American civilization still exist, but it would've been interesting to see.

I met up with a friend of mine from Kansai Gaidai, Victor, who brought me to a hedge maze outside the city center (as I was hoping to see things outside the beaten path) and to find some more traditional Catalan food (unfortunately most of the places we tried were closed, it being a holiday) i.e. coca, a pizza-like pastry - and not the western South American tea.  Part of Spanish tradition is the Falcons, groups who build human pyramids and other structures.  There's always a little kid on top who makes a falcon pose before going back down.

I also learned a lot about the Catalonia/Spain conflicts.  Catalonia historically was its own kingdom, and eventually taken by Spain.  For various periods of time, the Catalan language was completely banned, forcing Catalans to speak Spanish (not too unlike Kurds in Turkey). Today, Catalonia has a lot of issues in regards to laws it favors (including tax law) that the main Spanish government always vetoes.  Spain cannot afford to lose Catalan, as it represents over a third of the country's GDP.

The next day I went to a market on Victor's recommendation to finally find something to hold my coin collection.  The market itself was pretty small, not to mention unpictured, but finally after years of collecting I have something.  I found something that was almost the same in England... but 18 euros vs 30 pounds for the same thing is a no-brainer.

My last day was spent in Montserrat, a monastery high in the mountains an hour out from Barcelona.  Certainly a tourist attraction, but I felt it wasn't as overcrowded as downtown Barcelona.  One thing I particularly miss from Quito and Cusco are the grand mountains everywhere.  Montserrat did not disappoint.  The main building, from the outside, is not as spectacular as the hike surrounding it.

That night, I visited the Cordao De Ouro (an international Capoeira group) practicing in a park for the summer.  Sadly the mestre who teaches there and most of the students were out of town, but I still met some cool capoeiristas.