july 4

After 2 days in Barcelona, I’ve already got a heightened sense of what can happen if you can effectively combine hundreds of years of European culture with Latin American flair. A celebration of the proletariat, it sparkles with the efforts of a select few, such it’s most favoured son, Gaudi; but it throbs with the million heartbeats that seem to congregate in every part of town. Be it the beach, the town centres, or the far flung tourist spots, there’s no way you can avoid the sea of humanity. The Timeout guide suggests that this is, in fact, what makes Barcelona special – something about a post modern view of the La Ramblas being a horizontal monument alive with the pulsating crowds of people. That may be over the top for most people, but sitting here, on the Ramblas, I know what the writer means.