Barcelona

I arrived in Barcelona a couple of nights ago and have been slowly exploring the city via bike over the past couple of days. I must say that having my bike along with me in the larger cities has been invaluable, as it allows me to traverse and explore almost an entire city in one day, rather than being forced onto subway lines or into crowded areas. Again, much like the other places I've been to on my trip, the alleyways and plazas in Barcelona are what attracts me most about the city itself. The layout of the city really changes how you relate to other people and places within it as well, and having the open plazas with lots of young people sitting around and talking is something i've never found in the states (the situationists called this psychogeography I think). In fact, the preservation of at least some public spaces seems to be what separates most European cities from American ones. It lends itself more to spending time with people rather than spending money with people, which is refreshing.

David and I have spent the last couple of nights walking around various parts of Barcelona drinking and talking. The cervesas here are cheap, but not nearly as good as what i found in Belgium or Germany, but it still works. I met some of his friends here as some of us went to park together to enjoy some of the music and we were able to get coffee as well. Over the next few days I plan on visiting a few of the museums around the town and tomorrow i think I'll go to the beach with one of David's friends that we spent time with last night. I've become interested in the Spanish civil war over the past year(David seems to be an expert on it), and Barcelona is a city rich with history concerning the subject. There are still traces of the once thriving anarchist movement scattered amongst the commercial areas, including infoshops and even the current C.N.T. headquarters which we passed by last night. I hope to visit many of them during my stay. There is a vast network of squats in Barcelona too, but most of the people in them only speak Catalan and I have enough difficulty trying to get any understandable Spanish out, so we'll see how much i'm able to explore them without being horribly foreign and alien. It's refreshing to see so many people out in the parks as well, and I plan on perhaps going to spend some more time there today.

As the trip slowly starts creeping towards some sort of conclusion, different feelings are setting in than i was experiencing before. I am really looking forward to moving to san francisco and starting some sort of new track in my life. I have to admit traveling for this long without any permanence other than perhaps my bicycle and camera has been grinding at points. However, the sense of adventure and wonder associated with being able to explore and find so many new and beautiful things on a regular basis has far outweighed any of those other concerns. I imagine I'll spend a few more days (4? 5?) in Barcelona before heading out on the road again, to where I still haven't decided.

I have lots of photos stored up now on my camera, but havent found a computer to upload them on yet, i promise in the next couple of days I'll get them up.

Escribiré otra vez pronto,
-i