Barcelona: Inspiring Urban and Social Landscape
The three elements that would define Barcelona for a Japanese tourist are Gaudí, Catalan modernism and the Sagrada Família, whereas for an Italian student they’d be pa amb tomàquet (tomatorubbed bread), vermouth and the Sónar festival, and for a Russian holidaymaker they’d be sun, sand, and shopping.
In this short piece, there’s no room for stereotypes about the city. This is the Barcelona that inspires us, the one that accompanies us in our daily lives, the one that continues to surprise and enchant us, trapping us in the spider’s web woven by its streets, people, and good life.
Barcelona is a city made for walking and gallivanting. It’s a city where you can feel life in the street, from the grid-patterned Eixample neighborhood to the intricate, capricious alleys of the Gòtic and Raval districts. The first steps of the morning, from panot to panot (the characteristic gray hydraulic cement tiles that pave the city), lead us to the chaotic awakening of the markets that supply the kitchens of the city’s most exquisite, award-winning restaurants, as well as the homes of ordinary citizens.
A discovery of infinite colors, penetrating aromas and endless flavors that become lodged in our senses and get our stomachs ready to start the day with a delicious esmorzar de forquilla (cooked breakfast). Although this tradition has fallen by the wayside due to the hectic pace of urban life, places harking back to yesteryear still exist where you can start the day by giving the most important meal of the day – breakfast – the attention it deserves. With dishes that require a knife and fork, along with a hunk of bread to sop up all the goodness.
The morning surreptitiously slips by as we weave our way through streets, squares, and gardens where the symbols of a Catalan modernist and industrial past are intertwined with the restless creativity of artists and creators from here and there, pulled in by the magnetism of this city. Everything merges and overlaps, creating the language and iconography of an open, cosmopolitan city that welcomes and gathers us in.
The audacity of Rosalia, the amazing skills of Johan Cruyff, the surrealism of Miró, the prose of Mercè Rodoreda, the daring flavors of Ferran Adrià, the intimacy of Isabel Coixet, the sculptures of Jaume Plensa or the visual poetry of América Sánchez... They’re all part of the cultural universe and memory of Barcelona.
Before the night sets in and traps us, the Muntanya Pelada (Bare Mountain) awaits us above the majestic Parc Güell, offering one of the most impressive views of Barcelona, with the Mediterranean Sea on one side, the peaks of the Pyrenees on the other side and, down below, a city that’s getting ready to embrace the night and its inexhaustible nightlife.
As dusk falls, traditional festivals move from neighborhood to neighborhood to the beat of the timbals, featuring diables and dracs that dance under the fire and rocket sparks of the correfocs (‘fire run’ processions). It’s a visceral expression of tradition, a ritual in which Barcelona’s locals put aside their habitual reserve and let loose their more primitive and festive spirit.
This is the essence of Barcelona: a unique cocktail of heritage and tradition, modernity and creativity, innovation and daring, generosity and integration, in variable proportions according to the taste of whoever wishes to savor it.
