Originally posted from Barcelona, this update was split into multiple parts (see related articles) for the sake of reducing the loading time due to the images involved…

Back in Barcelona now, we´ve been wandering up and down Las Ramblas, which is like a really long pedestrian mall. Lots of people everywhere, watching buskers and people pretending to be statues. You can buy anything from newspapers and paella to parrots and temporary tattoos along that strip.

It is still really hot here, and the pension we are in at the moment comes with a view of a balcony on the other side of the street where four guys stand about all day in their Y-fronts and comment on the girls going past. Why they choose to just stand about in their undies is a little odd, but that´s what they do. Makes for a bizarre view, but then, it´s so hot and the streets are so narrow, that the Spaniards probably lost all modesty centuries ago when it comes down to it.

The other thing that is weird is that we are dealing with everything in Spanish, except the music. We figured that we´d hear lots of Spanish music, but what we´ve heard more of is American pop music, and frankly, it´s a little surreal to be strolling down Las Ramblas listening to some car go past with “Destiny´s Child” blaring from the stereo. Okay, not just surreal. Painful. But then, that´s just the music - the country you hear it in is irrelevant when it comes to that group of three female talentless hacks…

Off to Rome tomorrow…

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001