Rambla Rambla, who doesn’t know La Rambla. The first place where all the adventures used to start. Back then when I was one of them – the Tourists. Yes, lets write them with the big T.

Rambla – so many memories. I remember early mornings, coming home from parties with my girls. I remember my friend laughing at the Drassanes and crying by the time we got to the Plaça Catalunya because her phone was snipped out of her pocket by a lovely guy, she thought, was trying to dance with her on the street…

Street dancers at the Drassanes

Rambla seems so different today, when I´m one of the working people trying to get back from the supermarket on my lunch break, and accidentally happened to get stuck in the crowd.

Moooove!!! I want to scream. I have to be back in the office in 5 minutes and you people are so slow here taking pictures of yourselves, trying to shop for maps and overpriced bocadillos. Ohhh! Big group of kids sitting in the middle of my way watching a dance performance! How am I supposed to get around that? I will be late, for sure.  And then I realize, I was just like them, so lost in the moment, so oblivious to environment.

On the other hand, it´s great to be one  of them with all the time in the world to kill. I realize that I noticed more the little things about this city when I was just a Tourist.

Bluebird mime on Rambla

I remember noticing the artistic graffiti in Raval and the hills in the sunset. Now I notice how long the Rambla actually is when I am in a hurry. I also notice a group of British girls asking for directions to some local characters. And I was just like those girls, I remember, accepting the surprisingly kind strangers´ attention as a compliment not as a prospective attacker. How beautiful, how naive…

It would be great to have the Barcelona council approve by law a ¨NO TOURISTS DAY EVERY WEDNESDAY¨ for example. They would have to stay in their hotels and only the people who work in Barcelona would be allowed to enjoy the bars, the port and cinemas and walk down La Rambla observing the mimes. But what am I dreaming about here? La Rambla BELONGS to the Tourists!!!

I promise myself that on my next launch break I will try to discover new paths around the city. Quicker, but no less exciting than Rambla.

Do you have a similar story about Barcelona?