La Ribera

Found a lovely plaza in my favorite part of the city thus far - La Ribera - the previously rough and tumble but now gentrified medeival quarter. It is a tangled web of narrow streets and clothes hanging from balconies above, and still retains a working class aura despite it trendy boutiques and bars. It reminds me very much of Trastevere, in Rome - and was probably once the Jewish quarter, or at least contained it within its walls. But long, long before Franco would have had the chance to finish their eradication.

This city has everything, and walking across it one feels dreamily like he is crossing from one city to the next, and from one era to the next. Rome is this way with eras, in the sense of the Eternal City - but always feels utterly, unabashedly, Roman. Barcelona is like a hybrid of many cities -Paris, Florence, maybe Buenos Aires...

The transition from the Belle Epoch, L´Eixample where I was before to this square, which is probably 800 years old, was seamless - and yet I have been transplanted to an entirely different place.

Perhaps because Barcelona has been spared a bombing campaign, natural disaster, or urban demolition, it is as Intact as I believe is possible in our modern times, especially given its superlative transportation infrastructure.

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A Friend once said that the Mediterannean was made for Civilization and I believe this to be true.

It is no accident that the great early empires and great cities such as these came from this region, this sea. But I also think of other places with a Mediterranean Attitude - climate, yes, but more importantly, lifestyle, and I think that they are able to re-create this magic, to some degree.

Melbourne, San Francisco, Cape Town - these are places far apart in geography and in cultural origins but linked in their inner and outer beauty. In each of these places, the magic of Barcelona, Rome, Nice, and Naples are brought to far off shores, by way of immigratino, sunshine, and affluence.

I sip my second glass of table red wine (2 EU) and my marinated olives, and have decided that I will return to my hotel for a siesta before I venture out for tapas and nightlife around 10pm.

I could really DO this.