Nationalist Cat // 200th

And..... 200! Well not really, it's 200 uploads but I'm actually past 200 photos. This is actually Day 202, it's just I've got a couple of photos taken on my film camera I have yet to develop, scan and then upload. Still, I'm happy my 200th upload landed on a photo I'm actually very proud of! Be wary, this entry is massive, many my biggest (simply because it was a great day), so skip to the next part in italics if all you want to read is about the photo.



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Everybody headed to Sagrada Familia. No point for me, really. I would have slept in a bit more, but was woken up by Shane banging on the door trying to get Nam to hurry up. Typical.

Made my way to the computers to message some friends, and met Rebecca, someone who came unofficially on tour from France and I've never had the chance of meeting. Instead of subjecting ourselves to the horrible hostel breakfast, we went to a local bar for churros con chocolate, under a parasol in the lively local streets of Glories. Considering I'm on tour with a group of friends I pretty much know entirely, it's refreshing to meet new people!

We parted ways at Cataluna, from where I headed into Gotico, on the far North East side. Heading that way was the decision of the day, I'd never ever been to this area, and I swear most people rarely do either. It's the most traditional part of the Barrio and truly has village atmosphere, as well as some of the most beautiful alleys covered in graffiti and laundry hanging from every window, amongst the flower pots and hanging plants. With not a tourist in sight for most of an hour, this was absolutely awesome. My usual strategy of always going down the emptiest alleys (read: dodgy) paid off and I got to go crazy on the street photog. I generally made my way south, steering clear of both the avenue that comes down from Arc de Triomf, and of Laietana. Lunch at Pim Pam Burgers, a great place I knew from last time I was in bcn (also the website is pretty funny). By the time I passed Santa Maria del Mar, I had a break on a bench in the sun by the giant post office. It felt great to be on my own for once, taking my time with the camera. I felt like siesta time though so I headed to the shopping centre at Port Vell and slept for a while on a terrace.
Visited a great cheap store of sailing supplies near Colon and finally bought myself a sailing knife. Back into Gotico, I ran into an education protest at the Ayuntamiento. It was funnier more than anything, simply because all the women who had gathered to protest about children's hygiene and so on seemed to be there more for the gathering rather than for the cause. Sure they were blowing whistles and waving banners, but they were all laughing and talking to each other as if it was a local reunion of friends. Typical Spain I'd like to say.

I've definitely felt the impacts of the recession, with less than a week spent here. Barcelona is somewhat different to when I was living here six years ago. A lot of stores are shut, so much so that storefront graffiti is more prolific than ever when you walk around. Everybody seems more conservative as well, shop owners and consumers alike. Some of the life that used to permeate the streets has drained, in my opinion. Oh and the amount of catalan nationalist flags hanging from windows has exploded (there's one in this photo actually). There's a lot of political and anarchist graffiti popping up as well. It's interesting at best, but kind of sad.

Anyway, I get a text from Anu, who's doing the same as me, wandering around alone through Gotico, so we decided to meet on Las Ramblas. Time for more street photography! We head through La Boqueria into west Barrio Gotico, and then to El Raval. That's downtown barcelona, dirty and traditional, also where my dog was found in a trash can, you get the idea. Nevertheless its good for photography. At one point, we stopped to chillax and catch up at a bar with a clara (that's a summer drink: beer diluted with clear lemonade, local variant of shandy I guess). Then, we headed towards Parallel, to this graffitied expanse where skaters and bikers congregate under three giant industrial towers. We didn't spend too much time there though, there were already a bunch of people filming the skaters, and we needed to head back!


Overall I took over 200 shots, some of which I'm really proud of. I miss talking about photography on here, so here goes:
Lucky I was walking slowly through the streets, otherwise I wouldn't have heard this cat on the first floor balcony, bizarrely having a good time eating some of the flowers. I took a bunch of shots with him in different poses. There's a shot with him looking straight at the camera which Anu said she prefers, but I gotta say his pose is more striking in this photo. I also made sure to compose the photo with the flag and flowers above, and the harsh perspective. f/2.2 for better optical quality than 1.8, but still with an increasingly blurred background. Despite the white skies which bug me a bit, this is probably one of the photos I'm most proud of composition-wise. If by any chance you are reading this far, please let me know what you think of the photo, good or bad! I'd appreciate it.



Wow, I'm not even done with the day. I had booked us dinner at one of the old favorites back when we used to live here. Its called El Rey de la Gamba, and they serve up a mean paella. It's located in between Barceloneta and Port Vell. Needless to say it was excellent. Dave, Kai and me shared a black rice paella, and let me tell you, the rice was truly black! True squid ink right there, impressively sticky. By the end of it, I think everybody thought our cumulative 360? bill was worth it (not quite sure about the price, but I think it was about that?). Most people were up for a night out afterwards, so we headed to a couple chilled bars for beers, cocktails and more free shots. By the time it was late, the only place anyone wanted to go to was Espit Chupitos again! Many more shots and good times were had. At this point, I remember that El Presidente was not very good (sorry Matt) but there was a flaming shot that is now officially my favorite shot ever. Too bad I don't know the name... The conversation went somewhat like this:
"What's that shot those people are taking over there with the lemon and the fire?"
(guy doesn't know)
"well can we have five like that?"
"orange or lemon?"
"orange!"
"strong or weak?"
"strong!"
So he pours shots of I don't know what into the glasses, adds slices of orange on top, lighter fluid and then lights it up. Best. Shot. Of. My. Life. Too bad the recipe is vague as can be...

Hmm, after that, back to the beach, mirroring Monday really. This time it was busy, and people were throwing firecrackers and fireworks on the beach, while we chilled and some people went skinny dipping. It took us forever to get home, something like bed at 5:30am, but the night, hell the trip, was all worth it.


Sorry for the long entry. It was an awesome day and I'm happy about my 200th entry!

peace





TL;DR: 200! churros. street photography. squiddy paella. alcoholism. beach at 3AM.