Barcelona streets

The street where I stayed.

There are lots of pharmacies in the gothic quarter - don't know why this jumped out at me. Inside they have gleaming tile floors, modern lighting and displays of nicely packaged stuff.

Grafitti is everywhere! This is a wall behind the cathedral with tags that are more elaborate than usual.

I took loads of balcony shots: balconies filled with laundry, with potted plants, with bicycles and rubbish. I imagined myself living in each and every one.

A friend of mine compares the Boqueria market to an art gallery for fruit and vegetables.

The Ramblas is a pedestrian walkway lined with cafes, flower stalls and people selling birds, rabbits and lizards. Some of the buskers on the Ramblas have elaborate costumes and stand on pedestals like statues. I saw Don Quixote, Atlas with the world on his shoulders, a centaur, a man with dreadlocks painted completely red sitting on a foam elephant, an angel, a tramp, a cow, a person dressed as a fruit stand.

I liked the buskers dressed as statues because they were so unstatue-like. They chatted with each other. They gesticulated with their silver or bronze or green painted hands, twirled keys in their fingers, smoked cigarettes. When they were discouraged by the lack of tourists posing for photographs with them, they shook out their legs and massaged their ankles. They sat slumped on milk crates.