Started thursday still in Barceloneta, Barcelona, sitting on my balcony; the sun was out, with a cooling sea breeze to accompany me. I fixed my skates, packed up a small bag and headed out.
The partner of the friend I met yesterday is an architect, specializing in industrial design. One of his previous projects was to design small food stalls for the city, in keeping with the modern look of the water front. His elegant solution expands and contracts like a clam, open during the day and locked up and closed at night. I wasn’t far from my hotel so I skated over to take a look, I saw something that looked like it could be it, but didn’t get a chance to see it open and close, so I might be mistaken.
Barcelona is a great place to skate, most of the centre is flat, and the routes are fairly smooth. I spent the day getting to know the city. It has a fine beach, I started my tour at the southern end, skating all the way along towards the ginormous copper fish at Port Olimpic. This was the area they had the village during the 1992 Olympics, it’s been converted into smart appartments now. Just here, I was asked for help breaking by a beginner. I did my best to help them out, they thanked me and headed off. I think this made me do a bit of practicing myself, going backwards and spinning turns. I’m not too good at that, stupidly wasn’t waring elbow pads, fell over, grazed my elbow and ripped my watch off it’s strap; both can be fixed, no permanent damage done.
There’s a Picaso gallery in Barcelona. I seriously thought about going, but decided not too. I really enjoyed the gallery in Malaga and didn’t want to spoil the memories, something to look forward to when I return. I caught a bit of sun today, made me a bit sleepy, I could feel the heat on my face. I found a nice Moorish looking juice bar, not busy, sat in a comfortable chair, ordered a bannana, orange and mango smoothy. It gave me a chance to type up and post the previous day. I followed it with a kicking sharp ginger and lemmon.
I had a look around the La Seu, Barcelona’s cathedral. It’s described as one of the great gothic buildings of Spain. There’s a court yard in the centre, where a flock of geese live. I took some pictures. I didn’t think the place had enough light, I felt the main cathedral to be quite gloomy.
Antoni Gaudi
I had not heard of him before coming here. I’ve become a fan, he was an architect, much of his later life was spent on Sagrada Familia, but before that he worked on many buildings found around the city. His designs are fun and colourful, he whirls the raw materials into organic shapes that feel alive. I walked up past Catalunya, along the tree lined street of Passeig Gracia to his creation – Casa Batllo. It was built in 1907, this stunning building looks aquatic, imagination made me see giant frog faces in the balconies. He used multicoloured mosaic in many of his designs, clearly influenced by Moorish design, yet he’s made it feel more natural and less mathematical. Your heart get’s deceived into thinking that no one actually designed it, this thing of beaty just naturally evolved this way.
Barcelona, Thursday night group skate.
I made it, I’d planned for this. I’d read that every Thursday night at 10:30pm, people meet up at the centre of Catalunya and go for a skate in group. I was familiar with the London friday night skate, where groups of 200 to 300 people turn up (I wrote about it on 43things previously.) I didn’t know what to expect here. It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced.
Less people – Only 30 of us were there, but they were all good, fit and skilled. We would stop regularly for rests and water at the numerous city drinking fountins.I think that’s a great idea, shame London doesn’t have them.Less Saftey – I was used to marshels, skating ahead and blocking off roads. On this skate, we were more like a raft of people watching out for each other. As we’d skate past a side street, I’d hear shouts of “E bray” if the street was clear or “Cot cha” if a car was coming. When I get home I’m going to check what that means. I was too nervous to shout it incase I said it wrongly. We were skating over pavements, past people and round motobikes.
Less Breaking – Man, this was the scary part, there were times I was going at maybe max 40 miles an hour, downhill, turning corners, not knowing what comes next, just shouting F@CK, F#CK, F$CK, I was near the back too, the other’s knew where they were going.
Benidorm knows what route we took, I know we skated past the communications tower, on the way up to the Olympic stadium at the top of Montjuic. On the way back down I was skating so fast, my left boot felt like it was wobbling. Mental, an amazing experience. I finally got back at quarter to one in the morning. My body ached, but I’ll do it again. ...I loved it.
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