This is totally a city I could live in. Barcelona is the coolest city I have been to since Berlin. It is also the first time I have shopped since Berlin which is probably a bad thing but the fashion is really cool and there are great independent jewelery designers (one of which I splashed out on a really gorgeous ring). The cool stuff is mainly concentrated in the old town areas of El Born and the Barri Gottic. Not only were the shops cool but the food and cafes are great! We took advantage of the cheap set price 3 course lunch meals which were imcredibly good value with amazing food. Of course there are also lovely cathedrals and churches and what not but we are a bit over the site seeing and more excited about the fashion!

We did however do a comprehensive tour of Antoni Gaudi architecture, a fresh change from Cathdrals and Palaces (don´t get me wrong, I love those too!). For those of you who don´t know, Gaudi was a really famous architect from Barcelona whose designs were so unusual that he became really popular and was commissioned by the city to do all sorts of projects. The most famous is the Sagrada Familia, an enormous church that still isn´t finished today, nearly 100 years later. We also saw the famous apartment blocks La Pedrerra with their famous chimney´s and Park Guell wıth it´s famous lizard and snake like benches. His style ıncorporated a lot of mosaıcs and was very gothic. It really dazzled me, I have never seen architecture like it before, nothing even matches his creative style in this day and age.
Sagrada Familia
The rooftop of La Pedrerra

The highlight of Barcelona was the 3 day Primavera music festival held in the city at the best festival grounds I have been too. So spaceous and excellent stages with a view of the sea and with the majority of the festival taking place in the night the atmosphere was great (one night we got home at 7am!). The highlights were The Smashing Pumpkins, which really was Billy Corgan reliving his glory days with only half the band but it was still fun hearing the classics, Blonde Redhead, The Melvins(who I´m surprised didn´t make me deaf - loudest band ever!), Modest Mouse, Built to Spill, and Wilco. The most amazing act though was Sonic Youth who played theır break through album Daydream Nation from start to end follwed by some newies in an encore. What an incredible performance, I am truly a converted fan now!

We did a lot of lying around in Barcelona (getting to bed at 7am will do that) so we missed a few museums, including Picasso´s (we didn´t know it closed at 3 on Sundays and had only got up at 2) and a cable car ride up tp Montjuic where the Olympic events were held (We did see the stadium though) but we got to try a lot of excellent food and really emersed ourselves in the city, including the dodgy El Ravel area where there prostitutes hanging out on corners but also some excellent record stores and cafes. It was definately one of my favourite cities.

My next update about Turkey will probably be from home (unless I have time in busy Hong Kong) so you may see me before I update next. Looking forward to June 22, can´t wait to see everyone!