¡Vrrr… Vrrr… Vrrrrrrooooom! | Photo: Irene Ucha
No son pájaros, no son aviones… ¡son las supermotos! Elementos imprescindibles de dos ruedas para moverte por la ciudad sin quedar retenido en un atasco.
Por su buen clima y por el escaso aparcamiento, Barcelona es una de las ciudades europeas con más motos…
Sawyer, a cosmopolitan Barcelona puppy | Photo: Magdalena Urbanska
His name is Sawyer, like the character in the TV series Lost.
He was born four months ago and he is a very sophisticated barcelonese puppy: he lives in an apartment next to the Camp Nou Barça stadium and he is used to people talking to him in Spanish, Catalán, Swedish, Polish and English…
Living in Barcelona smoothly moves you into a cosmo vibe.
Videoing an activity in Adela's Spanish class | Photo: Tom Walton
Oops! It's getting on for midnight and I've forgotten to post Magda's "photo of the day" — which I've left on my PC at work.
The best one I've taken myself today is the one above I think — of Spanish teacher Adela Maestre videoing an activity in her classroom on her digital camera. We've had 27 photos so far this month of Barcelona, but none of class and, hey, that's important too when you come here!
On the new blog belonging to our Spanish Teacher Training Department you can find out why Adela was filming the activity… If you're a teacher, it makes fascinating listening [interview in Spanish]
Late afternoon down at the Forum | Photo: Magdalena Urbanska
It was built for the big Forum 2004 event and now it's used for big music festivals like the Primavera Sound and other international gatherings.
The Forum also has a port. When there's nothing special on, it isn't as busy as some of Barcelona's other marinas; for a quiet walk in the late afternoon sunshine, it's a great place to go.
Listo para el despegue… | Photo: Irene Ucha
Mientras subo corriendo la Diagonal, la calle que cruza la ciudad de un extremo a otro, me encuentro con un icono de la nueva Barcelona.
El contraste es tan soprendente que es imposible no fijarse en la gran torre iluminada que apunta hacia el cielo.
Su forma polémica de cohete despega hacia la modernidad…
Stonework, Casa Amatller, Barcelona | Photo: Tom Walton
If you look carefully, you'll find dragons (and statues of Saint George, our patron saint) carved all over Barcelona — if we ever ran out of ideas for things to photograph, we could easily do "30 days, 30 photos of Barcelona dragons"!
The one getting throttled above is one of my favourites — to be found at Passeig de Gracia 41, decorating Puig i Cadafalch's Casa Amatller, constructed between 1898 and 1900 for a rich Catalan chocolate maker, Antoni Amatller.
Right next door is Gaudí's picture-postcard Casa Batlló.
>> More about Barcelona architecture
>> 30 days, 30 photos of Barcelona #25
Down at Barcelona beach… | Photo: Magdalena Urbanska
You can buy them for a Euro. But they will mean so much more… You twist them three times and make your wish and wear them till they drop off. Mine symbolize love and liberty.
You don't know what to take your friends when you go home? Take friendship!
Band playing the seafront, Barcelona | Photo: Carmen Soriano
It's Sant Joan, one of the biggest fiestas of the Barcelona year. It gets a bit crowded but the place to be for the partying is the beach after sundown tonight.
These boys couldn't wait that long…!
Coffee in the heart of Barcelona | Photo Tom Walton
Earlier this week Irene posted a picture here of a gateway leading into the heart of Barcelona. Here's one today from the heart itself…
I guess lots of people must have somewhere in their city which, to them, is the center of the place. For me, it's a little coffee bar — the Mesón del Café — just off the Plaza Sant Jaume. I'm not sure why it's my center of the city… maybe it's the buildings in the streets of the old city you have to walk down to get there. But, here, I couldn't be anywhere else in the world but Barcelona…
Looking the part in the world's coolest city | Photo: Magdalena Urbanska
Barcelona is very design… You can laugh at it but it's a place where every third person is a designer: a graphic designer, a web designer, a fashion designer, a industrial designer, an interior designer, a freak designer…
There are crowds of design victims and cool hunters.
And all of them create this amazing atmosphere of Barcelona that attracts creative people from all over the world.