Honeymoon Part 1: Barcelona

Ahhh Barcelona… We booked a direct flight to Barcelona to catch the Primavera Sound music festival that we’ve always dreamed of attending (more on that below). Friends had assured us that we were going to fall in love with the city and they were absolutely right. What’s not to love? The architecture is amazing! modern and functional, yet very much infused with old-world charm. Public spaces are clean and designed with people in mind. The majority of the streets are landscaped with flowers, pedestrian walkways and bike lanes! (even the trash cans are cute!). It is also populated with many museums, countless little shops, cafes and reliable public transportation. Friends warned us that Catalans are a little off-putting with foreigners and we kinda sensed it a little bit, but found that people were generally friendly and helpful. We can’t wait to go back, there is still so much we want to see!

I decided to use Jorge’s film camera to document my experience. I wanted the hands on practice and I also like that by default I don’t have a zillion photos to edit at the end of our trip since you tend to be more selective when shooting film. I did make a huge mistake when loading a roll into the camera, only to later discover that an entire days worth of pictures I had happily snapped away had been lost! I almost cried… ok.. I DID cry. But Jorge assured me that even the greats make mistakes and that is the nature of film; there’s still a little black magic in the process; you’re subject to the moods of the Photography Gods. In my head, they were the perfect images but hey, maybe they weren’t and I was spared the disappointment. Here are some photos of our week in Barcelona; my favorite city at this moment 🙂

Excuse the following iphone pics, we couldn’t bring a proper camera into Primavera Sound, including the 35mm film camera. The festival was held in Parc Forum, next to the ocean. We walked so much not only sightseeing during the day, but also inside the festival grounds; it was huge! All three nights of the festival generally began around 6pm and ended around 4am, so we did like the natives and took a nap in between sightseeing and tackling the massive size and variety of choices of the festival. Primavera brought together people from all over the world. We overheard every language you can imagine in one place and it was nice to see all these different people united through music and well, quite honestly, partying. I was pleasantly surprised that you didn’t have to make a line to go the bathroom or to get a beer! Portable bathrooms and beer jockeys where everywhere; they definitely had that covered. One of the main reasons we wanted to attend the festival was because Jorge would finally get to see his beloved Blur, probably his favorite band in existence (90s kid). We waited more than 2 hours to be right in front. I sat down and made new friends but Jorge was so excited he wanted to wait standing up. He was the happiest. The last picture pretty much sums up our time there. If you love music, then you need to go to Primavera Sound. At least once in your life.