Barcelona culture

Barcelona is a cool city and seems to have a real cultural and independent vibe. Barcelona used to be the capital of Catalonya - a separate country with their own language Catalonyan which seems to be a cross between French and Spanish.

The reason I think Barcelona is a cultural city is because of the architecture that was done in the past and is underway now. The reason I am impressed by architecture (now) is because of the artistic risk and scheming that must go into the construction of these interesting buildings. I mean it does not take much imagination to build a square building with square windows and style it with finishing.

There are many buildings in Barcelona which look like they were designed with imagination...Many of these buildings look like they belong in Disneyland.

But they are not in Disneyland. They are real buildings. So that impresses me (Art done on real scale). I took a tour with Fat Tire Bikes and we visited many of the buildings around town done by Gaudi who designed buildings with a nature bias... curvy building. Arches look like trees and balconies look like they have been formed by water. Also tile mosaics are really popular here too.

Barcelona also has alot of bookstores selling independent looking Catalonian and Spanish books so this also contributes to this impression I have of it being a cultural city.