When the good weather starts, one must assume an objective fact: Barcelona, in the summer, is a hot city.
And long before there was air conditioning, it was already hot. So the locals had to protect themselves against the sun. And they found a solution that is ideal from my point of view: the shutters on the outside, leaving them hanging over the balcony.
Thus they stop direct sunlight, but they also let the air in in order to get the natural cross ventilation (if there is a little breeze blowing, the heat is more bearable) and, unlike horizontal blinds, they preserve a certain degree of privacy.
I will not say I thank an air conditioner in the summer in the city, but if we don't have one... what could be better than the these typical blinds?
The sculpture of Flirty Giraffe has always aroused some fascination on me.
At the end of the Rambla de Catalunya, on the corner of Avinguda Diagonal, she has seen and keeps seeing all the locals and tourists walking around, with an attitude that I consider at the same time seductive and a bit indifferent.
The sculptor, Josep Granyer, engraver and illustrator was close the style Art Deco, and created an entire universe himself, with surreal and humorous touches, as animals are represented in human attitudes.
Thus, it seems that the giraffe is flirting and relaxed at the same time, waiting for someone to come get her. It could be, for example, the bull that we can find at the other end of the Rambla de Catalunya, meditating at the junction of Gran Via, evoking the thinker of Rodin. The sculptures are in the same location since 1972 but the bull still hasn't had the courage to ask out the giraffe. He keeps meditating...
Calling "Bikini" the hot ham-and-cheese sandwich is not an exclusive characteristic from Barcelona but from the whole Catalonia, but the origin of the word is fully Barcelonian.
All the locals know the Bikini concert hall, in the district of Les Corts. Well, Bikini opened in 1953 as a dance hall with terrace and mini golf, and also as a meeting place for dining. Among its culinary specialities there was an adaptation of a well-known French sandwich, called croque-monsieur. This snack was becoming increasingly popular and was eventually known as "the sandwich they prepare at Bikini". From that to the current name of the sandwich there was only one step.
Well, or at least that's what I've heard and what I've been able to investigate. If anyone is aware if that is an urban legend, please tell me!
What it is for sure is that I know more than one person who has asked for a Bikini at a bar outside Catalonia and has been looked at as a freak.
