From my Window: Heavy Storm in Barcelona

Apocalyptic weather, ominous skies, gusty winds with hail hitting on windows, branches violently torn off  nearby trees and hundreds of calls for help received at the fire department. It all took but one hour although it seemed like a cyclone or the arrival of a tornado. I was afraid the window pane got broken or something. I even saw a pigeon caught in mid air by the winds fighting its way to the nearest cornice unsuccessfully. And suddenly the heavy rains ceased and the sun appeared joyfully amidst the scurrying clouds. Too extreme weather for this part of the world I guess. Here is another example caught from my window in the past.

Snow Covered Scene in Barcelona

To many this would be a rather obvious image of any odd park in any odd country. But this was Barcelona yesterday and to witness a similar scene  we have to check our archives and go back to 1962 for example when another heavy snowfall took place. There was a certain light at dusk that gave the view a sort of Christmas mood or should I say Easter in this case?.

Snowing in Barcelona

As many of you already know or will find out in today news, Barcelona has experienced a rather infrequent phenomenon in this city, a snow storm. At the beginning, it seemed to be the "usual" thing, some flakes that turn to rain drops before touching the ground but the situation got worse and worse along the day till the point that train and bus services were stopped, cars were advised to stay at home, classes were interrupted for 142,000 students at 476 public schools, all came to a halt except for the subway, that will run non-stop all night long, something that only happens on weekends. Commuters were not that lucky and had to remain wandering in hope the service was restored. There were no trains going North, many flights were canceled or delayed, 200.000 people lost their electric power supply mostly in Girona. Tomorrow who knows what the situation will be. At the moment, the snow storm seems to be over and slowly we recover from this one-day nightmare in a city that is not prepared at all for such inclement weather. Here's a small video I captured with my cell phone

Bad Weather, Bad Times

On the most expensive street in Barcelona, Portal de l'Angel, comfort and poverty coexist. In the middle of this crisis beggars take the worse part, economy is going down the drain, consumers are not spending much and there's no money for charity. The weather seems to be rougher, the faces seem to be sadder. People wear last year's clothes, prefer to stay at home, talk less, worries about keeping the job and pray not to fall into disgrace. Yep, a very pessimistic panorama. Reality is tough and fairy tales sometimes don't have a happy ending. They say is going to last about two years. So we'll stick our heads beneath the sand and wait for the storm to pass. The barometer indicates low pressure apparently till further notice.

Drinking Fountains in Barcelona: Fighting the Hot Weather

Barcelona has a good number of drinking fountains similar to this although on many occasions they are dry. As far as I know the quality is pretty good and contamination is rare. Sometimes it is the presence of pigeons or pets that stop pedestrians from quenching their thirst. But let's not digress. During hot summer days these faucets are like little urban oases, so local authorities should give us perhaps a sort map to get to the nearest source.

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Massive Tourism in Barcelona?

Right under El peix d'or (Gold Fish) metallic sculpture, by Frank O.Ghery next to Hotel Arts, there is this small artificial pond or fountain where it has become customary for people to wade so as to alleviate the effect of the hot temperatures. In fact you generally see tourists doing this as they apparently are more affected by the humid weather in Barcelona. Not that I am against people relaxing by the fountain, not at least if you can admire living sculptures like these every now and then, but the heat, the sweat, the shabby appearance of a whole day by the beach (close by) and the massification of this area create a sudden feeling of being part of a surrealist dream, you know, with mirage effect included, thirst, dampness, a somewhat sick atmosphere that doesn't disappear till the next fall. I am exaggerating of course but those of you who have been here in the summer have gone through similar trances more than often. As you see there are pros and cons.