If you ask most people for directions from Plaça Universitat to the Rambles, they will probably tell you to take Carrer Pelai, which is certainly the most direct route, but rather ugly for my tastes, punctuated with such original gems of modern urban ingenuity as Starbucks, any number of Inditex clothing shops (Zara, Stradivarius, etc) and at the corner which it shares with the emblematic Rambles, a McDonalds. Pelai is the cheap, short, easy and comfortably familiar route for the non-intrepid, and quite nicely lit up during the Christmas shopping season.
This blogger, however, prefers a route that’s a bit curvier, a bit dirty around the edges and much easier to find yourself suddenly lost or distracted. That route would be Carrer Tallers, which curves off just before Pelai. Shopping-wise, there’s little of interest, a few small bars, vintage shops, a record store, a Rock n Roll club, and curiously hordes of “Goth” and “Punk” teenagers in the open concrete plaza before the street narrows and sneaks through the Ciutat Vella to the Rambla.
One of the reasons I most love this street is, of course, the proliferation of painted, or paintable sufaces, which usually remain undisturbed by the city graffiti patrols because it’s a side street. The wall featured in this post is usually a host to layers upon layers of posters for concerts or calls to protest marches, along with some random tagging. I’ve taken a few shots every time I pass, but nothing really blog-worthy. Until now, that is.
This three panel piece by French artist RICE, a sort of triptych, shows three different pairs of people taking a bite from the forbidden fruit. One couple is male-female, one male-male, and the other female-female. As triptychs traditionally had religious themes, could this be some type of representation of the original sin, modern-day equality style? Or am I reading too much into it? In any case you’ll notice that in the male-female shot, I cut the top from the man’s chicken-head hat. It was an unfortunate mistake, but only later did I notice that through this mistake I had captured one of the tube-worm dragon type creatures that can be found all over Barcelona.