Barcelona Is Very Much Not Los Angeles

Last night, my Airbnb host took me for a walk up to the top of TurĂ³ de la Rovira. It’s one of the tallest hills in Barcelona, and offers three-hundred-sixty-degree views of the city. And damn, what a beautiful city. Looking south, I could see all of the main part of Barcelona spread out before me (La Sagrada Familia being the most obvious landmark) and then, beyond that, the sea.

Being atop a tall hill and then looking south over a city toward the sea put me in mind of being at the Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles–and perhaps in part because the similarity ended right there. Los Angeles’ endless automobile-oriented grid looks exactly nothing like the myriad angles of Barcelona’s intersecting streets and the organic topography of Mediterranean architecture that rises above them.

I tried, but I could never love Los Angeles. But I bet I could love Barcelona.

One thought on “Barcelona Is Very Much Not Los Angeles”

  1. I grew up in Southern California and I never particularly liked LA either. Personally, Barcelona wouldn’t be my first pick for a city in Spain to call home, but it wouldn’t be a bad choice either.

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