inside Barcelona

i have met many beautiful people in Barcelona, trying to create a new life.
most of them struggling a lot with adapting to a new society, a new language, and most of all, to a situation such as the one Spain is currently going through. The "crisis". 20% unemployment.
most of my friends have come here for love. or in the search of love.
but it's not always easy, surrendering to love, and giving up a steady and stabile life-situation, with friends, home, income, culture, language, food... all for a fresh, new start, which is very exciting, but very difficult at times.
we try to create new friendships, we start new jobs. we try to learn to speak with a new language, and we try to enjoy Barcelona at the same time. that city which thousands come to each day to enjoy. and many of them fall in love with this city, with its vibrancy.
but to create a relationship with Barcelona is difficult.
Barcelona is transient.

people come and go.
tourists, visitors, students and temporary residents.
there is a big division between the locals, who are not Spanish at all; they are Catalan, which is a whole different culture, with people who are not always open to those temporary residents who come here.
people come, go, visit, move, escape, come back, leave.
hello and goodbye at the same time.
in my few months here, i said goodbye too many times aldready.

India in Barcelona.
the world is in Barcelona.
the tourists have one view of it.
the trafficked girls from Romania have a another.
the front and the back.
all big cities have it, of course; but Barcelona has sides hidden from the Gaudi-Rambla-Gótico-front, which are really opposing the pastel-coloured, shop-lined, tapas/cava-consuming front.
who is interested?
not the tourists, for sure. they see that which they came to see.
Barcelona have a whole underworld of people struggling.
people, who came here for love, for the search of love. a better life- a better life for their families and themselves. escaped on a boat from Pakistan or Senegal, or a plane from Munich or Tel Aviv, we all came here in search.

but it is a chance of a new beginning, a new chapter in our lives.
Barcelona doesn't welcome you, but it also doesn't push you out.
it's up to you and me to jump into the fire, and join the flow of the transience.
we can choose to accept Barcelona as she is; moving, movement, change, and constant flow.
if we don't join the flow, we will never be part of Barcelona.

i'm still not sure i love it here.
i am sure i don't hate it.
i don't think it will be my home for the rest of my life.
it's transient for me, too.
that's what Barcelona is.
join the flow while you are here.