What a scoop! Riots in the streets of Barcelona! Serously though, there was supposed to be a botellón in Barcelona yesterday, in the Rambla del Raval. Instead, ended up in some rioting, lots of broken windows and some fires. James is here visiting for the weekend and we went down to check it out. Was quite mental to see the police in full “darth vader” getups. All the accesses to the Rambla were cordoned off by the police and they weren’t letting anyone past with alcohol. By about 1 in the morning, people were running from the police and lots of people got batons to the arms, neck etc. Rubber bullets flew. Bins were burned. Police cars driving up and down the Ramblas, round the Plaza Mayor.
The day after we meated it up a bit and went for a quietish night of pool and drunken conversations. Was good to see James.
2 Comments
I hope you have an idea about what the riot stuff was all about! Keep cool and see things by standing back and looking inperspective etc.
Yes I do. I have my thoughts about it. What we saw were people breaking some things and setting others alight and the police driving around like maniacs, including driving down the middle of the Ramblas, almost running over several people in the process. Was a strange night. The mix of tourists also lent an isoteric feel to the whole night, with people rushing in after the cops to take photos standing near broken phone boxes and things like that. Felt like general caos rather than anything focused really…Release of pent up anger.