The dogs are here

A few posts ago, I mentioned not seeing many dogs or joggers in Barcelona.

Found 'em.

Tonight we walked down the Diagonal a ways to a mall (gasp, yes a mall, trying to find a specific power cable at the Barcelona equivalent of Best Buy).  To really understand the Diagonal, you have to imagine the perfect city street, which does not exist anywhere in the USA.  Here's how it goes:

On our side of the street are shops with a sidewalk in front, and a little access street.
Then there is some green space, trees and benches.
Then there is the bike road (2 lanes, paved as well as the main road).
Then there is a sidewalk and a bit more green.
Then the bus/taxi lane.
Then 2 lanes of car traffic in each direction, maybe more.

And as you cross the street, you go past the same stuff on the other side. Taxi/bus, sidewalk, trees and green, double bike lane, sidewalk, etc.

The street is freaking ENORMOUS. And that's where the dogs, joggers, bikers, skateboarders, strollers, old people, young people, and commuters all are. Everyone has room to do what they are doing without killing each other. After Rome, we all needed that experience badly.

The mall was an upscale sort of retail zone, with all kinds of little food markets and restaurants in it. And a HUGE supermarket, worthy of an American shopper. Of utmost importance, we found sushi! And we could almost justify the cost, if we clicked our heels three times and said, "We will buy ramen for a week. We will eat peanut butter. We will not spend more than $100 on a meal for at least three days."

Not that we can possibly keep to these ideals. Barcelona is gonna leave us flat broke. But then, I hope it never leaves us at all!