ikea people

The other day we went to one of the two IKEA's in the area of Barcelona. The one we went to is situated in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, around 30 minutes by bus from Plaza Catalunya. L'Hospitalet de Llobregat is the second largest city (yes, it is considered as a city even though it feels more like a suburb) in Catalonia. More than 250 000 people live here and it is one of the most densely populated cities in Europe. About 25 % of the inhabitants are born outside of Spain. Many South Americans live here, mainly from Ecuador. 

We did not only go to IKEA to have a cheap meal of Swedish meatballs (not very tasty, to be truthful!) but also to talk to the people standing outside of IKEA offering to deliver your furniture to your home. 

When you enter IKEA there are  few men hanging around and hand out their cards with their names and phone numbers. They offer to deliver your things immediately to a pretty low cost. For going to Barcelona centre they charge you around 20-30 euros. You can also go with them in the car if you want to. 

Of course IKEA also has its own service. 

And it is more or less the same price. The difference is that if you choose IKEA you will have to wait for your things and they can neither guarantee when they will show up on your doorstep, nor do they offer you a lift home.

Obviously IKEA is not very happy about the people outside offering a better service than the company itself and according to some of the workers, IKEA is trying to work against them. But of course there is a free market and there is really not much they can do. 

The people that work here are mainly from Ecuador and some other South American countries. They have left their homes to find a better life in Spain and to be able to give their families, who often are left in their home countries, a better life. The ones we talked to claimed that they did have work permits in Spain and all their papers in order but that it was very hard for them to find other jobs right now due to the crisis. They do get paid cash in hand though and we are not sure if these companies are legal, paying taxes etc.

We talked to these guys from Ecuador for a while. They told us that they were sitting in this park area in front of IKEA all day waiting for costumers, along with around 45-50 of their fellow transport workers. Between them they have an internal queue system and most days they do one delivery each and then go home. This means that they make about 25 euros a day - if they get to deliver. 

A couple of times a week, sometimes everyday, the police arrives and the delivery men get fined because they leave their cars where they are not supposed to. We asked why they did not park at the costumer parking instead but they said that if they did the security guards from IKEA would come out and ask them to leave. They also told us that IKEA and the police are collaborating to get rid of them. The fine is approximately 200 euro. As we were sitting on the bench, watching the police-car pull up next to the paked vans, one guy said "first fine of the day".

The van is not allowed to pull over next to the IKEA exit doors. Security gards as well as the police are never far away and because of this the whole process of putting the things in the van, jump in, start the engine and leave is really quick, and a few guys always work together to get the goods in the van as fast as possible. 

Ernesto Fernando was a little bit of a secretive man but he did tell us that he has lived 10 years in Barcelona and is in love with the city (especially its beautiful women).  He did not want us to photograph his face as there is some people in his home country Ecuador that don't know that he is alive (?) . He refused to give us any further details on this subject... However, according to Ernesto working as a delivery man outside IKEA is not a bad job at all and that you actually do make quite a lot of money (which is a contrary to what everyone else was telling us). Himself is sending 1400 euros home every month (not every one in Ecuador is considering him being dead apparently...)

This is Milton Rivera from Colombia. Milton thinks that it is a shame that IKEA uses monopoly and does not accept other companies to operate with the transports. As we don't have the opinion of IKEA (trying to reach them at the moment) we don't really know how it all works...We would like to know: What can IKEA really do about this? What is their main opinion? Are these companies illegal or not? Does IKEA collaborate with the police to get rid of these people?

September 11 - Diada Nacional de Catalunya

As most of you probably know Catalonians are very patriotic. Or at least many of them are. And a region that has its own language, flag, songs, football teams and more does obviously also has its own National Day. 

What is a bit ironic is that they actually are celebrating the day when they got defeated by the Spaniards in some war 1714, but anyway this day was chosen to be the Diada Nacional de Catalunya in 1980.  

A Catalonian day might not be what you first have in mind when you think about the date september 11 but indeed, this is the day (apparently president Bush misunderstood the celebrating of the Catalonian people and thought that they went out on the streets to honour the people that died in 9/11 the year after the events in New York)

The main celebrations were held by Arc de Triomf (yes Barcelona also has one, but it is somewhat smaller than its French version) and contained of concerts and performances in this language called Catalan all day long! Young, old, rich and poor, city people and small town girls and boys had gathered together. Many of them wrapped in a Catalonian flag.

Obviously FC Barcelona is a huge part of the Catalonian pride.

Hip Catalans. 

Many of the young girls in Barcelona have beautiful long hair!

And many of the boys have this hairstyle!  Yeah, in Barcelona it is not unusal seeing people (mostly young men in their early 20is) in these sort of 80es-Eastern European-like hairstyles! Why? Where does this come from?! We are really curious about the whole thing so if you have an idea please let us know!

Raval-Character I (Italian Prostitute Client)

The first time we went to Raval, we walked straight to one of the two main streets where the prostitutes hang out. One of them is the territory of the Eastern European girls, and the other one is the territory of the African and the South American girls. 

We tried to talk to a Romanian girl who was sort of friendly, but in a careful way. After a few minutes of talking, she said she didn't want to talk to us anymore, and walked off. The other girls just looked at us with suspicious eyes and didn't really say much. Although there was one girl who was also called Emma, and she sort of half-smiled to Emma when they realised they had the same name. 

Then this guy came out of one of the grafitti-sprayed doors. He sort of barged out of the door, half-stumbled, and then caught himself back up to standing. 

Covered in sweat, his skin was gleaming. 

His pants were still unbuttoned, and he made an attempt at buttoning them, but didn't really succeed. 

We started talking to him, and he was definitely willing to chat.

More than willing. 

Too bad we couldn't really understand what he was saying!

He was high, drunk, and had just had sex with a girl. Or two, actually. Or so he sort of said. Mumbled. Babbled. 

He was posing for the pictures we took of him, and he came so close to the camera that the spit from his mouth, that freely cascaded from his overactive mouth, covered the camera-lens. 

We tried to ask him questions, but got no answers. Just a steady stream of information about sex, prostitutes, Raval, drugs.. Actually, drugs.. Any drug we wanted, he could get us. and in fact, if we wanted to try the pleasure of "being" with him, he would gladly "help" us...

I kept taking pictures of this colourful character, as he kept talking to Emma. He litterally chased her, and she had to duck to get away from his sweat and spit. 

But we laughed a lot. My god. 

autumn comes to Barcelona, too!

Of course we know it will hit Barcelona, too, but it is still rather shocking to wake up to a cold spell of around 13°C after living in 30°C for a few months. 

This was a few days ago, and we can happily report that the autumn now has turned into a golden, fresh light, warm and sunny, but with a fresh twist, so desperately needed before. 

Beach? OH YES!!! 

Raval - one step off Las Ramblas

Face the water and take a right on las Ramblas and you will end up in Raval. As being a home to many of Barcelonas immigrants Raval is a diverse area where you will find people hanging out night and day. Many people seem to have nothing to do but just spending their times on the streets and in the small bars. We spent a few hours here talking to some of the characters living here and to feel the ambience.

By MACBA, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Barcelona, we found this Mexican guy (or did he find us?) telling us about his marijuana plants. He was really eager to sell us some - so if anyone is interested Linda has got his number. 

This man was standing by the street where you will find some of Barcelonas prostitutes. We have tried to photograph them a couple of times but they spit, shout and threaten to destroy our cameras as soon as we go near them (we are working on it though...) Anyway, we asked this man if he was interested in buying one of the girls but he just kept giving us offers. He was willing to pay quite a lot for a girl like us he said but we nicely declined his offer and moved on. 

This guy got really fond of Linda and followed her for an hour or so. 

Waiting for customers but bevaring the police. According to field study in cultural geography Raval has until recently been one of the most densely populated areas in the world. However, as in many of these kind of neighbourhoods in the world's bigger cities gentrification is happening. Everytime we have been in Raval doing research we have been surprised about the amount of police men being there. In Spanish they call it esponjament which means "mopping up" and it has been going on since the late 80's. University buildings, fancy hotels and a new police station have been some of the things in this development. Right now it is not illegal to sell sex but according to some information we have found online Catalunya is going to start fining both prostitutes and their byers by next year.

On Calle Robadors we met these three men from Chile who were very talkative and we spent some 15 minutes or so speaking to them. The man with a moustache told us he was a very famous professor in philosophy. None of these people live in Raval but are spending a lot of time here just drinking beer on the street and meeting people from their home country. 

Lets say this guy´s name is José. He was also from Chile and was talking a lot about the life in Raval. Maybe we will meet him for a cafetito one day to get to know more about the South American communities in Barcelona. That is what he wanted to do anyway.