42.1167° N, 0.1500° W - 41.3833° N, 2.1833° E

Canon AV-1 50mm 1.8
Fujicolor Superia 200

After hiking for a week in the Pyrenees we headed south to Barcelona - a 5-hour drive through some spectacular desert scenery. The desert aesthetic abruptly came to an end when we drove past a sign to Angüés. If you haven't heard of Angüés before, don’t worry, I hadn’t either... It’s probably because it’s an abandoned village in the middle of Huesca province, and is probably why I decided to stop there to find a bathroom - I hadn’t been informed of its nonexistence.

But apart from the fact we’d arrived in search of a bathroom and everything was firmly closed, it was a really cool place to spend some time exploring.

The streets were empty, dusty and had the eerie feeling us gringos shouldn’t be moseying about. Every window was either thoroughly boarded up or had their security roller shutters ‘drawn’...

Honestly, if it weren’t for a few living pot plants lining some of the balconies, and an elderly man I saw watch us approach, before retreating into his apartment and quickly drawing all the blinds, I would have thought the place was an absolute ghost town.

As a photographer it was a great place to wander and I'm really pleased with how some of the shots came out. Recently I have been playing around with a UV filter and the tones and saturations it gave these shots are incredibly vibrant - quite ironic really given the vibe of the village!

Moving on from Angüés, we were Barcelona-bound. Unfortunately I only had one day in this amazing city before I boarded a flight to Paris – obviously not long enough. While I did get the chance to spend some time seeing the city, appreciating the incredible influence of Gaudi, the stunning Gothic architecture, and of course the beach, most of my time was spent buying things like medical supplies, stuff sacks, sunglasses and a myriad of other nick-knacks I will need in the months ahead of me on the road.

My favourite moment was by far taking the below picture. I was sitting on our third-floor balcony in the late afternoon sun while my sister cut my hair. A blue bucket was lowered down on a piece of rope next to our heads while the guy hanging over the edge above us rung the shopkeeper directly below on his mobile. He wanted him to replace the broken light bulb in the bucket with two exactly the same. He told me that he was lazy for not walking down the stairs to do his shopping, but that at least he paid for his haircuts… Five minutes later the bucket went down into the street again, he needed papers to roll a spliff.

I really love the slow moving ‘everyday-is-a-holiday’ vibe that the beach provides Barcelona - maybe that's a symptom of growing up on the West Australian coast - but when matched with the busy street culture and the people who always seem to be either on their way to or from a party, Barcelona is one place I will most definitely be returning to.

----

Greta has yet again made us all insanely jealous as she globe trots across our phenomenal planet, finding beauty in the mundane and capturing it all on film to share. Keep coming back because she's next off to Paris and then to Nepal to tackle the true monster of Mother Nature that is Everest.

You can find Greta's last journal entry here and more of her work on her website.