The Barrio Gotico is a mixture of cool, shaded stone streets, a sense of historical grandeur muddled up with little signifiers of urban squalor, piss in the streets and vomit splashes. When you look up there are balconies with window boxes, plants spilling out, and miniature rainbow-coloured windmills whizzing their tits off. Shop shutters are graffitied canvases with stylised, bright characters, such as the electric blue skinned boy who reminds you to 'Remember who you are'. Cavernous shops sell eye-wateringly expensive designer clothes and artist's t-shirts and trinkets.

Tiny canines are the pets of choice in Barcelona: chihuahuas and bull dogs are the most popular. Dogs that mince or stomp. During January and February, most of the tinier dogs sported coats: water-proof or padded, style is important. I saw one dog expressing his support for Barcelona FC, the maroon and blue strip fitted around his tiny torso, legs poking through sleeves. The strangest choice of pet décolletage is worn by a cat who is a regular fixture near Catedral de Santa Marta. This feline sports a wreath of pink roses around its' head, and is attached to its' owner by way of a piece of string. The owner, a lady in her 80's, sits next to it and knits concentratedly whilst tourists and locals stream past.