12.00am, Monday 16 August, R's ....sun

Back to old patterns: I got picked up by a Pakistani. Not quite like the Bangladeshis in my younger days travelling in foreign cities, but close enough. Actually, the guy was 30, which is considerably younger than the types who used to pick me up. He talked to me at the beach today and then tried to hold me in the water. So that's it - from now on I turn into a bitch and walk off after saying hello. It would be nice if girls were as chatty to strangers as boys are.

So here's my advice if you want affirmation you are beautiful: travel alone. But if you don't want the men who in their desperation think you are beautiful because you deign to talk to them to touch you, then travel with a companion. Or stay at home.

Today was truly back to travelling - I walked for around three hours in blazing sun - lovely. I went to the park, past the Catalan art museum that looks like a palace, and walked around the waterfalled plaza below Olympic Stadium. It is a vast, mostly empty space, with patchy grass, yellow and black poles, views overlooking the city, a promenade, and the fountains - steps pouring with water. Olympic Stadium looks like a coliseum.

Across the way I saw mysterious black stone constructions on top of the hill. What was it? A fort, a neighbourhood? What? I decided to see if I could get there and find out. I walked on a track through fresh-smelling oleanders and brush until I got to... a cemetery. It is very beautiful and very distinct. The constructions turn out to be kind of graveyards: walls built of small round stones housing rows and rows of boxes. The boxes are covered by a plaque engraved with a family name and most are enclosed within glass, behind which are plastic flowers, vases, statuettes, photographs.

The cemetery is full of these grave monuments, as if it is a ruin of an extensively-walled city. The cemetery itself is enormous, as I discovered. It extends around and down the hillside, and as I walked lower and lower, down staircases leading to more sections of walls, traditional gravestones, mausoleums and statuary appeared. Some mausoleums were like little cathedrals.

I got lost in the cemetery and I didn't want to wind back up the hill, so it took me around 2 hours to finally get down the hill and emerge somewhere that was not train tracks or the port. I finally came to a major road that circles the city. When I finally got back to civilisation, I found myself in a less upscale part of town, with plain though colourful buildings and unglamorous people, like drunken mechanics.

I wandered about, trying to find a street sign, but I finally had to ask someone for help. She pointed to a roundabout on my map and told me I was there. Not too bad, I walked some way back up the mountain. I started my climb on two outdoor escalators, which brought me to a hillside suburb of apartment blocks and local cafes.

I am so tired now, I must to bed. More later.