Time to leave cool, overcast Paris behind for warm, sunny Barcelona. The first thing Joe mentioned was the humidity. And the first thing I got excited about was the palm trees and the sun. We’re staying with a woman named Adele (plus her boyfriend and daughter) in her very nice apartment. It’s way more spacious than the place we stayed at in Paris, it’s right in the middle of the city (off of Carrer Parallel), it’s old and charming (marble stairs, heavy wooden doors), Adele’s whimsical paintings are hung up all over the place, and it’s on the 5th floor (ugh, I could totally jump off the balcony and die, that’s how far up that is).
The view from the balcony toward Montjuïc
At the apartment: one of Adele's paintings, the tiled floor, and a painted mirror
We went to the beach today. It was a lovely day to be at the beach. The sun was warm, but there was a cool breeze coming off the water. The only thing to ruin the perfection was our lack of a beach towel, so we had to lie on the coarse sand. Even though we weren’t at the nude beach there wasn’t anything against nudeness. Lots of topless women (old and young), and one old man sans bottoms. Interesting. Joe didn’t want to get wet (loser) so I splashed around in the water by myself for a little, but mostly I collected little seashells which were all over the beach.
The beach at Barceloneta, according to National Geographic Barcelona has the best urban beaches in the world
We had dinner, actually, I had dinner at the Zodiaco. I even used some of my high school Spanish to ask about seating (because we weren’t sure if we were supposed to just sit down wherever). We got a table outside and ordered a couple of tapas, a beer for Joe (gross), and a coke for me. The enrolladitos de calabacín con salmón, queso y rícula (which turned out to be salmon, arugula, and cheese wrapped in a grilled zucchini) and a montadito de boqerones con lima y piquillo (some sort of cheese spread on bread with some sort of meat garnish on top). We ate like locals, late at night and lingeringly.
When we got back to our room the bars were still busy because there was a fútbol game on and Barcelona was playing. At one point Barcelona must have made a goal because the whole city roared its approval. We could hear the cheering from the bar down the street, but there was a sort of background rumble which probably came from people cheering very far away.
I don’t have internet here, so all these posts are going to have to be posted after I get back to London (or maybe back to Paris if the hotel has free wifi).
Locks Open Keys 