I sit here alone in my small room in Barcelona. For the past hour there have been random power surges rolling through the building. and I’m tired. Im so tired.
On saturday I went with my friend Lacy to Tarragona. We met outside of Casa Mila on Passeig de Gracia at 10am. After missing our first Renfe train in a burst of complete stupidity, we waited around the station, practicing proper train catching techniques (see correct train, aproach it, press button, door opens, step up, find a seat) until noon. We arrived in the ancient Roman city of Tarraco (Tarragona) around 1pm to find a mostly deserted city. We strolled the port district in search of a classic fish with romanesco sauce lunch. When we found nothing reasonable we rambled up La Rambla and had a nice Catalan lunch of Canaloni and Xai. Around 4pm we began exploring the Roman ruins. The remains of the ancient collaseum by the sea was really awesome and later we explored the Circus and climbed the lookout tower to get a good view of the coastal city skyline. Having completely explored all that there was by 7pm we hopped the next train to Barcelona.
Right as we arrived we recieved a call from our friend Leo who invited us to the Champaigneria in Barceloneta. This small bar is fantastic and certainly a place I will be visitng many times over. You buy two food items (for as low as a 1euro tapa) and you get a bottle of great Cava for only 2 euros. Needless to say, its normally chock full of rowdy drunken tourists. Which makes it even more fun I suppose. Saturday night was no exception. It took about 30 minutes for us to worm our way through the mass of people to a small standing corner in the back. When we finally got our food and cava bottles we found ourselves smashed next to two good looking girls speaking french. Leo started hitting on them while Lacy and I consumed our food and beverage. After we had finished we went outside to smoke the cuban cigars we had bought in Tarragona and the girls and Leo follow us out. One of the girls ended up being from Mariscious (sp? small french colony in the indian ocean) and the other from Belgium. I ended up talking to the Beglian the whole night and it turned out she was Belgian royalty (Mizaelle de la Court). She taught me how to rock and roll dance. So random. Barcelona provides the perfect international environment for meeting super random awesome people. We walked home, stopped for a coffee, and rented 28 Days Later on the way, but ended up not watching it. We were too dead tired.
Early monday morning I picked up Cindy from the airport and she told me all about her fantastic travels through Egypt, Cairo, the Red Sea, and Luxor. I’ll try to post her email on my website soon so you can all be as jealous as me. Anyone want to donate to the Send Gabe To Egypt Or Greece fund?
…The following few days sucked. Very bad. Maybe I’ll tell you all about it later. But lets just say I did a lot of walking around the city, thinking, alone…
Thursday I went out for a little bit with my catalan friend Georgina. Friday I saw a Brazilian movie, in Portuguese, about the largest prison riot in history called Carandiru. I understood it ok. Im going to miss seeing all these foreign films when I come home. They are so cool.
Sunday began my recovery. It was the day of Sant Aurelia, the second patron saint of Barcelona. And like always, the city took advantage of the occasion and threw a huge city-wide festival. I met up with Juan and family in Placa Catalunya where we followed the parade down La Rambla, past the Cathedral, and into Placa Sant Juama. Here we met up with Cindy watched the festivities a small bit and then made way back to Juan’s flat for lunch. Cindy and I had a great time playing with Lily and Laura while Juan and Mayte prepared the mexican food. Burritos of pollo con mole were, of course, enjoyed by all. Unfortunatly, yet not so unfortunate, I had to leave a little bit early to meet up with some friends in Pedralbes. I had tickets to the highly anticipated FC Barcelona (#4) and Atletico Madrid (#6) match.
It was my first league game and a very important one at that. The stadium was packed to the brim and the level of play far exceeded the Barca v Boca game I saw months earlier. The first half of the game was intense with Barcelona scoring 3 solid goals only to be matched with one scrappy goals by Madrid. Though the second half was exciting, no goals were scored and Barca game away with the win. Afterwards Leo, Mike, Abdul, Pete, and I headed over to our favorite Peruvian restaurant (Pollos Venecia) near La Sagrada Familia and watched the remainder of the Real Madrid (#1) vs Valencia (#2) game. I ordered anticuchos and a clara while the other guys argued with the waiters to get the right futbol match on the TV. The game ended in a disputable tie with Real winning a penalty kick at the very last minute. Very very fun day.
Monday and Tuesday were full of classes. On wednesday I had the chance to see the Spanish national team vs Peruvian national team play in an elimination round of the Olympics tryouts, but I opted to stay home and make a huge tortilla de patatas with Cindy instead. It was worth it. I didn’t have any more money anyway.
Tomorrow I have an excursion to Mont Serrat and the Cava Caves. Its supposed to be snowing there. And don’t you worry. I can hold down the cava. I might even buy you an extra bottle if you ask.
listen to Bright Eyes.
Gabe