Day 10 (Primero)
Today will be our second, and last, day in Barcelona. We had to set an alarm for this morning because otherwise we won't have enough time to do everything. There is so much do see and do!!!
I'm not sure what we were doing wrong last night, but everyone kept telling me that Barcelona gets started late (dinner starts at 11pm) and that it's known for it's Tapas and Sangria, etc. Well we apparently couldn't find the neighborhood where that was happening last night and ended up eating at a so/so place somewhere off of "The Ramblas". We had tapas and sangria, but the vibe wasn't at all what I was hoping for and they closed at 1am. I know the restaurant that is living in my imagination is out there somewhere, we just need to know how to find it. I had asked this random concierge at a random hotel to point us to an authentic, non-touristy place and he sent us to the most dead place in all of Barcelona that felt like a borderline Cheesecake Factory. Um...gracias senor. Needless to say, we didn't eat there.
We keep getting lucky on this trip in that we keep stumbling on the cities as they have something neato happening. For instance, when we were in Nice, they had this huge music festival on Monday night. Now I don't know if they have it every Monday, or if it was just that Monday, but either way, we were only there for two nights and we got to experience this awesome event of live bands, drum lines. And now, last night was the celebration of "San Juan". I don't know he he was, or what he did, but he causes people to light fireworks all night long throughout the city on the shortest night of the year, which was last night. Kinda cool, also kinda scary...it sounded like Bagdad circa 2003.
Buenos Dias!
Later...
Day 10 (Segundo)
Whoever says money can't buy you happiness is an imbecile. And here's why: If you have lots of money and you are on vacation and see something cool that you want to by for someone else, you can totally buy it, no problemo. When you buy people shit, they love you more, that's all there is to it. So there.
I have seen soooooo many things that I want to buy for people, it's not even funny. No matter where you are there is always going to be something that reminds you of someone, or something that you think someone you love will get a kick out of or appreciate. It's a bummer to not be able to fulfill the "idea that counts".
Today we took a bus up to the Parque Guell which is the home of a bunch of amazing Gaudi stuff. There are a slew of super talented musicians and some cool street performers, as well as some vendors up there selling souvenirs. I finally had a guy pay attention to me!!!! But then I had to pay him. He was a mime. He picked an imaginary flower for me and then my brother threw some change in his hat. Great.
Let me tell you something...those people make BANK! At least a couple hundred, if not thousand, folks must pass through there each day and everyone is buying stuff and tipping the performers. It's great. It was inspiring to see people making a living doing their art, their way, in such a beautiful setting too. There was this one band up there playing World Music/Reggae. They were REALLY good and I don't know what it was about them, but I cried through their entire performance. It wasn't melancholy or anything, it was actually very upbeat, but it was just the whole thing: Being in Barcelona, in this beautiful place that was created by one of the most genius artists who ever lived, watching these hippies enjoy themselves doing the best job in the world (performing their music), and I guess I was just overwhelmed with what a great moment it was, and it was one of those glimpses into joy...and these people doing their best to spread their little piece of that. I dunno, it just really moved me.
Let me tell you something...those people make BANK! At least a couple hundred, if not thousand, folks must pass through there each day and everyone is buying stuff and tipping the performers. It's great. It was inspiring to see people making a living doing their art, their way, in such a beautiful setting too. There was this one band up there playing World Music/Reggae. They were REALLY good and I don't know what it was about them, but I cried through their entire performance. It wasn't melancholy or anything, it was actually very upbeat, but it was just the whole thing: Being in Barcelona, in this beautiful place that was created by one of the most genius artists who ever lived, watching these hippies enjoy themselves doing the best job in the world (performing their music), and I guess I was just overwhelmed with what a great moment it was, and it was one of those glimpses into joy...and these people doing their best to spread their little piece of that. I dunno, it just really moved me.
After that we headed down to check out this house that Gaudi built. There's nothing else like it in all the world. I'm not going to describe it, you would have to see it for yourself. Amazing!
It's funny, we almost didn't do either of those things today. The Parque was a last minute idea I had because I thought it might have been featured in the movie "Vicki Christina Barcelona" (arguably one of the best movies EVER!). I 'm still not sure if it was or not, but it did give me the FEEL that I had been looking for of something exotic and "Spanish". Then we went by that house that Gaudi built and they wanted 20 Euros to get in. We were kinda like, "They straight trippin!", but then we decided, "Hey, if they are charging more than the Palace of Versailles, then this shiz MUST be good!". Thank goodness we took a chance on it. It was worth every penny. Today was one of my favorite days on the trip so far...
...Except the part where I went to the ATM to get another 20 Euros out to last me tonight and tomorrow morning (when we get to London tomorrow we have to switch to Pounds), and then 15 minutes later we went to buy a smoothie and I couldn't find my money. Either my bag ate it, or I didn't take the stinking bill out of the ATM machine. So lame.
That's 20 Euros I could have used to buy some love from some people. Doh!
For dinner we stumbled on this cute little Mexican place near the Modern Art Museum (closed on Holidays dang it!) where we had dinner. This place REALLY reminded me of the Cha Cha Cha on Haight Street in San Francisco. It was really bright and colorful and even had the same table cloths. It was definitely the Hipster Mecca of Barcelona. I'm not the biggest fan of hipsters, but it was nice to finally see some peeps in that town who had some style (these people are TAAAACKY--especially when you've just flown in from Paris). But everyone in this place was really cute and very very very stylish. I've seen a lot of brave haircuts here on women and the men wear their hair long, but not gross Michael Bolton long (Thank God). More like...jeez, I don't even know...just loose curly messy. It's beautiful.
Have to sign off now. Getting up at 7 to run to Fed Ex to ship my extraneous crap back to the US so I don't have to cart it all over London for the next 3 days.
For dinner we stumbled on this cute little Mexican place near the Modern Art Museum (closed on Holidays dang it!) where we had dinner. This place REALLY reminded me of the Cha Cha Cha on Haight Street in San Francisco. It was really bright and colorful and even had the same table cloths. It was definitely the Hipster Mecca of Barcelona. I'm not the biggest fan of hipsters, but it was nice to finally see some peeps in that town who had some style (these people are TAAAACKY--especially when you've just flown in from Paris). But everyone in this place was really cute and very very very stylish. I've seen a lot of brave haircuts here on women and the men wear their hair long, but not gross Michael Bolton long (Thank God). More like...jeez, I don't even know...just loose curly messy. It's beautiful.
Have to sign off now. Getting up at 7 to run to Fed Ex to ship my extraneous crap back to the US so I don't have to cart it all over London for the next 3 days.
Buenos Noches!!!
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