Barcelona

Barcelona!! My new greatest city ever.

This weekend, my work buddy Juan was getting married. He's from Barcelona. His wife is from Venezuela, so we didn't have a lot of family, since it's a bit hard to travel this far.


 Marie gave me the weekend off to enjoy the place, so I landed on Friday night. I started off by wandering around at the airport, looking for the bus. I found one little post with an tiny sign that was the bus stop, and was going the right way. Then got the subway the rest of the way, after 10 minutes in front of the maps and the ticket machine.

Barcelona is a serious city, with a metro, intercity train, buses, trams. It is bounded along one side by hills. Wide treelined avenues are basically laid in a grid, with a historic centre of winding alleys.

The following day, I hired a bike to see the famous bike city that is Barcelona. I roll out of town first towards the hills, stopping to buy a bag. It's nice to have this mobility which extends my shopping range.

Erika walks down the isle in the heat.

This is what I love, getting out of the tourist strip, getting some nibbles, feeling like a local. Then 3 girls wander past saying like, yah, he's like and like then like, I mean like. Bah, you ruined it!

Getting some directions, I head up toward the telco tower and the park along the heights with great views of the city. There are groups of cyclists rolling all around the area. I check the map and am pleased to be off it.

Descending into the town, I find La Taverna de Jon after a few laps, which is perfect. I understand nothing on the menu. Turns out the meal of the day is a big plate of beans with a few bits of pork, then steak in a tasty potato sauce with veggies. The moto GP is on TV. There's a report on Assen, which apparently has 145km of bike paths, and heaps of bikes. I can't believe I was worried about leaving here hungry. After all those beans, I'm glad to be in the open air for the afternoon.

Getting across town is easy and fast, so there's lots of different stuff on the same day. The pride parade is in town. The beach looks nice. This place is so cool the parliament is in the middle of a huge park.

The historic centre was a Roman city. The walls from the 4th century AD are some metres thick and 5 odd stories high.

Eric from work, + his Mrs.

Next day , and the wedding was great. The family connections are strong. The mum and dads are on the table of honour with the bride and groom.

The brother of the groom, the sister, mother and father of the bride all give tearful speeches. Dinner is 3 courses after we'd been snacking on paella, risotto, cheese, meat and a dozen other things, with beer, a few beers and some photos in between.

Trying out some matchmaking, I head over to Victor the triathlete. "Ah yeth, Loreena, I notith herr the firtht time we meeet." Sadly Lorina sits on the girls who went to uni with Erika table, while Victor sits with the scruffy buddies of Juan. It seems the mystery of romance will not be resolved tonight.

After a few drinks, some more drinks, then Orujo, which seems to be straight from the dentist mouthwash collection, they're all on the dance floor so it's time for some of the biggest gin and tonics in the universe, followed by the bus trip back to town.

What a wonderful town.

In the morning, some local is walking up the street yelling out "Wake up!!" It might have been wake up tourists, but I was too sleepy. I think there were some more firecrackers out there last night too. I spent the day doing laps of the old town, trying to spend money, but arrived during lunch for some places, couldn't find others the second time around, or couldn't find the front door. Picked up some stuff for Marie and the boys. Am loving every minute even if the waiter for lunch is from India, and only 2 out of 6 customers speak Spanish.

It's nice to be home.