To: Lex From: Barcelona
Woke up after an hour and a half of sleep, flew to Atlanta, hung out from 9 to 4, flew to Barcelona, didn't sleep on the flight. When we got in Gau's friend picked us up from the airport, drove us to out hotel so we could drop off our stuff and then drove us downtown to the center of the city where we walked around for several hours. Then I came back to the hotel and napped for about 6 hours.
You would love it here. There are palm trees, BUT:
We started in a big open area by a fountain. There was a huge compass rose on the ground, which I assumed I was supposed to stand in the middle of. Once I was there we discussed which point should be which. I said it was a little before noon, so the sun should be mostly South and a little East, and then I pointed North based on that. It was only at that point that I remembered that I was standing in the middle of a giant sun dial which did in fact tell me that it was 11 based on my assumption about what north was. I like that we could have walked back there to check the time.
From there we walked down a street that Gau said was like their State Street.
Their state steet is way better than ours. It had about 20 living statues spaced throughout the things, all in absolutely amazing costumes. Most of them were better at performing to draw a crowd than actually staying still. The demon guy with really, really long fingers and big curly demon wings who would smill and gesture for people to come into his wing circle and take pictures seems to keep the best crowd. The army guy who didn't even move when people gave him money was the only one who was really into the statue thing.
Between the statues there were tons of outdoor pet shops, each with different animals. It was like a little zoo on State Street. The first one just had birds, but then I watched turtles, hamsters, fish, ferrets, rabbits, chipmunks, iguanas, rats, rabbits, caterpillars, chicks, frogs, and other animals, all of which were very awake and active. I have a lot of patience for watching ferrets fight, turtles collectively eat a lettuce leaf or hamsters run over each other.
Somewhere in the middle of this street you could turn off to the right into a giant open air food market. Think farmer's stand but where most of the boths are covered in huge numbers of excellent looking fruits of all kinds and they have juices and stuff, there are also most vegetables, meats, fish, and cheeses available. But the fruits were the most impressive. At one point while I was walking from fruit stand to fruit stand gau said we should move on and that it would just be more of the same, but I said it hadn't stopped being impressive yet and kept looking.
After that we stopped for food at a falafel place where they give you a falafel sandwich and then let you add all the sauce, fried eggplant, tabouleh, tomato, onion, pickle, and cucumber salad you want. I ate off the top of my sandwich and then refilled it with more stuff.
From there we walked to the other end of the street, which is the ocean, but we were really tired so we didn't go all the way to the water. That's for later.
Rudy says that at night the area has fewer pet stores and more prostitutes and cutpurses. I bet it's interesting then too, but I'm glad we went when we did.
Note that this was just a random weekday. I bet that place is insane on weekends.
Now Rudy's asking if we want to take a day long bus tour of the city where you can get on and off to look at stuff whenever for like 30 Euros tomorrow. I might actually do it. It's interesting to not really need to test much for this weekend. (I should test for Honolulu soon, but that's not something I can do here better than at home or elsewhere atm, so I should probably take advantage of this fairly awesome city.) The weather was in the 70s all day, which should continue to be the case.
You would love it here. There are palm trees, BUT:
We started in a big open area by a fountain. There was a huge compass rose on the ground, which I assumed I was supposed to stand in the middle of. Once I was there we discussed which point should be which. I said it was a little before noon, so the sun should be mostly South and a little East, and then I pointed North based on that. It was only at that point that I remembered that I was standing in the middle of a giant sun dial which did in fact tell me that it was 11 based on my assumption about what north was. I like that we could have walked back there to check the time.
From there we walked down a street that Gau said was like their State Street.
Their state steet is way better than ours. It had about 20 living statues spaced throughout the things, all in absolutely amazing costumes. Most of them were better at performing to draw a crowd than actually staying still. The demon guy with really, really long fingers and big curly demon wings who would smill and gesture for people to come into his wing circle and take pictures seems to keep the best crowd. The army guy who didn't even move when people gave him money was the only one who was really into the statue thing.
Between the statues there were tons of outdoor pet shops, each with different animals. It was like a little zoo on State Street. The first one just had birds, but then I watched turtles, hamsters, fish, ferrets, rabbits, chipmunks, iguanas, rats, rabbits, caterpillars, chicks, frogs, and other animals, all of which were very awake and active. I have a lot of patience for watching ferrets fight, turtles collectively eat a lettuce leaf or hamsters run over each other.
Somewhere in the middle of this street you could turn off to the right into a giant open air food market. Think farmer's stand but where most of the boths are covered in huge numbers of excellent looking fruits of all kinds and they have juices and stuff, there are also most vegetables, meats, fish, and cheeses available. But the fruits were the most impressive. At one point while I was walking from fruit stand to fruit stand gau said we should move on and that it would just be more of the same, but I said it hadn't stopped being impressive yet and kept looking.
After that we stopped for food at a falafel place where they give you a falafel sandwich and then let you add all the sauce, fried eggplant, tabouleh, tomato, onion, pickle, and cucumber salad you want. I ate off the top of my sandwich and then refilled it with more stuff.
From there we walked to the other end of the street, which is the ocean, but we were really tired so we didn't go all the way to the water. That's for later.
Rudy says that at night the area has fewer pet stores and more prostitutes and cutpurses. I bet it's interesting then too, but I'm glad we went when we did.
Note that this was just a random weekday. I bet that place is insane on weekends.
Now Rudy's asking if we want to take a day long bus tour of the city where you can get on and off to look at stuff whenever for like 30 Euros tomorrow. I might actually do it. It's interesting to not really need to test much for this weekend. (I should test for Honolulu soon, but that's not something I can do here better than at home or elsewhere atm, so I should probably take advantage of this fairly awesome city.) The weather was in the 70s all day, which should continue to be the case.