Day 10: Barcelona, Spain
Friday, September 16th, 2005Plans for this morning had been put into place last night during our poker/drinking time. Feeling like we were lacking somewhat in the culture department during our time in Barcelona, I’d arranged with Ned (an English guy staying in the hostel) to go see the Picasso museum. Apart from everything Gaudi, the Picasso was supposed to be a cultural highlight of this Catalunyan City!
Winding our way through the Barra Gotic we eventually found this rather hidden treasure! The €6 entry fee would have been worth it alone just to have seen the building! Inside, the works of the world renound artistic genius were focussed on the earlier stages of his life and thus the most famous works of his can be found elsewhere. However it is perhaps the earlier work that I favour. Never being particularly taken by anything cubist, his purer paintings of his formative years are not only the most eye catching but also the most revealing about his life. A big Picasso fan I may still not be but I certainly came out feeling more educated!
AS if to undermine the culture experienced this morning, an altogether alternative approach was passed fit for our afternoon! The Beach! I met up with the 2 Scottish guys and Francis and we headed, towels at the ready for an afternoon of mindless sunbathing!
Our afternoon was disrupted somewhat by, what can only be described as, a madman! We deduced that this guy was speaking German and that everyone he had been talking to (if “talking” is indeed the correct word) he really didn’t know! He would seemingly pick a person and go annoy them for 15 minutes before picking on someone else! When the guy started doing some weird looking martial arts on the sand and then jumping into the sea fully clothed (glasses and all), doing a handstand in the water and running back out again, we and all those around, could be seen to physical move away from this rather bizarre being!
I thought I might have had something going with one of a group of girls sat not far from us but its not exactly easy getting that eye contact thing working when you’re wearing sunglasses! The moment passed and we were up and leaving before I could really do anything about trying my luck!
My evening was pretty much arranged for me when Alan phoned to say meet him at the Hospital Clinic metro station and we’d go for food and plentiful supplies of alcohol! Sounded pretty good to me! He was also going to be bringing his girlfriend and her sister who had come to visit.
Alan had picked out a Mexican restaurant that had been excellent last time they were there. His only problem now, it seemed, was finding the damn place! The two girls seemed pretty reluctant to walk virtually anywhere and with Alan swearing every 5 minutes that he thought it was just around the corner only to find, actually, no, it wasn’t, caused tensions to flare a little! We did eventually find the place and took up residence on the outside seats.
The four of us seemed to get on pretty well and his girlfriend’s Sister seemed good to talk to (being able to speak 4 languages as good as fluently helps) and the evening was going along nicely. There had been talk of going to a club tonight but as the evening progressed I don’t think anyone’s heart was really in it so we just sat back, and supped our Coronitas! The evening took a slight turn for the worse when a friend of Alan’s turned up. Now, 4 people (especially when 2 of them are a couple) is easy enough, you just hope you get on with the other person. With 5 of us now and another French speaker at the table, I wound up feeling a little lost. I certainly wasn’t feeling comfortable! The mood was sweetened slightly towards the end of the evening when I got chatting again with the sister (names are escaping me at the moment!) but it all ended pretty abruptly when it was clear we were leaving. We did however arrange to meet tomorrow as they were going on a boat cruise and asked me to join them…It seemed like a good plan to me!
Getting back to the hostel around 2am I headed for the common room to grab some juice and just chill for half an hour before heading off to bed!
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