There ith a lot of lithping going on around here. Tho much for learning all that Thpanish before we left. They thpeak Catalan, tho if they didn't thpeak any English, we would have been thtuffed!
Take beer for example. Thervetha (normally cerveza) por favor, grathiaz!
Anyway, once we got our bearings, we quite enjoyed the past 4 days.
It is appropriate to start with how we celebrated J's birthday:
The first photo is us at dinner. We dined at 'Dans Le Noir?', one of 5 locations of this chain of restaurants in the world. (Recently one opened in Melbourne if anyone is interested.) It's a full sensory experience, where you eat in the dark and are served by a blind waiter. When we say dark, we mean DARK. You can't see your hand in front of your face the whole time. It was amazing to experience a heightened sense of smell, taste and hearing. We quickly gave up using cutlery and used our hands instead. We caught ourselves several times describing things gesturing with our hands. Without having our sense of sight, we were surprised how many elements of food and wine we couldn't identify correctly! We were sure we were drinking red with our main for example - all plums and cherries and tannins, and as it turned out it was Chardonnay!! :) We thought we were eating passionfruit jelly, but it was in fact mango. People at the table next to us were drinking cocktails and thought they tasted like they were green, when in fact they were red.
Apart from it being a fun experience, it was also truly sobering one. We walked out of there a little less confident in our faculties, but bloody grateful for having the gift of sight.
Earlier in the day we gave something else new a go:
Parc Guell:
And of course the famous unfinished masterpiece of La Sagrada Familia:
Of interest here is that Gaudi took over an already started project and unfortunately got moved down by a tram before he got to finish it. The project was taken over by others to see out his vision. The plan for completion is 2026 to mark the 100th anniversary of his death. He is buried in the Crypt below. It was truly impressive outside and in, and it would be a treat to see it again once completed.
We also climbed to the old battlement point at Carmel Hill to get a 360 degree view of the city:
The local market La Boqueria gave us an opportunity to try some local cuisine, including the best olives and chorizo sausage in the world and was responsible for our massive pre-siesta lunch which put us into a food coma for several hours:
The beach was a bit underwhelming, perhaps partially because it is not authentic. The sand comes from Africa and the palm trees from Miami...:
We finished up our time in Barcelona having a transitional Catalonian dinner...don't recommend it. When in Barcelona, stick to the tapas.
Off to Mallorca tomorrow. Unfortunately, Rafa is still in NYC, so G had to make peace with the fact that she is unlikely to bump into him on the beach. However, planning to watch the semi final tomorrow night at a sports bar in his home town, which seems like a small consolation prize.
Muchath graciath Barthelona. Thee you again thometime.
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