(Barcelona - Las Ramblas to the left)
Anyone who has ever been to Barcelona and has walked around the las ramblas area knows that at about 10 pm, a fleet of Pakistanis comes out in force to peddle individual Estrella Damm beer cans to people walking around the old neighborhood. These gentlemen prowl the streets from about 10 until 4, and will approach anyone walking on the street with their infamous tagline, ´cerveza beer, ¿you want?.´ Well, even more entertaining is the fact that with their accents what they say ends up coming out more like ´Sexy Beer,´ ¿you want?. I explained to Maier the greatness of this Barcelonean cultural phenonom of the sexy beer man, and once we had had several run-ins with them he was more than amused.
Normally, they sell one can of beer for one Euro (which is a lot better than paying 4€ for a beer in a bar). However, the experience sexy beer man customer knows that he can easily haggle down the price of the sexy beer, especially if he is buying more than one beer. For example, two nights ago I managed to easily haggle down the price of three beers from 3 Euros to 2 and a half Euros. This both impressed Tim as well as saved me 50 Eurocents.
More on the Pakistany beer vendors of Barcelona later. The fact is that Tim and I have been having some mad cultural experiences here in Barcelona over the last few days. On Monday we slept in to a comfortable hour (about 11). After we woke up we took a walk to around las Ramblas, aka the old gothic style medieval nieghborhood for which BCN is well known. We walked down las ramblas from top to bottom, which took about 20 minutes, and then headed to the shoreline for some pics.
By about 2:30 we still had not eaten, so we stumbled into a hole-in-the-wall looking place called Cepas. It was relatively empty, which was suspicious for a Spanish restaurant at this hour (2-4 is lunchtime) but we had a good vibe so we stayed. In retrospect, still a good decision, although not as good as the decision Scott and I once made to play vodka pong. We ordered paella marinera, basically just a mix of rice, mussels, squid, among a few other spices. Our server was quite entertained by our brand of Spanish accent throughout the meal, and made clear to us that our food was caught just this morning so it was very fresh.
After our traditional Spanish meal we continued walking along the beach until we decided it was time to head back to the hostel. On the way back we stopped in some tourist shops to purchase some gifts. Getting back to our hostel around 5, we regrouped at the hostel for a few moments before planning to head to the Picasso Museum. Little did we know though, that the Picasso Museum was closed on Mondays, so our excursion ended up being in vain. Instead, we just walked for a couple of hours around las ramblas, taking in the sites. We saw some more of the old neighborhood, as well as a guy in a business suit puking which we found hilarious.
Later that night we met up with some of my Knox friends who are studying abroad here currently. We met at a metro stop and then headed to a place called The Petite Apollo. TPA has an interesting set-up inside, as the taps to refill your beers are literally in the middle of your table. Obviously then you don´t have to get up from your table to refill your glass. Additionally they put up the rankings of how much all of the tables have drunk, so you can see where you stand within the other tables. The four of us came in second next to a table of about 6 or 7 (they were also Germans, we were pretty sure). Overall, a good time. On the walk home, we had a very notable quote that Tim wants me to add:
Mike: Where the hell are we?
Tim: Really? We were here earlier today.
Mike: It´s a figure of speech, Tim.
Tuesday Maier and I woke up at the crack of 10 am to head to Park Guell during the day. Park Guell was designed by Barcelona´s finest architect, Antonio Gaudi around the turn of the 19th century. Words are futile for describing the place, so you can look at pictures
HERE (Tim´s camera battery started to die a little bit so the link may not have all the pictures uploaded when you see this as we can not afford to be without a camera on our journies today, but eventually) but in general Gaudi´s style is a fusion of buildings with nature.
After Park Guell, Maier and I split ways, I to have lunch with my professor and former advisor from Knox (one of the coolest guys ever) and Maier to explore on his own. Tim has an interesting story about his dining experience which he will tell later but for now mine. We headed to a Basque restuarant, where could not read the menu (they didn´t have a Spanish or English version available at this place). Trying to appear savvy in front of my professor, I picked something random off of the menu and said I would have it, Ravioli de gambas. I figured shrimp ravioli would be plenty of food for a meal, right? Wrong. It was one of those ´nice´ restaurants where they bring you out a really huge plate and in the case of this dish, precisely three small to medium sized ravioli pieces. So no biggs I just had to order something else, but Fernando and I had a good laugh over it.
Maier´s Lunch story:Well as Dools said, we parted ways. I had originally planned to drop off the gifts I had gotten for my sisters, my God I´m a great guy, and then head to Las Ramblas to find myself some more paella. I´m a huge fan of paella already as I´ve always loved seafood, and I was excited to use my Spanish in a restaurant without Dooley´s help.
Unfortunately it was only that, a plan. I should have headed either South or West to return to our hostel. I headed East for a little bit, and then made that turn up North. I was lost. I´m not one to panic about these types of things, I just started checking maps at bus stations. I had no idea which way was North in the real world, so I headed the wrong direction again, but this time at least I knew it was the wrong direction and quickly turned around. By this time though, my plan was shot, I was much further from the hostel than when I started, and I was now pretty hungry.
I started looking around on the street, trying to find somewhere to stop in for a bite to eat. As I had consumed zero food at this point and it was about 2:30, needless to say, I was starving. That´s when I saw the most magical words. Chinese Buffet. I don´t care if I´m in Barcelona, because ya know what, it was still accentuated by the fact that I was in Barcelona as I looked at the buffet and it was covered in seafood. I began to feast on clams, oysters, mussels, fish, sushi, etc etc etc.
I quickly ran into a problem, there was a fried fish type item. I was curious, so on the plate it went. Upon returning to my plate, I discovered something, I had no idea if this fish had been deboned or even skinned. As an engineer I may be good at math, but I´m still not Asian so I was unsure how this was prepared.
I cut it open and looked at it, I was relieved. We were good to go. I took a big bite. Son of a bitch, a mouth full of bones. I quickly looked up, the little Asian girl who seated me was looking right at me. I hoped it was a coincidence, so I put my head back down and started to eat it/seperate the bones from fish in my mouth. I glanced up again. She was now smiling at me. She had won this battle as I gave up trying to be smooth and spit the bones into my napkin. The rest of the meal went smoothly though as it was some of the greatest, freshest sushi and seafood I´ve ever had.
Back to Dooley I arrived back at the hostel to find Tim partaking in possibly the best Spanish tradition ever, the siesta, so I joined him. We slept until around 530 and then headed to the Picasso Museum again, this time not to be denied. Pablo is obviously a genius, I mean he was portraits of people by age 16 which look like photos. Also las meninas is a must see. Basically Picasso spent months painting dozens of versions of the same painting over and over again, giving it a different interpretation each time. I don´t know how he didn´t get bored after working with one painting for so long but it is truly amazing.
It is now 12:21 and our plane leaves from Barcelona tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. It´s hard to believe the trip is coming to an end, but we´d like to take some time to thank all our loyal readers, its been great having you along for the ride. See you back in the U.S as this will likely be our last post from abroad.
