Barcelona

At the end of our trip, we spent 3 days in Barcelona. This city is known for it's art, architecture, and Catalan style food. It has a unique population of poets, writers, artists, and it exudes an all around bohemian atmosphere. This was the city I was most looking forward to.

In retrospect, we all felt that we should have done this city first. By the time that we got to the city of dreams, we were all pretty exhausted and broke. I was tired, but had a boost from the prednisone shot that I acquired in Valencia. More than that I was pumped up on the excitement of finally being there. So the first night in the city was of course, an epic disaster.

We had the idea of going out dancing but didn't know where. I called my friend who knew the city well, and got a recommendation from him. Knowing that the nightlife begins in the wee hours of the morning, we got some alcohol to bring back to the hotel to drink while we waited for the proper hour to go out. We thought this was smart, since we were saving money this way. After polishing off a bottle of whiskey between the 3 of us, we set out in a cab for some club on the waterfront that was supposedly the place to be on a Thursday night to hear some drum n' bass.

We got to the bar around 3 am, and what we found was not dance music, but "Anti Karaoke"- which was basically a bunch of punk rock kids, singing karaoke to famous American rock songs on stage. To one side of the stage was a large naked man wearing a leash around his neck, sitting by a doggie bowl. He then got onto the stage, and acted...um, dog like....

Shea and I got onstage and did a hideously drunk rendition of Queen's "We Are the Champions"...and then I think Katrina sang something too. There were videos. They were destroyed.

The rest of that night is kind of a blur. We ran around the city looking for someplace to go and dance. I made a friend from California. I couldn't remember his name, and so I called him California.

California asked us all over to his house the next night. The girls were way too hung over to accept his offer so I went by myself. He was having a Catalan style dinner party, with every sort of shell fish known to man  (and some snails), wine, bread, and a bunch of other natives- as well as a few nice lads from France. I ate snails, drank, talked, sang with my new friends, and then California called me a cab to get back to the hotel. This by far was my favorite night.

Here are the snails that I tried!                                                    Here is a Lladro piece I saw, it's fine                                                                                                         porcelain. This one only costs two grand!                                                         

                   This was my point of reference on my solo journey to California's dinner party. Apparently they call it the "dildo of Barcelona". It's hard not to giggle the first time you see it.

 This was a Dali piece that we passed by in Montserrat:

This is the church of La Sagrada Familia. It has been work a work in progress since 1882. Many architects have worked on it through the years, including the famous Gaudi, who also designed the building below;