Barcelona

August 30, 2012

From Lisbon we caught a flight to Barcelona in the cheapest, crappiest airline possilbe... EasyJet. They charge you for everything. Even 7 euros to pay for the flight. They only allow one carry-on that has to be under 10 kilos and fit in the box sizer. That´s it. So a backpack and purse counts as two things. You have to put the purse in the backpack. In the US you can have one thing in the overhead and one thing in your lap. Not here. Luckily the guy checking us in made an exception for some reason and saved us 60 euros. If you try to risk not checking it and get to the gate, they charge you 50 euros for a piece of luggage (or 60 USD). When the flight only costs $140, that´s a pretty swift kick to the nuts. Once we finally got on the plane, the seats don´t recline and they are mini seats where it only supports up to the bottom of your neck and your knees are driving into the seat in front of you. Moral of the story, although the cheap airline looks like the best deal, at the end of the day they can cost as much or more than the traditional airlines. But enough of my complaining. BARCELONA!

The first thing you´ll notice about Barcelona in August, besides the tourists, is that it´s DAMN hot. We did airbnb again but this time for a shared apartment with an Italian, Argentine, and Colombian. There was no AC. We wasted no time and went to a Chino. It sounds racist to me, but they call Chinese markets ¨Chinos¨, which means Chinese. They also call Pakistani quicki-marts Pakis. I told them how weird this sounds to me, but my Spanish friends insist it´s not racist. Anyway, one 8 liter bottle of water, one fan, and one spray bottle.

The first day we stuck to our plan of renting a bike and toured all of Barcelona´s beaches and the Olympic Park, home of the 1992 Summer Olympics. Barcelona has a decent gay community and apparently it´s cool to be a fully naked dude on the beach. Topless women were also quite common. Sorry, no pictures. Crime is pretty rampant in Barcelona, so we had three locks for each of our bikes. One to lock the seat to the bike, one U-lock, and one chain lock.

Barcelona Olympic Stadium:

The first night we came back and played drinking games with our Colombian roomate and his friend...

Because we had the bikes for 24 hours, we set up an ambitious Tour de Barcelona with stops in the Gothic Neighborhood, La Rambla, Sagrada Familia, and Parc Guell. Barcelona is extremely bike friendly and has over 100 km of bike lanes. The Gothic neighborhood is a pedestrian only neighborhood with streets that are about 5 yards wide with all sorts of quirky shops.

Gaudi:

Sagrada Familia:

Parc Guell:

On Saturday night, our Colombian roomate gratiously offered to take us out in Barcelona so we went out for Mojitos and salsa dancing. Our Colombian friend Ozvaldo was kind of a bad ass. He is 29 and works for Doctors Without Borders. He had lived all over Africa, Central/South America, and Europe and speaks English, Catalan, French, and Spanish. We had a botellón (pregame) and went out.

On Sunday, we woke up around noon and realized the only thing we could do with ourselves was go to the Barcardi Rum museum. Turns out the founder of Barcardi was a Spanish guy who went to Cuba when he was 15 in search of a better life. 150 years later Barcardi is the most profitable brand of alcohol in the world. We even got a lesson in making mojitos. See below:

1) One half lime cut in half and with two diagonal cuts to give you four long skinny wedges.

2) Two healthy spoonfuls of sugar.

3) Pound with wooden spoon until lime juice liberated

4) A 6 second pour of rum

5) 7 mint leaves which you must clap once to release the aromas

6) Stir until all sugar dissolved

7) Fill with crushed ice to brim

8) Fill remainder with club soda

9) (Optional) final mint leaf garnish

p.s. We ended up with 6 free drinks out of the ordeal.

As we were leaving the Barcardi musuem, we noticed quite a crowd assembling. Somehow we had stumbled upon a Catalan festival where people make human pyramids. It has a name but it was in Catalan so I didn´t understand. That was something I didn´t appreciate until this trip to Barcelona. Ten years ago when I went to Barcelona, I was oblivious to the difference between Spanish and Catalan because I didn´t speak either. Catalan is a Frenchy, Portuguesy, Spanish language. Yes, those are techinical terms so I don´t expect you to understand. Anyway, back to the HUMAN PYRAMIDS.

So, I guess the point of the pyramids is to see who can make the tallest pyramid over which two young girls must climb to the tops, switch sides and climb down. The whole thing seems remarkably dangerous, so naturually it was hugely entertaining to watch. The bottom level is composed of about 50 men and women huddled together to give the tower a sturdy base. From there a second level of men (usually) is formed on the shoulders of the first. The third level was typically young men or women. As the levels went up, the ages went down until the very top where two 5 year old girls had to climb to the very top, switch sides and climb down. They had on helmets, which I guess gives the illusion of safety. For all the pictures below, keep in mind that there is a first level which is not visible. Three groups performed and the techniques for the towers varried. The teams could start their towers over if they didn´t like how it had formed; however, once the kids started climbing, music started to play and there were no do-overs at that point. I´m told the record height was 10 levels.