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Asta Luego

Wow, the second day we made it to the gym. Today was a swim day and I was pretty apprehensive about it. I haven't really swam in over a year but it turned out ok. I only did 1000 meters but hey, it's a start. Didn't do much after that because we had our Spanish class in the afternoon.
The evening was something else. We went to a little bar down the street , Montferry and the place was packed. The reason, Barcelona was playing Milan in a very important game. It was my first experience in a European bar during a football game (soccer). What energy. We sat with two Barcelona residents, a father and his daughter and we communicated with broken Spanish. That's the way to learn I guess so now I'll spend all my time in bars talking to people. Not really.
All in all it was a great experience and to top it all, Barcelona won.
Time for bed, I need to get up at 6:00 to get to the gym tomorrow
Buenos Noches

Finally, we woke up this morning and off we went to the gym. At long last we made it. We did spend the rest of the morning at home. Actually, Alex had to finish her dissertation proposal and I had to practice guitar so it was a busy morning. After lunch we headed out towards Sagrada Familia and kept walking to Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau. It consists of 18 pavilions spread over 9 blocks in the north east corner of the Eixample (the area we live in). The walk is along a beautiful tree lined street (if it can be called a street). Below are a few photos which do not do this place justice. Remember, it's a hospital.

Semana Santa otherwise referred to as Easter Weekend is very big in Barcelona. The holiday starts Friday and ends Tuesday morning. I think that a LOT of tourists hit the city this weekend.

Friday saw us off to the beach because everything was closed. We took the subway down to the Olympic Village (Ciutadella Villa Olimpica) and walked over to the beach. The air was cool but the sun was hot so we took refuge in a tourist trap along the lower boardwalk. Alex mentioned that some of the waitresses were speaking Brazilian Portuguese and it turns out that our waitress was from Belo Horizonte in Minas. Alex tells me that of all Brazilians, Mineiros are the ones who travel the most throughout the world. It's strange, because Minas Gerais is mostly rural with smaller towns.


We walked home along a meandering route and came across the Arc de Triomf, which was at one end of a long placa. The other end of the placa was a massive park (Parc Ciutadella) has museums, ponds and a zoo. We didn't go into the park because we wanted to save it for another time. At night, we went to this little bar down the street and Alex had a beer while I had a Bailey's coffee (carajillo de Bailey's). Tha
t set us back a whopping 3.50 Euros.
On Saturday, we had to do some more shopping. I had to buy a pair of sandals and we needed some beach blankets to lie in the sand. It took us most of the day as we walked over to le Carrefour. It was cloudy and it rained off and on so we spent quite a bit of time there. After dinner we went exploring up in Gracia and found this ice cream place in Placa de la Revolucion and sat there watching the crowds.
Today, I was supposed to go to the gym when I got up. Guess what, I didn't make it. This is really starting to become a problem. I NEED to get to that gym and start the daily habit. I'll spend the rest of the week working on it. After my depressing start to the day we took the 47 bus (almost outside our door) to Placa de Catalunya. La Rambla starts on the other side of the square. We walked the entire length of la Rambla and ended up at the harbor. Once again, we walked along the boardwalk and watched the sunbathers in various states of bathing... It was a gorgeous day. We found another bus that goes from our front door right down to the beach and drives along the boardwalk. That's the one we took home. It was a long day and we're both tired so we'll spend a quiet evening at home, get to bed early and hopefully, hit the gym in the morning. We'll see.

Happy Easter everyone

Week 1 in Barcelona

All in all it was a great week, that is, if I don't include my intentions of getting to the gym. I don't know why it's so hard to get back into that routine. I know exactly what I want to do there and every night I say to myself that tomorrow morning I'll get to the gym. I've targeted Sunday morning as the start of this difficult daily practice. We'll see.
Spanish lessons went ok. I don't feel any increase in my linguistic skills but maybe I'm being a bit optimistic (dreaming is more like it). I really enjoy the mix of people in the class. They are all living the life they want and I must admit, I'm a bit in awe of their adventuresome spirits. Alex and I have the benefit of a steady income so it's not such a big deal for us to be here.

This weekend is a big weekend here. They call it Semana Santa and the holiday ranges from Thursday (in the rest of Spain) right through to Tuesday. Barcelona shuts down from Friday to Monday. Nothing is open today (Friday) and I'll see about tomorrow. We don't have class until next Tuesday, which is a big break for my little brain.

I finally bought my guitar and have been playing it every day. It was REALLY hard to choose between the two models that I had been considering.

The man at the store said that sound should be my sole criteria and although I was leaning towards one model, I chose the other because the sound was much richer. I had him play and he chose some really beautiful pieces. The richness of the bass and the clarity of the higher pitches was really obvious. To be honest the other model had a beautiful sound too, but it didn't quite have the low-end power that my model had.

Well, today we plan on going to the beach and pretty well being low key. I can feel we're settling into routine and getting comfortable with our new surroundings.

Have a great Easter weekend.

Adaptation Almost ?

Well, here it is on Wednesday morning and another morning where I failed to get to the gym. I'm all fired up the night before but when 6:30 rolls around, my ambition gets severely curtailed. I'm hoping that if I keep trying I'll eventually make it a habit.

The beginning of the week was also the beginning of Spanish classes. I was a bit apprehensive as I saw some ads for this school after I had signed up. They stated that the average age of each 10 student class was 23 and I was going to be the individual who raised that average to 45, go figure. Anyhow, I need not have worried. I still bring the average up but not so significantly. The group is friendly and varied. Let's see, we have 4 people from England, 1 person from Australia, 1 person from Ireland, 1 person from New York and me. We're not as talkative as I would like because one of the rules is that english (or whatever your mother tongue) is left outside the class. No one is proficient enough in Spanish to hold a conversation so we end up talking in fragments of Spanish like,
Person 1 "house...live", Person 2 "my name is Alan", Person 1 "no, please, where house live", Person 2 "oh, yes city love", Person 1 "thank you"
Actually, it's a lot of fun and the 2 hours goes by very quickly. Since classes are every day, I've been using them as an excuse not to go to the gym. That thinking needs fixing.
After class yesterday we went to Casa Luthier on c/Balmes. The shop is between the school and our apartment so we dropped in on our way home. The atmosphere in the shop was all class; even the guitar stands were elegant. I tried a few guitars in different price ranges but seemed to come back to an Alhambra 1C and a 4P. They had a beautiful sound and the action made playing them so easy. I tried a few in the higher price ranges and a few in lower price ranges. The fellow looking after me was very helpful and there was no pressure from him at all. By the time I left the shop I had narrowed down my choices to 2 guitars, an Alhambra 4P and the 1C. THE 4P is about 100 Euros more expensive and it is a beautiful guitar but the sound was not much better than the 1C. The difference, as I was told, was in the little details, finer finish, better tuners and the woods used in the guitar itself. My practical self leans towards the 1C but my extravagant inner self, wants the 4P. Which one will win ???

Ok, Alex is up, time for breakfast and some errands before we go to school. Looks like we're starting to adapt as citizens pf Barcelona.

Our Weekend as Tourists

Wow, what a busy weekend. We had to adapt to the Spanish siesta on both Sat and Sun. Saturday found us up bright and early and out the door by 8:30. We walked over to Pa. de Gracia and caught a tour bus (Bus Turistic). We caught the Ruta Azul (Blue Line) bus for the southern route and passed through Poble Espanyol, the Anella Olimpica, Montjuic and many other places. We got off the bus at the Museu d'Historia de Catalunya and walked along the boardwalk.


It took us about half an hour to get to a point where the cityscape changed dramatically. We were surrounded by ultra modern buildings and parks and there was sooooooo much greenery.

We caught another tour bus that took us further down the beach to Parc Diagonal Mar and Forum. The beach continued beyond the point where the bus turned back to complete it's loop. We transferred onto another bus that took us into the Barri Gotic, which is the old city of Barcelona.
It's actually near the old Roman village of Barcino. The streets are narrow and inviting and the sense of antiquity is amazing. Alex found an old synagogue somewhere in the maze of streets and in it was a museum of the history of the Jewish population in Barcelona over the ages. We definitely have to find it again since it is part of her area of studies. We ended up walking back to Placa Catalunya because there was some sort of demonstration going on which prevented the buses from entering that part of the city. We caught another tour bus since they pass right in front of our apartment and headed home for siesta. Boy, did we siesta........ That night we explored some more of our neighborhood and found a nice little tapas bar nearby. I think we'll have to begin acting like residents soon because I don't think we can afford to continue being tourists. Oh well, we'll start next week. We got home around 11:00 and chatted for a bit before heading to bed.


We decided that Sunday would roll on at our pace with nothing scheduled. We headed back to Pa. de Gracia and this time caught the Ruta Roja, which took us up, into the upper levels of the city where the wealthy live. All I can say is Wow; some of those homes are stunning. We got off at the Monestir de Pedralbes.
Another sense of antiquity. Queen Elisenda de Montcada founded the monastery in 1326. One wing of the original monastery is still in use and the rest is a museum with all the artifacts in there original locations.



The central court of the buildings was very peaceful and you can see where the nuns would pray without distractions.



The artifacts included treasures that were used in the church, works of art by Catalan artists, sculptures of wood and stone and the personal effects of some of the nuns that were members of the monastery.
Most of the nuns came from noble families and were highly educated and this is reflected in the books and writings on display. You can see passages that lead deep into the monastery.

It was a great weekend of discovery and it left us with the impression that we might not be able to discover this entire city in a year. We certainly will give it a try though.

Alex has posted more images and they can be seen here

Also check out her blog for a different perspective on our experiences.

Good night