Barcelona, the perpetual sidewalk

Barcelona's many narrow, jumbled streets paved with cement blocks or tiles are often pedestian-only, giving the whole city the feeling of being a perpetual sidewalk. But every once in a while, we will be walking down a narrow street only to suddenly have a car approach. I think this is probably how they keep the tourist population down... :)

Today I feel completely adjusted to Barcelona time, but Gavin wasn't so lucky... He told me he woke up at 4am and couldn't sleep, so was reading until 9am when I finally woke up. Then as soon as I got up he promptly fell back asleep until noon. (in the meantime I got ready to do, did some research for what to do today, wrote yesterday's blog post... then finally ran out of things to do and made him get up. :) )

First, we headed over to the Mercado Santa Maria, only a few blocks from our apartment, to have lunch/brunch. Mercado Santa Maria is a permanently standing produce, fish and meat market that is open pretty much every day from early morning until early afternoon. I always enjoy the fresh food markets in other countries - every vendor pays such attention to artistically arranging their wares: perfectly arranged piles of bell peppers, massive clumps of sausages and meats hung from hooks above the vendors' heads, fish, hooks in the mouths still included, arranged so they are all staring at my accusingly with their still-shiny moist eyes... :)

Mercado de Santa Maria. (notice the lovely tripe (intestines) for sale in front...)

Look at all that meat! (don't mind the tourist-hater glaring at the camera... :) )

See, I TOLD you they were staring at me!

One of the restaurants in the Mercado Santa Maria was highly recommended by both our Lonely Planet book and our apartment manager, so we sat at a shared table and ordered some tapas. I also ordered some fresh apple/carrot/mint juice - probably the most vitamins I will get on this whole trip. :) A really fun band was playing mostly New Orleans style jazz, but a few other standards like Mack the Knife. We also did some people watching - easily pegging the tourists in their sweats, fanny packs and backpacks... Natives to Barcelona are really stylish, but one of the first things that struck me yesterday is that they wear VERY little bright color - mostly blacks, grays and earth tones. So that has become another way I to mark tourists - anyone wearing color (like my bright blue shirt I was wearing today) is more than likely a tourist. :)

The mosaic-roofed outside of the Mercado de Santa Maria.

After brunch Gavin and I decided to do the "Sins of Gluttony" walk from our Lonely Planet book - it was a walk completely based on sampling or buying food. (NOT healthy food...) And, bonus, the walk started at Mercado Santa Maria! The first stop after the market was the Museu de la Xocolata (Museum of Chocolate) that not only had displays of old chocolate making equipment and exhibits on the history of chocolate, it also had the equivalent of a wax museum of chocolate! There were cartoon characters, historical characters, and even a chocolate replica of the Pieta (Mary holding Jesus after he died on the cross), sculpted out of chocolate. Gavin and I each got a free chocolate bar with admission; Gavin was really disappointed that it was dark chocolate, but I was glad to take it off his hands. :) If every museum gave out chocolate with admission, I am sure they would be more popular... :)

Me eating me free museum chocolate in front of a chocolate Tom and Jerry.

Gavin in front of chocolate gladiators.

No, I wasn't kidding - someone really DID make a chocolate Pieta. I am attempting to take communion - "The body of Christ, the chocolate of heaven." Now that I think about it, if the communion wafer changes into the body of Christ, then why can't they make a chocolate communion wafer...? (in other news, I am going to hell for posing for this picture AND writing this caption, and Gavin is going to hell for having the idea for this picture... :)

Our gluttony walk was then supposed to take us to a nut shop, a coffee shop, a sausage shop and two different chocolate shops, but we didn't get much gluttony in because four out of the five above were closed! (at 3pm!) Luckily, we got into Bubo, an incredible chocolate and pastry shop, everything artistically made and kept behind brightly lit glass counters, which gave the impression that we were actually standing in a jewelry store, not a chocolate shop. I ordered some lovely concoction of chocolate, green tea and hazelnut, and it was seriously some of the best chocolate I have had since Switzerland, which so far is the top of my chocolate experiences (and I have had MANY chocolate experiences... :) )

The incredible "jewelry counter" of chocolate and pastries at Bubo.

Chocolate at Bubo!

I am about to partake in one of the tastiest chocolate experiences of my life! :)

At this point we gave up on the gluttony walk since it ended at a restaurant and we were not hungry for dinner yet, so we walked inside the nearby Gothic cathedral Santa Maria del Mar to have a brief look at the lovely stained glass windows and the incredibly high arches and pillars inside. Then we headed back to our apartment, doing a little shopping on the way. We discovered the store Desigual - kind of the Starbucks of Barcelona clothing stores in that there is one every 30 feet. This is probably my new favorite store in the world - everything in there is colorful and unique - I bought only one dress because the place was also higher priced than I normally buy, and many of the things I tried on didn't fit at all - sleeves too short being the main culprit (ah, the woes of being skinny with long arms...). Gavin got a nice sport coat, too!

Santa Maria del Mar

Inside Santa Maria del Mar.

After shopping we headed back to the apartment to drop off our bags, then went out for dinner. We chose a recommended place from Lonely Planet called Agut, pretty close to La Rambla. This time our map and directions were good, but we walked right by the place two or three times because their sign was just a few small letters painted on the side of the building, and not even over the door! Inside it was a nice, warm atmosphere with low, exposed beam ceilings. We got seated in a romantic little corner in the back of the restaurant. We also got some of the faster/better/friendlier service we have had in this city. We ordered a steak to share, and it ended up being a gargantuan mass of meat the size of my thigh! The "garnishes" were french fries and deep fat fried eggplant. And it was actually REALLY good steak, as close to competing with Argentine steak as we have ever had, but it was REALLY rare, despite that we ordered it medium.

A note on restaurant service in Spain and Barcelona - if you come here, don't expect the borderline overdone service we get in US restaurants. ("Hi, my name is John, and I'll be your server today. Our specials are blah blah blah ad nauseum") Here, we are never greeted or acknowledged when we sit at a table in a "seat yourself" kind of place, even if the wait staff happens to be delivering food to the table next to us. They will bring the menu when they are ready and won't even look at you until they are ready to serve you. :) This first contact can often take several minutes, which got my "entitled American" :) side a bit ticked, until I realized that is just what is acceptable here and the wait staff AND diners are not in a rush to get done eating and get on with the next thing on the agenda. After you order, the wait staff bring your food and completely leave you alone to eat it - not once has anyone asked how the food tastes, which I enjoy very much, as American wait staff will invariably stop by and ask about the food when my mouth is completely full. :) We also ALWAYS have to ask for the check; there is no bringing the check as soon as your plate is clean in a rush to get you out of the restaurant, which I also appreciate.

After dinner we headed back to Plaça Reial to have some drinks and dessert at one of the outdoor cafes. We pretty much sat down at the first one we saw: El MariscCo, a cafe specializing in seafood, though we ordered an apple tart, some chcoolate torte and sangria. Ah, Spanish sangria - the worst in Spain is better than the best attempt at sangria from any restaurant in America... Not saying this was bad sangria - it was really good. :) Spanish sangria is as refreshing as ice tea or lemonade on a hot day. (it is not hot here now, but our last trip to Spain was in July...)

We stayed out a bit later tonight, walking all the way to the end of La Rambla at Plaza Catalunya, where we watched a street "artist" blowing giant bubbles for money. Then, well after midnight tonight, we headed back to the apartment and crashed.

A street "artist" blows giant bubbles in Plaça Catalunya.

La Rambla at night.

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