Snapshots
Just some snapshots I took over the past couple weeks. We have both been fighting nasty colds that seem to start receding then knock us back again the next day, but we have still managed to get out and see some things though our schedule has been a bit unpredictable thanks to the whims of our bodies and their viruses. We do seem to be at the tail end of things cold-wise so keep your fingers crossed we will soon be back to our usual naughty little puppy selves.
After attending the burial of the sardine, we stumbled upon a tiny craft beer bar with a great menu and enjoyed some grilled sardines. Delicious.
It is in one of the typically skinny buildings of Barceloneta. The glass doorway you can see beyond the woman’s hair is another entry, on the opposite side of the building!
The “I’m bored let’s go” face. Farrah does not do sitting and watching; she prefers to keep moving. I think she needs to learn the Spanish lifestyle!
Looking out from one of our favorite nearby coffee shops, Orval. The space is two stories, with glass in front so it is full of sunlight all the time. Though, this was an overcast rainy day, so more like “full of natural light” in this case. I love all the plants they have! And they are strict about laptop use, so we have never had trouble finding a spot to sit with our coffee due to entitled laptop-queens setting up their entire content production studio for the day, with little thought for other customers. The coffee shop is NOT your office, germs.
Another festival! I do not make an attempt to track all the festivals any more, as there are just too many to keep track! This one sounds interesting though. The interest Europeans have in the United States has a lot more complexity than the Freedom Fry Mafia would like us to think. While I have heard nothing but disdain for Donald Trump, at the same time, nearly all the young Europeans I have talked to have said they want to visit the United States. The hardest question they ask is “where should I go?” and my usual answer is “well, it’s a big country”. There is a lot of confusion about how a “free” country can harbor so much hate and spawn the likes of The Rotten Carrot, and how Americans are so obsessed with their guns, and how Americans are so against universal health care and public transportation, yet there is still a lot of love and fascination for the United States. Daily we see people wearing “NY” baseball caps, or “LA” shirts - oddly, you see a LOT of Tupac shirts. Rarely any other rappers, almost always Tupac. No idea why. We have not run in to any anti-Americanism at all; I hate to disappoint the American Right on that count. Just a lot of confusion and disbelief mixed with a reverence for a lot of the culture that has come out of the United States.
We saw this cool building in Poblenou last night. Poblenou takes us the opposite direction we usually go, away from El Born and the Eixample and central Barcelona, where we spend most of our time. It is outside the tourist radar for the most part, and less busy, but still has a lot of interesting things to see (and eat). It is quickly moving to the top of our list for a part of town we may want to buy a place and settle down in for good.