Barcelona
When I got Barcelona Nick met me at the metro stop near our hostel, and the joyous reunion that occurred caused a tear in the eye of more than one looker on. I apologised for injuring him so severely and he apologised for being such a baby. We got beer and caught up.
That night me went out with a large group of people from the hostel: an American couple, a French brother and sister, a Portuguese girl and a British couple, the boy half of whom - Rory -is one of the funniest people I've ever met. It was a really great group of people. We went to a bar on Las Ramblas where we could get- on tap from a wooden barrel - jugs of Sangria, which is an awesome kind of punch made from red wine and fruit and sugar, very sweet and packs quite a punch.
We were lucky enough to get table to fit us in the smoking section, right under a fan. I figured this would disperse the smoke, but what it actually did was blow all the smoke into our eyes. After an hour (and a couple of jugs) our eyes were all red and watering. I talked mostly to the American girl, Eliza, who looked like Deborah Messing and had two of the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen. She and her boy James are from Salt Lake City, the mormon capital, and live in a commune and go to Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower shows. I could hear Nick, Rory and the Frenchman talking about communism, with Rory getting extremely into it and shouting about the revolution.
The next day we went to the Sagrada Familia, the most awesome cathedral in the world. It was started in 1882 and is not finished. It looks like to other building you've ever seen... there's crazy statues all over the front and back entrances and the pillars are based on tree trunks and split into branches as they near the ceiling. We waited in line for half an hour to take the lift up one of the spires. I haven't been very afraid of heights for a long time, but the combination of the claustrophobic spiral stairs and the clear views down to the ground shook me up a lot. There were some awesome views of the city and the cathedral, though.
Then we went to KFC and ate to much and sat outside saying "no me gusta" and watching an italian television show being filmed.
That night we went out again with pretty much the same group of people, with two additions: the Portuguese girl's cousin, who Nick and I both fell in love with, and an American dude named Florian.
Nick had hung out with Florian before I arrived in Barcelona, and had told me about him: an electronic music producer, multi-instrumentalist, really cool guy and total wanker with his head up his arse. I was wearing my Idiot Flesh t-shirt and he passed me and said "Hey, Idiot Flesh. I guess you know Sleepytime Gorilla Museum." Of course I had a fit, hugged him and hung out with him for a large part of that night. After the pool hall we wanted to go to failed to open at the time it was supposed to we went back to our Sangria bar and found our sight-destroying table to be free again. Sangria was drunk, good times were had, tears were shed, and even entire conversations were had with closed eyes... the smoke seemed to get to us quicker and worse than the night before.
The night ended on the steps of the hostel, with Florian and I locking horns over whether cello should be considered a bass instrument (I claimed that Bush - Glycerine does have bass because it has Cello). He got really passionate about it. Just as he was going to drop it Nick tried to take the piss out of Florian by making some ridiculous comment in support of his argument, but Florian took him seriously and got riled up about it again.
I really really like that guy but I find his existence offensive. What a wanker.
On our final day in Barcelona we went to see the Magic Fountain. What a cool fountain! We got there in the late afternoon, before the fountain started running, and chilled out for a while, discussing and missing the people at home. Slowly, parts of it started running: the waterfall running down to the main fountain, then the fountain itself, which would change the direction and height and patterns of the water jets every couple of minutes, then the jets lining the street we were on, then, when it got dark, the lights in the main fountain came on, and they would change colour with the changing water display. So cool! At about 9:30 an announcement came over the loudspeakers in Spanish, and then classical music played, and the fountain would change with the music. So magical!
It was then that Nick and I, having discussed how we were running out of money and energy and how we were planning to come back and live in Berlin in a couple of years, realised that we would both be going home soon, and that Alice: Nightmares in Wonderland was starting soon, and that it would be one of the coolest nights ever if we came to the last show and surprised everyone, and then went to the afterparty.
That night me went out with a large group of people from the hostel: an American couple, a French brother and sister, a Portuguese girl and a British couple, the boy half of whom - Rory -is one of the funniest people I've ever met. It was a really great group of people. We went to a bar on Las Ramblas where we could get- on tap from a wooden barrel - jugs of Sangria, which is an awesome kind of punch made from red wine and fruit and sugar, very sweet and packs quite a punch.
We were lucky enough to get table to fit us in the smoking section, right under a fan. I figured this would disperse the smoke, but what it actually did was blow all the smoke into our eyes. After an hour (and a couple of jugs) our eyes were all red and watering. I talked mostly to the American girl, Eliza, who looked like Deborah Messing and had two of the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen. She and her boy James are from Salt Lake City, the mormon capital, and live in a commune and go to Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower shows. I could hear Nick, Rory and the Frenchman talking about communism, with Rory getting extremely into it and shouting about the revolution.
The next day we went to the Sagrada Familia, the most awesome cathedral in the world. It was started in 1882 and is not finished. It looks like to other building you've ever seen... there's crazy statues all over the front and back entrances and the pillars are based on tree trunks and split into branches as they near the ceiling. We waited in line for half an hour to take the lift up one of the spires. I haven't been very afraid of heights for a long time, but the combination of the claustrophobic spiral stairs and the clear views down to the ground shook me up a lot. There were some awesome views of the city and the cathedral, though.
Then we went to KFC and ate to much and sat outside saying "no me gusta" and watching an italian television show being filmed.
That night we went out again with pretty much the same group of people, with two additions: the Portuguese girl's cousin, who Nick and I both fell in love with, and an American dude named Florian.
Nick had hung out with Florian before I arrived in Barcelona, and had told me about him: an electronic music producer, multi-instrumentalist, really cool guy and total wanker with his head up his arse. I was wearing my Idiot Flesh t-shirt and he passed me and said "Hey, Idiot Flesh. I guess you know Sleepytime Gorilla Museum." Of course I had a fit, hugged him and hung out with him for a large part of that night. After the pool hall we wanted to go to failed to open at the time it was supposed to we went back to our Sangria bar and found our sight-destroying table to be free again. Sangria was drunk, good times were had, tears were shed, and even entire conversations were had with closed eyes... the smoke seemed to get to us quicker and worse than the night before.
The night ended on the steps of the hostel, with Florian and I locking horns over whether cello should be considered a bass instrument (I claimed that Bush - Glycerine does have bass because it has Cello). He got really passionate about it. Just as he was going to drop it Nick tried to take the piss out of Florian by making some ridiculous comment in support of his argument, but Florian took him seriously and got riled up about it again.
I really really like that guy but I find his existence offensive. What a wanker.
On our final day in Barcelona we went to see the Magic Fountain. What a cool fountain! We got there in the late afternoon, before the fountain started running, and chilled out for a while, discussing and missing the people at home. Slowly, parts of it started running: the waterfall running down to the main fountain, then the fountain itself, which would change the direction and height and patterns of the water jets every couple of minutes, then the jets lining the street we were on, then, when it got dark, the lights in the main fountain came on, and they would change colour with the changing water display. So cool! At about 9:30 an announcement came over the loudspeakers in Spanish, and then classical music played, and the fountain would change with the music. So magical!
It was then that Nick and I, having discussed how we were running out of money and energy and how we were planning to come back and live in Berlin in a couple of years, realised that we would both be going home soon, and that Alice: Nightmares in Wonderland was starting soon, and that it would be one of the coolest nights ever if we came to the last show and surprised everyone, and then went to the afterparty.
posted by Nick Tresco at 10:21 AM
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