Saturday
-mental soundtrack ---> Rogue Wave
-sharing a gate with a flight to Amsterdam = eavesdropping in Dutch
-sick on vacation sucks but whoa Nyquil knocks you out good when you want to sleep on the plane
Sunday
-mental soundtrack ---> Beirut
-glimpses of the Thames and the London skyline out my plane window
-as airport eating goes you can do a lot worse than the
Chez Gérard at Heathrow
-flying over the Pyrenees
-the super-stylin'
Market Hotel-dinner in their excellent restaurant: a glass of cava + cod topped with pear-garlic sauce on tomato preserve +
crema catalana-a post-dinner ramble around my adopted neighborhood for the week
Monday
-mental soundtrack ---> Belle & Sebastian
-breakfast near the Plaça de Catalunya
-soothing my jet-lagged brain with mounds of
modernisme in L'Eixample: gorgeous facades, intricate ironwork, sinuous lines galore
-then I saw
La Sagrada Familia in person for the first time and my head exploded
-skipped the 90-minute queue for the lifts up into the towers and instead ogled the workers doing the ongoing construction
-tasty
menú del día at
L'Atzavara: chickpea and couscous stew + zucchini stuffed with marinated tofu + fresh fruit for dessert
-undulating interiors, parabolic arches, and the crazy chimney pots of Gaudi's
La Padrera-more hallucinatory wonders from Gaudi down the street at
Casa Batlló, including its mosaic-encrusted exterior and dragon-backed roof
-the cute young skater-boys of Plaça de la Universitat
-dinner at the comfortably hippie
Amaltea: mango lassi + veggie
bioplato + veggieburger + apple compote with cinnamon for dessert
Tuesday
-mental soundtrack ---> Freedy Johnston
-quickly developing an addiction to
ensaïmada pastries
-my Metro card getting me onto the funicular railway to Montjuïc
-the wild parrots of Montjuïc
-scenic cable car ride up to the castle on top of the hill
-the many fine views and gardens of Montjuïc: I found a clan of nice feral kitties, was scolded in Catalan for gawping at a quartet of martial arts practitioners, and encountered many many Spanish schoolchildren
-1000 amazing years of art at
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, everything from reconstructions of Romanesque churches to one of Picasso's better portraits of Marie-Thérèse
-an artful lunch overlooking the entire city at
Oleum: grilled vegetables + hake supreme with basil-butter sauce and tomato compote with baby shrimps + mango and mint timbale with parmesan ice cream and hot chocolate sauce
-a ramble through the just-this-side-of-sketchy El Raval including more Modernista goodness at Bar Muy Buenas and London Bar, plus street art, skate shops, cool galleries, and a seriously international mix of residents
-the
Museu Maritim was undergoing renovations but I still got in to marvel at the cavernous medieval shipyards
-meeting up with Tom to head over to the {ths} opening at
ROJO®artspace-Tom's spectacular photographs on display at
Noti-hole-in-the-wall pizzas and
postres at Pizzas l'Avia
-late-night gin-and-tonic at
MarmaladeWednesday
-mental soundtrack ---> Andrew Bird
-total shopping mayhem in La Ribera, including a pile of Catalan 7-inches from Discos Juandó and tons of edible presents
-hushed churchly awe inside Gothic beauty Santa María del Mar
-early work, delicious little prints, and crazy ceramics inside the linked buildings of
Museu Picasso-
pintxos and a
café amb llet inside the foyer of the
Palau de la Música Catalana-the Palau itself, designed in full-on extravagant Modernista style by Lluís Domènech i Montaner complete with its glowing sun of a stained glass skylight
-one of the best meals I've ever had in my life at Suite 7 in El Raval: vermouth + grilled shrimp with mustard dipping sauce + greens with croutons and sesame-balsamic dressing + a glass of Spanish red + vegetable timbale with goat cheese and tomato and basil pestos + anise liqueur + pannacotta with honey
-a deadly vodka and orange juice back at Bar Rosso, my hotel bar
Thursday
-mental soundtrack ---> Air
-yup, still eating my weight in
ensaïmadas every morning
-the continuing gorgeous weather sent me straight to the sea, namely around the old fishing port and along the beach of Port Vell and La Barceloneta
-stopped off at the excellent
L'Aquarium and completely freaked out over their underwater shark tunnel, but also their penguins and amphibians and sea dragons and iguanas and Mediterranean fishies and and and
-investigating the architecture (and parks and beaches) of the new Barcelona on a walk along the coast from El Fòrum through El Poblenou to Port Olímpic
-high-power lunch on the pier at
El Cangrejo Loco: typical Spanish lettuce salad with olive oil and vinegar + fried calamari + salt cod with anchovy "aioli" + Macedonian-style fruit salad
-the simple perfection of Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona
Pavilion, red curtain and all
-too much good stuff at
MACBA: Gego + Smithson + Matta-Clark + Weiner + Ruscha + the John Cage exhibit that was worth the trip to Barcelona right there
-oh hello
White Paintings, very nice to see you so far from SFMOMA
-hoity-toity art types at the Carles Congost opening at
Galería Joan Prats-mulling over ideas over dinner at
Flamant: caprese salad +
vino tinto + tagliatelle with asparagus, mushrooms, goat cheese + chocolate mousse topped with crushed pistachios
Friday
-mental soundtrack ---> Yo La Tengo
-meeting up with Angela at the
La Chula production studios, aka the former bar her sister Alicia and Alicia's partner Benet converted into an awesome live-work space that they are now sharing with the 7-month-old Otto
-mind summarily blown by the excavated Roman villa in the basement of the
Museu d’Història de la Ciutat-seeking out some of the hidden treasures of the Barri Gòtic, including the kitties living in little cat-houses by the old Roman tombs in Plaça de la Vila de Madrid and the former Picasso hang-out El Quatre Gats
-back to La Chula for a homemade lunch of tuna stew + tomato salad
-window-shopping vintage stores in El Raval and digging through vinyl at the amazing
WAH WAH-dressing up to drink a couple glasses of cava at Bar Rosso
-last night in Barcelona means a fancy dinner with Angela, Alicia, Tom, and Otto at my hotel: tempura shrimp wrapped in zucchini + grilled calamari with beans and a lemon balsamic sauce + molten chocolate cake
-
mas cervezas in the bar
Saturday
-mental soundtrack ---> Sigur Rós
-one last
ensaïmada at the BCN airport
-the best part about Heathrow's new Terminal 5, even better than the ubercool forward-thinking design? it has a
Wagamama-"...you look very happy today, madame!"