more than
tea and scones
Thursday, June 23, 2005
more than sangria and wine
Barcelona is so beautiful. Tonight is the summer solstice so the whole town is a giant party from 5pm until 8am tomorrow. There will be fireworks and bonfires on the beach. Its so frustrating though with the language barrier. I dont know Spanish, Im an idiot and assumed that my broken up french would be of some assistence, but shit, I was wrong. Barcelona is famous for Picasso and some architect named Gaudi. Seriously, look Gaudi up, he designed an enclove here and its so stunning. He has some hatred of straight lines so all the buildings look like something out of a cartoon. Its so nice. Im also in the land of Salvador Dali, I hope to check out his museum soon.Jojo, heres my special task for you so you can practice being a tourist -first off, wake up at 7am, grab five slices of toast, cover them in jam. Only eat two and wrap the other three up in some paper towels (there's lunch). Then try to take the train to 17th ave, go shopping all day but limit your vocab to "hello", "goodbye", "please", "thank you", "much thank you", "yes", "no" and "I want" and the numbers 1-10. That's how I feel. Next walk your ass to Chinatown and pick a menu item at random and eat it. Go to the market and try to request half a kilo of cherries when your damned guidbook doesn tell you how to say intervals. After your exhausting day of not speaking or understanding anyone, go home. Fill up your bathtub with nice warm water, add some salt and blue dye...there now youve got your own mediterranean sea. Grab a bottle of wine and just sit in the tub for hours on end.
Oh dear god, I went to the market yesterday, they sell pig heads, severed cat heads, dead skinned bunnies, eyeballs, tongues, feet and all the seafood is still alive. It made me sick. The pig head was huge, and it still had eyelashes, like it was fully intact. The little clams were all licking each other and the fish were gulping for air...it was so sad. All the precious crabs were just quivering and waving their arms in the air.
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Location: Barcelona
Wearing: same
Day's Activities: beach, siesta
Thing you miss: oatmeal
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Travellers tip: avoid at all costs -discount fruit
Embarassing moment: I dont know a word of spanish and my hostel in france threw all my toiletries away, so my first thing to do in Barcelona was to buy new rasors, soap, toothbrush, contact lens case and new toothpaste. Most stores in barcelona dont speack english, so Im stuck playing charades trying to get my point across. For rasor, I stood there with my leg raised in the air and pretended to shave my legs while screaming ŕasor' in an acent. It was so embarrasing. Apparently rasor in spanish is Machiato as in that coffee drink from Second Cup.
jenny at 9:26 AM
