Found a random place and almost completely ordered in Spanish, except I think the waiter got impatient because he eventually switched to English. I got an understanding look from the older gentleman in a beret sitting at a table next to me, and he also proceeded to order in English. So we started commiserating and I got invited to have lunch with him. Found out he's a sculptor from Cambridge who has recently retired and has spent much time in Barcelona for inspiration. We talked about the usual stuff you talk about with sculptors from England, you know, art, classical music, history and the like. It was quite pleasant. Here he is: www.Douglasjeal.com. The tapas were amazing btw.
I headed toward the old part of town and visited the cathedral first (pictured below). It's so impressive, one can really let their mind expand in a space this big. One nice part about traveling alone is the quiet and introspection. I just took my time walking through at my own pace, it was really nice.
After this I checked out the underground ancient Roman city from 400bc. Wish we had ancient Roman cities under LA!
Then I headed to Eixample to Casa Batllo, a Gaudi creation. The whole building represents water and marine life and looks a little bit like a toy house with all kinds of curves and colorful patterns. But it also has a lot of architectural elements to create passive cooling and heating, and attention to natural light. It was a very relaxing experience to be in there.
In the evening Rosi and I went to an exhibition for Drap art, which is upcycled art. We bonded over arts and crafts earlier and sustainability in general. It seems that Barcelona is quite eco-friendly, which is nice to see.
The drap art was impressive, just what people can do with basically trash. I got a lot of ideas, so expect y'alls presents to be made out of trash now! ;)
After, we went to have some tea and met up with Arthur, after which I learned that the equivalent of "gringo" in Spain is "giddy" (not sure about spelling). This is good to know in case I ever hear some angry yelling and that word, I'll know I did something wrong!
They also educated me a little about Catalonia. There are a lot of laws protecting the Catalan language, such as to get any public office, you have to know it very well, because there is so much Castillian around with people from other parts of Spain moving here and tourists. Also, there is an independence movement to separate from Spain, but from what I understand it's a small minority of people. I'm sure it can be hard when your city is overrun with tourists, I mean, I feel like that in Santa Monica sometimes, and Barcelona is filled with them. (us!) Maybe Tony can look into making Santa Monica its own country too ;)
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