Barcelona, a Belated Fond Farewell

We are still in Puerto Vallarta, with our balcony over the Bay, watching iguanas and sweating like pros. I'm going to catch up on the Blog while Sean is at the gym. I got a little inspired and nostalgic today...we received an email asking for tips and beach directions from two of our friends who just landed in BCN. Even looking at the Google Maps for the recommendations made me a little nostalgic, and we only left six weeks ago. It's that kind of town.

When we landed back in Barcelona from our jaunt North to Oslo & Prague, it was a city transformed. Previously busy streets (like ours) were now just THICK with tourists. Summer Season was on, the buses were full, and the city was swarming like a hive. Bam!

Our friend Eliot came down from London with his pal Mark for a visit. It was lovely to see them, and have Eliot as a housemate for a few days. One major advantage of having your friends come visit is that they are a wonderful motivation to get out and see things in this new town you're living in. Eliot wanted to see the Mies van der Rohe Pavillion, so we finally paid homage on a blazing afternoon.




We took them up top of Montjuic to enjoy some cavagria (on my part) and beers (on theirs). The action highlight, of course, was the attempted purse snatch on Barcelonetta beach.
The three gentlemen just prior to The Incident
Attempted, because some locals started gesturing frantically and yelling, and being bright red, my purse was easy to spot bobbing away up the beach towards the city. I set off in hot pursuit (topless) and caught up with the thieves at the same time the undercover cops did. It all ended well, if a bit comically, and Sean took care of our guests while I spent the first part of the evening at the Police station filing the report. It was the first and only time we'll ever lounge on that beach. Sitges or the other side of the Port Olympic for me, thank you!

It was still a wonderful weekend. Our last days in Barcelona were packed and happy. We made a few trips to some favorite spots, and Sean came with me to see the Pedrera (I had done Batllo with Claire) and the Chocolate museum.

One of the displays
We even took a sea kayaking trip via TravelBar up north to the Costa Brava and had a hot beautiful day paddling and snorkeling! What a treat.
My only picture from the day - no dry bags = no camera

One of our last nights in town, we had an SF connection rock-n-roll treat! Friends of Friends Paula O'Rourke and Eric McFadden were performing mere blocks from our flat at the Monasterio club near the water. We had a great time meeting everyone and hearing some awesome music. Our buddy Mathias from the language school was even there! Good Times.

We finally had to say a sad farewell to our beloved language school and L'Ascensor bar, two places I think we spent a considerable amount of time! We were ready to head home for a bit, though, and escape the summer throngs - me back to Higgins Lake, and he to upstate New York for some mutual family time before regrouping in San Francisco.

I'll get some Mexican Posts up before we leave here, I swear.