Barcelona Travelogue - Week 1

This place, Can Serrat, the residence, is amazing! It took a subway, two buses, a plane, and two taxis to get me here (and quite bit of money), but I feel so welcome, and the sun was setting when I arrive, and it is just beautiful. I hope I can get a lot done, and everyone sems to be really dedicated, so I think that environment will help.

The food is already WAY better. I arrived at the end of dinner, and while it was based around a meat dish, one of the directors is a vegetarian, and everyhitng else was totally delicious and SO FRESH. And even in the Barcelona airport, they had a fresh squeezing orange juice machine, and I bought a teeny little glass of orange juice for 2.6 euro (I was confused at the time and thought it was almost 5$, but thought it was the best five dollars I'd spent in Europe; it was really only about 3.5$). It was so good and so appreciated after all the refined fried food in Romania. And I didn't even savor it; I practially chugged it. It was still so delicous and wonderful.

Back to Can Serrat... It's a lovely little magic place in the foothills of Mont Serrat, 45k from Barcelona city proper. Everyone is friendly, but most conversation is in English (bummer!). So, I'm barely practicing my Spanish, when I can convince someone to speak with me (and don't lapse into English myself), and no Catalon (that part is okay with me... I still need to get the hang of Spanish before I pick up another langauge!). So, I think after this month I will go to another city and move into an apartment with someone who speaks only Spanish. It seems like the best way.

And the writing.
I have lots of really good ideas for... essays! of all things. And a really great idea on how to compile them into a book. So, I think I'm going in a good direction. Writing this month... and then focus on Spanish.

The food is amazing! I arrived at the end of dinner last night, and I had salad, and potatoes. Today for lunch we had Paella (I'm eating seafood, even though I'm not a big fan). The rice part was good, but the langostinos and shellfish... well, I'm thinking they may grow on me. I'm still avoiding poultry and mammal.

Then we went out to dinner at this awesome place called Vinyanova. It's absolutley in the middle of nowhere, down
a maze of dirt roads, in the middle of an olive farm, and it was packed. The ambience was something any american restaurant would strive for and never acheive: it's an old farm house, with rustic tables, and old brick walls, and candles, and baskets of imperfect tomatoes as centerppieces. It's the essence of Catalon.

There was potatoes, eggplant, red bell peppers, bread, salad, ceviche, and cured meats as appetizer. Then meat, corn, and potatoes as the main dish, but there are two vegetarians so they made us both a little plate of divine garbanzos with raisins, slightly sweet, another kind of small bean, a little patty made from couscous (I think), carrots, mushrooms, and teeny baby eggplant (totally different than the appetizer) It was all so simple, but so flavorfull. Then biscotti, raisins, hazelnuts, and muscatel grape wine for dessert. Then coffee and drinks afterward. It was so delicious.

A few days ago we went to a little town a hour and half away, with lots of Roman ruins. It was interesting, but poorly planned. I was hot all day, then got hungry, then got wet in the rain, and then really cold. And I only ate junk because I wasn't in the mood for real food in the afternoon, and thought we'd be back for dinner (as this is what I was told), but we didn't get back until like 11pm. I was pretty grumpy, but the town was really interesting, and I saw a lot of cool old stuff: buildings, ruins, and some great museums.

I finally took a trip into Barcelona on Friday. I was enjoying being settled before that. I saw a fun market where I had kiwi juice, half of a crazy fruit that was like a hot pink kiwi in a stragne shell, and fresh coconut. I went to the contemporary art museum. And then I went to this culture museum with an amazing exhibit on Chernobyl. I spent hours in the exhibit and was really mvoed by it. I twas really well done, extensive, with lots of photos and lots of text.

I have been planning more trips into Barcelona for the next few weeks. There is so much to do in the city.

In the mean time, though, I am really enjoying reading and writing. I am coming along on 8 essays, and plan to submit at least a couple of them at the end of my month here.