Barcelona

Switzerland was a lot of fun.  Seeing all my old friends was alone worth the trip.  However, it was time to move on to the next location.

I had arranged to catch up with Phil and we both decided to go spend a week in Spain.  I hadn't seen Phil for a while, and it had been years since I had been to Spain.  The first time I went, I only spent time in the south of Spain as well, so I was looking forward to the opportunity to go to some of the more famous locations.  I arrived in Barcelona not too long before Phil's flight from Norway.  We made our way into Barcelona together where Phil had arranged our accommodation.  He had found us an amazing little apartment in the Gothic Quarter on a lane just off to the side of the famous La Rambla.  We walked up a few stories and found ourselves a simple and bare apartment.  It didn't have any special comforts or luxuries, but it did have a small balcony that looked out onto the lane.

After we settled, we went for a walk around the city.

La Rambla has a reputation as one of the loveliest pedestrian malls in the world.  Within a few minutes of walking around, it was clear to us that it was a well deserved reputation.  The Spanish poet Frederico Garcia Lorca apparently once said of La Rambla that it was "the only street in the world which I wish would never end."

It wasn't hard to understand the thinking.  The street has a combination of architecture, restaurants, markets and a general atmosphere that come together to make it incredibly lively in an exceptionally beautiful setting.  The paths are so wide that even when you have thousands of people walking along the street, there still seems to be space for everyone.

We went looking for a bar within the Gothic Quarter.  Walking down the narrow side streets, we walked past various restaurants and bars full of people.  We walked past some ladies who tried their very best to solicit our business, when we declined they began to blow raspberries at us... hilarious...  We eventually found a very old looking bar off one of the side streets.  We ordered some gins and then moved onto some absinthe.  The bars in the area all seemed to be museum pieces themselves.  They weren't all in the best condition, but there was something about their worn down facades that made everything seem more genuine and real.