Well, we were unable to get an actual connection from the free wireless in the hotel lobby we tried; there was some kind of extra authentication, which it looks like you´d be able to get through if you were a guest. So, we are back at easyEverything, and unless we are walking around and happen to come upon a place that says "free wifi!" on the door, we probably just won´t be able to upload the photos we´ve been taking until we get back.
Last night after we made our post, we headed up and down La Rambla, which is the big, mostly-pedestrian street that goes down the center of the central part of the city. Imagine Harvard Square, but a bit more seedy, stretched out into a single tree-lined thoroughfare, for over a mile. After agreeing that it seems even more sketchy since the last time we were here, we picked up a festival schedule (which is only printed in Catalan-- fun fun translation games), headed down by the water, took up residence at an outdoor terrace, ordered a couple of cervesas, and planned out how to shuffle around the festival events with the things we want to do while we´re here.
We left there for dinner at about a quarter to nine. We went to the excellent, excellent little place called Oolong, which has very friendly staff, lots of fun vegetarian foods (and beefy treats for me), and fun decor, in this tiny little hole in the wall.
Terri is making frantic grasping motions for the keyboard. I will cede it.
Just figured I might as well confess to how I was flummoxed by the sliding door to the toilets at Oolong. There was no indication that the door was supposed to slide, and I was tired, and well... I just sort of bent it up enough that I could get in. It´s a funky place, so I figured, maybe this is a new arty kind of door that we don´t have in the states. Anyway... the food was delumpcious. We oo-ed and ah-ed our way through the spring rolls, and had somewhat Spanish main courses... mine was beans and rice with corn and avocado... but so nicely done. Ezra had roast beef with plantain chips, since we´re keeping score.
Then we wandered briefly around the Gothic quarter and noted that we like that area (further from the Rambla, on the same side as our hotel). It´s very cute, with loads of little shops and cozy candlelit restaurants and bars. It´s all windy and some of the bars are like dark little caverns. Good stuff.
(back to Ezra)
We ended up over by the Cathedral, which is one of the stages for the B.A.M. festival (the music festival that coincides with La Merce), but there was nothing going on. Still quite a few people hanging around the stage, though. And we wandered back through the winding little streets to our hotel. Most of the streets in the Gothic quarter, where we´re staying, are way too narrow to fit cars through; some people ride bikes, some scooters, but most are on foot. As we passed the Placa de St. Jaume (another of the B.A.M. stages, this one well within ear shot of our hotel), a band took the stage. We don´t know who they were, but with a crowd of many hundreds of people cheering for them as they took the stage, they must be famous in Catalunya.
As suspected, sleeping was hard, because it was pretty noisy. We both woke up a few times in the night; I think the band stopped sometime after midnight, but there was still a lot of noise from people in the street. Terri woke up at 5:30 or 6:00, and it was quiet then, so at some point people did go to bed.
Today, we grabbed a quick breakfast, and walked to the Palau de Musica Catalunya (Palace of Catalan Music) and picked up tickets for a tour at 2pm. It´s one of the things we didn´t do last time, it´s a funky modernista building, and you can only see it through a guided tour. So, we picked up our tickets, and then walked north to La Pedrera (a.k.a. Casa Mila), one of the famous Gaudi buildings. Every Friday and Saturday in the summer, they have special evening events on the roof (which is extremely funky architecture) with live music and a bar. We wanted to try to go there tonight, because it would be fun, and also because there are fireworks down on the beach that we were hoping to see from there. However, apparently, summer is over, and there is no more La Pedrera at Night for 2004. Alas. We were thwarted last time, too; then, apparently, they had it in late September, because the reason they gave for cancelling it last time was the rain.
We were also thwarted with the shoe shopping that I wanted to do (yes, I, not Terri, also need shoes and like the fun Spanish variety), because all of the shoe stores seemed to be closed for the main festival day (which is today). So, we walked back down through a bunch of kid-oriented festival stuff (Terri got a folded paper hat), and grabbed lunch at a big cafe-type place near the Cathedral. Their logo is some kind of clergyman dancing around. We also saw that there´s a Dali exhibit at a museum not too far away from there, which is open late-ish, so we might end up back there this evening.
easyEverything has also put a Subway in the front, and let me tell you, they are pumping out the Subway smell.
Anyway, we left lunch, and saw the Castellers making their big human towers. We saw a couple of them take falls, mostly on the way down, some of them from two or three stories up. The Placa was extremely crowded, so we couldn´t see exactly what happened, but I presumed that people standing on the ground either cushioned the fall, or caught them, because I didn´t see any of the ambulances that are parked nearby spring into motion. Still, it seems like taking a fall from that high up (probably 25 feet) must have smarted.
We have to be off now, but we will write more later...
Last night after we made our post, we headed up and down La Rambla, which is the big, mostly-pedestrian street that goes down the center of the central part of the city. Imagine Harvard Square, but a bit more seedy, stretched out into a single tree-lined thoroughfare, for over a mile. After agreeing that it seems even more sketchy since the last time we were here, we picked up a festival schedule (which is only printed in Catalan-- fun fun translation games), headed down by the water, took up residence at an outdoor terrace, ordered a couple of cervesas, and planned out how to shuffle around the festival events with the things we want to do while we´re here.
We left there for dinner at about a quarter to nine. We went to the excellent, excellent little place called Oolong, which has very friendly staff, lots of fun vegetarian foods (and beefy treats for me), and fun decor, in this tiny little hole in the wall.
Terri is making frantic grasping motions for the keyboard. I will cede it.
Just figured I might as well confess to how I was flummoxed by the sliding door to the toilets at Oolong. There was no indication that the door was supposed to slide, and I was tired, and well... I just sort of bent it up enough that I could get in. It´s a funky place, so I figured, maybe this is a new arty kind of door that we don´t have in the states. Anyway... the food was delumpcious. We oo-ed and ah-ed our way through the spring rolls, and had somewhat Spanish main courses... mine was beans and rice with corn and avocado... but so nicely done. Ezra had roast beef with plantain chips, since we´re keeping score.
Then we wandered briefly around the Gothic quarter and noted that we like that area (further from the Rambla, on the same side as our hotel). It´s very cute, with loads of little shops and cozy candlelit restaurants and bars. It´s all windy and some of the bars are like dark little caverns. Good stuff.
(back to Ezra)
We ended up over by the Cathedral, which is one of the stages for the B.A.M. festival (the music festival that coincides with La Merce), but there was nothing going on. Still quite a few people hanging around the stage, though. And we wandered back through the winding little streets to our hotel. Most of the streets in the Gothic quarter, where we´re staying, are way too narrow to fit cars through; some people ride bikes, some scooters, but most are on foot. As we passed the Placa de St. Jaume (another of the B.A.M. stages, this one well within ear shot of our hotel), a band took the stage. We don´t know who they were, but with a crowd of many hundreds of people cheering for them as they took the stage, they must be famous in Catalunya.
As suspected, sleeping was hard, because it was pretty noisy. We both woke up a few times in the night; I think the band stopped sometime after midnight, but there was still a lot of noise from people in the street. Terri woke up at 5:30 or 6:00, and it was quiet then, so at some point people did go to bed.
Today, we grabbed a quick breakfast, and walked to the Palau de Musica Catalunya (Palace of Catalan Music) and picked up tickets for a tour at 2pm. It´s one of the things we didn´t do last time, it´s a funky modernista building, and you can only see it through a guided tour. So, we picked up our tickets, and then walked north to La Pedrera (a.k.a. Casa Mila), one of the famous Gaudi buildings. Every Friday and Saturday in the summer, they have special evening events on the roof (which is extremely funky architecture) with live music and a bar. We wanted to try to go there tonight, because it would be fun, and also because there are fireworks down on the beach that we were hoping to see from there. However, apparently, summer is over, and there is no more La Pedrera at Night for 2004. Alas. We were thwarted last time, too; then, apparently, they had it in late September, because the reason they gave for cancelling it last time was the rain.
We were also thwarted with the shoe shopping that I wanted to do (yes, I, not Terri, also need shoes and like the fun Spanish variety), because all of the shoe stores seemed to be closed for the main festival day (which is today). So, we walked back down through a bunch of kid-oriented festival stuff (Terri got a folded paper hat), and grabbed lunch at a big cafe-type place near the Cathedral. Their logo is some kind of clergyman dancing around. We also saw that there´s a Dali exhibit at a museum not too far away from there, which is open late-ish, so we might end up back there this evening.
easyEverything has also put a Subway in the front, and let me tell you, they are pumping out the Subway smell.
Anyway, we left lunch, and saw the Castellers making their big human towers. We saw a couple of them take falls, mostly on the way down, some of them from two or three stories up. The Placa was extremely crowded, so we couldn´t see exactly what happened, but I presumed that people standing on the ground either cushioned the fall, or caught them, because I didn´t see any of the ambulances that are parked nearby spring into motion. Still, it seems like taking a fall from that high up (probably 25 feet) must have smarted.
We have to be off now, but we will write more later...
posted by Ezra | 10:42 AM
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