Vanessa and I woke up to an alarm set for 8:30, and V showered as I sat down with Mamen and Paco at the table in the living room. Mamen brought out bread, nuts, melon, watermelon, peanut butter, and she offered coffee that I, then Vanessa, declined. After eating the nice smorgasbord of food, I showered and we drove with Paco to a churrería to continue eating :). Yay for churros! Sadly, though, the churros were way too oily, but the chocolate was really good, and it was great to talk with Paco. I enjoyed the view on the way back to the house: on the right was green with mountains on the horizon, and on the left was the actual town of Badia de Vallés, with some really cool graffiti of Alí with boxing gloves and a long line of colorful kids, among others.
We chilled for a while back at the apartment. I started reading Rook, an entertaining and cool book about a kick-ass woman in the future who is rebelling against her medieval-like society. Spoiler alert: she defeats the maniac bad guy, gets people of all financial classes safe, becomes the queen essentially, and reintroduces technology. I didn't know any of this at the time, but the ending was exceptionally good, and sheds some light on the adventure that occurred to get there. Anyway, we decided to go to Barcelona proper after lunch. Mamen stayed home, and Paco and us went to La Rambla, the most famous part of Barcelona. Think shopping and La Sagrada Familia. Paco had worked as a policeman there for thirty-plus years, so he was pretty tired of the hustle and bustle. He still took us there, and walked through the important parts. It was beautiful, busy with tourists and shop-goers going to big stores--there are 3 El Corte Inglés stores in and around La Plaza Cataluña. We went to a cafe and drank some slightly too bitter cafe con leche (I enjoy the more-milk-than-actual-coffee coffee, so there's that). Then we we walked around La Rambla, looking at the colorful shops and alleyways, almost going to a chapel that's really famous, but then we backtracked when we realized we would have to pay. Paco took several pictures of us at various governmental buildings that of course I can't remember the names of, and then we walked back to the same cafe and got ice cream! I ate vanilla, V strawberry, and Paco chocolate.
We chilled for the rest of the day, reading, watching the soccer match between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund. Sadly it was a 2-2 tie. We ate cocido (noodle and broth soup), and went to bed.
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| Casa Mila, a building designed by famous architect Antoni Gaudi |
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| Plaza Cataluña |
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