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Barcelona’s view on male-female relationships

I wrapped up my two-week adventure with a trip to Southern Europe, for the first time. I was joined by my co-worker/friend Jen for some relaxing and sight-seeing in Barcelona. We met up at our apartment, perfectly situated in Old Town Barcelona, dusted off our 20-phrase repertoire of Spanish and headed out with the simple goal of experiencing the Barcelona way of life.

 

Sight-seeing in Barcelona from Keely Johnson on Vimeo. 

 

On Friday, we set out on a bike tour, with our (according to Jen) super cute tour guide, JJ and his side kick fresh off the boat (ok, plane) from… Austin! We saw all the main sights that way, and got to hear all of JJ’s random stories about Barcelona. 

 
Barcelona Bike Tour from Keely Johnson on Vimeo.

 

We ended the tour at Barceloneta, a man-made beach, hanging with ridiculous amounts of British stag parties, and I learned I am a better bicyclist with lots of sangria in me!
 

Jen and Keely hanging with the woolly mammoth near Barcelona Zoo

 

Friday night we met up with an acquaintance of Jen’s friend Kayne, Stephan, who lived in Barcelona for some time, before recently moving back to the States. We ate at the best restaurant I visited my entire trip and then went out for mojitos and G&Ts (for Jen), meeting up with his co-worker/friend along the way, and having as much fun as one can in Barcelona (which I found out quickly, is A LOT).

 

Barcelona Nights from Keely Johnson on Vimeo. 

 

On Saturday, we explored more of Barcelona, including the Picasso museum, at the end of which Jen concluded, “that Picasso was crazy, huh!”. We ended the evening (after a nice siesta) at Park Güell, a Gaudi creation, where we saw killer pigeons and a marriage.

 

Saturday night, we attempted to go to a Cuban restaurant, but ended up eating Mexican food. The Spanish may speak the same language as the Mexicans, but they do not know how to properly make Mexican food, although the restaurant was super cute, and the Spanish seemed to love it (and they had Micheladas).

 

The next day, we ventured to Jen’s hotel, since I was leaving in the evening for Frankfurt (to head home), and when we went to grab a late lunch, I discovered the hard way that “quatros quesos” in Spanish means Campbell’s cheese sauce.

 

All in all, I loved Barcelona, the always-enjoying-themselves environment and all the beautiful and eclectic sights and people. So what did we learn the Barcelona way of life is?

 

Something called pinchos, wine that is cheaper than water, there are way too few siestas and way too many street beers, the coolest “mini-bars” and people living to the fullest.

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 10:47 am and is filed under Barcelona, Spain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.