After sleeping in until 11:00, it was time to get up. By noon I was on the streets. I went up to the Consulate and back, a trip of about 50 minutes both directions, and stopped off in Catalunya on my way home. In Catalunya I found La Rambla as well as FC Barcelona's official store. After looking inside and discovering a jersey on sale for 51 euros (after a 40% discount), I opted for a different local to spend some money. Across the courtyard was a giant building called Il Corte Ingles, (The English Court), which is Spain's largest chain of malls. The store itself was 12 floors in total including both those above and below ground. After thoroughly exploring the upper levels, I found my way to the subterranean levels were the supermarket was located and got to work trying to find lunch for the next week. Who knew that shopping could be so difficult?!
After browsing through the store I found the bread and water just fine, which is what I would need to survive. I even found the marmalade without too much difficulty. The problem came when I went looking for peanut butter and plastic bags. In the entire supermarket there was only one type of peanut butter in one spot on one shelf, and it was imported from the United States. Apparently the Spanish don't eat PB&J's. After that fiasco, I got completely turned around looking for plastic bags. Employees kept sending me to different parts of the store only to find the wrong plastic bags. I actually kept ending up in the seafood section (not too difficult when you consider that it was two full walls of the supermarket). While they did not have the plastic bags I was looking for, they did have a ginormous tank all along the counter on the outside where people could reach in themselves and it was full of lobsters and crabs. Pretty cool.
To make a long story somewhat shorter, I finally found someone in the cheese department who told me the bags were not even in the grocery store but in the pharmacy next to the drugs. Go figure, why didn't I think of that. At least the prices weren't bad. The eight grain bread was just over a euro and 5 liters of water was about one and a half euros. A piece of advice in Spain, try not to use bills because they will give you a stack of coins. They even have two euro coins. It was at this point that I decided to head back to the house and deposit my groceries at the house. After another meal of shrimp (the big meal of the day is at 2 every day), I was ready to keep exploring.
This time I hopped on the metro and went to the Arc de Triomf in the Parc de la Ciutadella. The arch was huge and amazing! I had seen a picture in a tourist book, but even so I could not stop my mouth from dropping and an irrepressible "wow!" You come out of the metro and it seems to be right above you. Walking through the arch, the other side is a large promenade lined with palm trees and strange blue lampposts, filled with all kinds of people playing music, dancing, performing, any and all kinds of activity. The promenade empties into a large park which contains the zoo, a few museums, the parliament building, a pond with rowboats for rent, and a gorgeous fountain. I spent the rest of my afternoon there just enjoying the atmosphere and watching everyone around: playing soccer, drummers, birthday parties, tour groups, people dancing on a slack line, etc. I found a little table to sit at across from the fountain and sketched for a while to pass the time until it got dark. They were setting up for a concert in the park, but I decided to head home where I had a nice snack of warm milk and chocolate before going to bed.
The climate here is amazing, warm, humid, and all around pleasant. The city is also super busy. I don't know exactly how many people live here, but I have never seen so many people out on the streets all the time: on the metro, in cars, on bikes, walking. They had entire streets for pedestrians only and even some of the streets with cars have giant middle sections for pedestrians to walk, sit, play on the playground, etc. The atmosphere here is just great and the people I've talked to seem nice. Thus far I have been taken for a German and a Frenchman.
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