Me encanta Barcelona!

Hola,

Barcelona is amazing! Life almost revolves around eating, drinking, and socializing, be it espresso with pastries in the morning, a long leisurley lunch with friends in the early afternoon, some pintxos (the catalan version of tapas) served with a beer or cup of vino around 3 or 4, and a late but generous dinner around 10...The streets are dotted with cervecerias, outdoor cafes, wine bars and specialty grocery stores overflowing with cured meats, local cheeses, olives, and tins of various preserved peppers, anchovies, mussels etc.

After settling into our hotel "Banys Orientals", which happens to be in a very cool neighborhood called El Born, we set out to explore our surroundings. We didn't get but a couple blocks from our hotel when we stumbled upon a very quaint little wine bar called "La Vinya del Senyor" with outdoor seating overlooking the beautiful church "Santa Maria del Mar." Two glasses of cava later, we had made some friends from Wales and sampled our first Catalan pintxos: anchovies wrapped around olives and pan con tomato (bread slathered with olive oil and tomato pulp, sprinkled with sea salt). Everything was delicious, the ambiance unbeatable, and it took much self control not to spend the rest of the afternoon basking in the sun and sampling everything else on the menu!

Intermission: Daniel says we have to go to dinner now....Didn't we just eat? Oh well, more to come later!