Today's quote: Work, exert yourself and get stuck in-but above all, enjoy yourself as much as these dancing sunflower seeds.
The weekend started out with a nice catch-up drinks with the local aupairs in my town. The old part of town is picturesque and full of old stone buildings with coloured shutters and tumbling flowers. I'm not sure whether the giant plant pots installed in this stretch were intended to stop cars or just as decoration but it's always entertaining to find yourself caught up in a James Bond style dodging manouevre with a car on a narrow street with the pots adding to the fun. We've found a little bar in the square by the church where we can sit outside and enjoy cheap drinks. Unfortunately the low prices seem to mean even less motivation for the waiter who must have been close to running out of friends to phone by the time we left but at least the customers weren't getting in the way of him enjoying his Friday night.
I've been very privileged to recieve my second visit from the travelling gourmet! Naturally we met over lunch in Barcelona after a wander past the Arc de Triomf and through Parc de la Ciutadella in the sunshine.
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| Barcelona has a public 'pay as you go' bike system like London. |
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| An electric car show was in action |
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| Fountain in la Parc de la Ciutadella |
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| I think I need to try this Vespa hire company |
Lunch was a trip to Blue Project Foundation Cafe, a vegetarian experience specialising in raw food. The menu was a challenge as, despite being in English, there was a fair amount of new vocabulary needed in order to decipher the many ingredients necessary to create a 'Love Sandwich', 'Out of Space Salad', 'Magic Hummous' or a 'Live Sun Burger'. We managed to work our way through most of the menu and it was pretty educational and tasty, delivered in a suitably rustic setting.
Next stop: dessert! We may have already treated ourselves to a three course meal but it was all healthy with equally healthy portions (ie fairly small) so after a little walk some chocolate and churros was called for. La Xocolateria by Oriol Balaguer was definitely to place to go. We had a slight communication issue and thought our order of 8 churros (perfectly reasonable between 3 people) was being questioned when actually we had accidently ordered enough chocolate to keep a class-full of kids quiet for the foreseeable future. Challenge accepted, we got through a worrying amount of it.
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| I should have got a better picture to demonstrate the scale! |
I especially liked the tiled map on the wall depicting what we guessed would be different historical cocoa trade routes and the performance we were treated to with the 'make your own ice cream' option. The ice cream was flattened on a frozen chopping board and theatrically sprinkled with the chosen topping before being scooped up again. The frozen chopping board came into its own as the ice cream was left chilling for quite a while as travelling gourmet made up her mind.
Then time for a wander through El Born over to Mercat de Mercats Food Festival 2014. This took place just by the Cathedral and the ambitious name did live up to expecations. Just about every time of cuisine was represented and we had a great time grazing our way around. It became very atmospheric as night fell and the twinkling lights came on to light up the balloons flying from the stalls.
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| Cheeses in ice cream cones |
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| Keeping the fan-weilding stereotype alive |
On Sunday I met the travellers in Placa Reial in the centre, stopping for a quick dose of culture in a modern art gallery, before hopping on the metro to Poblenou for a stroll down the beach. Most of the residents seemed to be out and about playing sports. The more tanned the volleyball teams the better they seemed to be, I guess as a pretty direct correlation with time spent in the sun playing.
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| Approaching Placa Reial |
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| Placa Reial |
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| I'm fairly sure this is an elephant |
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| Never too young to take advantage of the outdoor gyms! |
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| The unfortunate European love of speedoes was in full evidence at the volleyball |
There was just enough time left to fit in a quick stop in a vintage market in La Ovella Negra (the black sheep). This is a large barn-like building housing a bar/restaurant that describes itself as a 'day and night experience'. They hold various events of which this market is one. I was a bit overwhelmed by all the selection on offer so opted to have a quick drink and walk through rather than sift through everything for some hidden gems. I would definitely return when I have the energy to hunt things down!
