First week of August staycation

I visited the Barri Gotic.  It was a crowded and claustrophobic, but still beautiful.  The Gothic and ancient Roman architecture is amazing and from the smell of it, the sewage system might be somewhat original.  There were street performers, merchants, people traveling from all over.  I took a tranquil moment to imagine the splash of chamber pots being emptied from above and the the trot of horses instead of mopeds.  No one who is actually from Barcelona will go anywhere near the Barri Gotic, especially during tourist season.  I saw as much free stuff as I could and took a bunch of photos.  None of the photos do any justice to the area, however.  There is so much detail that I could not capture - I was getting some high school flashbacks of Ms. Zierer's art history class the entire time.

Later on in the week, Duke and I went on a micro urban hike from my flat to Arc de Triomphe.  The Arc de Triomphe was, of course, grand and impressive, but it was all overshadowed by the best discovery ever: THE ASIAN MARKET.  It's no 99 Ranch, but they have the essentials: vinegar, tofu, soy sauce, seaweed, peanut butter.  It even had old Filipino dudes loitering inside.  Victory.  

 

After returning home with my prizes, I decided to get a haircut since it's been about a month since my last one.  I always get nervous when I cheat on Sarah.  We were seeing each other for 6 years before I left for Spain.  I chose the perruqueria with the Asians inside because they had cool hair and I figured they would take care of me.  Foreseeing an immense language barrier (they spoke Spanish and Mandarin), I looked up hairstyles online, took screen shots with my camera, and brought them in for nod and point communication.  I think they thought I was a riot because:

1. I was in Spain and couldn't speak Spanish
2. I look like I could be Chinese, but couldn't speak any Chinese languages
3. I brought them a photo of an Asian man's haircut.  

The whole process was a sitcom.  They did some strange stuff like shampoo my hair with a squirt bottle and Pantene while I sat upright in a chair.  I also got kind of nervous during the cut when I looked down and saw what appeared to be dried blood on the haircutting bib (I'm not sure what that's called).  All in all though, they delivered and I'll be back in a month or so.  

Yesterday, my Galician roommate, Reuben, decided to have a mini celebration because it was payday.  I got to partake in some traditional Galician food and drink: empanadas and licor café.  Galician empanadas are not like Filipino empanadas.  They are giant and you order them by the kilo.  The base of the filling is caramelized onions along with tuna or meat.  Licor café is the granddaddy of Kahlua.  According to Reuben, Galicians drink this like water and get wasted.  It's delicious, but I couldn't drink more than a glass of it.  We ran out of ice so we were trying to drink it straight up.  I thought my teeth were going to rot out of my face.  I also got to have some chorizo that was actually spicy.  It was really good, but nothing like Mexican chorizo.  It's really dry like pepperoni.    Reuben has been living off of garlic and rice for weeks now so it was a really big deal to have such a lavish  meal.  I felt totally honored that he wanted to share it with me.