Kathleen and Evelyn went back to the hotel and Liz and I went to get Julie from the airport. All of us came back to the hotel, then everyone but Evelyn went to my home stay señora's apartment to meet her, get my things, and have some drinks and snacks. She gave us lots of really good meats and cheese--fuet, jamón dulce, some kind of sausage from her village, manchego, etc. She also served red wine and cava. It was funny to translate everything the whole time. She wanted to fix Kathleen up with her son. Too bad Kathleen's married already. She said she was sad to see me go, but we exchanged contact info for the future.
I met up with mis amigas Patty and Caryn at Cerveseria Catalana that night, and Julie, Liz, Patty and I ended up having dinner. The tapas were just as good as the first time! I really highly recommend that place. I also tried their lemon mousse cake and I have not stopped thinking about how good it was.
On Saturday we ate at the breakfast buffet and moved all our belongings to the apartment we are now staying at, located at Passeig de Gràcia and Diagonal. It took a while between going to the office to get the key, going back to the hotel, calling a cab to get our tons of luggage, and finally getting everything upstairs. We went to Els Pollos for lunch. I was a little mad because although everything was as delicious as ever, they did not tell us that the menu del día was only Monday through Friday until we were paying! That night we went to the fountain light show at Plaza Espanya, but sadly Julie's wallet got stolen in the metro. She took all the precautions. The pick pockets in Barcelona are just too professional I guess.
On Sunday we went to Figueres to see the Dali museum there. It is where he is buried and the museum was designed by him. It was really crazy and cool and unlike anywhere else in the world. One of my favorite things was a brooch he designed that looked like a ruby heart and somehow actually beat like a (anatomically correct) heart would. The train was pretty long and it was raining, but otherwise it was a nice time. After getting back to Barcelona we went to Els Quatre Gats, the restaurant frequented by Picasso. We didn't really like it because it had a very snobby attitude to it and seemed really touristy, but the food was good. We went from there to a wonderful gelato place I had been to once before called Dolcevitaly. The gelato was fabulously good, and the Italian guy running the place was very flirty.
Today, Monday, we met up with my friend Mike at the Bagel Shop for breakfast. We walked around a lot before going back to the apartment, where Kathleen did laundry, everyone played cards, and I napped. From there we went to La Rambla and walked to Plaza Real and Plaza Sant Jaume and tried to go to Petra, but it was closed. So instead we went to Taller de Tapas, which was still very, very good.
We also went to Cook and Taste tonight! It was the same recipes as the one I had been to before, but this time I made the gazpacho instead of the tortilla. I think everyone had a lot of fun. We met a young Australian couple living in London, a mom and middle school age son from Holland, and two guys who went to Carnegie Mellon traveling together.
Tomorrow we will have to catch up on everything that was on the itinerary and has been skipped. And try to watch the Barça-Chelsea game!
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