"praiyse th'loourd"

it just so happens that upon returning from my rant that we were delivered from all evil and blessed with the meeting of 4 quite extraordinary kids from the south of melbourne. relaxed, fun, good taste in music and dare i say intelligent. it was unanimously decided as a miracle and we proceeded to get drunk and hit up the local rastafarian bar in the small alleyways of the old "bari gothic" segment of barcelona. we spent two great nights with jacob, georgie, jay and dan who (despite their youth) were high calibre companions and i am already looking forward to seeing them again sometime in the future. many a gourmet feast was cooked up in the most decked out pension kitchen we have ever come accross, and the cheery opera-singing host provided much lovable comic relief.

and what a wonderful town barcelona is; sporting the best open air market ever (responsible for the previously mentioned feasts). it must be noted that we are qualified to rate barcelona's market because we are, as i have once noted, on the "open market tour of europe" (although technically the barcelona market is not "open air", the roof which covers aisle after aisle of immaculately presented fruit, veg and all other possible edible entities is so large that it may aswell be outside. not to mention the lack of walls which gives impression of "open air". i will credit lucy for the aformentioned "fruit presentation" observation because to me it was just a place where my insatiable hunger is quickly abated, but apparently this is the most beautiful market around and i dare say it reminded me a little of the easter show fruit and veg presnetation competitions back home (but with less theme and more edibility).

due to the prospect of my internet connection shutting down on me i will highlight some "must do's" and make some recommendations for those interested in barcelona in list form (sorry!):
  1. see as much of gaudi's stuff as possible, the sagrada famiglia is absolutely ridiculously amazing (see previous post for more details) and get out to park guell. if you are lucky then the 1km walk up the hill from the metro will have escalators that work, otherwise stretch up.
  2. walk down la rambla, the big touristy street that cuts through "the heart" of barcelona if only to reach the famous market from previous paragraph fame. prepare yourself for lots of street performers, human statues and the like and some of which who are actually pretty damned good.
  3. go to the juan miro foundation museum. barcelona seems to have a habit of producing ingeniously progressive people and the art of mr miro is spectacularly modern. so much modern work is undoubtedly influenced by a guy who was open to stylistic changes his whole life; as is evidenced by one of his latest works which is an enourmous woollen tapestry woven in the style of his abstract (and very colorful) paintings. a mercury fountain is a favourite of mine, but all of his futurist works are cool.

time out. off to paris tonight for a short time before farewelling lucy back home. sad... : (

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