monday. apparently it's february

Today, I woke up at 10 and arranged to meet Steph for lunch at Cafe Salambo at 12. I went to the ATM to get money for lunch and rent and found out my card was officially REJECTED. It hadn't let me buy Barca tickets or use the ATM last night and I finally figured out that the problem is not in individual cases: it's the card. I sent mom an email and rushed off to meet Steph. Fortunately her card had JUST arrived in the mail and she paid me back what she owed me so I had a fair amount. Our cafe was closed so we went to Lalola which was also closed. We went to the Rambla and wandered in toward the Cathedral.
We decided to have lunch in a shop with a counter with lots of different foods on it. It was very posh looking with shiny silk booths and lots of people sipping drinks. It was like tapas but you didn't have to agree with whoever you came with on what you wanted. They had lots of delicious little things. The best were asparagus and meat combinations. The truffle for dessert was also pretty fab. As it turned out, you paid by the number of skewers you had aquired. I had a feeling that might be the case, judging by how other people seemed to consider their options. We'd had a bit more of a free-for-all. It didn't turn out too bad though- 1.60 per stick.
Then we went to a show called Boheme or something like that. We'd wandered into it the other day and found out they have lots of funky little things. I almost got a clip, but it turned out to be 5 Euros PER clip, not for all 3 of the ones that were on the card. The sales girl was really trying to sell me on a particular designer from Barcelona because I'd enquired about one Tshirt.
Then we decided to go to the Picasso museum. We wound down a few grey alleyways with fancy designs on the buildings and found out that the museum was closed on Mondays. Lame.

We decided to continue toward Eglesia de Santa Maria del Mar. Mimi had said it was nice too. We passed several palm trees that were growing out of the sidewalk. I love that they left a hole in the ground for them to grow. It's one of my favorite Barcelona features.

We did find the church and were almost immediately distracted by a scarf shop under an arch. They also had lots of odd silk clothes. I ended up with a red, yellow and brown/white patterned scarf. The red and yellow were flowers and the other bit was different smaller patterns. The shopkeeper was a French woman who showed us a whole catalogue of berets. It was funny.
Steph also recognized the name of the street where we came out to be an indicator of the El Born district. I'd read that it was artsy but imagined it to be grungy. Turns out it's posh artsy.
Then we looked around the rest of the church. The front entrance of it looked a lot like the Cathedral we'd seen in Tarragona the day before. A big round window above an arch over the front door. Also, it had a couple of carved figures along the sides of the arch just like yesterday's.



On the balcony of the building next to the church, there were two cardboard cutouts of DONKEYS that were blue! I loved them.
We wandered a bit further beyond the church and down more alleys. Steph wanted to get her barings so we looked out at the main street and we were right by Port Vell (as I predicted).
Then we cut back in. I have a mild obsession with buildings that go over the road in an arch-- places where you could cross from one building to another without going outside. There were a few of them in the area.


We found we'd accidentally circled back to the scarf shop so we went down the main Rambla of El Born.

It was shorter than most of the Ramblas I've seen but it did have a walking area in the middle and space for cars on both outer edges. At the end was a big market hall that was under construction. I was pretty sure that it was the one Mikaela and had come on when we'd been to the Italian restaurant after trying to find Fish and Chips.
We decided that the main street wasn't too interesting so we went back to a narrower one to investigate a building with lots of sculpting on the outside. It was really neat. The one next to it had a painted yellow and mint pattern. It was really cool too, like wallpaper on the outside!

Steph and I wound around several more streets. We went up and down various alleys and commented on the architecture and the laundry hanging off of them and such.


We ended up going through what appeared to be the ethnic parts of town. There were some shops with Chinese writing and some with Arabic and such. We also thought it might be a seedy bit of town because of the look of the people lingering in the area.
We went back to the subway and I said goodbye to Steph.
I ended up walking around the back side of the main Cathedral. I didn't know that was what it was until I was back in the main square in front of it.

It had lots of interesting brickwork and a little gardeny area in front of it with benches. It wasn't really a garden though because it was dirt. Here, squares are usually cement or dirt. At home, I feel like everything would be grass. I was just starting to see how the different parts of town are connected. I think I could practically draw my own map of the city.
Then I wandered up the street on the far side of the Cathedral's square. I went into Starbucks and got a juice. It was the only place I'd seen with a cooler! I was parched. I chose a narrower street to go down and happened upon the Palau de la Musica Catalana. I quickly got out my tourbook and looked to see what its highlights were. Basically, it had nice architecture on the inside and out. I felt that I'd seen most of the gist from the outside. The highlight was a HUGE stained glass ceiling inside the theater hall. It's on postcards all over the city. It has a lamp-like dip in the center. I'm sure it's wonderful, but I really wasn't interested in the museum as far as I could tell from my book. The only thing I wanted to see was the stained glass, but it wasn't worth 10 Euros for that alone. I took a few pics of the outside and continued.


I walked toward the subway, feeling about ready to go home. Then I saw a sign for the Arc de Triomf. I looked at my map. There was a subway stop basically next to it so I decided to go that way. It wasn't an especially scenic walk.
The arc was pretty cool. It's red brick with four big columns on each side. On top, they have crowns. Near the top, there are cement colored angels. The center has a carved scene across the top. In the center of the top, there's a shield. Also, around the opening of the arc, there's cement colored floral-y carving.

Next to the arc, there's a palace? that I recognized from pictures. Beyond the arc is the Parc de la Ciutadella. From what I understand, it's a beautiful place. However, I didn't have the energy to explore it right then. I looked for the subway and found out that the closest stop was under construction. I really wanted to throw a fit but there was no one to console me. I walked several blocks to the next one.
I went home and arranged to meet Steph for dinner and a movie and finshed my Japan application. Then I took a nap. I woke up about 30 minutes later than I meant to. I was already 5 minutes late for our meeting time. I grabbed the things that I HAD to have and RAN out the door. I literally ran about half of the way to Lalola. As I rounded the corner, I could see about a block and a half ahead Steph was just giving up on me and walking up the hill toward her own street... AWAY from me. I kept running and calling out her name. I miss having a phone!!
I did catch up with her and we found out Lalola was STILL closed. We walked to the movie theater and got our ticekts then found a random sketchy-looking pizzeria for our dinner. It looked like it was modern and chic once upon a time. There were lots of people inside drinking. We see that a lot: people casually sipping drinks and chatting in restaurants, but no one ever seems to be eating! I got risotto and Steph got a pizza. We were both really pleased with our meals.
Then we went to a nearby grocery store. I got a couple of packs of happy hippos-- chocolate and nut? They're like crackery cookies with nuts on the outside attached with frosting. On the inside, they're filled with chocolate or nutty spread. They're AMAZING.
We went to our movie and found out quickly that this wasn't one of the theaters that plays the movie in its original version. We saw Cherie in Espagnol! The dubbing was overly dramatic. Looking at the characters, we could tell that they weren't nearly as worked up as their voices were. Steph whispered translations to me periodically. It was a good movie even without words. I've had much worse in Korea-- no hint as to what they're saying and a completely illogical plotline. Here at least we could guess WHY they were doing the things they were doing. Steph said she thought the movie would be much more cheeky-- witty and clever. I said maybe it was and we just didn't know it!
Then I went home. I tried to plan for tomorrow. I want to go to Montserrat. I am feeling a little like I have a cold coming... again? still? and had trouble focusing. I did my best to figure out what I needed to know to get to/around the mountain and the shrine. It's going to be very reminiscent of Korea-- wandering around a mountain, looking for a place of worship. I'm looking forward to it.