From Scotland, TJ and his family headed off to Ireland while I headed back to the rat race. The next weekend, though, we reunited in Spain; they had already been to Madrid before we met up in Barcelona. Traveling is basically an excuse to eat out every meal, and I was a bit behind. I arrived on a Friday night after work, so all we had time for then was a short tapas-bar crawl near our hotel. The next morning, though, we headed straight to La Boqueria market. We beat the arrival of the cruise-ship sojourners, so we were able to see vendors get ready for the rush: slicing jamon (top) and arranging the fresh catch of the day (bottom left). We even managed to find seats at the bar for a typical breakfast: tortilla with patatas (bottom right).
We had to be patient, and a tad aggressive, to get a table Bar Jai-Ca, a petite and packed neighborhood institution known for its seafood (left). We felt very lucky to have stumbled upon it after our first choice of restaurant in La Barceloneta -- Can Maño, a fish tavern -- was closed for the day. It was worth the wait to fill our table and our tummies with a variety of delicious dishes, including some the tastiest grilled octopus I've ever eaten (right).
It felt nice to mix with those "in the know" without being assaulted by hipness, which was how I felt when TJ and swung by Fàbrica Moritz Barcelona in the stylish neighborhood of Sant Antoni. I really enjoyed wandering the brewery itself, seeing how the brand has been revitalized with new equipment, like fermenting vats, in the company's historic factory (left). But the sleekness of the restaurant was overwhelming (right), especially considering the styles of beer on offer weren't that sophisticated.
We tracked down another historic workshop for breakfast: Pastisseria Brunells, one of the oldest family-run bakeries in the city (top left). You can order coffee from the bar then choose from a variety of baked treats, both savory and sweet, on the buffet (top right). If you want, you can pick a table with a view of its on-site operations, including a wood-fired oven (bottom). The establishment also sells chocolate it makes, although not on site, at the store next door.
I dragged our crew to another stop for coffee amid the cramped and crooked streets of the Gothic Quarter (left). 4 Gats was once a creativity-inspiring haven for poet Ruben Dario, artist Pablo Picasso, and architect Antoni Gaudi (more on the latter two in an upcoming post). Now it's mainly a capitalism-inducing cafe for tourists seeking a rest from the nearby cluster of tourist attractions (right).
One of those attractions is the city's cathedral, where a band was playing on its steps when we passed by. Among the members of the "cobla" were a flabiolist and a shawmist (left). Some tourists but mostly locals were using the cathedral square as a dance stage for the sardana, a traditional Catalan dance performed by groups in circles (right).
Spontaneous jigs and enormous puppets aren't the only pastimes we witnessed in the city. Some locals exercising their petanca skills were immune to gaping onlookers in one park (left). On the other hand, and on a balcony, a Marilyn Monroe impersonator was enticing pedestrians along the main drag Las Ramblas to explore the Erotic Museum (right).
On such a sunny day, we skipped that kind of indoor culture and headed with what seemed like the rest of the city to the coast, specifically Llevant Beach (left). TJ headed in for a dip while the rest of hung out on the breakwater averting our eyes from topless sunbathers. I wished I could settle in with a book (right), but alas, Sunday evening was closing in, so I had to pull myself away from the sand for my flight back across the English Channel.
Later on, as we were strolling through the L'Eixample district, we came across another group of cavorting folk dancers (top). Their beer stand was one of many tents filling blocks of a boulevard for a neighborhood festival (bottom left). At various intersections, stages were set up for performances, and sadly, we were just a little too late to catch the gigantes in action (bottom right).
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