It was a good thing, too. I ended up catching up with some people that night for drinks that I met via an online social network I belong to. The plan was to just meet up for drinks, grab some dinner, and head back home and make up for my huge sleep deficit. Needless to say, that didn’t happen. After dinner, two of the three girls I was out with invited me to head out to a club with them, and since I’m working on overcoming my overly sensible, stick-in-the-mud tendencies, I said to hell with it and went out and partied. My travel buddy for the first 2/3rds of this trip, Juls, didn’t come with as she was even more run-down that day when I was. I got a slightly quizzical look at 3:30 AM when I rolled back into the hotel room (after I had originally told her I’d be home at 11:00), but she didn’t seem perturbed.
The next night was the same. I was planning on catching up with my friend Montserrat that had just moved to Spain this summer. Between a couple friends that Montse brought and the three girls from Friday and a few more friends of theirs which we had all invited along, we had quite a quorum. Montse took us to a fantastic tapas bar and then out to a club for another night of partying. I was having a great time, but was beginning to think I would be so sleep-deprived the next day that I’d hardly be able to see straight.
No matter. I functioned surprisingly well on Sunday. The particularly strong Spanish coffee Juls was drinking all day that I kept stealing sips from certainly helped. However, I was certain that if I didn’t get a full night’s sleep that evening that I’d keel over and die by EOD Monday. Alas, I didn’t get a decent night’s sleep on Sunday, either. Juls and I had plans to meet our other local friend Sonia out for drinks that evening, which we were both saying was going to be just drinks, a light dinner, and then home at around 11:00. This was particularly important, as we were catching a train to Madrid on Monday and had a very full day planned and couldn’t sleep in. But of course we were drinking and dining on Spanish time. So 11:00 turned into midnight, which turned into 1:00,…, and next thing we know it’s 3:15 before we’re getting to bed. Ironically, it even took me a while to fall asleep, presumably because I was worried about my impending death the next day from an entire week of sleep deprivation.
However, I managed surprisingly well on Monday. Although I’m not counting my chickens just yet as the day isn’t over--I’m writing this while on the bullet train to Madrid, and it’s entirely likely that by the time I arrive in Madrid and check into the hotel that I’ll be a walking zombie (in this case, the shuffling, slack-jawed, drooling king, not the sprinting, foaming-at-the-mouth, 24 Hours Later kind). This is pretty surprising as I’m not normally a person that functions very well without an adequate amount of sleep, but I suppose the mere fact of being on vacation has me particularly energized. I am eagerly looking forward to an evening where I have nothing planned and can get to bed at a decent time, though.
Believe it or not, I actually did do some things in Barcelona other than drink and socialize. The city’s extremely pleasant and enjoyable, and there are tons of things to see. The big highlights are all the modernista architecture, particularly the Antoni Gaudí stuff, and the local Catalan seafood. Well, some people may say it’s the beach, but I say f#@k the beach, bring me the shellfish. But hey, that’s me. My particular favs were all the tapas from the bar Montse brought us to on Sunday, the fideua pasta at the restaurant Sonia brought us to on Sunday, and the arroz negro I had the afternoon before leaving. For those not familiar with it, fideua is basically a seafood paella dish, but instead of making it with saffron-flavored rice, it’s made with toasted vermicelli noodles. This is something I had always known about but never actually tried, and was specifically looking for on this trip. It didn’t disappoint. It was, naturally, made with the fresh local seafood, and had a rich, nutty flavor from the heavy toasting of the noodles.
As good as the fideua was, though, it paled in comparison to the arroz negro. It’s called, literally, “black rice”, because it’s made with the ink of cuttlefish, squid, or octopus, which gives the entire dish a dark, dark black color. It kind of looks like something that you put in the oven and forgot, burning it all to a cinder. This is a Spanish variant of a dish you can get all over the Mediterranean. It’s a common thing to get in risotto form in Italy, and I had this dish about wherever I could find it (also in risotto form) when I was in Croatia a few years ago. It’s a particular favorite of mine. I love me some cuttlefish/squid ink. Here it’s a bit different, as they make it like…you guessed it…a paella, where they substitute the cuttlefish ink for the saffron. Of course, they also add the meat from whatever cephalopod they got the ink from, and in my case also some other seafood like clams and some shrimp. The ink gives it a strong, briny, seafoody flavor which is very unique. Mmmmmmm!
I was actually a little freaked out on Monday as this is a regional specialty which I wasn’t able to get the first couple days and won’t be made (or not made as well) at other places we’re going to on this trip, and hence I absolutely must have gotten in Barcelona. I think Juls was a little confused as to why I had arranged the entire last day here around being able to get a big plate of what looked like a plate of rice with strange seafood which somebody had burnt to a crisp with a blow-torch, but I think she was pleased in that once I got it I was finally able to shut up. She’s definitely being a good sport. Being kosher, Barcelona isn’t a particularly good food destination for her as just about everything is made with crazy seafood or pork (more on the pork later). But I guess that leaves more squid ink and Serrano ham for me.As for the architecture, well, you can check out the photos here. All the Gaudí stuff speaks for itself. The aesthetic kind of reminds me of Dr. Seuss. In particular, the Sagrada Familia was really amazing. It’s hard to believe that this church is still several decades away from being completed. I guess I’ll have to come back and see it when it’s done.
