Well, it’s approaching that time again, that time when we have to lift our extremely heavy bags and carry them like pack horses on the metro and other similarly busy places.  Moving days for me are a mixture of dread and excitement, of nostalgia and relief – I’m sad to be leaving this place that I know so well now, but more than ready to explore a new city.  I think that by now we have seen almost everything that Barcelona has to offer, and we’re ready to move on to new things.

I came to Spain with the expectation that I would be able to have a pretty good grasp on the language, forgetting that in this Catalonian city of Barcelona the principal language is, in fact, Catalan, and not Castellano.  Thus, the language barrier that Zevi talked about is there for me too, in a way, although most people do speak the Spanish that I’m used to as well. 

The FC Barcelona game that we went to last night was pretty incredible.  The game itself was a bit of a joke; Barca (pronounced Bar-sa) completely dominated Almeria and made them look like a team from an inferior league, but the experience was still an awesome one.  The stadium is enormous!  If we think that the Saddledome is loud when everyone is cheering at a playoff game, I can’t even imagine how loud it would be with 120 000 FCB fans cheering at a game that actually mattered.  Seeing the skill of those football players up close was also pretty marvelous.  As Zevi said while we sat awestruck watching the warm-up, I can only hope some day to have a tenth of the skill that those players have.

On Friday we made a day trip to Tarragona, a town filled with ancient roman ruins.  It is about an hour away from Barcelona by train, and it was a nice change of pace from the hordes of tourists that congregate in the Barcelona city centre.  The old town of Tarragona is absolutely beautiful; rows of old buildings with wrought iron balconies line skinny winding streets, and remainders of relics are visible as you sip coffee in the square.  Among other things, we saw a cathedral from 200 AD, and amazing amphitheatre.  I guess this gives us a bit of a preview of what we’ll see in Italy!  On the opposite end of the spectrum, we also went to the mall.  It was a long day, but an very interesting one.

We’ve eaten some great food while in Barcelona.  The other day we went to a restaurant in the Gothic Quarter where I probably ate the biggest meal I’ve eaten on the trip so far for only 8 Euros.  I ordered the menu del dia, where you get to choose two courses as well as dessert.  My first course was an amazing seafood paella, and both Zevi and I were sure that I had misunderstood the ordering process, as I was extremely full after eating it.  However, a second course did come, and I managed to force some of it down before I was offered dessert.  Needless to say, I was ready for a long nap after eating all of that food.  We’ve also been cooking a lot; the hostel we’ve been staying at here has a great kitchen so we’ve been having eggs for breakfast every morning, and last night we made a delicious stir fry.  I’m pretty sure we’re making everyone else in the hostel jealous; in fact, I’m sure we are, as we frequently receive covetous looks and remarks from other people staying here.  It’s really nice to be able to cook, as it saves us a lot of money and it means that we can still eat quite well!

Well, I must go.  I hope you are all doing well.  We miss you!  Thanks for your comments… keep them coming 🙂

Much love

-Heather