freaks n geeks

Ok – so I’m gonna try and do a quick wrap-up of the first few days cos then I can get onto what’s happening now-ish… besides the little Spanish I have is only in present tense J!

SO after movin in I basically wandered aimlessly in the suburb and bought some groceries and ate and came home (yawn) don’t forget I was muy jet-lagged. Sleep was very fractured

SUNDAY MORNING … having arrived in the country on Friday I decided that by Sunday I had to be over the jetlag so, just move-your-ass-time, period. Except then I woke up with my period and felt even shiter. Kill-me-now cramps, bilious and exhausted but hey at least I was all those things in Barcelona, right?

Dragged carcass out of flat… here are my iPhone notes… which I will then explain… if I can work them out myself!

Barcelona 1- ok first adventure with my head vaguely on. After late start (see kill-me-now cramps!) didn't want to do whole big tourist thing til after their siesta . So just went wandering in neighborhood…

Found a great large scale graffiti piece that I think may be a squat/protest … excuse me una momento while I leer (read) what I can… with the help of google translate!

Ok, the obvious banner says “freedom is not free” and the next one seems to continue… “when every basket is…” Damn real estate sign! My feeling was it’s a squat under threat of redevelopment … but I’m not sure why I think that!

Staggered across market full of hard-core geeks and tattoed freaks as well as the occasional poof and dyke - at last… my peeps! It was an utterly magical surprise to walk 2 blocks to me de reche and discover a beautiful old market. The old buildings are close for renovations ( L over their summer) but all the way around (a whole block !!!) were tent/stalls full of BOOKS!... well largely new and second hand, Spanish, Catalan and English… as well as stamps, coins, dvds, posters, gems music… a collectables market (bonus)… I bought 3 kids books and some second-hand postcards (which I intend to plagiarise later) to help me learn Spanish … of course two of the books, it turns out, were in Catalan and I can’t even decode the fucken cards!

SO what do you think this huddle is. I noticed cinco o seis dotted around. At first I though they might be tour groups… but that didn’t fit. All intent and some kinda transaction was taking place… drugs? As If… I went in closer for a bit of a sticky… turns out they were trading these um swap cards (?!?) no really! Some fantasy collectors thingy from what I could see.

Anyways when I did the circuit – feeling more than a little seedy, I decided to sit and get my first lot of tapas… something something musculo (muscles) y something something calamares (calamari). Mmmm mmm. I sat in the sun to wait.

The table next to me were a group of gay guys… talking about the attractions of Barcelona – one was Spanish and 2 were French – “he was a great – big and black” and “It is yust a thame I prefer sex with X so much more than Y” er … either Barcelona is more “liberal” than the rest of the planet OR they assumed no-one around them spoke English, cos let me tell you I AM censoring their conversation!

I was all contemplative and try to think about what was different and (for some reason?) I realized I hadn’t seen any real estate agents in Barcelona at all. A random thought I know but think about the main streets in any suburb in Melbourne and voila – real estate agents!

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Every other fucker in Barcelona smokes!

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Oh look some parroty looking birds…

Oh at last, camerero coming to me… uh-oh me platos es muy grande y comer es freido! (I’ve ordered too much and it’s all fried!) I had imagined tomato sauces or…not fried! I was already feeling queasy so after some very awkward negotiation I took most of it home. Fail!
Speaking of fail - this was meant to a quick wrap up - mega fail... more to come

Anyways it 2:15 am here and I have classes soon so

Hasta manana