First night in Barcelona

Today ended up being a much better day than it started out. In the morning, I was still feeling sick, I overslept my alarm and I had a 'work emergency' to deal with that basically ended up being a personal request. All in all, a stressful start to a day that was supposed to be a day off. Despite all this, and delays on the tube, Maneesh and I made it to Heathrow with enough time for me to top-up my mobile and for me to introduce him to Pret-a-Manger. On the flight, I dutifully got some work done and we were in Barcelona and at the hotel by 7pm.

After finishing some work and getting ready to go out, we were out the door around 9pm. We had traditional tapas at a non-touristy place near our hotel. I say it was non-touristy because no one spoke English and thankfully a nice young man was willing to help us order and explain to us how the tapas system worked (there are plates of food all along the bar like at a cocktail party, and you simply choose what you want; again, like a cocktail party. When you are ready to go, they just look at your plate and charge you 'by the toothpick'. Thinking about this now, it would be very easy to get away with not paying for your full amount, but of course that didn't occur to me at the time, nor would I have tried such a thing). Turns out, this nice young man was the owners son!

Afterwards, we rambled over to La Ramblas (too easy) to check out the scene. I assured Maneesh that La Ramblas was all atmosphere and tourism, so instead of getting sucked into the vibe, we stopped in at a lounge bar about a 1/3 of the way down the strip to have a drink and consult the tour book on where to go for dinner. We settled on a restaurant called Es which was gratefully nearby. The theme was Mediterranean and we had called ahead to make sure there wasn't a wait or we didn't need a reservation. This was at 10:40 and they told us the kitchen closed at 11:30, so we more or less rushed over there to be casually seated and our order casually taken around 11:15pm. I wasn't worried that they weren't going to serve us our full meal.

The atmosphere was modern and worriedly a little empty of customers, but once the food started to come out, we were both very impressed. Venturing out afterwards, we managed to walk the length of La Ramblas, at which point I convinced Maneesh that the beach was 'nearby'. We walked and walked, but no beach. Plenty of water, boats, and waterfront buildings, but no sand. I *knew* the beach was around here somewhere, I swear....ok-we consult the map. Ah-ha! We are just a few blocks away!

Once we get to the beach, I'm ecstatic. I take off my black leather boots and socks (by the way, it's over 14 degrees Celsius here at 1am, so it's very warm) and I step into the sand. AH! Beach! It feels so good. We walk up to the water and I just stare at the waves, and then I sit down. I don't want to leave. I feel like I'm partly at home in California, and partly like I'm the 19-year-old that sat here in just about this same spot 8 years ago. It's strange, and good, and somehow feels like home. I think I need the ocean, even though I'm afraid of the water.