Festies with my Bestie

There seems to be a festival of some sort happening constantly in Barcelona; like, every day, some neighborhood or organization has an event. It's impossible to keep up, and we've stumbled upon one by happy accident.  Here are the most recent.  (they were a lot more fun than the painting in the last post!)

Barcelona International Community Day

On Saturday, Barcelona held Barcelona International Community Day to connect prospective and new residents with organizations and companies that could help them: property finders, residence and tax lawyers, business development organizations, schools, etc. Totally free, in the beautiful Maritime Museum, just a 20 minute walk from our place. 

Ironically, one of the talks was "Tips for following the city's cultural calendar and not die trying". :-)

But the one that floored us was the dry-titled "Barcelona 2030: ongoing projects for a more sustainable and digital city"; we figured it'd be blue-sky, but Bárbara Pons, Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda, Ajuntament de Barcelona, gave an informationally-intense high-level view down to the street-level plan for a city with better transit, improved inclusion, and on and on -- all supported by rich multi-layered maps that backed up the city's goals with definite plans. When someone asked about the high-tech development called "22@" she dove into it with enthusiasm and details, and almost had to be pulled off the stage due to time constraints. It's fantastic to see a speaker that's got all the data at her fingertips and makes the subject matter compelling. 

The last session was the most fun, "Experience Barcelona by bike: the best routes" by Marta Casar, Member of the Board of Directors, BACC (Bike Club of Catalonia), website bacc.cat,  Bikes are extensively used in Barcelona, and the city's done a great job of providing separated lanes and even crosswalks for bikes, but Marta pointed out some areas they are pushing for more protected lanes.

She then provided a number of routes to explore the city including the most stunning examples of architecture in the Modernisme style, as well as some very challenging ones to the top of Montjuic and Tibidabo. She also presented some routes where you could take your bike north or south on a train, then return by bike path to Barcelona -- this sounds excellent: we've seen the path along the coast from the R1 train line.

Side Bar: Cocktails

We headed home and stopped for a drink, but the first cafe wasn't welcoming, so we looked into a narrow street in El Raval and spied a place that looked like a cocktail bar: Somnia. Oh, yeah, a cocktail bar if you've got nightmares of circus clowns! The place was over the top decorated, and all the seats in the upstairs "Big Top" room and the downstairs area were reserved, but we were able to sit at the bar. Good thing, too, because the bartender was top-notch. In addition to a bunch of obviously popular wild-assed concoctions (a drink served in a bathtub-shaped "glass" complete with molecular gastronomy foam bubbles), he built us some classics and variations. I enjoy telling bartenders my favorites (Negroni, Last Word) or ingredients (amaros), and seeing what they create. In addition to a fine Negroni and Manhattan, I got a Cynar-based drink that was delightfully dry, boozy, and balanced; if I can remember the ingredients, I might be able to create it -- if not, well, that's the fun, it's a unique experience. He realized we're into classic cocktails and recommended three bars to us: Paradiso (just won an award for best bar in the world, Sips (the number 3), and for the classics, Boadas (the oldest coctail bar in Spain). I really appreciate getting recommendations for the competition. He also said if we stuck around, at 8pm a magician came to perform tricks for the guests -- sounds like fun, for next time.

Accidentally: A Fest for Tomato Bread

We headed home -- again-- and as we crossed the pedestrianized Ronda de Sant Antoni, we heard music, saw tents, and lots of people. Better check it out!  There was a DJ spinning tunes from my youth, folks nearly my age dancing in the street, vendors serving local wine and beer, and a bunch of food stalls.  We headed to the beginning of the tents and saw it was a festival celebrating the Catalan classic "Pa amb tomàquet", tomato bread: bread (frequently toasted to crisp it a little), rubbed with a specific kind of tomato bred for this, lashed with good olive oil, and a sprinkle of finishing salt.

 

After a couple drinks, we headed to the beginning of the tents and -- for 7€ -- got some big slabs of hearty bread, which the first tent topped with rubbed tomatoes and oil, and the next two topped with the precious jamon Iberico and conserved tuna. It was tasty, rustic, authentic, and filling -- no need for the dinner I'd planned at home!

Check the Lava Lamp at this drinks tent

Pa amb Tomaquet with tuna, escalavida, and jamon

Festival of Markets

We love the municipal markets in Barcelona. We tend to frequent Mercat del Ninot (just 10 minutes walk), but are also 7 minutes from the beautifully restored Mercat de Sant Antoni, and 13 minutes from the famous (and tourist-clogged) Boqueria. There are 32 of these markets spread throughout the neighborhoods of the city where you can get to know your fishmonger (different vendors for fin fish, shellfish, cephalopods, bacalao), meat (choose cow, chicken, pig, sausage), amazing cheeses, vegetables (including seaweeds and seasonal mushrooms), beans/lentils, and much more. 

This weekend, there was a Mercat del Mercats, where it seems each market had 2 stalls where you could sample an amazing array of foods ready to eat, meats you could take to another stall where they'd grill them for free, things to take home, as well as local beer, wine, cava, and vermut. This was at the modern Plaza Glories in the shadow of the Museu de Desseny building adjacent to the Glories tower -- a 17 minute bus/train ride away. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of the festivities: these are from two nights earlier when I was returning from a Python Meetup:

Funnily enough, despite being on the other side of town, we ran into Dani and Maria who run Milar Catalá downstairs from us, the shop where we bought our water heater and fridge.  It's the second food festival where we've run into them -- maybe we have a connection!

We wandered, tried the beers and wine, got some delicious snacks from vendors, and I let one talk me into taking home a lovely cured Llonganissa sausage and butifarra negra (blood sausage) that Irene enjoys (I'm still a little squeamish). 

What's Next?

No idea. I need to find various planners, like the one presented by the Visit Barcelona developers on Saturday. Or maybe we'll just stumble upon another. Either way, I'm sure it won't be long before we're eating, drinking, and listening to much more of what this vibrant city has to offer. 

un-Paint It Black

All the walls in the apartment that are not glass are black: flat black, satin black, glossy black; the bathroom areas are flat black with sand in it, impossible to repair or match.  The back room is dark, despite being a hall of mirrors. The bathroom where an in-wall toilet tank was replaced has a terrible patching job. In the bedroom, we removed an unnecessary wall mirror and ripped out an over-built night stand, leaving gaping white areas in the paint. We decided repainting was in order -- not the entire flat, not yet anyway. 

This post is probably only useful if you've done renovation yourself, or at least a medium-sized painting project. The next post should be more fun!

After removing the gym-sized Everlast punching bag from its massive support in the ceiling we were left with gaping holes, so we patched them, then repainted the entire structural beam and column with a "satin" black we had in the house. When dried, it was more a gloss, reflecting even the alarm camera; a bit garish, but it's much better.

We hit our favorite ferreteria, CaurBCN just a block away, to get a flat medium gray to cover over the old gray. Since we didn't know the original color, we knew we'd have to paint over everything -- no biggie with a roller. (Strangely, here, you cannot seem to buy replacement rollers, we've gotta buy a roller and the wand/handle -- seems a waste). We started where the 2-meter wide mirror had been, and my mediocre patching of the ex-nightstand. Then continued on behind the bed (a 500-pound custom behemoth of steel studs and drywall!), and the wall facing the living room.

 

Bedroom after

We then went after the back room (we don't have a better name for it) which is glass, mirrors, and an oppressive black wall. When Irene wasn't looking, I started in on the bathroom, with a pretty embarrassing attempt to merge the bad toilet repair plaster job with the old sand coat -- lipstick on a pig. First, the cutting in with a white primer to cover the black.

Then, cutting in and rolling with the same flat medium gray we used in the front of the flat. Before and after, for the back room and bathroom:

The taping may have been the hardest part, but certainly made the cutting in and rolling a lot faster. Where I didn't do a great job, I had some cleanup with razor blades, but mostly on glass and aluminum trim, so not that bad. 

Once "our ship comes in" with our furniture from Virginia, we may attack the front of the house and unify the three or four different black paints with one to tie it together; we just can't decide: flat for its quietness (but shows paw prints), or a minimal satin to reflect light (but shows poor paint technique).