11:30 AM
And I thought I was grumpy. I have found myself standing next to a group of Americans with my same itinerary. They're bitching and rude and feel quite entitled. I wonder if they actually enjoy anything. At least one of them speaks a little Spanish...
In their defense, our flight has just been delayed by 25 minutes...
2:30 PM
Slept the way to Barcelona, awoke in time to see the sea and the landing. As far as I can tell, the signs are in Catalan first, then English, then Castellano ("spanish"). Found the airport shuttle without incident, and headed into the city center. They have video projectors in the subway station. The train itself has all the cars linked togther like those articulating buses. It must make maintenance a bitch, but being able to see from one end to the other is quite pleasant.
4:30 PM
A little behind schedule, but at least I feel human again. This hotel makes posh things look ghetto. It has heated mirrors in the bathroom, and push-button convenience for the lighting. It's like some 1950's fantasy of the future. It's also rather poorly designed. The room is medium-sized, but feels awkward and cramped, especially the bathroom. It's quite amusing, though.
Later
Went out on the Time Out recommended modernisme walk. The funny thing about Barcelona is that every walk is a modernisme walk. I got turned around (not at all hard to do in the Eixample) and didn't suffer for examples of fine architecture. That said, once I found my way back to the route, the density and quality both improved. Walking around the Eixample is actually fairly annoying. The mitred street corners look like a good idea on the map, but in practice they're just parking lots, and the crosswalks are on the narrow part of the street, so you have to go fairly far out of your way. Also, it took me a while to be able to find the street signs, and every block pretty much looks the same.
Anyhoo, the architecture was spectacular. I actually laughed out loud at how normal these ridiculously exuberant buildings were, like a Picasso original hanging on the wall of a dentist's office.
After I concluded the set walk, I was getting a little hungry. However, it was approaching dusk, and I wanted to get to the magic fountain by sunset for some hot magic "hour" action. It looked pretty close on the map, so I decided to walk. I hadn't gotten used to the fact that every block was closer to a block and a half.
Around 7:30, I was forced to face the fact that a) it was already dark and b) I was starving. I stopped into a little bodega, where the proprietor fortunately spoke some English. I managed to order a chorizo baguette, taught the gentleman the words for plastic and bag, and continued on. The sandwich was quite good.
Got to the magic fountain at the end of the 8:00 show. Apparently lots people have a taste for the wonderfully tacky, because it was mobbed. Fortunately, they quickly cleared out, and I was able to secure the best spot in the place: standing on the railing directly in front of the fountain. The show I saw was actually vaguely classy, for a multicolored dancing fountain. It was all classical music, and the fountaineers showed admirable restraint in their use of the more showy fountain features. Perhaps, since it was the last show of the week, they wanted to go out with style.
After the show, feet hurting from all the walking and legs aching from balancing on a railing for 15 minutes, I headed off in search of some real food. Walked quite a while and found myself in a sleepy neighborhood far from both tourists and businessmen. On a block between a hinese restaurant and a pizza place I found a neighborhood bar with tapas. It was quite tasty and very cheap, I had 3 tapas and a glass of rioja for 5 euros including a nice tip. It wasn't a very big dinner, but I didn't feel like eating a really big dinner. I would come to regret this the next morning.
Found my way back to the hotel and found a note from Jess saying to meet her in the garden bar. Didn't find the bar, but I did find her. We went back to the bar and chatted with her colleagues, and begged off going to the disco, on account of the fact that I had fallen asleep between every stop on the subway back to the hotel. Instead, we went to the other hotel bar. I had a Laphroig, and taught the bartender how to make a Drambuie & cream. When we saw that the tab was over 5 times my dinner bill, we decided to nurse those drinks.