Honey Badger Don't Care...

...that it's 6:45 AM and sleep has still yet to come.

It's pretty badass.


I'm currently waiting for my roommate to get back.  We had to split up because the cab couldn't take more than 4 passengers and we were 5 so two of us stayed back at the Port Olímpic.  But we'll get to that.


To pick up where I left off, I went to dinner with the girls after my nap and finally got over my fear of squid ink.  I'm almost afraid to post the picture because it looks so unappetizing but it was in fact delicious, even if it looked like dementor vomit.  What got me over my fear actually was some wise words from my dear vegetarian friend Monica Landy: "I drink milk and eat cheese and eggs so I figure I can eat squid ink" (paraphrased)  So if I just think of the ink as squid milk instead of the stuff that jets out of their bodies as a defense mechanism that makes me think of poop...

Paella with chicken and seafood

...and its aftermath

Arroz Negro

Black squid ink paella served with garlic aioli (not pictured here)

...and its aftermath

We rounded out the meal with coffee and dessert.  I get my usual: coffee with milk and hold the sugar.  The great part is how small the cups are.  As much as I love diner coffee, I can't drink that small sink of a portion that diners try to feed their customers on any given morning.

Café con leche

Crema catalana

A lemony version of the French creme brulee

Puff pastry with custard and fresh fruit

I forgot the name of this one...

The locals here eat at around 9-10 PM.  I usually eat somewhere between 6 and 7 PM every day so I was somewhat appalled at first.  I'm adapting to the pace of life here though and by the time we finished dinner, we were surprised to find that it was already 11 PM.  I would prefer to eat and sleep earlier but I only get to live here once (probably) albeit for eight weeks.  I'm getting used to it.


Break for the day--
Going to nap on the beach.  I'll finish this post later.


Next stop for the night was the Dow Jones Bar, where drink prices drop with demand.  It was a novelty. Has anyone ever heard of something called a "bearfucker"?  That was one of the drinks that caught my attention.  It was sold at one point in the night for 2.75 euro, down eighty-something percent from its original price.  The stuff was a potent combination of SoCo, vodka, and Jack Daniels.  I "imagine" it tastes like radioactive sewage water.

This Dow Jones attracts a very different crowd

Prices are falling

We turned in at a relatively early 3:30 AM that night and woke Saturday morning at around 11 AM.  Brunch of buttered toast and scrambled eggs with herbs, garlic, tomato, chorizo, and cheese.  Not pictured here because let's be honest, it's hard to make scrambled eggs look appetizing.  They're just scrambled eggs.


We got a late start to our day so spent time on a La Calle Tallers, a street that links La Plaza Universitat to La Rambla.  Two important discoveries (1) Asian grocery (2) Udon noodle shop.  We went there to look at vintage clothing shops but didn't buy anything.  Them clothes were dirrrrty and unnecessarily expensive.  So I went to Zara instead and bought a leather sling bag on sale and a little black dress at H&M for under 10 euro.  Not that anyone asked...


After all that shopping and walking we needed sustenance so we popped into a little Italian place and ordered two smallish pizzas and a salad I should have taken a photo of (I've been slacking, I know).  The salad consisted of baby spinach and arugula with toasted walnuts topped with jamón ibérico and a thick, aged balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.  This pizzas were pretty good thin-crusts but nothing exceptional.


We had till 8 PM before we had to settle down for the FC Barcelona vs. Manchester United game so we hung out at this chain café called Las Tres Migas until about 7, sipping on our café con leches.  By then we had to saunter down La Rambla to find some Irish pub called Flaherty's.  We went a bit too far our first try and ended up at this famous monument overlooking the marina:

Monument to Cristobal Colón

I had to wonder if the guy is considered a national hero here in Spain.  I know the U.S. has a holiday dedicated to him but I know plenty of people who recognize him as the villain that he was.  Anyway, its an impressive sculpture so I snapped a photo of it before finally realizing that the pub was around the corner.


Flaherty's is loyal to the Guinness brand and is set up like a traditional Irish pub.  It had a number of HD flatscreens bolted to the walls plus some extra large projector screens for the game last night.  It was going to be epic and we were lucky enough to score some seats along the wall in a back room with TVs on each wall and packed with Barça fans.  The next three hours was filled with chanting and singing the Barça fight song.  Chants like "Villa Villa Villa!  David Maravilla!!!" were scattered throughout game time and of course Messi's name accompanied every other breath, whether sung or shouted.

Anticipating a goal...mira mira mira mira...

GOLLLLLLLL

If you're not familiar with FC Barcelona and its fans, it's an identity, a religion, a lifestyle.  I was in the perfect place at the perfect time to watch the city celebrate its victory.  Cars were honking their horns all night; flags were unfurled out of apartment windows, car windows, worn by fans in the street, carried my motorcyclists; fireworks were going off here and there throughout the city; there was shouting and singing in the streets, from balconies, and in the subways.  It made me wish I loved something as much as Barça fans love Barça.


Some video clips of the celebration in the pub:

1st goal

2nd goal

3rd goal

Final celebrations

The city wasn't sleeping last night so how could I?  My floormates and I celebrated with wine back at our apartments where we watched that Honey Badger video I posted above.   It was our motto last night and would continue to be our motto through today.  I have a feeling it's going to stick for the rest of the summer.  We stayed until 2:30 AM and then cabbed it down to the marina where all the clubs are located.  Unfortunately (I secretly think it was fortunate), the bouncer at Catwalk denied our entrance because one of us was wearing a Barça jersey and they weren't allowing sports jerseys inside.  Jerks.  In any case, we went to a tapas bar instead to enjoy some sangria and ended up talking on the beach all night (early morning).

Cava sangria made with white wine (which I prefer to red)

Some time between leaving the bar and getting onto the beach, my friend and I met a 25-year old aspiring actress named Nina in a bathroom.  She told us her life story, about how she was moving to London but her dream was to live in New York.  In any case, she was too drunk to get our numbers down on her blackberry so we got her information and we'll probably visit her at the restaurant she waitresses at before she leaves.  Updates on that later if it ever happens.


Time was elapsing quickly out on the beach and at 4:30 AM I'm needing a bathroom.  Every club we go to is ushering us onto the next but they're all closing and none of the bouncers will make eye contact.  I even offered to leave my bag with my friend.  I was finally permitted into a casino after running around the entire marina.  For the first time in my life, I really appreciated gambling addictions because they kept those casino doors open late enough for me to use the bathroom at that odd hour.


The rest of the night was a mix of chit chat punctuated by loud, definitive no's to keep peddlers from bothering us with their various wares of roses to beers to samosas.  But it was worth it.  Even though a drunk guy laughing with his friends grabbed my friend's wrist before we broke away angrily or we ran down a flight of stairs to escape a group of kids that turned around and started following us. I had been on a mission to see the sun rise on a weekend out so I've accomplished that much.  But now that I see how manageable it is, I have a feeling it's going to be happening more often.  Because honey badger don't care.

A dark sky to the west

W Hotel that looks like its outline is of a sail to the left

The sun rising to the east

In front of the marina before calling a cab home

People wandering out of clubs as the sun rises

It's my first full day of classes and work tomorrow so I'm going to have to sleep now to make up for the sleep I lost this weekend.  I'll update you on today's daylight adventures another time.


Honey badger out.