Episode 809: Barcelona Redux

Have read so much of Her Fearful Symmetry! Definitely going to be able to review it in time. Randomly, the hostel that we're staying at seems to do bar/club visits every night, and tonight, they're going to Shoko, which was where I went while on tour with Contiki. Guess it's not too surprising really, since Shoko is apparently one of the hottest nightspots in the city. We had lunch at Cerveceria Catalana on a hostel staff recommendation, and it truly was amazing. Left feeling stuffed, which was a bit of a surprise because we didn't think that we'd ordered especially much in the way of tapas. The only dish that didn't impress me was the patatas bravas, simply because it seemed like nothing more than fried potato drizzled with ready-made sauces. I liked the crispy anchovies that we got though! I think when I'm back in Singapore, a visit to The Tapas Tree is in order with the usual suspects from JC days. Anyway, being in Barcelona again is bringing home to me just how little of my self-taught Spanish I've actually retained. I've got pronunciation rules in place, and that's about it! Not that I was ever able to communicate in Spanish while on holiday in the way I can in francophone countries, but still, I wish I'd tried harder. Incidentally, we did an insane amount of walking today, so my feet and back are absolutely killing me. Thank goodness there's free WiFi in this hostel by the way, as I don't think I could stand being cut off from communicating. Call it addicted to Web 2.0, whatever you want, but it's all become massively important since getting the iPhone made it so easy. It's having it available as a recourse that matters, I think, like some sort of psychological prop.