Barcelona

Dear blog,

I've been cheating on you.

-Mile


So as my writing gets sparser and sparser, I wanted to make that clear. I've kept a diary for about 7 years now (some years more loyally than others), and this new digital diary experiment proved to be successful for some things and not so much for others. It's a weird combination, keeping a diary but that its meant for people to see. Writing for yourself but also others. My 108 entries make me feel proud of my unexpected dedication to keeping up with certain events of my life in events, but like most things in life, it gets old after a while.

And here comes the new lover, another cyber creature called Tumblr. No narration apart from some thrown in lines, mostly old photographs I've taken, some new ones, things other people do and say, my attempt to put video back to the top with photography in the hierarchy of my interests/internet procastinatory activities. (http://thestillmove.tumblr.com/)

But being the trooper that I am, I'm taking this Crash Years project to the end!

*epic music*

So I won't stop for this last month. In between travel plans I will try to fill in the blog with some details of my non-Parisian and, yes-Parisian, hm, days. First magic trip: BARCELONA.

Barcelona, Barcelona, Barcelona. First went in 2008, and like it, not loved it, like I did Madrid. Probably becuase in my mind Barcelona is to Spain and tourism and cliches what Paris is to France. But having lived in Paris already, hence used to many of these things, Barcelona was a beautiful breeze of fresh air. Spain! So beautiful, so warm, nice buildings, good color, good noise levels, some crazy people yelling, some young (and really old) people protesting in the Plaza de Catalunya, good food, good sangria...

The only bad thing was that people kept thinking I was a gringa and didn't understand me because:
1. I was sorrounded by English speakers
2. Costa Ricans don't roll their "R's", deal with it!

Number two is just annoying everywhere (although sometimes I can play the cute card with it) and number one was no problem because I loved everyone that stayed in our Barcelona apartment. Cem, Sam, Jess, Gina and her twin sister Lucy (visiting from Chicago), Annie, Pia James and Zach (Jess' friends from Australia) and me. Ten people, four double beds, a mattress and a horrible couch. An amazing balcony for morning (which in our vocabulary meant 3pm) smokes, snacks, talks and books.

Concerts for three days from 5pm to 5am. Some names I'll throw out which were my festival favorites ('in order of appearence' like a movie cast list):

-Caribou
-Big Boi (the two minute dance party I saw cause had to run to Glasser, best suggestion gotten from Cem in ever. Love them)
-Glasser
-Gold Panda
-Baths

-Las Robertas
-Deerhunter
-James Blake
-Ariel Pink (-.-)
-Jamie XX

-Warpaint (the birth of our very own girl band concept)
-The Album Leaf
-Gang Gang Dance

Yup. GOOD TIMES, which I hope were well captured in my 27-shot disposable camera with flash. First disposable yea!

Apart from concert madness we had some great outings. Our area, El Born, was on a greeat location and it had good mojito lifestyle. Cafes, benches and fancy Marais-style stores during the day. We became regulars to the internet cafe and the Cactus coffee in the morning. It was so nice tot alk to all the waiters and make friends with some of them. I even got the recipe for the perfect sangria from an amazing little bar we went to twice called El Corral. Had the best chorico 'al diablo' there. YUM! Tapas and sangria: best combination for spring evenings.

Oh yeah, I got my my purse stolen one and a half times (first one was on the metro, the "half" time in a club -Cem's was also taken- but we got them back). I don't even understand what happened but it was at the end of a very long and fun night and I ended up crying and screaming to the security guards in the video surveillance room, ran out to fin my friends and then there was Cem all stressed in the sidewalk wih out two purses running like crazy, and Sam running down from the closed club in his Bulls basketball jersey. Drama. You can find it in Spain. I love it.

I enjoyed walling A LOT around Barcelona. So many things to see, clothes lines in every window, colorful apartment builgins, gothic cathedrals, narrow streets, tiles, the typical guys with their mullet hair-do's. I like how people look Argentinian (or how an Argentinian looks like in my hair) but have the anger and elegance of the Spanish. They tease you in a way that would throw off a nice Costa Rican or Canadian, but in a nice way, as if they wanted to wake you up and make you shake out your unnecessary and sometimes excessive to the point of hypocrisy manners.

I love the SPanish, sometime I hate them like when they steal from me and stuff (haha), but they have a nice way of living life in Barcelona, and from what I remember from other cities as well.

Other cool sightseeing: Museu Picasso, Sagrada Familia, Barceloneta beach, Parc Guell, Montjuic, protests at Placa de Catalunya, Fondacion Joan Miro.

Estuvo chiviiiiiiiiiiisima y ya quiero volverrrrrr.

I shot only film in Barcelona so that means I probably ont see the pictures until I and evelop them in Costa Rica where its cheaper. The unexpected high price for tickets + robbery + no metro card +other stuff had made me so poor.

I'll steal some pictures from friends to post later.

-Vale, adios!