Barcelona, Lists, and Ben

Although I do have a slight feeling that I have not taken complete advantage of my time here in Barcelona, I also can appreciate how nice it has been to just relax.  

There are a couple of things to consider here: 

1. I am a bit of a cheapskate
2. I am even more of a cheapskate when I do not have very much money or I am trying to save money
3. I do not have very much money, and I am trying to save money.
4. I will return to Barcelona with my brother Kale
5. Kale does not like traveling with me to places that I have already been and doing things that I have already seen.

For these reasons I have kept my time in Barcelona to some very fun and interesting activities including:

• the beach (when the weather was nice!)
• Exploring local markets
• going to parks and having pic-nics
• taking self-run walking tours out of the lonely planet book
• Exploring the Botanical Gardens and main town squares/plazas
• Watching Barca futbol games at local restaurants
• and of course....going out on the town.

I have saved many exciting activities for my visit with Kale (and coincidentally my buddy Eric will be in BCN the same time!).  These include:

a. La Sagrada Familia- a public church/cathedral started by Gaudi and continuing to be built (since 1923).  Crazy style, cool look.

b. La Pedrera- another Gaudi building with skull/bone looking exterior and an incredible roof

c. La Casa Batillo- yet another Gaudi building with classic dreamy Gaudi style.  Very trippy.

d. Pablo Picasso Museum- no pieces of note, most of his earlier stuff

e. maybe nearby town of Sitches

This weekend I am going to go out to some museum on saturday night because it is "El noche de los Museos" and free entrance into all city museums along with partying, music, and drinks- what a cool idea barcelona!  Then I hope to go to Tibidabo, with a gorgeous view of Barcelona atop a carnival and amusement park.  I also hope to check out the magical Parque Guell- Gaudi's park of wonder with typical Gaudi Craziness.  

I have never seen another city in the world that is defined by one person.  One person!  He really has put his mark all over this city, and it just so happens to be really cool stuff.  The Catalan people love him too.  In his last years he was living near La Sagrada familia instead of his house so that he could work through the night.  He started to look like a vagrant because he worked so many hours.  Long hair, big beard, shredded clothes, etc.  Well one day he was crossing a street and was hit by a tram.  He had been laying there and people were reluctant to help him because he look like such a bum.  If they would have known that he was their beloved Gaudi, then maybe he would have been helped immediately instead of dying that day.  A tragic end to a life full of art.

Perhaps you have noticed a lot of lists in this blog post.  I like lists for the following reasons:

I   - they are usually preceded by a colon

II  -they are a simple and effective way to display sets of information

III- they can be listed in numbers, bullets, letters, or roman numerals

IV -they provide a lot of girth, to an otherwise unsubstantial blog post

V  -they allow the author to rant about absolutely nothing

VI -each bullet/number can be completely irrelevant to the previous bullet/number

VII -lucky number 7

VIII -is it just me or is the Roman numeral 8 very long for such a small number?  Why does it have to be V then three III?  Wouldn't it make more sense (and be more efficient) to write it as IIX?

IX  -because after an irrelevant bullet/number it can be brought back to the original reason for the listing process, such as- I like lists because they can be divided into sublists like:

A.) I like sublists because the symbol always changes to show a deviation in the list

B.) also if you have a further deviation, you can make a sub, sub-list like:

i. When I make my sub, sub-lists I like the representation of the bullet to relate back to the original list, like in this instance the "i" is a diminutive form of the original "I" the following sub, sub-list bullets would look like-

ii. this

iii. and this.

iv. Of course in rare cases, the sub-lists' sub-list needs a sub-list.

a.  That would look like this.

b.  Did you see how I did that?  The sub, sub, sublist is a diminutive form of the original sub-list.

X- and finally, I like lists because they can be brought back from a ridiculous sub-list tangent to the original list.  The list we all know and love.

thats enough.

actually....I think I hate lists now.

Welp, 6 days until I meet up with Kale in London.  Let the travels begin!!...or continue :) 

ps- are you listening to Ben Harper and the Relentless7's "White Lies for Dark Times" right now?  I have continued to be impressed by everything this man puts out.  It came out of the 5th of May.  I got to listen to this entire album today, and plan to buy it in the future.  Its a good listen, I have two of the songs in my playlist to the right, but give the entire album a try!