A long one today. Started the morning with breakfast at the hotel and then headed down to the train station to catch our ride to Barcelona. The atrium at Atocha has a nice plant installation with an indoor pond complete with turtles. And, oddly, a sign admonishing travelers against leaving their own turtles in the pond. We took one of the AVE trains to Madrid which travel at about 300 kph and are very comfortably appointed.

Arriving in Barcelona we got settled in our hotel which was right across the square from the Barcelona Cathedral. This meant that every time we left the front door there was always something interesting going on. We went around the corner to another hotel that had a patio with a better view of the Cathedral and had a light (but terrible) lunch with our view of the Cathedral and a guy playing the Spanish guitar on its steps. Afterwards we walked a big loop around most of town to see the sights. I’ve heard mostly great things about Barcelona but there have been some dissenters. I immediately loved the place. I would consider it my favorite stop so far this year. Istanbul was cool just for the size and craziness of the place but as a place to come and spend some time Barcelona is tops.

In our wandering the coolest parts were the Mercat de Sant Josep and the Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar. After all of this walking we tried to secure some tapas but after being turned away from every place we actually wanted to go we ended up at Lonja de Tapas which was just ok and expensive by Spanish standards.

Thanks to technology I realized that there were a number of other people I knew in town so we made plans to go get drinks in the evening. Stone, in addition to suffering from the weakness that afflicts people who live in D.C. for any period of time, was fighting jet lag so he went home to sleep. I stopped at Porteno a cool cocktail bar and then met the rest of my mates at Cactus Bar. Strolling around Barcelona at night I was struck by the entrepreneurial spirit of the guys who buy six packs of beer and then stand out in the street and resell them beer by beer. Way to go guys.

The series of events that led to me realizing that I had other friends in town and the ease at getting everyone together for a drink really struck me. It has been one of a mounting number of events that have helped jolt me out of my malaise and start to make me question whether or not I can go back to my old life.