Barcelona day 3.....

So i picked Kevin's sore throat and cold up last night, felt real crappy all day and didn't do much at all during the day. I wandered over to the shopping centre, had a bit of breakfast and then came back to hotel room to watch a film on the laptop,  then went up on the roof and had a few hours in the afternoon sun.

 

Id e mailed to a friend of mine, Monica, before i left the UK to see about meeting up with her while i was  in Barcelona. I met her about 5 years ago at a Nine In Nails gig in Birmingham with her friends, we got along great and had kept in touch by e mail every 12 months or so, maybe not even that often to be honest!

She sent me a text earlier in the day to say she was coming to meet us all at our hotel with her boyfriend George at about 6pm and gonna go out for dinner with myself, Jackie, Dave and Kevin.

I made my way up to the rooftop bar around 5pm and soaked a bit of sun in. Jackie and Dave arrived shortly afterwards, Kevin came up from the room 5 minutes later and Monica and George arrived around 6:15.

It was great to see Monica again and to also meet George, we hadn't met up  for 5 years and it was just like we had seen each other yesterday.

 

After a couple of drinks we decided to go eat and George suggested an Argentinian Tapas bar that they frequent. The Spanish always eat late and it was around 8pm when we left the hotel bar, by eating late i mean about 11pm at night!

It took us 15 minutes or so to get to the restaurant and it was a small cafe like place with 3 or 4 tables inside and a few tables outside on the pavement. it was not a tourist type place, it was full of locals and i heard very little (if any) English being spoke. It was great to have 2 native speaking friends with us who were able to not only order for us but also explain what everything on the menus was!

The restaurant was well known for their little pasties that has various fillings with from chicken, ham and cheese, chorizo sausage and beef. We let George order for us all, including the wine. It was still too early for George and Monica to eat though, they had only just had lunch at 5pm and wouldn't eat again till gone 11!

 

The food was fantastic, we had the pasties, bread, Iberian ham and a couple of other things along with the smoothest bottle of red wine I've ever had. Jackie and Dave had 2 huge salads that we saw prepared on the counter in front of us with the most meticulous detail topped off by a pansy flower on the top!

 

Jackie and Dave's salads                   Most people have flowers in their hair!    George, Kevin, Jackie, Dave & Monica

        

 

They do this tomato break in Spain where they  slice a tomato in half and just rub it onto the fresh bread, they then throw the tomato away as they have got most of the inside and juice onto the bread.

After all the food and wine we asked for the bill and were amazed at the amount of 44 Euros! this was for all the food, the bottle of wine, plus a few cokes and beers that Monica and George had drunk! George then took us to one of his local bars before him and Monica saying their goodbyes and heading back to their apartment for their dinner! not before i persuaded Monica to come to the second nights show in Barcelona though :)

 

We had a drink at the bar and then walked back to the hotel, i had a crappy nights sleep and it was 4am before i managed to actually sleep, coughing and head cold kept me awake.