Barcelona/Montserrat

Sept 12th and 13th
Barcelona/Montserrat

So I’m writing this mid day on the 13th because I want to do my best not to forget any details of last night, which was crazy. We got into Barcelona around 10:00PM and luckily didn’t have any shows to play that evening. I ended up going out with Justin, Thad, Ron, Gianni, and Sebastian, all musician friends of mine. Justin had wanted to go to a jazz club, but after the 2 euro bus trip from the ship into the city, we decided it wasn’t worth paying the cover to see the last 30 minutes of the final set. So we started walking in search of a cool bar to hang at. Thad had been to a place last time that he enjoyed, so we eventually found it off of Las Ramblas, called Q Bar. We stayed there for a bit but the place seemed packed with tourists (yes, like ourselves), and we were more interested in finding someplace more authentic that the locals enjoy. So we left the bar, and after walking around Las Ramblas and quickly checking out a couple places, we decided that Las Ramblas wasn’t where it’s at and made our way towards the water and then east to what I believe was called Olympic Village. It was a bit of a walk, and one accompanied by the most terrible beer that Justin had bought from someone on the street. Apparently, it’s legal to drink on the streets in that area, and they have people every half block selling beers for a euro each as they walk around carrying a six-pack. As we approached the area we thought would be a little more to our liking, we got lucky and walked by a bar with live music. We walked in and found a band with a horn section playing jazz standards over Latin grooves. It was actually a really lucky find and we stayed till the band stopped playing. Justin bought me a drink, a Mohito I think it was called, which was just amazing, look it up. Supposedly we can get them really cheap in Mexico. But as I said, we stayed till the band finished, and talked to the horn players afterwards. Sebastian is from Argentina, so he had no problem communicating, and Thad spent 4 years in Mexico, so he did pretty well himself. We ended up leaving with the horn players, hoping they would lead us to the next cool spot. So we all hoped in a taxi, or three taxis, and made our way further from the ship, to an area way outside my familiarity with the city. We went first to a club where they were supposed to have a jam going on, the musicians kept saying a flamenco and funk jam, but they were closing by the time we got there past 2 AM. Strike one. Then we walked several blocks to the next place were the musicians thought would be swinging. This took us to a club with a 10 euro cover, but no one inside. So we ditched that in search of something better, strike two. The musicians had one more idea, but about half my group was leaning towards taking a taxi out of impatience, a strategy that screwed us in Stockholm, so after some convincing on my part (sure, I’ll claim responsibility for keeping them in the area), we got into this club with Salsa dancing. So we were hanging out there, watching some of these absolutely amazing Salsa dancers, and watching Sebastian get his dancing on with one of the locals (being the only one of the group who might know what he’s doing when it comes to Salsa). So I’m walking around a bit, trying to find where my friends are, and a see Thad talking to someone. Turns out, she’s a friend from Chicago who lived in my dorms while I was there the past two years. So amazed by the unlikely coincidence of running into a friend in the outskirts of some city on the other side of the world, we caught up on a few things, did some dancing (or I pretended to), and eventually got thrown out when the place closed at 4. Then, my group and my Chicago buddy (along with one of her friends in Barcelona) started walking. Eventually, due to our confusion on how to get back, my group split and Justin and Thad went ahead to eventually take a taxi back to the ship, while those who were left, including the two girls, kept walking through the city. After maybe an hour of walking, the girls found a subway station that would take them home, so we said our goodbyes and it was down to us four musicians walking back to the ship. For whatever reason, we just kept walking with no real effort to hail a cab, thinking that’d we’d just get one should we get lost or too tired to walk. Considering, however, the alcohol levels in Ron and Gianni, we should have gotten a taxi right when we left the club, but instead walked all the way back to the ship with those two falling all over themselves. It was pretty funny, and after a certain point, we were determined to make it back unaided, but a full 2.5 hours later when we finally arrived, we were all feeling it in our feet. So yeah, we got back to the ship around 6:30, after over two hours of navigating back to the ship with two guys who were just blasted. And then, considering what time we got back, we decided to go straight to the mess for breakfast, which was just opening. Talk about a well deserved meal! That was a welcome break from an extremely late night of constant walking. It was fun though, and I got some great pics and even better video clips of the night.
So I got to bed about 7:10 or so, but had to wake up to be in the theatre for a tour at 8:00, 50 minutes later. Well, I did it, I took my short little nap and went up to the theatre and pretended nothing out of the ordinary happened last night. After getting on the bus with my group, I tried to sleep on the way over to the Monastery with little success, but the hour bus ride at least gave me a chance to close my eyes. After getting to Montserrat, the group made it’s way into the Sanctuary to see the black Madonna, and following our quick little tour, had about 90 minutes to walk about. Despite my lack of sleep, I took full advantage of that time. The area we were in was absolutely amazing. The setting on this mountain hanging over cliffs was simply unbelievable. I was literally running down the different paths trying to get as many pictures as possible, it was just too good to miss because of sleep deprivation. But I had a great time, and got somewhat lucky because this was a tour that was given to me when my first choice was booked solid. I really hope to go back sometime and maybe hike through that area. We took the bus back to the ship then, I grabbed lunch, and slept till dinner and my shows that evening. Nice stay though in Barcelona, I got some good pics, hilarious videos, and great memories.
I did my best with being selective of the pics I’m putting online to give a good taste of my experience there, but I certainly have way more than I feel I need to put online. The Montserrat pics are nice, the Barcelona pics may not always be family friendly due to some hand gestures from my friends, so fair warning to some of my younger viewers.