Barcelona - part dos.

So, to sum up things, I think I might defect. I know its not defecting when you are allowed to go and there aren't any embassies involved and all, but this place is amazing. Let me try to sum up what stands out to me.

I landed in Barcelona 14:00 barcelona time and took the train to the hostel I was staying at. The guy at the desk was really friendly but I accidentally left my travel guide at the front desk and it promptly disappeared. I think it was probably an honest thing, seeing as travel guides were scattered all over the place for free use.

That night I knew there was a drupal get-together down near Las Ramblas, and I did a little map research, rented a towel for a euro, took a shower, and hit the train. Placa de Jaume I. Big open square, some marble work, all the streets are so narrow that a relatively small number of people (in NYC terms) looks like a lot, and cars are going down these things and people just casually move out of the way.

Tapas sushi bar. 6 euro special, and geeks take over Spain. There must have been 60 of us, and one waiter, one bartender, and one poor guy making sushi as fast as he could.

Back to the hostel, but still a little hungry, I find a late night diner and order 'un hanburgesa, y patatas, y guernicas' I got a hamburger steak thingy, an inch thick slice of fried tomato, three slices of fried zuchini, and the best fries I've ever had. Very tasty.

To bed, four people to a room, blah, but I just need it to crash and for 25 euro, what do you expect?

Up at 7, checking my e-mail wearing a drupal sirt I run into some drupalistas from Holland, we make breakfast plans. Down in the lobby waiting, more and more come out of the woodwork. 10-12 in all, from London, Holland, Germany - I no longer feel like the oldest guy in the hostel. We find a cafe, and croissant and cafe con leche. Then the train to the geek-a-thon.

Most interesting thing of the day was finally coming up with a (semi)-solid plan to get image handling into a default drupal installation.

I connect with my co-workers and head to the company flat where I will be till the 24th. Jungle boogy. Our apartment looks like a teenagers idea of a swanky bachelor pad. Complete with a shower stall in the hallway and a bathroom with no ceiling, and "Welcome to Barcelona" drilled out in dots along the floorboards, with flourescent backlighting going into the kitchen.

It's better than the hostel.

We go back to Jaume I cause Neil is a vegetarian, and after some research I found a vegetarian restaurant (a rare find in barcelona) down there. After wandering for perhaps half an hour we find it. Ony, 'it' is a Organic Food Grocery Store. I was close. We saw a falafel place earlier and ran to it. I think I love the food in this city.

Then to sleep, up early and off to find the essentials. I can't. Finally stumble across a chinese dollar store of sorts and get toothpaste, laundry detergent, and hair gel. The toothpaste might be the funniest thing in the world, and I am saving the packaging to scan later for this blog. Chinese toothpaste, sold in Spain, translated to English. It promises, "the smell in oral cavity is pure and fresh!" and boasts of "the special effect of the strong small particle". And it can "the safety is thoroughly cleared face of tooth, include the smoke moisten, the moisten of tea, the moistens of coffee, and the color ect."

I think it burned my mouth a little.

Breakfast sandwiches of ham and chorizo and back to Drupalcon. Earl Miles is doing some seriously web-warping work with panels and I'm using it for a few things we can talk about later.

Seriously, I might just stay here in Barcelona. I'm very excited this weekend into Monday is Festival de Sant Merce. It's traditionally when they build the human towers.

Oh yeah, and the dollar hit another low $1.40 to one, Europe.