Met up with Minna and went to Las Ramblas. Didn´t walk around there long but rather checked out the outdoor market: Boqueria, a covered outdoor extravaganza! Fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and seafood. The seafood was so live some of it was still moving, it was crazy. I realize I really like markets, they are so vivid and interactive. Even if I get a bit intimidated to actualy buy anything for some reason.
We went to lunch at a vegetarian place called Juicy Jones and talked about relationships and family. The big topics right. It was nice. Minna is from a revolutionary Iranian family, she was born and raised in Berkeley and wants to practice environmental law at a non profit. She reminds me a lot of my friend Sam, a fun loving, exuberant Pisces, who is super nurturing and caring and just a joy to be around. It amazes me Minna is only 21, she seems like an old soul in a lot of ways, and I admire her a great deal. Its also pretty cool that we can use bay slang together. yaddidda mean?
After lunch which is around 3pm here, we went to Parc Guell, the Gaudi Park. According to wiki:Park Güell ( Catalan : Parc Güell [ˈparɡ ˈɡweʎ] ) is a garden complex with architectural elements situated on the hill of El Carmel in the Gràcia district of Barcelona , Catalonia , Spain . It was designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and built in the years 1900 to 1914.The park was originally part of a commercially unsuccessful housing site, the idea of Count Eusebi Güell , whom the park was named after.
Gaudi art is indeed surreal and spectacular but it was also all created in a very practical way. All of the installments have rain gutters ornately placed so that the water can flow out of a lizards mouth at the bottom of the hill. The lizard is pretty iconic. I tried to take a picture with it but ended up getting anxious with all the other tourists rushing me, so I look like a weirdo! There were tourists for days, so many to the point it felt a bit unenjoyable to be there. At one part of the gardens there was a harpist playing which was so beautiful. You walk through these vine tunnels and out into these arch enhanced courtyards, it would be a lovely place for a wedding or something I bet. I cant imagine how divine it would have been for the Guell family when it was all first created.
At the other end of the parc there was a man cutting out silhouettes of people on the spot with just paper and a pair of tiny scissors. It was impressive how realistic they turned out! I'm always amazed at people that have random skills like that. Minna and I headed back down the hill to Martina's. They both live literally down the street from each other in Gracia, it is a bit more of a coincidence I think.
I hung out with Martina solo while she got ready to take her 20 minute flight to Mallorca where she is from, as she is spending the weekend there with her family and one of her dear friends who just had surgery to remove the cancer in her breast. Martina is the kind of person that you want to be friends with for life. She is dedicated and devoted, generous and kind, and has so much heart. Not only am I floored that she has given me the keys to her place to come and go but she is letting me stay here while she is away all weekend! The trust! Seeing more of her personality I would say she is a spunky strong woman, with a very exuberant clown energy and a saturnian virgo like sense of this is how things should be done. She is very Catalana in the way that if you say so its like this, and she will be like NO! She is opinionated and quick to tell you what she thinks and what is up, but she is also still gentle and open minded and easy to be around. As she made sandwiches for her dinner we talked about Pride and about her girlfriend and what identity means here, to her and in Barcelona.
Ive been starting to feel like traveling has brought out some sense of SF ambassador in me, and at the same time I have been interview curious about all of these places in terms of their views on queer politics, the feminist movement, and progressive attitudes related to education and the environment as well. It is all related to growing up in the Bay to some degree, having that consciousness, wanting to match the world against that, to explore and see what is moving and changing. It´s not like a competitive thing so much of a scoping a place thing. I wonder at times if I could live anywhere else, and have a lot of moments of I love it here! Especially now that I am in Barcelona, it feels like such an ideal place to live... and still, I don´t know what it is about home that calls me back. Maybe I am getting old and am really just looking for the comforts that I miss and feel are essential. When you are raised a certain way you can feel like the way you see the world is the only way the world should be. Travel opens that up, and there are so many things I have learned along the way that have taught me more about myself. Overall though I dont think that anywhere suits me as well as SF, though this feels like home in a way too. So that is a nice resonance and one that I am enjoying fully. I already have ten people I can hang out with that want to get to know me and do things, it is a bit overwhelming, and exciting at the same time. I didn't think that I could make friends so fast, and then I kind of realized that it is one of my many blessings to have such an opportunity for connection.
Anyway, I rambled about that mostly because I feel like Martina and I got a chance to connect tonight. She even texted me on her way to the plane and we asked each other all kinds of silly get to know you questions from favorite colors to spirit animals. Her English is really amazing, and she was only in the states for two months when she went to Mills in Oakland on a study exchange. I am so impressed by her, and so grateful, and look forward to when she gets back to hang out with her more. You should have seen her playing rugby as well! I have never seen a woman that fierce in my life. That night when we came home (I forgot to mention) she showed me how to look after the house, change the butane, light the tanks, fix the pipes, etc, and I joked with her that I was butch. What is butch, she said, isnt this a bad thing? No, its not bad (I thought in my head but didn't say it: you are soooo butch!) But yeah, it was a cute moment. I admire her as well. These two women I´ve met in just the first day of really being here, wow!
After Martina left the flat, Minna came over with groceries and we started cooking lentils and vegetables for dinner (at midnight) It was fun cooking with her, and I taught her my rice a roni method. She told me more about her family and the activism as Marxists. They are impressive people, and I honestly think she needs to write a book about them. We shared music, she introduced me to a band called First Aid Kit,swoon! And then we went on top of the roof to eat.
It was such a nice night, warm clear skies, with stars, and some passing white clouds. We ate by candle light and listened to my ridiculous phone music, everything from Tupac and Das Racist, to Gloria Estefan, Journey and Rhianna. I think we were on purpose listening to the silly stuff and got into a convo about the epic nature of HYFEE. We are homies from the womb her and I, it is seriously uncanny. We watched the clouds move, picking out what creatures we made out of the formations, lay about cushion dancing, laughing at how great life was, belted along to the songs, took fo arty night pictures, and caught a sparkly glitter fire work!!! whoooo! (better than just the bang gun shot sounding ones we have seen all day, most of the neighborhood kids who are all of knee high and five are setting off) Then we went back downstairs, cleaned up and shared ridiculous 80´s music videos The Weather Girls, its Raining Men, Opposites Attract: Paula Abdul, and Get into My Dreams: Billy Ocean. As well as some super camp gay videos too.
I think we are going to try to do a road trip here, since she goes to London the same day as I do! Double Tay Vay Effay Right!!! The synchronicity is out of control. So we have the same amount of time here in Barca, and are trying to make the most of it. Anyway, that's it for me now. Over and Out.
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