Barcelona, day 3

this is going to be a rather short entry, as i'm kinda tired and want to go up to my room (o wow, they just started playing some live piano music here in the lounge/bar of the hotel; WOW, and singing, operatic style. it's BEAUTIFUL). there's some randomness for you, i guess i'll stay a little while longer. i've never been here this late at night to hear the live music. i'm going to try to record it now and post it here...it is really something to here, nothing like "live music" in america, it's like being at the opera as i'm writing this.

there are three singers rotating and taking turns singing with the piano player playing their songs. actually you may even be able to hear me typing this as you're listening to the recording of the lady singing her song. it's very nice, especially considering this is in the lobby's lounge/bar/restaurant area.

if you're interested to know what i'm listening to RIGHT NOW, click the links below.
live music in lobby 1
live music in lobby 2

back to today...we took a cable car that rides along a cable in the sky from tower to tower, from our hotel's tower directly outside our hotel to the beach tower. here's where my opinion of barcelona kicks in. this place is AWESOME!!!! AWESOMEEEE!!!!! it's all about the beach here, which is also "clothing optional" we found out (very nice!). the sand is PACKED with bodies; i think i have aerial pics of the beach, and if i find them later on the camera i'll post them, but for now no pics on this post, as i haven't updated the pics yet. anyway, this beach is AMAZING. weather is EXCELLENT, people are BEAUTIFUL and it's super packed and busy. the water is not very clean as i would have originally thought it was, but rather kind of murky, surprisingly. it's no santa monica pier but it's not the clear blue i was imagining.

before we went to the sand we had lunch and we finally had some paella, more specifically the seafood paella, which has shrimp, mussels and something else in it (i couldn't identify the last type of seafood meat as it was not connected to an outer shell like the other two were). Paella was SOOOOOOO GOOOD. if you've ever had cajun gumbo, imagine that, but better, less spicy, with seafood in it. it was like a thick mixed stew of rice, spices, herbs, seafood and sauce (sauce was a little sweet and little tangy, but more sweet). you definitely can't have just one taste, so i had to raid chris' plate for second and third tastes. i would have ordered my own but after two days of eating unhealthy in each country i strap down and eat very healthy for the remainder of each country's visit. if you're actually interested, i had a Mediterranean salad, which comes with lettuce, tomatoes, egg (cut in quarters), tuna (without mayo, here it's just the tuna meat, nothing extra), anchovies and green and black olives. no dressing here, i just put some vinegar on it. it was so healthy i almost threw up. i definitely didn't finish it, i just couldn't.

at night we went to a street where we didn't see any tourists. there were a few clubs on this street and everyone was a local (we spoke to many, that's how we know). we went to this one club and pretty much stayed there the whole night. over here the night starts at around 1:30-2:00 am. people have dinner at around 10-12 and then go to the clubs really late. last call in LA is at 2...here the party JUST began at that time...it started getting REALLY busy at 3:30, but we left at around 4am. the music in the clubs here are way better (in my opinion) than that in the LA clubs. i like spanish/salsa music and that's what was playing, but with a hip hop & techno twist, like spanish songs with a more hip hop style beat to it, and louder, faster bass and faster tempo. so, it was really good, and very busy.

another thing....ALOT, ALOT, ALOT of people here are gay. i've never seen such an open, dense gay population before. this place makes LA look like "something extremely heterosexual". it's not a good or a bad thing, i just didn't know how big the gay population was here, and it is really dense.

that's all for day 3.

ps: to view all my google pics, just click the link in the task pane to the right of this blog; it says "check out my photos". additionally, you will find many pictures of the people in spain (on the beach and such), and that's because it's a waste to not share with you the beautiful people here. some photos are a little racier than others, as i already pointed out that clothing on the beach is optional. and let's be honest, i know that's what people really care about seeing in th photos...everyone's curious. i guess these pics will support the motto of my blog, found under the title. enjoy!