Mercaders

No picture of Mercaders exists on the internet, and I don't have one either, so here's an unrelated pic.

I don't normally go out to bars at night because when you have seasons three through five of 30 Rock, well odds are that a night out is not going to beat that. However a few weeks ago I was... gasp... trying to find somewhere to drink at midnight on a Tuesday night.

I always assumed the Catalans who don't dare open up shop until 11am were out drinking the night before, but I couldn't find anything open. Until my friend pointed me to Mercaders, a grungey hole-in-the-wall that's open until about 4am most nights of the week. My first visit was right around Halloween, which explained the skeleton that hung from the ceiling just above a record player that spun two magnets, that interact with the magnets on the skeletons feet in a way that makes him dance.

Two months later the skeleton is still there and on the rare occasion, so am I.

Last time I was there I ran into my friend Pierre, who was deep in a sketch exchange with another patron, who was an artist/basketball player/old guy dressed in a suit three sizes too big for him. The latter gentlemen then called his friend, who was purported to be the best artist in Barcelona. Pierre (not a bad artist himself) opted to go home with his girlfriend instead of engaging in an art duel with a man who showed up looking like the most tortured soul in the universe.

For a few minutes I sipped my beer and watched as Sr. Crazy just sat there shaking refusing to talk to his friend who called him. Then grabbing a nicely drawn sketch and crumpling it up.

Then I was interrupted by a guy in a jacket with built-in backpack (imagine this but more 80s acid wash denim) searching the floor with a zippo for a black jewel that fell from his ring. I offered to help him, but instead he asked if my friends and I were indeed friends. I told him yes. He made us put our hands together and close our eyes. Then he blessed us, or something to that extent, before he walked off screaming the lyrics to Culture Club's "Do you really want to hurt me?" in a heavy Spanish accent. He sang the lyrics eight times over, trying to get others to join in. Nobody did. Eventually he stopped.

Once 2 am hit, the bartender rung a bell, which apparently signaled that everyone was allowed to smoke inside (a rule that applies only to Mercaders). Then he closed the gates that cover the window to make sure no smoke escaped and to maximise my ability to second-hand smoke three packs her minute.

Later I complimented the man's built-in backpack because I'd never seen anything like it. His natural response to offer us cocaine for 2 euros a gram (which we declined), then he yanked out a piece of paper from his backpack and made us all sniff it before walking away.

That was our cue to pay the bill and leave.

Pont de Suert & Bristol Bucks

Hiking in Pont de Suert

A few weeks ago my friend Tom came down to Barcelona from the People's Republic of Stokes Croft, which is the wannabe autonomous region located in the wannabe autonomous region of Bristol.

He came bearing gifts.

• Two "Think Local Boycott Tesco" coffee cups made of fine Stokes Croft China. Obviously these are beautiful mugs and I'm not even showing you the beautiful blue flower on the back. But they're also great because it's very easy for Sarah and I boycott Tesco since grocery store chain doesn't exist in Spain or are future home of the San Francisco. 

Interesting side note in a blog post full of unrelated side notes: Tom bakes cakes for a local Stokes Croft restaurant that is all about the "think local, boycott Tesco" movement. Pretty much all of Tom's ingredients come from Tesco. If there are any Tesco rioters who aren't in prison and who are reading this, feel free to email me and I'll give you Tom's address for future destruction. 

• The kind soul by the name of Tom also gave us two Bristol pounds, which is the city's new currency backed by rather legitimate planning and a fascinating website. Currently the pounds are 1-to-1 to Sterling Pounds. But as soon as they become 1BP to 2,000USD, Tom is going to come visit me in San Francisco. 

After ample time was spent sipping tea from anti-Tesco mugs and marveling at the new currency, we romped around Barcelona until continuous eating, drinking, and cycling got to be a bit stressful and we needed an escape.

We then headed to the visit Tom's friends in Pont de Suert a tiny town in northern Catalunya, where continued to eat, drink, be merry, but we swapped out cycling for hiking. 

We stayed with Tom's friends, Maria and Eric, who live in a breath-taking house on top of a mountain that overlooks a picturesque valley. 

Every room in Maria and Eric's house had insanely stunning views that made me wonder why I'm not living in the mountains. They both work at a bank 8-3 five days a week and spend the rest of their time relaxing with their 4-year-old daughter who babbles in French, Catalan, and Spanish. They pretty much live the dream. 

Eric also plays the accordion, which I was hoping to get a chance to try out, but I never worked up the courage to ask him. Once the bustling town of Pont de Suert and it's population of 2,000 got to be too stressful we headed to a tinier town (whose name I forgot) to attend a horse festival. Tragically we just missed the brunch and our opportunity to eat horse for the first time in our lives. 

No accordion playing, no horse eating. I know. I know. Why did I even go on this trip?

On the way back to Barcelona we visited Tom's friend in Lleida (Tom has a lot of Catalan friends), where we ate at a restaurant that was so old-school that the menu was in euros and pesetas (Spain's currency before they switched to the euro in 2002). 

la casa

el coche y fall colors

cows on the trail

nature, man.

mas nature

picnic

Lleida castle

Memoir of a Paperboy

I always wanted to write for the Tucson Weekly, I never wanted to be a paperboy in Barcelona. Somehow I made the two work together. Go read my guest commentary for Tucson's most-esteemed alt-weekly.

Thanks to the editor Jimmy Boegle for letting me write in his newspaper, even though I turned down his internship after my sophomore year. Thanks to BCN Mes for giving me a paperboy job. And thanks for TXJesse for the article's lone comment.

Actions of Thanks

Just like the Indians taught the pilgrims about growing corn and constructing giant Mr. Potatohead floats, we showed 10 European friends the greatness of Thanksgiving. We picked up a 8.6 kilo turkey from la Boqueria, then I struggled to find something to brine it in, then we struggled to squeeze it into our tiny oven, but eventually everything was perfect.

The turkey was delicious. The gravy was bonkers. We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, three pies, the works, really. The most heart-felt moment was not when we got everyone to go around the table and say what they were thankful for, or when I made my mother happy by making everyone make turkey hands, but when our French friend Pierre, looked at Sarah and sincerely said, "This is the first American food I've had that's not shit."

Also, thanks... I think, to Pierre for the nice sketch.

FC Barca

I made an effort to get into FC Barca football/soccer in the spring, then I stopped caring shortly thereafter. But I wasn't leaving Barcelona without going to a game so Sarah and I went to a not-so-heated match between FC Barca and Celta de Vigo (a team who had not won in Camp Nou in the past 40 years).

Barca won 3-1. Honestly our seats were so high that we couldn't tell any players apart when they were on the far end of the field, so it really didn't matter that it was Jordi Alba putting the ball in the net instead of Messi.

Sarah and I pretended to really understand the game while were more intrigued by the silly teenagers sitting next to us who were super-chalantly looking every which way for security guards as they smoked throughout the entire game.

Sarah was enthralled the whole game.

Mes que un Kindle

Badalona

I bike to Badalona at least once a week, not just because I like paying homage to Ricky Rubio’s hometown, but because it’s the best bike route in the city... and also because that whole narrative of a middle-class Catalan making to the NBA is so inspirational. Timberwolves shenanigans aside, it's the only ride in the city that has no stoplights and an endles stunning view of the Mediterranean shore.

Some times I push myself and ride the 35k out to Mataro, but most the time I’ll just be lazy and slowly bike through Badalona’s tiny streets discovering eccentricities in the Barcelona suburb that’s rich in basketball heritage.

It’s the only place in Europe that I know of that has a basketball-themed mall.



There’s also this monkey guy who sits outside the Anis del Mono factory. The other day I sat next to him, ate a tasty jamon y queso sandwich and spent some quality time thinking about the monkey sitting in the pose of the company’s logo, while looking at a bottle of anis with a label of a monkey looking at a bottle and how great it is that it repeats infinitely.



Since that last line barely made any sense, here’s a photo of a cute mini favela.



Badalona is also home to the greatest outdoor court in Catalunya. The elevated viewing area makes up for the fact that the court bends 90 degrees and that one hoop is three feet lower than the other.



My favorite art in the city:

Avionspotting

Whoever decided to make a little park at the edge of the airport's runway is a very thoughtful and kind person.