Barcelona revisited 31/1/2007 - 4/2/2007

My first trip to Barcelona was just about a year ago. I really enjoyed it. Friends Miquel and Nacho were fantastic hosts and tour guides. My second trip to Barcelona was courtesy of work. Guillermo didn't want to send his student to a conference alone so he arranged for the budget to send me in his absence without my conference-lean grant being billed a pence. The end result was much talk of dirt, wonderful but unfortunately brief reunions with Miquel and Nacho and a chance to revisit the city from a new perspective. I enjoyed Barcelona on my first trip. I fell in love with Barcelona on my second trip.

Wednesday night got both Clare and me to our hotels safely and Thursday was our day 1 for the conference. Clare ditched me after the morning session. Her career aspirations have nothing to do with burning dirt now that her thesis is happily submitted. She decided to spend Thursday afternoon as a tourist. I stayed for the rest of the day's sessions and made dinner plans with Miquel and Nacho. I suggested 7pm. They laughed and corrected me to a more appropriately Spanish and Catalan 8:30pm. I had a few extra minutes, so I found my way to the hotel's "gym" and ran 2 miles of intervals on the treadmill of dubious quality. I vowed the rest of the trip would have me running outside or not at all. No more hamster wheel.

Miquel met me at my hotel and led me through a short maze to a vegetarian restaurant called Organic that he liked a lot. Their slogan was Organic is orgasmic. I am sad that it was written only in English because I would love to know how to say it in Catalan or Spanish. Nacho met us at the restaurant. We had a great meal and great conversation, with Miquel helping to fill the gaps between my appalling Spanish and Nacho's incomplete English.

Friday was the meeting's field trip that was semi-fortunately overbooked already. It could have been useful, but not that useful. I had a glorious sunny day to myself to be a tourist.

After a bit of an epic run (hour and a half instead of the planned 45mins) and an epic hike up many stairs, I found my way to the Park Güell, named for Gaudí's patron and home of several famous Gaudí works. When I reached the summit of the monument in the park and was treated to a nice, but hazy view over the city, I found myself grateful that my first intentions of bicycle hire for the afternoon were not fruitful. It would have been much more of an epic climb on a bicycle.

Returning to the city centre, I spent about two hours just wandering the gothic quarter, which is when I really fell in love. Narrow streets twisting everywhere. Old, gorgeous architecture. People say Paris is a romantic city. Eh. Didn't feel it when I was there. The aura of Barcelona, especially the gothic quarter, was filled with romance. I ended my evening with a classical guitar performance at the Iglesia de Santa Maria del Pi, a small (relative to the nearby Catedral) and sparsely decorated church with beautiful stained glass windows and perfect atmosphere for music.

Saturday had me back at the conference, but the late start let me enjoy a run beforehand. My poster didn't get much attention. Redheaded stepchild syndrome. I continued what I started on Thursday, which was to corner people who spoke earlier, hand them a wee copy of my poster and ask them specific questions about what we might do to the soil by burning it. The answers ranged from practical to wacky but all were useful food for thought. Clare's talk was the very last of the day. Afterwards, we enjoyed cava with the rest of the attendees. I said my farewells and made my way home to enjoy a few minutes of lounging before meeting up with Miquel for dinner. He introduced me to yet another wonderful Catalan restaurant and we enjoyed a few hours to continue catching up. It made me and still makes me very happy to see him so happy.

Sunday was a touristy half day, sadly. I took one more morning run before wandering more of the gothic quarter and paying my respects to the Iglesia de Santa Maria del Mar, an architectural favourite from the previous trip. I bid farewell to the city mid-afternoon and bid farewell to Miquel and Nacho via sms, looking forward to another visit in the future.