Catch-up. 

1. Apologies; the wifi in our room in Barcelona malfunctioned for the majority of our stay. We slept in a traditional Spanish house right next to La Rambla. This is the view from my window. The building is fashioned in a way that all rooms face one another across a vacant square area in the center. The ceiling is sealed so there is no actual ventilation. What a peculiar use of space, I thought to myself. 

2. The friend I travelled with is my best friend from elementary school. There was a time when I called her Zzang and she addressed me as Cap. She is currently doing her master's at Courtauld with focus on modern art. Funny, how life springs pleasant surprises on you. Zzang and I were cut apart in our adolescence when she left middle school to be home-schooled by her parents. Who knew we would reunite in London after a good decade apart and explore Barcelona together! Over paellas, tapas, and sweet sangria we reminisced about how we used to make prank calls to the boys in our 6th grade class.

- Hello? Is this Semi's house?

- No it isn't. But who is this?

- You mean Semi isn't there? We're looking for soosemi! (sponge)

(Hang up in burst of giggles)

Classic prank call repertoire. A great deal of fun. 

3. I was completely shellshocked when I went into the Sagrada Familia, as it is without a doubt the most beautiful church I have set foot in. Antoni Gaudi was clearly an eager disciple and avid observer of nature and his reverence for it is telling throughout every inch, curve, carving, angle of his architecture. I found myself squinting at the rays of light streaming through the stained-glass windows, trying to absorb the benediction of warmth.

4. Barcelona wouldn't and couldn't be what it is without the rich art culture. Zzang being a proper art history student and I a pseudo-one, we made our way around the various art stops. Although Picasso and Miro were highly inspirational, my favorite exhibitions were the ones in MACBA, the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art. Probably the equivalent to MOMA in New York or Tate Modern in London.  

5. This is is Lawrence Weiner's piece. His conceptual works are poignantly philosophical and equally humorous that they linger with you for a long time. I love his play with language and space. 

Another inspiring collection was "I Have Never Painted Golden Angels-" by Eulàlia Grau, a Catalan artist whose montages and collages are uncanny in their social critique. There was so much artistic energy to digest that we often caught ourselves zoning out afterwards. 

Other notable wisps of the trip:

6. pestering a lazy cat lying under the sun; she turned over on her back to express annoyance 

7. tapas-bar hopping around back alleys of Barri Gotic

8. eavesdropping on conversations drifting from other tables (usually loud Americans gushing OMG about some depraved love affair) 

9. escaping from senile man who masturbated under his coat next to me on the transport to Montjuic Park (... kindly showed me his private parts and gave me a toothy smile)

10. meeting cute scrawny boy at the reception desk of the Joan Miro Foundation

11. licking grapefruit & jasmine gelato cone on the walk to the beach

12. lying on the beach watching hot locals show off soccer tricks

13. lying on the beach listening to some guy declare that the "two things in life I never thrift on are drugs and booze" and snorting inevitably in response

14. spotting delightful and colorful laundry sashaying outside windows

15. drinking coffee at the 4 Cats, a favorite venue of Picasso's at the height of modernism

16. hiding a postcard behind one of the paintings in the cafe for Zzang's friend to find 

17. befriending a 4-year old Chinese boy at the airport who suggested (in perfect London English) that we go on a treasure hunt to find a golden pan with which he could make tomato pancakes

18. realizing at the end of our journey, that we hadn't taken a decent photograph together

19. laughing it off ... and saying "next time!"