An authentic Barcelona dinner - September 8, 2004

---

Dinner was absolutely wonderful! We had quite an international contingent - we were American, English, German & Spanish, with some who had switched countries! Everyone was great - one of our dinner companions is a small man, dressed casually with a dedicated love of football (the European kind, mind you), while his wife was impeccably dressed (matching handbag and shoes), and an admitted shopping fanatic (though I don't know too many women who aren't!). She seemed to sense my nervousness and stood right next to me in a protective manner, which she kept up throughout the night, whenever she would inquire about what I had ordered, how I was enjoying it, or how I was generally doing. It was clear over the course of the evening that she and her husband were very well traveled, but incredibly down to earth and genuine in their friendliness. Our evening's host, of course, was the same genuine-ness, as was his wife, a native of Barcelona. She reminded me of a professor from Hamilton, with dark features, a wide, round face and dark-rimmed glasses. She clearly had a lot of passion, which was expressed in everything she talked about. Everyone was drawn in by her enthusiasm. Two of the other guests were also wonderful. I was struck by how beautiful one of the delegates is. She wore a short, bias-cut black dress that showed off her great figure and her features were elegant, inspired by the sparkle in her eye. Her curly hair is cropped short, but adds a wild air reflected in her eyes. Her husband was also fantastic - he had some difficulty with his English, but it was certainly better than my German! His troubles didn't stop him from asking me all sorts of questions and telling me about his love of golf and playing on a famous and difficult course in Scotland. He told me of one par three, where he was the worst golfer out of a group of four, and the hold was up on a plateau surrounded by bunkers. He hit his shot, which somehow landed on the green and he made par, while all of the "better" golfers took eight or ten shots to sink their balls after landing in the bunkers. He did tell me that it was the opposite result on the other holes!

When we got to the restaurant, we also met up with another couple. The wife is a journalist in Barcelona and was the sweetest of all the women. She was very quiet - in part, due to her trouble with English from time to time, and in part to an overall shyness - which was reflected in her husband who has a bit of a speech impediment. She quietly observed the group, only making rare, but valuable contributions. She came up to me at the end of the night to make sure that I was enjoying myself - I think she noticed that I was quiet as well.

I had been nervous about the restaurant and the menu, but I tried to relax. The building was an old Gaudi building, though not one of his more easily spotted works, as the lines were more simple. The inside was beautiful - having been an old textile company, with dark wood-paneled rooms and a very high class, small feel about it. The menus were passed out to the women first (we sat male-female at a round table in our own room), as was everything - it's refreshing to be deferred to and respected for just being female! I ordered the veal, which came with a brown sauce and noodles with what looked like pesto and pine nuts. It was fabulous, with the veal (actually steak) being unbelievably tender and the hint of pine nuts - totally delicious. I watched in awe as the others ordered and ate foie gras, squid in its own ink, scallops, and other exotic dishes. I tried the fish pre-appetizer, but decided it was too fishy and stuck to my roll. The meal was wonderful - the portions were just the right size and not too filling, so I was able to eat dessert and not be stuffed.

For dessert, I had crepes with vanilla ice cream and an orange sauce, which was heavenly. I literally could not believe how soft the crepes were, or how the flavors mingled together. Dinner was a gastronomic as well as social success! Following dinner, one of the women inquired if we could see the rest of the restaurant as well as the building's original entrance. Since people were sleeping upstairs, we could only see the entrance by a small light, but it was phenomenal. The room opened up into a huge tower, shadowed in darkness. We were awed by the ancient, free-standing elevator and the spiral twisted staircase columns. There were huge, strange mirrors with unlit lamplights protruding from then, and beautiful blue and white swirled tiles, which, on first glance, appeared to be mosaic. We were all awed. The rest of the restaurant was equally fascinating, with the bar housed in the original ledger desk and pictures of the area from a lifetime ago. Inspired by this, our host led us on a mini-tour of the surrounding streets, explaining how the textile people came in and build tall apartment buildings to show their wealth, instead of homes with gardens, as many other wealthy people did. Then, they lived on the first floor, which they called "principale" and called the 2nd floor the 1st and so on - explaining why we had earlier seen floors 0 and 1 in her husband's office building.

This reminds me of a story that one of our hosts told earlier. We were talking about the Catalonian crest, which is yellow with red stripes. He said that it is rumored that back when Spain was made up of small kingdoms, the king of Catalonia was killed in battle. As he was dying, he took his blood on his fingers and ran them down the front of his yellow shield to create the symbol you see today - he wasn't sure if this is true, but it is an interesting theory!

So tomorrow is a big day of final details, meeting delegates and finally, the opening reception. But tonight, I'm relaxing in my huge bathtub and crawling into my cuddling bed!

---