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To anyone who follows this on a regular basis, sorry for the long overdue update. Real life shit and all. To top this all off like the pretentious lit student I am, I'm going to share one of my favourite Dickens quotes here, which really sums up my feelings quite well about my current state:
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us."
(Though not going to lie, right now I'm having a bit of trouble seeing the best and lightness part.)
I have been having lots of thoughts recently. I've had quite a bit of time to reflect on myself and various paths and possibilities, and to contextualise them. Contextualising is the best and worst part. I always imagine the very worst scenarios. Looking at these pictures though, I can remember vividly everything I was thinking at the time. I remember walking down Espanya and looking for a nice restaurant, since I was sick of disgusting Billa microwave meals. I found a Thai restaurant (yes, very original Viv) but by then I was so damn hungry I was past caring. Anyway, I remember sitting in the restaurant waiting for my food and reading one of the books I'd stored on my tablet, and watching the restaurant TV, which was playing weird Spanish MVs. But I'm getting slightly ahead of myself here. I need to follow up on what happened after Barceloneta.
Nadja and I wanted to go to Castle Montjuic since we hadn't been yet (Yuta had left for a train to France halfway through the meal), but Henri and Piia had already been, but we did want to hang out together some more whilst also making the most out of sightseeing, so we decided to split up and meet together that night at Espanya to watch the Font Magica show, which only performed on Sundays and lucky us, it was Sunday that day. Castle Monjuic was a bit boring and slightly remote, since it was on a mountaintop after all. We had to take the metro to the stop "Parc de Montjuic, first of all, then take a rather expensive cable car up to the Montjuic castle itself. And that was only the beginning,
The cable car.
Nadja and I did a lot of talking, but at that time I didn't know that she would become one of my closest friends that I couldn't see on a frequent basis. We talked about anything and everything, trusting each other in that strange implicit way that we reserve for strangers. We're honest with people we don't know, in a strange roundabout way, because we know that we won't see them again and that they won't judge us. We talked about generic stuff, like where we were going and where we'd come from, then as the conversation progressed, we started talking about life values and views on relationships and friendships.
We arrived at the Castle, and since it was Sunday afternoon, admission was free. It was funny though because we actually witnessed the ticket woman trying to scam two Chinese tourists out of their money, and they were telling them that they had to pay. When they saw Nadja and myself, though, they changed their song - "Free admission on Sunday afternoon!" and let us in. The Chinese tourists began to complain very loudly to them, and the ticket lady had to let them in as well. Even thinking about this, makes me laugh. Oh Europe, how I do long for you! #onlyinSpain
The castle itself was sort of boring and Nadja and I kind of wandered around it, engrossed in talking.
We did get a rather nice view of Barcelona's port though, but the weather and cloudy skies...bleh.
Found a rather nice array of rocks to sit down upon, which gave us a rather unattractive bird's eye view of the city. She told me about her relationships and I told her about mine.
Time flies, though, and it was soon nearing dusk, so we decided to proceed slowly to Espanya, where the Font Magica was located. We got slightly lost at one point, and followed my GPS. It was funny, because I remember how Nadja baulked at first at the idea of using GPS - she likes the good ole map-reading - but at that point we were just so hopelessly lost that GPS was all we had. Nadja is about 5 years older than me, but she comes from a (thankfully) slightly less digitalised generation than I do, so she abhors the idea of too much cybernetics in her life. Also another hotpoint for discussion.
There was a lovely building at Espanya, and I have no idea what this place was or what it was called, but it really floored us. Again too bad about the #cloudyskies.
We then found the Font and waited around for Henri and Piia to show up.
Then the show started, opening with Disney's theme songs. It was rather magical, the four of us sitting together and watching and enjoying the music, the warm summer breeze, and the relaxed companionship that can only exist between strangers thrown together in a space and time, serendipitous individuals who wouldn't have met otherwise.
After the show, though, we bumped into Pedro and Luis, and we gasped and giggled and shrieked with delight. The hostel bunch - us five - unanimously decided to go for a drink. Nadja hovered somewhere near the fringe - unsure and slightly shy - and came up to me and told me that she wanted to go back to the hotel. I immediately agreed, since it made sense as the five of us were staying at the same place after all, whilst she was staying... somewhere else, and it was already dark there. I told her to message me, gave her my Facebook, and she said bye to us before leaving.
The five of us then made our way to a bar on the Espanya. Luis spoke fluent Spanish and evidently knew his way around, and we let him take the lead. We sat down and ordered loads of beer, and an Iberian staple tapas dish called patatas bravas - a gorgeous light-ish dish of roasted spicy potatoes. It took me all my willpower not to order a second dish, it was that good.
Another night of talking, or soul-discoursing and serendipity. I miss this and I miss you all. I miss Europe, and #1b tells me that Europe misses me. #oneday
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