Yesterday I saw the zoo but I didn't go in. I've been doing that a lot while I'm here; looking at places without actually paying to experience them. At some point I'm going to have to visit some of these things, like the chocolate museum, or the Sagrada Familia (I've been outside twice now), or the zoo, or the Picasso Museum, or the old Jewish synagogue, or the Gaudi House, or the beach, or the big fountain in the Cuitadella, or....
I've been right outside the Sagrada Familia twice now. I went this morning on four hours of sleep because I thought it was going to be free and I wanted to avoid the line. I didn't avoid the line and it wasn't free, although I did wait in line for twenty minutes before I decided to go back on the metro.
One of the few places I HAVE been in is the casino at Port Olympic, which looks like, unlike other casinos I've been to, they have reasonable medium-stakes poker games. I was almost going to go back today but then I had work to do, and the Mets were on.
Speaking of the Mets, here's a riddle: What do Passover and Opening Day have in common?
A: They are two April events which go unnoticed by the population at large in Barcelona. But this wasn't a big surprise.
Saturdays are becoming my long walk days. In fact, yesterday I took a long walk on the beach. Should I put that in a personal? Do I like long walks on the beach? I did yesterday. It was very nice, there's lots of expensive bars and restaurants on one side, the Mediterranean on the other. People were showing off their tans but kept things appropriate (at least on this part of the beach).
I also had some nostalgic moments, finding "Marina Moncho's" where we ate four years ago on the last night in Barcelona. Maybe I'll make that a tradition.
This afternoon I toured the "Jewish Quarter", which was where the Jews lived in Barcelona 650 years ago until they were all kicked out. Now its just another few blocks of the Barri Gotico; the only thing left is the basement of the old Main Synagogue, which I will have to see sometime while I'm here but it closes at 3 pm and I got there too late today.
I'm also starting to "discover" really good restaurants and eateries off the main streets. I ODed on tapas yesterday at around 4, ordering I believe 5 different dishes while I read the newspaper. I was going to sit outside but the place charged 10% extra to do so which is BS, but I guess they can get away with it, so they do.
Tomorrow I'm teaching students about numbers.
The textbook gets confusing here; they have speeds in kmph, but moneys in $. This is a publishing inconsistancy. I hope I spelled inconsistancy right, but just in case, I'm going to spell it inconsistency in the next sentence, right here.
Stop looking in from the outside.
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