Dinner on the terrace and other observations

I had dinner last night at a restaurant/café near to where I am staying in the centre of Barcelona, on Gran Via de Catalanes. I sat outside to watch the world go by as the restaurant was close to Urgull metro. Dinner was not worth mentioning, a bog standard fixed price menu, 11 euros; I don’t recall what I had. I do remember the events and sights around me though. To my right sat an older English couple who had ordered a lot of food, enough Paella for 4 people and various other things. They ate for a while, I heard raised voice in, what I think was, a Birmingham accent then the woman wandered off in a bad mood, I presume to her hotel but she seemed unsure. The man continued to eat and looked more relaxed than he had before the argument. The restaurant was getting busier and by 930pm all the tables on the terrace were full. Now they call it a terrace but really it is the pavement with some chairs and tables, terrace is far too grand a word for the reality of sitting a metre away from the busy road and being disturbed by beggars every five minutes. I hadn’t noticed when I sat down but my table was the closest to the ash-tray the restaurant had provided for its smokers. The 2 smokers were old men who smoked for ages and left smoking cigarettes on top of the ash-tray, possibly for my benefit. The smell was awful; the brand was clearly cheap and high on nicotine, low on quality. I guess, thinking of the blandness of the food, the second hand smoke added a certain something to my meal that the restaurant couldn’t provide? The next part of the entertainment were the 2 Irish girls who sat down near to me, I am amazed they could walk at all. The shoes were so high that both girls walked with a look of pain on their faces, well I think it was pain, the make-up they had on was more Marilyn O'Manson than Maybelline. They were clearly glad to sit down, even at this restaurant and the only word of Spanish they seemed to know was Cava, mucho cava, so they consumed a bottle of Cava as I was eating my, erm, something with sauce on it.

And finally, Barcelona has a lot of skateboarders, not young guys new to the sport/hobby/fashion but guys my age that must have taken it up in 1977 and decided to take it up again to save on travel costs. I’ve seen loads of shaggy faced middle aged men skateboarding at all times of the day and evening. They are braver than me, I struggle to walk in a coordinated manner and certainly running for me is risky so my hat is off to these middle aged guys who are saving money by risking a broken bone or two.

June 27, 2013