Barcelona and the final afternoons' foray.

I am having a break from  ..... stuff, by updating the blog.
It's such a first world geeky thing to do. So hang me.  Meh.
We went for a walk down to La Barcelonetta Beach after getting a coffee and some cakes from over the road.

Here's the lady that served Tiz coffee. She might be not Spanish

Barceloneta Beach. It's a lot like an amalgam of many beaches you know of and may have visited and or seen throughout the world. 

Walking along I could only think of Frank Zappas famous song "Titties 'n' Beer".

For heavens sake they are sunbaking in 20 degrees, and paying triple for a prawn because they're having it served on the sand. It's the work of the devil, I tell you. 

I could be on any beach in the world, but to my left is thousands of topless people 

and to my right is free beer.

So this is the place that Frank Zappa sang about!

The saving grace of the walk was close to home. The eatery that closed early the other night was now open. 

The locals know it as La Torna, but I'll refer to it as one of the best places I've eaten at for a very long time. 

We pulled up a couple of stools and in my best Spanish I managed to embarrass myself. The waitress was far better at English than I could ever be at Spanish.

Two beers (yes, two! I was hella thirsty.), one red wine, one tripe with chick peas, chili and chorizo and one stuffed eggplant were quickly ordered and served.  

Tiz reckons her eggplant was on par, re: excellent taste, with my tripe but I can't imagine anything that is vegetable based tasting as good as this tripe.

I don't want to go on about it too much, although I know I already have, but this dish was better than my Mum used to make, and hers was good enough to "resuscitate the dead". OK, I'll drop it now. 

 Stuffed Eggplant (to the left) and Tripe with Chickpeas 'n' stuff (to the right)

On the way to offal and eggplant heaven we came across something that I found quite surprising, despite knowing that this place is tolerant.

Well, well, well.  What have we here, tucked away in  a back alley of Barcelona?
A grow shop. Yep, it means the same here as it does in other places.  

For medicinal purposes only, so they'd like you to think

I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not for a country but it doesn't seem to have caused the complete ruination of Barcelona, yet. Having said that we have seen a disproportionate number of young folks that seem like they have serious mental problems, if you call schizophrenia, obvious signs of bipolar behavior, hallucinatory ramblings a serious mental problems. It's made me sad.    

Random photos with no purpose

Tiz on the beach ..... or very very close to it.

Marino, nowhere near the beach and not going to the Picasso Museum.