after bidding my home adieu, i strolled along the now familiar beachfront where serious breezes drove wind surfers to dizzying speeds. i said goodbye to the ocean with the promise that we would meet again soon.
met lisa and clare in placa catalunya for one last burst of power-shopping. we ambled up the gracia area to soak up more fiesta. many normally sedate streets had morphed into frenzied hotbeds of activity what with the community dressing them up in fabulously creative themes. it wasn't unusual to see motifs ranging from beehives to smurfland to a devil's lair decked out in a gigantic papier mache beelzebub so frightfully satanic that a toddler forced to pose for a photo op promptly burst into tears. i can only imagine the community coordination and effort that must've gone into this.
lisa, clare and i soon recruited bink, her sister moo, julia and enric to our little posse. a few leisurely drinks into our visit, we were treated to an award ceremony where julia was celebrated as the bronze trophy winner of her all/day ping pong tournament. never mind the fact that there were only 5 participants, it was brilliant...a quaint slice of life among local barcelonians.
strolling around the fiesta, we turned a corner here and bumped into a jazz band. another corner there took us to an r&b show. we were privy to more gravity-defying human towers and fireworks. julia entertained us all in her quick lesson in the fine distinction between the expressions "quieres pollo" and "quieres polla". while the former means "i want chicken", the latter literally translates as "i want dick"!! it would've been hysterical enough with a deadpan delivery but was doubly so with julia turning in a masterful performance.
one by one, i said goodbye to my new and old friends. wonderful to hang with clare and lisa if only for a short time. will seriously miss julia and her charming eccentricities and disarming wit. now on to paris and a final chapter in my travels.
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