Warming welcome

One advantage of having lived in this city for 3,5 months is definitely that you´re not only returning to the city itself, but also to places and people you became attached to. And that is great!

My arrival in Barcelona was already accompanied by a brilliant case of Spanish cultural behaviour: at the airport I needed to wait over half an hour for my ´suprise´-welcome committee Sandra, who could not top my typical Dutch punctuality: we landed 20 minutes early..

Starting with the baggage drop-off, a perfectly warming welcome night was ahead of me. At the apartment of Jonatan, I was first embraced intensely by the host himself. Followed by his friends Ricard and Gloria (whom I already met before), who wanted to know everything about my time in Amsterdam, asking me 100 questions in the Spanish I was just not totally ready for yet.. The three of them soon left to go to a marriage party and Sandra and I strolled through El Born to Rougebar, for a first and well earned Spanish glass of wine. In Rougebar I also enjoyed a warm and more than enthousiastic entrance: the first glass was ´de la casa´, the music playing came from a CD that I recently composed for Jonatan (and that apparently had found its way in Barcelonian nightlife already), and everything was put aside to give eachother an update of the last months.

At 23:00 Sandra and I left Rougebar to continue with the next episode of the evening: dinner with Juan, Carlos, Nina and Didac (already known from one of my former blogs about the extended Spanish Sunday´s lunch). We entered restaurant Salero, a trendy fusion restaurant in El Born with (for a change) rapid and attentive waiters.. And a relaxing atmosphere.

At the bar Sandra and I discovered a really old (and I mean REALLY old) perkament like book of over 1.000 pages (written by a Dutch guy!), in which you can find out if the date chosen for that evening is the correct one or not. This based on your date of birth and astro-signs. So, waiting at the bar for your table, you still have a chance to decide if you call it a day if the book is not really keen on your match..
Luckily Sandra and I don´t need a book to tell us that we´ll have a great night together, and with Carlos entering the restaurant in his well-known theatrical way, we were even more sure of the fact that this evening was going to be everything but a ´mismatch´!

After a very nice dinner, starting at 0:00, with more than enough wines, Carlos and Nina decided that they were in a ´Kate Moss mode´. And so we were first witnesses of a true (everlasting ;-)) catwalk show during which our two models showed their "sóóóó last season" fashion outfits. With us, naturally, as their well speeched commentary voices, and the personnel without words, able to do nothing else than turn the musical volume up and join us in drinking wines and criticising the two.

Finally, around 3:30, the restaurant-owner thought it was enough and we agreed with him in silence. What a night..

Welcome back Barcelona!