Meeting the “local”

22.11.2007 20:02 In the evening I was meeting up with somebody I will see quite often here in Barcelona. Thing is, she’s not Spanish, she’s English! So much for the local connection. Mind you, she has lived here for a year or so, so she knows more about the place than I do. Not difficult actually, since I never set foot in Barcelona before. When shopping I was obviously thinking about this, so I got a bottle of something reddish, fizzy in a nice bottle. Thought we could have a drink when she arrived, and get to know each other a little informally since we’ve only spoken on the phone before. Turned out that she only wanted water! And I even asked twice! Oh dear. This ain’t gonna be fun I thought. But first impressions can obviously be deceiving. And I should’ve remembered the English’s way of being shy and avoiding, having to be convinced. She told me later that I should’ve tried harder :) We later had an excellent dinner in town. Tapas and red wine. They recommended 3 plates with tapas per person, but I think that is only if you haven’t eaten for 3 weeks and work in construction. Because it also comes with a delicious tomato bread and other paraphernalia. Had to leave almost half of the food, which really hurt. It was too good. And things I hadn’t tried before like grilled/marinated little peppers, roasted artichoke, a dish with eggs and shrimp, the fried squid of course and more. And a really tasty red wine (not too expensive either) which neither of us can remember the name of…guess we have to go back and find out.