Barcelona Hosting and House Warming Party

My friend Carol, who brought my cat Sunset to me, has been staying with me as my first guest.  We've taken in parts of the city that she had not seen in her last visit here to Barcelona a year ago last September.  As many of you know, Carol was a work colleague of mine and when I was working there she was considered my "work wife".  One of the things we would do at work was to almost always speak to each other in Spanish whenever we saw each other, unless we were in a group with non-Spanish-speaking colleagues.

Of course we continued this custom here in Barcelona. I find that this constant practice of speaking Spanish at all times has been very helpful.  Even though I live here, during the day I may spend many hours on my own in the house or out and about.  With Carol here the quantity of time speaking Spanish has increased greatly and I find that my fluency and ease of speaking Spanish (at least with Carol) is better.

La Costa Brava

The region in Catalunya north of Barcelona is called La Costa Brava.  Carol and I decided to rent a car and visit this beautiful area, focusing on the city of Figueres, where the Salvador Dali museum is.  When we

went to the car rental office, we were given the opportunity to drive up there (about 150 kilometers) in a Smart Car.  It is quite small and we had our doubts, but we took the leap.  It turns out to be a very comfortable car (which happened to be licensed in the principality of Andorra) and it saved us a lot of gas miles.

On the way up we took the secondary roads and got to see a little of the coast and interior countryside of La Costa Brava.  We visited two stunning towns, Roses and Cadaqués and later visited the ancient monastery of St. Pere de Rodes, overlooking the Port de la Selva, thanks to the suggestions of my friend Jordi.  Roses is where the famous chef Ferran Andria had his restaurant, El Bulli, rated the world's best restaurant for four straight years before it closed in 2011.

After having lunch in Roses we drove to Caduequés, an amazing port town. Walking around the town and taking in incredible views of the sea, the port and the white-washed town, we found some comfortable chairs.at a beach bar and sipped on ice-cold water and beer.  Before arriving to Figueres, we finished the trip by visiting the monastery of St. Pere de Rodes in the sunset hours.  A beautiful setting nestled in the mountains overlooking the coastline.


Around 7:30 pm we arrived in Figueres, checked into our hotel and then took a walk around the center of the city near the museum and city hall.  It was such a pleasant evening.  The next

day we got to the Dali museum a few minutes before 9 am, when it would open, in order to buy our tickets and see the museum.  We weren't disappointed!  Dali was an artist who used many different forms of media to express himself through his art, including jewelry.

After a couple of hours, we walked back to our hotel, checked out, and drove over to Castelló d'Empúries, 9 kilometers east of Figueres.  It's a wonderful small town that was the capital of the region in the 11th century and today has preserved many of the buildings and
architecture through the centuries.

House Warming Party

Since I bought my house in June, I had planned to have a house warming party (it's called an Inauguration of the House here).  I talked with my friend Jordi about it and after counting about 35-40 people, I realized I couldn't have it all at the same time.  Jordi suggested that I break it into smaller groups.  So, last Saturday I had my first house warming party.  I invited about 20 people, a little too many for my house, but it worked.  Although a house warming party can be anything you want it to be, generally it is a dinner with lots of food, drink and cava (champagne).  This group was mostly composed of friends that I met during my many hiking outings during the Spring.  It also included some other friends including my longer-time friends Frederic, Carlos and Cesar.

I was so glad that Carol was here. She knew that I was going to host a house warming party, although at the time of her arrival, I still didn't know who I would be inviting for this first round and what kind of food we would serve.  Carol was a real help in firming up those plans and in helping me prepare the food and the house for the event.  In general, for events like these, you only invite people about a week beforehand.  The smart phone app, WhatsApp, is the usual way to communicate with friends and replaces text messaging that is used in the States.  What was amazing about this event is that every person that I invited accepted the invitation and everyone came.

The house was decked out with flowers and candles and lots of food and drink.  People started arriving

around 9 pm and about 10 of us were still here at 1:30 am.  It turned out very well.  It seemed that people really enjoyed themselves, although it was a little taxing on the air conditioning system for this many people with the warm and humid weather.  We had way too much food, but I'm a little more savvy for the next group (which I'm still not sure when that will happen).  I envision two more groups, each of which will only have around 10-12 guests.

We ended the party by going to the gay bar XXL, about 7 blocks from my house.  Carol and I didn't get home until 3:30 am!!  We had a blast but Sunday was a day of recuperation!