Holy Guacamole! Our neighborhood, Barrio Graçia, is in the midst of it’s annual festival right now. This is the Festa Major. Every barrio in Barcelona has one of these once a year, but Graçia is where all of the cool kids hang out, so ours is the best, of course.

And holy shit, is it ever! The long-term residents of the city spend the entire year planning what their street is going to do for the festival that year. About two weeks ago, large power cables began appearing all over the neighborhood, then wires began being strung across the roads, about one story high, for canopies to be built from.

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You have never truly experienced living in a big city until you have been pickpocketed or mugged.

At first glance this post may seem to you just a very bad story, but do read on, it has a silver lining.

Last night I witnessed the bad side of Barcelona. I got robbed. Now it wasn’t by weapon point, the coward just grabbed my purse from my hand and starting running. Luckily I didn’t have credit cards, my passport, or my huge assortment of odds and ends that usually follow me everywhere in my “Mary Poppins” bag. I just had a small coin purse. Unfortunately the stuff that was in my purse was my cell phone (brand new and expensive), keys and 70 euros in cash.

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What is better than a cake on your birthday? A massage by a very well muscled “Tony” that involves 30 minutes of scrubbing from neck to toe with a seaweed and sand mixture, a shower, and then a hour of heavenly relaxation, and a massage too. Welcome to Spaland at Gran Hotel La Florida. A beautiful hotel atop of Tibidabo, a small mountain that caps the basin of Barcelona. Jason and I arrived a half hour early and had coffee on the terrace that looks out on the city. Wow, the views, the pool, the cabanas were gorgeous and as we found out expensive! Jason wanted to swim in the pool while I got my treatment, the hotel said gladly for 100 euros! Jason decided to go off wandering, but that is another story.

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