The first result was waking up without a hangover despite being out until 1am. I was most restrained; only a couple of glasses of wine over a superb Italian meal followed by two cocktails. The last being a Caipirinha taken alone in a dimly lit smokey bar that I've been going to for years called 'El Benidorm'. Cheesy name but a great bar; I think the part that I love best is having to ring the bell to be allowed in.
Kiera and I walked to meet our friends Andreu and Monica with a brief refuelling stop at Starbucks. The coffee here is so incredible I usually avoid my regular American coffee haunt but Kiera needed a third breakfast - don't ask - and so in stopping for a muffin I decided upon a take-away Chai Tea latte.
Bumping into our friends we walked down towards the beautiful and elegant church of Santa Maria del Mar, continuing to meet Alex, Eva and their adorably blond but otherwise totally Spanish two year old son Nicolas. Only in Barcelona would we find such a family all dressed as pirates, unselfconsciously sword fighting, oblivious to any onlookers. I know it's Carnival weekend here but really, would any English person ever do this?
We walked to the gorgeous Parc de la Ciutadella, strolling with all the Spanish families in the beautiful spring weather. The children played on the park as we spotted more pirates, some of the dalmations, and most disturbing, a woman old enough to be my grandmother wearing red horns with a red pointed tail poking out from underneath her trench coat. Obviously it's not just my friends who have a capacity for taking any opportunity for outlandish self-expression through costume.
We then spent the perfect Barcelona afternoon eating ensaladilla rusa, chicken and bread while drinking red wine and cava in Alex and Eva's eccentrically beautiful apartment, punctuated only by the occasional cigarette while the children played and we listened to music, laughing and debating and taking photographs of the children and of each other in a pirate hat. It's days like these that make me want to live in this incredible city. There's a relaxed quality to this time amongst friends that differs inexorably from similar-style English afternoons - a difference that I find captivating and nourishing and stimulating.
Of course, after two or three small glasses of red wine and the cava I was little stimulated and more in need of a nap but having run out of time to follow the perfect day with the typical Spanish siesta I shall save my sleep for tonight. It will be deep I'm sure, and my dreams will be of more afternoons like today in my future.
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