Carnaval 09!

It's Carnaval here in Barcelona!! Carnaval is a weeklong festival celebrated every year in this region. I still haven't quite figured out the history of the festival but it seems like they just have huge celebrations, parties, and parades everywhere for a week. It's also a bit like halloween. My ballet teacher this morning was dressed up as an angel and several of my dance classmates had their faces painted! I also noticed children on the streets dressed up in costumes and balloons floating in the lobby of my school. So I'll be going on a day trip tomorrow to a city called Sitges, which is just outside of Barcelona. Apparently that is the place to be for Carnaval. Will post more about that trip later!

Anyway, today I was sitting on the bus on my way to school when I received a phone call from a number that I didn't recognize. I thought this was strange and then I picked up and was surprised to hear a man greet me in Chinese. Turns out it was a friend of my parents' who was here in Barcelona on a business trip! His daughter is a good friend of my sister's too so this was a pleasant and unexpected surprise.

We ended up meeting for dinner at a place called Los Caracoles (which means snails). We had a delicious and extremely filling meal consisting of bread, salad, mussels, cured ham, a big seafood paella, and of course, wine. I felt kind of bad because the place is famous for its snails dish (it's a place that has been open since 1835) but we didn't end up ordering it because I told our family friend that I didn't dare eat snails... :p. But hey I ate the cured ham in the end which was a first for me! I normally don't eat sashimi or steak that isn't cooked well done. So cured ham was a big step for me.

Here are some pictures!


We sat in a little nook full of pictures of famous actors that had visited the restaurant in the past. They must have come sometime during the 1800s cuz I didn't recognize any of them!


I cool medieval looking private room. Go to the next picture to see the ceiling of this room...


It's all ham!! I imagine that meat lovers would drool over this. I didn't notice until now but there are little cups under each ham... to catch the grease I suppose. Ew... haha.

Bed time for me. Hasta luego!