Amusement and Amusement Parks

Yesterday after work, I finally booked my ticket to the Alhambra (the good ones had almost run out two weeks in advance; BOOK EARLY. You can buy a physical ticket at certain La Caixa machines, meaning you can skip the lines when you get there and go in a side entrance) and bought my train tickets for my post-work Spain Extravaganza.  Great news: instead of 490EUR, the sum of the ticket prices, I got to pay a mere 220EUR by buying a 6-trip Spain Pass.  It's a special summer offer with significantly reduced prices.  Going to Sants Estacio and talking over the options with someone really helps! (Also, the lines for those advance ticket windows are HUGE so get a ticket and bring a book or plan to explore the area around Sants Estacio for an hour).
I went straight to Metro Hospital Clinic stop for dinner with lab mates and spent the spare time beforehand (of course, I got there early.  I'm a bit obsessive) exploring the neighborhood a bit more.  When I saw a store marked Xocolateria (chocolate shop), it was not even a question that I would go in.

What I didn't expect, though, was to immediately see carquinyolis, a traditional biscotti-like food made with whole almonds.

 They are typically eaten at Halloween, so I was lucky to stumble upon a shop that sells them year-round.  People here eat them the same way we eat biscotti: crunching down on it, dipping it in coffee, scooping stuff up with it (although here, that "stuff" is usually crema catalana).  I'll let you know how it tastes when I get a chance to try it.
At around 9:30 pm, our labmates (plus a few extras) met in a huge 18-person group outside Antic Londres.  I don't think the restaurant has any culinary merit; they just advertise group rates.  But this time, dinner was about the company and not the food.  Still, of course, I took pictures:

Salmon on top of lettuce, rounds of brie-like goat cheese.

Three types of cured hams and some cheese

Sangria de cava: sangria made with champagne rather than wine.  Almost all of the women expressed their preference for sangria de cava, but I tried a small sip and realized - NOPE - I still greatly dislike champagne.  It did have a lighter, more citrusy flavor, though, which was well-suited to a warm summer evening.

Traditional meals here always have a "primera plata" and "segunda plata" (first plate and second plate), usually with a few choices for each.  Here, the first plates were fixed and the second plate was a choice between a big hunk of pork or a huge plate of shrimp (still in the shell, of course, so you can enjoy their head juice and the childish joy of picking them out).

 I was seated in the thick of my labmates, across from Nadia, her boyfriend, and Marcus, between Amanda and Cristina.  The conversation flowed as we all got to know each other (translation: the interns got to know their coworkers in a social context) and we all relaxed.  Nadia's boyfriend was so nice.  He's a primary school gym teacher and he must be a wonderful mentor to them.  He and Nadia also seem to plan the most interesting trips around the globe.  They're leaving for Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam in a few weeks. Last year they rented a camper van and drove around Australia, surfing and meeting locals.  They're great.
By the end of the evening, everyone was laughing about 70% of the time and the conversation topics had switched to which Backstreet Boys my female coworkers had crushed on as tweens.  They kept asking me about celebrities, websites, and other well-known American things and I would be so confused at first until I decoded their strange Spanish pronunciations of "Google", "Ashton Kutcher", and the like.  When we wrapped up dinner, I was sad to walk away as they headed out to the clubs, but I had an early morning awaiting me on Saturday.
You might remember that the last time I was at Metro Hospital Clinic, I tried to go to La Fira Bar.  Well, it was now a Friday night at midnight, and I was going to try again.

And it was open!  I sweet talked the bouncers and got inside without paying but with their blessing to take as many photos as my little heart desired.  I had wanted to get inside this bar so badly because it holds a collection of old rides and decorations from the Tibidabo amusement park.  It did not diappoint.

Yep, there's a little circus tent in the middle of the bar

Above the emergency exit

On top of the bar site a giant wooden sphynx-like beast.

While I cannot comment on the price of admission, the quality of drinks, or the usual makeup of the crowd, who doesn't want to go to a bar filled with such funky decor?  It's an awesome spot.

Spotted: Halloween in Barcelona.  According to my labmates, Halloween wasn't celebrated at all about ten years ago, but now it's a bigger celebration than Carnival.

Spotted 2: Pamplona.  For a portion of the last two weeks (particularly last weekend), the Running of the Bulls has been going on in Pamplona.  Apparently I could have watched it on TV at 8 AM each morning when they broadcast it, but I have absolutely no idea how to use my TV and no patience to find out.