Absenta - not for the faint hearted!

Visited the Nou Camp yesterday and had photo taken with Ronaldinho on the pitch - or at least his cardboard cut out - I know sad! Also visited Sagrada Famillia, Parc Guell and other famous Barcelona sights. Went to Monjuic cable car ride to take photos of the whole of Barcelona city skyline only for a rainstorm to happen halfway up in the cable car - oh well not very good photo! In the evening, after stepping over many drunks on a backstreet of Barca got to one of the oldest bars in Barcelona - Bar Marsella - going from 1820. The decor inside proves its age as it looks like it has been untouched since then. And certainly not cleaned since then! Domesticies out of the way, the drink that they are famous for is abysinthe or absenta in Spanish. It is a sort of anaseed spirit. They serve you the drink with a small fork, a sugar cube and a small bottle of water. The local practice is then to balance the fork over the glass, place the sugar cube on the fork and then pour some water slowly over the cube until it melts into the glass. What difference this actually makes to the taste is probably miniscule but it changes the drink from a clear straw colour to a grapefruit looking yellow. It is suggested that this drink is mildly narcotic - certainly after one or two of these it is much more difficult to balance the fork over the glass - let alone yourself on the barstool! Still getting by with my broken Spanish & meeting loads of people. One thing that you notice about Barcelona that not even the Spanish speak Spanish - they all speak English. One woman at a cafe actually thanked me for speaking Spanish she says that no tourists bother in Barca. Barcelona is a great city, it never closes & it is hard to fit all of it in in the four days I have been here but it has been fun trying. Off to Valencia tomorrow which should be another good trip. Hasta luego for now!