Spain Vacation: Day Two & Three; arrival and history

Up early, packing, making sure I did not forget anything, the morning was a bit stressful.  It seems that I get a little anxiety about forgetting things for a trip.  The irony is that I never bring anything.  I literally brought a few sets of shorts, shirts, clean underwear, camera, headphones, water bottle, toothbrush, and a book.  That is it.  I am not sure what I could have forgot, but I still worry.

Overall, the day was pretty uneventful.  I connection flight was slightly delayed but it was not a big issue.  The flight was overnight and when I arrived in Barcelona I jumped on the bus and headed to meet my old and good friend Pari.

Fairly tired, I had a quick bite to eat at her apartment.  Pari cooks at home most of the time and she makes some great Indian food.  We gobbled it up and I took a quick nap to try to burn off a bit of jet lag.

Once I work up, Pari headed to work and I went out for a 5 hour walk around the city with her partner, Hocine, and her two kids, Zahid (age 5) and Azaam (age 1).  We went to the park where the Pari and Hocine first met.  It used to be a squat house that the city evicted and eventually leveled.  Then the squat community turned the rubble of their former house into a park.  A couple of year later, the city leveled the park as well and made their own park.

This park had a lot of history for the people who lived in this area of the city.  Now it is a spot where many kids play football (soccer), the pickpockets greet the tourists who wandered to far, and the community enjoys a beautiful garden.

After Pari got out of work, we met her at Maoz Vegetarian, a falafel place in the city.  It was a great meal to have after a long day that mostly felt like a blur.  I was on vacation, across the world, enjoying what was offered and taking things as they came.  I knew it would be great.