Where in the World is Sharon Daugherty2: Barcelona (Sunday 1 Feb)

We arrived about noon to a beautiful day. Cold but sunny. Grabbed a cab to the rental office and completed paperwork on our apartment. Walked up the street and found our place. We are in a great neighborhood. We dropped our bags and then went looking for lunch. Found a great little Italian place for pizza and such called Tarantella. The wait staff wasn't bad either

Heading back to the apartment we found a little market open and bought a few things for breakfast. We checked out our new home and the although the ad said it is a fully equipped kitchen, it has just the bare essentials. No coffee pot, no tea pot, no microwave and the worst, NO HAIRDRYER. We need to go shopping tomorrow, as not much open today.

After getting unpacked and settled in I decided not to push the food thing on my not so great stomach, so I stayed in for dinner, while Terry and Sandy went out. I had a bowl of SpecialK with strawberries. We all had an early night as we were tired. All slept well.

The next morning I felt really good for the first time in about 5 days. We headed up the street to a mall to see what we could find. Found a place to get a hairdryer but she didn't have one in stock until 1:00 PM. Went to the Vodophone store to get spanish sim cards and couldn't get those without showing our passports (this is a new twist on the phone situation) ha. Ok we found a big supermarket in the basement and decided to load up before going back to get our passports. We bought staples and meat to freeze for cooking in. We thought we swould do that this evening, so unloaded everything and then headed back out with our passports. Up the street to the mall again. This time we were more successful. Got our SIM cards and now have working phones. Purchased our hairdryer and ask the girl if there was a good hair salon in the mall, as both Terry and I need haircuts. She pointed one out to us and we went to check it out. They could take both of us a 5:00 PM today. We headed back home for awhile and then about 4:30 once again headed back up the street to the mall. Sandy went along and was going back to the market to get wine for home and dinner tonight. Terry and I braved the salon. Terry got a guy from the Czech Republic, now living in Barcelona and I got a little girl from Barcelona. Mne turned out pretty good.

Terry's is really short, so the jury is still out on hers. She says she has to see how it grows out to tell if its a good cut. Anyway, Sandy was successful in finding a wine supply, and we decided the sun was far enough across the yardarm to try it out. But alas it was not chilled. We stuffed it in the fridge and went down the street to a cafe to have a glass of wine and toast a successful day of settling in. By the time we got back it was nearly 7:00 PM and we were out of the mood to cook our own dinner. Off we went again to Tarantella as we were in the mood for pasta. Didn't open til eight, so we wandered back up the street and found a little place on the corner of our block called "Picatta". Meditteranean food and a really great find. We had an appetiser of fried artichokes which were yummy and then a great Ravioli dish. Mine was cheese with a parmesan cream sauce. Terry had a mushroom ravioli with foisgras sauce which she raved about. Sandy had a prawn and artichoke salad. The wine was great and again the waitstaff not bad to feast your eves on. Ha. And so close to home. Just a few steps down the street.