October 14th

Today was my last day in Barcelona, as I head off to new adventures in the North with my sister Till. I had spent the last two days trying to pretend it was not as hot as it was and suffering for it. So, today I decided to embrace the heat and humidity by donning a short black cotton dress, to this I added Nina’s infamous grey boots from my last trip, which were almost destroyed last winter in an unfortunate accident involving sidewalk cement (it could only happen to me!). All that plus a vibrant scarf, and I thought I looked quite fetching. Clearly Barcelona agreed. It’s funny how all you have to do is show a little leg here to warrant a whistle from a passerby.

I wondered if the extent of the appreciation I received was due in part to some leg starvation being levied upon the men of Barcelona. If you are keeping up with the times you will now that high fashion has embraced a style of pants, which look like baggy crotched jodhpurs. Seriously, the crotch of these pants hangs close to the knee in some cases! Another apt comparison would be a badly diapered baby. Anyway, while I was sure some brave souls would go for this look in Toronto, I wasn’t prepared for the fervor with which they were embraced in Barcelona.
Poor men of Barcelona, I’m sure they’ll be glad when this trend has ridden its course.
*(ten minutes after this entry was written). Waiting for my train to Pamplona in the train station lounge I have just seen the man version of the pants. Barcelona, you are on your own.

Challenges:
- lugging my HUGE bag around town. Till you better appreciate all the stuff I’ve lugged across the world for you!

Perks:
- white chocolate covered Oreos: When I was quite young my mother bought as a road trip treat these delicious Oreos. Imagine a regular Oreo dipped in white chocolate, so that it covers the whole cookie in a thin layer. They were by far the best cookie I had ever tasted. Alas when my Mom tried to buy more they were nowhere to be found. As the years passed I would from time to time check the grocery for them, with no success. I began to think I must have imagined them, that is until my trip to Europe last fall. I was perusing a cookie aisle in a grocery store in Amsterdam and lo and behold there they were. Today in the supermarket at the Corte Ingles I thought I’d try my luck again, and I was rewarded. Bless you Spain, I have to wonder why didn’t they take off in North America? Much the way I feel about the equally MIA double stuffed neon Oreos.