The next tasting
session came about after a visit to one of the more 'hip' former
villages in Barcelona, 'Gracia'.
Gracia a long old walk
from where our apartment is, roughly in a place called 'Born'.
Straightforward as it is, up one long road, passed some sights and
there you are, it is a great distance to travel not on horseback. Or
some kind of modern day transportation like a bicycle or bus or car
or even on the horrendously humid metro system.
Avoiding La Rambla,
opting for a parallel road in the South East – North West streets.
La Rambla can be likened to Oxford Street in London, England spliced
with Camden High Street by some evil scientific mastermind trying to
take over the world. Full of tourists, full of shops both good and
pointlessly crap, ticket vendors and hoards of pickpockets. The
ignorant and unsuspecting journey-persons nightmare. Best avoided at
all times if you ask me. Maybe worth a bit of a gander at about 3am
when it comes alive, a spectacle full of some of the most hideous
prostitutes you could ever imagine. The ones from the 1990 film
'Total Recall' look like the sex symbols of the Hollywood golden age
in comparison. Add to that the weather and human beaten tramps caked
in their own excrement and drunken youths and vomiting backpackers.
It becomes a people watchers paradise if freaks and weirdos are what
you are searching for.
Along the route we
stopped off to admire one or more of the spectacular works of art
often confused with architecture by the famous and wonderful 'Antonio
Gaudi'. The main piece or building of interest was the 'Segrada
Familia'. His last work and legacy that was left incomplete for years
after and even still to this day it remains a long ongoing
construction. Rumour has it that as he stepped back to admire this
cathedral, gazing upon it in full view, he was mowed down by a tram
or coach. A heavy wheeled vehicle. Sad as it is, it has become one of
the most popular and famous landmarks in Barcelona if not the whole
of Spain.
I'd seen it a few times
before but never like this. Whole sections looked alien, new, shiny,
white. A completely different colour stone to the original structure.
Less aged, cleaner, still unaffected by pollution, altogether
different to the rest in style as well as the materials used.
Stopping off to catch a
moments rest in the shade by the small man-made lake to the north of
the building. I caught myself staring in bewilderment at a couple
taking what easy could have been more than 1TB of of photos of one
another or 'selfies' together. Some were so over the top and
cringe-worthy that I couldn't contain myself and got up to replicate
their exact movements and poses taking the piss in a more comical and
incredibly exaggerated way. I think they may have realise as they
left in a bit of a hurry, but it did take them a while. They'd been
at it for what felt like an hour, maybe more. Who knew, the extreme
heat altered the state of time.
We followed suit
shortly after. Prolonged exposure to the sun had left us weak, fuzzy,
hungry and thirsty.
Well past the half way
point now, it wouldn't be long until we were wandering the back
streets of Gracia seeking out a place to eat and drink. Admiring the
colonial Spanish style or architecture with scattered but tasteful
graffiti.
It was hot, really hot.
Water just wasn't doing anything to quench my thirst. It was warmed
from being out in the light, flat, and not wet enough. I needed a
beer, I demanded an ice cold Pale Ale. I desperately required the
refreshing life giving qualities that such beers so often possess.
After a meal of fairly
average yet highly overpriced tapas washed down with a weak and pissy
lager, my demands were finally met.
Saviour came in the
shape of a craft beer shop, 'Bodega Del Sol', across the square from
where we ate our unsatisfactory lunch. A bottle shop like no other
I'd visited before. I was more excited than a randy male dog seeing a
bitch on heat. I could barely contain myself. Fortunately I have more
self control than I give myself credit for as I postponed what could
have been a messy and embarrassing experience. The selection of beer
was vast, so vast in fact that it nearly put my shop to shame.
Somehow they seemed to have a larger selection of rare beers from the
USA, a big Belgian and Dutch section and hundreds from Spain,
Catalunya and Barcelona. Some I'd heard of but most were new to me.
The shop was amazing.
When my friend explained it to me a while ago, I had no idea what it
would actually be like. It surpassed all my expectations of it. How
could something so great exist somewhere that seems relatively new to
the whole craft beer thing? Like the mammals in Australia that
evolved completely separately to their ancestors on the other of the
worlds more accessible continents.
Partly due to the fact
it was air conditioned and very cold, but mainly it was because the
amazing selection of beer was so damn good, I wouldn't leave.
More than ten minutes
had passed and I was still empty handed.
I carefully selected
half a dozen beers to take back to the apartment for an unplanned
tasting session on a later date and a couple for drinking at that
very moment.
I had a bottle of an
IPA with a picture of a cat or fox on the label. 'Guineu Amarillo
IPA' from Catalunya, Spain. That really sorted me out. It filled
every crevice of my mouth with its dry but refreshing wetness. My
mouth went from feeling like the dried and cracked surface of some
African Savannah, once a river flowed through giving life to many
animals, now all was left was a valley slicing through the centre of
many small veiny trenches. As soon as the beer touched the surface of
my tongue a visionary explosion took place. Heavy rain drops falling
all around, rapidly filling the dried river bed, turning into a once
again fast flowing uncontrollable mass of life giving and at the same
time destructive body of water. Bursting at the banks, spilling out
into all the surrounding cracks flowing out as far as the horizon in
all directions. In moments the dried and chapped surface of my tongue
was once again a soft moist bed ready for what life can throw at me.
Lots of beers and distributors of some great brewing equipment
Facebook page for one of the greatest bottle shops I've ever visited
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