BACK in Barcelona!

We've returned and finished our first full day back in this cool city.
Both of our flights were shorter than planned and getting here seemed so easy. Of course, getting 7 time zones ahead and arriving at 7am makes for some terrible jet lag, but I think we're doing OK.
Today was just a really bizarre day. We wake up and try to get the empadronamiento from the government so we can live here legally, but after making the 20-minute walk we find out that the dates on the contract are wrong so we will have to wait til next week. Of course, that's hoping that they will stay open past 2 or 3 in the afternoon and that Carlos will have a chance to get out of school to take the papers in. Because of this, we can't get the new bank account, the DNI (which is like the social security number), updated health care, etc.
So in order to ignore some of that, we went to what we thought was a steakhouse very close to the apartment. They have a life-size plastic cow in front of the restaurant and a cool brick oven in the front with hot coals always going. Once inside the brick interior, you go down a flight of stairs to the underground restaurant. There, we find out it is really a restaurant from Uruguay, but that they serve plenty of Catalan meals. That is, if they feel like it... outside they advertise over 100 primero and segundo plates for their menu of the day (which is an awesome european feature, by the way) but once you get the menu, many are either crossed out or you're told they don't have it anyway. Very Spanish :)
Then, after gettting slightly ripped off at the electronics store, we head out into the city via Las Ramblas towards the Born. On the way we come across some large stages, one of them having a drum group from Paraguay. Glow in the dark drum sticks! They were having so much fun.
After that we went to our favorite restaurant to get patatas bravas, a culinary staple of Catalunya. La Luna is more of a bar with a few fancy tapas, but it's great. Mojitos there are worth the 7 euros (not too often..!) and we finally had our favorite double malt beer again, Voll Damm. mmm... so delicious. After that, a trip on a metro and an underground train, and back to our very humid (90%!!) apartment. Fall is coming next week... pictures to come later.