I've made a huge mistake. I admit it... I have moved to another city yet again. I used to live in Barcelona and now I'm living in Gracia. Some might think that Gracia is just an area of Barcelona. That could not be further from the truth. Gracia is more like a disturbance in the Force, a black hole of sorts that sucks you in and takes you to another dimension...The Gracia Zone.
Allow me to elaborate. I moved over about a week ago. As it happens, I should have seen it coming since it was sitting in Gracia when I started thinking about moving over to Barcelona (aka..all that surrounds Gracia). To the outsider it has bars, plazas, restaurants, is a nice place to spend the evening.
But once I moved there I started noticing weird things...Is like...there is a force that doesn't want me to leave the area. It started with the bars. First couple of nights I would go for beers with Paul to one of the bazillion nice bars around. Then on Friday night I got totally wasted and didn't sleep at my place (mostly because I was on Superman mode, you know, when you think that you can do just about anything when you can hardly pick your own nose). The morning after, while ridding the subway home with one big ass nasty headache it started happening...I got an sms from Paul. "Beer, Plaza Sol, now?". Humm, very convenient if you ask me. I'm not even sober and here comes the chance for more drinks. Then right after it happen again. While walking to meet Paul I walk by this tattoo studio owned by a friend of mine. She just happen to be by the door so I stopped to say hi and tell my stories about the night before. And then she popped the question "Listen, when am I tattoing you? I won't charge you a thing. Next Tuesday".I mumbled a "yeah, sure..." But something told me that there was something wrong.
And then it started happening more often. Next thing was buying a matress. I was planning on going to Ikea and someone told me "Why? There is a shop that sells matresses cheaper than Ikea a few blocks away". Want a gym? Two blocks down. One to train judo? One block up and one block left. No kimono fight and kickboxing? There's an small illegalish one on my street, ran by some english guy. Want tools? Shop is on the oposite side of the block across the street. Skate shops? down the street then turn left, walk for 5 minutes and you're there. My Dropkick Murphys t-shirt that I have only once saw for sale? T-shirt shop on the way to the subway. Incense sticks? Half a dozen shops all over.Supermarkets? 5 in a 4 block radious, take your pick. Sex shop? Sure, there are things in some of them that are consider military threats in some countries. Tea shop? 10 minutes walk if you want to take the one further away. Sightseeing? Parc Guell is up the street, 10 minutes uphill walk. I'm not even going to get into the "hey, I'm going out to Gracia tonight, meet me at..." text messages, I just ignore them. There is even a portuguese shop, with pastel de natas and bicas!!! Is awful. I can't leave this place. I have been sucked in. Help!!!!!
