Yesterday was a great day (hey, this is beginning to be a theme here). In the late morning, we headed in to Barcelona on the bus. Ted and Olga (and Nika) live at the top of a hill in Alella, and we caught a bus from the bottom of the hill to the city center, really no longer than 20 minutes.
I should back up, as my morning began "on the clock," so to speak. Feeling like an Analyst back in Tokyo, I awoke to an e-mail from Ted with an investment memorandum that needed polishing. Having worked on numerous deals and presentations together, Ted knows my mad skillz, and I was happy to oblige.
And so, having gotten some hard work done in the morning, we treated ourselves (okay, Ted treated, but I guess I sort of earned it) to a nice lunch at the critically acclaimed seafood restaurant, Botafumeiro. Located in a ritzy part of town, Botafumeiro is known for its outstanding shellfish, and that is what Ted ordered - una bandeja de mariscos a la parrilla (platter of grilled shellfish), shown below.
The meal was fantastic, especially when accompanied by two bottles of the local white from Alella.
Afterwards, Ted, Jose (his business partner) and I headed to their "office," in quotes, because the place where they do work is the lounge in the Mandarin Oriental.
We put our heads down for a few more hours and banged out the rest of the Investment Memorandum for a luxury residential development deal in Moscow. An interesting deal that could result in a big payday...hey, what's my split? ;)
Around 7:30 PM or so, we headed back to Alella, chilled out, watched an episode of The Office and headed to bed fairly early.
I did forget to mention our stop off at the local Bodega at the foot of the hill in Ted's town. This place is really cool, and they sell wine by the liter directly from the barrel, ranging anywhere from 1 euro per liter (that's right!) to 3 euros per liter for some of the moscatos (dessert wines).
Of course, that is more like table wine, and we opted for a 35 euro bottle, which ended up being decent, though some of the more affordable, 17 euro per bottle wines were a lot better. According to Ted, and by taste so far I have agreed, the Ribera del Duero and Priorats are the way to go!
Oh yeah, and almost forgot...Ted related a funny story to me and Jose during lunch. One of their previous house guests, a friend of Olga, had stayed with them for a week or two, and not gotten along particularly well with Kuma, who apparently decided to...um, how do I say this...well, relieve himself in a number two fashion on her pillow!
You can imagine my surprise when before going to bed that evening, I found this on my very own pillow! And I thought that Kuma and I were best buds!!
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