Barcelona

First impression: Barcelona seems like a very, very cool city.

We’re staying in a place called Hotel Soho, which as you might have guessed is not so much a hotel as a gay club. It’s got a very “artsy” metallic theme, there’s goofy electro-pop/techno music playing in the lobby, and it’s just really really gay, basically. No idea how my mom found it. I kind of like it though – I’d go totally crazy if I had to stay here for more than a week, but in limited doses it’s pretty pleasant.

This is our second night in the city. Our bus from Zaragoza got in around 5pm so we didn’t have much time to explore, but the concierge showed us a really cool cerveceria/tapas bar for dinner, which was fun. The food was awesome, and the bar had some cool beers, including (bottled) Chimay. I’ve had Chimay before, and I’m still a fan.

We did a bunch of wandering today, first down towards the beach and then east towards the Gran Casino. I don’t know, I was expecting the casino to be a lot cooler – it’s pretty small, with one large room/floor for slot machines and another room/floor for table games. They probably have 8-10 tables reserved for poker, although when we were there only one game was running. According to the floor guy the only no-limit game they run is a €2/5 uncapped game with a minimum buyin of €200. That’s a much better structure than I was expecting, although the game’s a little bigger than I’d like… if I’ll play I’ll sit with at least €500, maybe €1k, which is a good bit larger than I’m used to playing with. Heh, and the only other time I’ve played live was in a $5nl game with some friends.

Today’s Christmas so no poker until Wednesday night at least – depending on how I feel I’ll probably play again Thursday night. I think we’re heading back to Zaragoza on Friday, so what the heck, might as well take a shot 🙂