Karen writes: Lacking the party-hard gene

5k run this morning, didn’t think I was going to, too tired.  It's meant to be wind-down before the big run on Sunday, but I'm trying to figure out how to keep the legs run-ready, and get used to exercise in the heat, plus manage the practicalities of getting around a strange city without missing out on rest altogether.  I’ve had three runs since I got here, walked a LOT of km to and from the conference venue, and not done a lot of resting.  Ah well, as always, it will be interesting to see how things go on the day.  Perhaps chocolate croissants will be the magic antidote.

Rest.  Not happening.  I now realise that Barcelona is testing me and might finally have found me seriously wanting in the party-hard department.  Saturday night...concert 1 street over until 4am, revelers till daylight, Sunday night...ditto, just fewer revelers.  Monday night...more of the same.  Tuesday night, ahhh...it seems quiet.  Off to bed when I felt sleepy (ok folks, 8pm, still not acclimatised to timezone here but in my defence I’m ready for breakfast at 3am and I really haven’t had a lot of sleep since I left Auckland).  Cue ...another concert, this one classical!  This was nice, then the highlight of the night, 2am FIREWORKS. Wow, what an impressive display from Montuic Hill (a street over that-a-way).  Now here’s something for those with an interest in the physics of things, honeycombed through the apartments are these vertical tunnels, so for example I look out of one of my windows not into the outside world but into the window of another apartment almost in touching distance, this is inside the building. If I crane my neck and look up I can see a one meter patch of sky.  There is a really interesting reverberating effect in these tunnels in response to the aerial explosions.  So I inhaled the gunpowder smoke as it drifted across and listened with tired glee. Boom followed boom, with echo echo echo, all backed by the stirring sounds of classical music, and punctuated by car alarms going off all over the city. 

Someone must have been a busy beaver in the few hours of night left after it all finished, on my run on Monday I couldn’t resist exploring the closed road where the big stage was set up for the concerts, today the stage had gone, there was no sign of the celebrations, it was back to being a very busy road.  That makes this particular snap a little unique in my book.  You wouldn't stop in the middle of this road as it is now, its a roaring river of traffic, you certainly wouldn't zigzag back and forth and stop to take photos. It's one of things I love about running, you take the opportunities as you find them to end up in some unique places.