A lot of roads run to it and through it

We took a little drive yesterday. We were trying to go buy a computer monitor and some odds and ends for the new apartment in Barcelona. We went via Mount Tibidabo. This is when our new friends here die laughing, because the fact is we were lost. Very pleasantly and interestingly so, but lost all the same. Let's put it this way...there was another Mount on the map and it was in the lower left of the map and that's where we thought we were. Actually we were in the upper right quadrant of the map.

After a conversation with a Spanish family on the street and a Mr. Toad style wild drive through nearly every bario in Barcelona we found a road that would lead us to where we needed to be. The Spanish family actually led us in their car across town, God bless them!

So for every surly store clerk who actually cannot help us and for every product we cannot buy because that is only on the shelf not actually for sale -- there are Spanish people on the other side of the coin who go out of the way to help us. It's a strange and interesting phenomena.

We made our purchases and made it home with no detours. The good and the bad of that is: we have our own place (the good), we don't have phone or dsl service (the bad). The good: we can unpack. The bad: no email or blogging for the next few weeks. I'll be able to check in briefly on Tuesday, but after that only the guardians of phone service in Spain can tell.