I’ve heard from many people that Brazilians love to be paid gringo dick.
But if that’s true, we’re not the only ones.
See the auê in Barcelona around Steven Spielberg, Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen, visiting this weekend for the “Boss” shows in the city, the first of his European tour.
Springsteen and the Obamas became friends during the 2008 presidential campaign. In 2021, they launched a podcast together called Renegades: Born in the USA.
They arrived in Barcelona last Thursday (27) in a private jet and were escorted by 20 local police vehicles.
After staying at the luxurious hotel La Florida, in the mountains of Tibidabo (average of a modest 1,000 euros per day for a weekend, or approximately R$ 5,000), they went down to the downtown for a late meal — something not so alien to Spanish night owls, who love to dine late, sometimes after 10pm, for example.
The chosen restaurant (“without prior reservation”, emphasizes the local press, drooling huevos at each step of the trio) was the aMar, do chef Rafa Zafra, from Seville, formerly of El Bulli y Heart Ibiza (founded by the brothers Adrià and Guy Laliberté, creator of Cirque du Soleil), opened in 2022 in the Catalan capital and specializes in seafood.
The celebrities arrived, as more than one newspaper put it, “with their ladies” (ugh) around midnight and tasted establishment classics such as the bikini (aka mixed-hot) with truffles and the brioche with butter and caviar.
Anchovies, scallop carpaccio and gambas de roses (Mediterranean red prawns — these, collected off the coast of Palamós, in Girona, and listed on the aMar menu at 17 euros the “XXL” unit).
There was also no shortage of wagyu meat, that super expensive Japanese cow (price per kilo of the most valued cuts: 200 to 300 euros, around R$ 2,000), which listens to classical music and is fed with organic delicacies, wine and beer (!), prepared in a Josper — a famous Catalan invention that joins a grill with an oven at high temperatures of 300 to 500 degrees Celsius.
During today (28), escorted by security guards, Spielberg and the Obamas greeted the onlookers, strolled through the Gothic quarter, visited the Picasso museum and Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia and ordered a Mas de La Rosa wine (average price: 350 euros, R$1,923) along with more prawns and macrobiotic salads for lunch on the Martínez terrace in Montjüic.
Instead of the exquisite gastronomic route, I would have liked to have seen a photo of them “zampando” (“tracing”) a good slap in angry and some choricitos a la cider in a bar in Raval, a popular neighborhood for immigrants and anyone else.
Maybe they wanted to and couldn’t. Who knows.
But who, like me, is a mere mortal lucky @ to be able to go to a bar from time to time without the frisson from a maddened crowd, you can treat yourself, for example, to a good tortilla of patatas at El Pollo, by Raval.
It is said to be the best in the city, and is famous for being the favorite of celebrities such as Rosalía from Barcelona. I don’t know if it’s the best, but it’s memorable. Average: 5 euros a portion. Happiness is priceless.
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#Tourism #Barcelona #Obama #Spielberg #Normalitas