A 'What are the odds?' Edition...

I arrived Barcelona on a rainy day in June. I was traveling there to meet a dear friend that had moved to the city a year before from the little corner of Mexico he called home for a while and I still do. I was very much looking forward to seeing him and catching up and was overwhelmingly happy when I came out of customs to see he'd made the trek out to the airport to meet me. I don't even remember the bus ride into the center of town because the two of us were both just babbling. Well, it had been a year since we'd seen each other.

After I quickly checking in to my hotel, I was anxious to explore the city since this was my first time in Barcelona. We set out on foot when the rain started again. This wasn't just rain, this was...well, think Noah and the ark. What happened next was the definition of an incredibly serendipitous accident. We were looking for a place to take refuge. It was late afternoon and with sightseeing curtailed, no taxis within a mile radius and a strong desire for a cocktail the places we were walking past just weren't offering any kind of enticing reason to 'pull up a chair'. Then I spotted it. No signage so I wasn't sure but the look from the street, through the pouring rain, said 'this is the place'.

We shook off the rain and a waiter showed us to a table in a corner and told us we were a couple of hours early for food but the bar was open. Well, hallelujah and praise a deity! We explained that was ok as we had a ton of catching up to do and that we would probably be there 'a while'. Then we placed our drink order.

There were a few more drink orders placed before the kitchen opened which was fine with us. When we finally came up for air I took a good look around and then realized; I'm in a lobby bar! Seriously, it just happens it seems; what are the odds?

The waiter went on to point out that we were indeed in Bar Veraz in the lobby of EDITION. Told ya! Incredibly serendipitous accident! Not only a lobby bar but EDITIONs lobby bar...it turns out there are universal forces guiding me to cool hotels. Well, that and the fact that I could see bottles through the window from across the street. While this is sort of the epicenter of hotel reception/lobby/bar, it's informal yet somehow chic atmosphere offers amazing sharing options in addition to great dining menus. We took the waiter's suggestions and ordered a baked sweet potato with goat cheese and nuts OMG! thing and a pizza..oh, and another round plus desert. While we enjoyed the hell out of our cocktails the locally produced vermouth was pretty enticing as was the list of craft beers...but I forced myself to focus and stuck with my usual Grey Goose Cosmopolitan. Well, ok, several.

Before we knew it we came to figure out we'd spent three and a half hours here. The rain had finally let up and, even though it was dark, there were things to see. The experience was awesome here at Bar Veraz and the service was superb. What a great way to spend an evening. Rainy or otherwise.

Please leave a comment about your love of travel, your own travel experiences or your favorite boutique hotel (or any hotel, really)...I'd love to hear from you. And please, take a minute to check out the photo gallery on the home page...lot's of additional vantage points.