We made our reservation at La Villa for later at night, close to 10:00PM and were there, hungry, with bells on. Our dinner (Matt: Filete Mignon sobre Cama de Verduritas, Brianne & Karla: Filete de Salmon al Brandy con Dos Pinientas) was fabulous, a really great dining experience. Our waitress was very nice and patient with us as she tried to figure out what we were requesting (she didn’t speak a word of English) and they definitely kept us busy eating and drinking! Our waitress served us as much wine as we wanted, bringing out two bottles of a very nice local white wine (I wish I kept the label). I would definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for a nice dinner.

After we were finished dinner and chatting with each other, at about 11:35PM a different waiter (who spoke a bit of English) came to our table and requested that we go upstairs to their brand new “disco” (club type bar) that they had just opened that day. So we were whisked upstairs to check out their new establishment; which was very modern looking and had posh looking decor with nice velvet plush furniture. There was a problem though, we were the only ones there (besides the bar tender). We sat down on the nice furniture and listened to the music and sipped on our wine which be brought up from the restaurant. After about 10 minutes, the same waiter ushered in three outgoing larger black American women who you could tell also felt the awkwardness of having no one else in the club. Lastly, five minutes after that, the waiter came back with a group of six English speaking woman who I believe were from Holland. It was at this point that I realized two things: First) I was the only male in the establishment besides the bar tender and Secondly) The staff had successfully removed all of the English speaking people from the restaurant into the Disco upstairs.

I was at first a little offended as I felt somewhat segregated from the rest of the crowd, but I quickly realized that this was not likely their intent, they were just trying to get the English speaking crowd together so we could all understand each other and have a good time.

By the time that everyone got settled with drinks we all realized that it was in fact now 12:02AM and we had completely missed the count-down to New Years. Fortunately this didn’t dampen the occasion, as we awkwardly decided to do a ten second countdown anyways, then gather in a circle holding hands and sing Auld Lang Syne, which I did despite not knowing any of the words.

At about 1:30AM we ended the awkward encounter in the upstairs disco and headed back to our hotel, which was about a 30 minute walk away. As soon as we walked out onto La Rambla, we realized that the La Villa restaurant staff not only ushered us tourists upstairs to socialize together, but also to protect us from the madness outdoors. The streets and walking paths of La Rambla were completely coated with broken glass, and police in riot gear were stationed to hold the crowds back as clean up crews worked diligently to clean up the mess. We saw a small child get his picture taken with one of the officers, so we went up to the stern looking officer, who again was in full riot gear including a face shield and held up the camera… his stern look immediately turned into a huge smile and Brianne and Karla put their arms around him and got a fantastic picture (that I need to get a hold of as it’s on Brianne’s camera), then headed back to our hotel to call it a night.

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