Barcelona
Barcelona,
Catalonia,
Spain and Canary Islands
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Continued where Paris left off...
2/16 9:40 am
Train ride went smoothly and I slept like a baby. They took our passports before bed but I didn't get a new stamp L. I think it is a European Union thing. From the train station I walked up to La Sagrada Familia which is under construction and has been for a long time. It was still pretty impressive but not impressive enough to walk around the perimeter. I'm gonna walk down to the Mediterranean here in a bit and just relax there until I can check in to the hostel. This breakfast place was pretty good. I ordered in broken Spanish. The orange juice was delicious! Fresh from the orange- I watched him squeeze it. The bacon was thick and extremely undercooked compared to what I was used to. I'm also not used to people being allowed to smoke inside but it must be alright here in Barcelona.
2/16 5:30 pm
The beach was pretty fun and there weren't many people there. Everyone was probably scared off by the old men in speedos. EWWW. I didn't sit near them for obvious reasons but when I did sit down somehow I got ton of sand on me. I was expecting some but we're talkin it was in my ear! Don't know how it got there but it was annoying. Walked down by the water without my shoes on and walked in the water for a little bit but it was pretty chilly.
From the beach I headed up to the hostel and was told that check in was at 2 and it was only noon. So I killed some time and came back.
2/17 11:00 am
Sorry for the abrupt ending but I will explain. So to continue, the rooms here are very nice. This is probably my favorite hostel so far. After checking in I walked down Las Ramblas until I hit the sea again. Walked past the statue of Christopher Columbus and to a huge mall that was on a dock. It was just the average mall so I walked around in it for maybe five minutes. Back on the pier I sat on the edge and looked out at the sea. I also noticed these huge fish swimming near the surface right in front of me. It was a little chilly and I had nothing else to do so back to the hostel to use the free internet. While I was doing my fantasy hockey the guy who sat down next to me asked if I spoke English. He said he'd noticed a lot of players on my team were Swedish as he was. We chatted for a bit and I tried to think of someone from Sweden who I knew...hmm all the hockey players are taken...Günther! At first he had to think about it and then he said it back and I knew he was on to something. He knew him alright! He said hold on and thought for a second. Then sang "Teeny weeny string bikini!" oh it was amazing. He said he was going to a soccer game soon and asked if I wanted to go too. I said sure and he said he had to call his girlfriend so I started writing. He was finished quickly so we were on our way.
Kind of a mystery getting to Olympic Stadium but we did it. Took the subway. Espanyol lost to Seville but the game was great. The game was pretty expensive as the ticket cost 35 euros and 13 euros for food and the subway. I'd definitely say it was worth it though. The Swedish guy, Karle, was a huge soccer fan so I felt like I was just tagging along but oh well. At the end of the game he decided that we should get some drinks and I didn't argue.
So we hit the bars near our hostel and yet again it was expensive. Watched Ronaldhino score on a penalty kick to put the hometown bar crowd into a frenzy. Another first happened as we were leaving one of the bars. Two black ladies asked us to pay for something that we definitely didn't want...yeah. Pretty shady. So we went into the next bar as quickly as possible and decided to stay there for a while. Stayed pretty late too, til 4:30. It's weird how everything here starts much later. As the night progressed I heard less and less English but Karle did thank me for being patient and letting him practice his English.
Woke up this morning at around 10 and listened to the Austrians talking. Didn't really bother me waking up that early but I'll probably need a nap later. Okay shower time!
2/17 9:00 pm
Today is the first day that has felt like a true vacation. I wasn't pressing to see things. I hung out at the hostel til about 12 then went exploring. I saw a big plaza but unfortunately it was under construction. It seems like a lot of things have been on this trip. Maybe they are prepping for the real tourist season. There were tons of pigeons in the plaza and they would land on people who were feeding them.
After the plaza I walked past some old church and castle thing. I got back to the hostel around 2 and watched 2 episodes of the office on my ipod. After that I took a 3 hour nap which was much needed.
Went to dinner around 7 in the Plaza Real which is really close to my hostel. I got the Fish and Chips. It was much different than the average fish and chips. For one, it wasn't breaded and still had scales on it. It was delicious but unfortunately there were quite a few little bones in it. I got gelato after dinner even though it was pretty cold outside. Strawberry, mmm.
Met the roomies a little better when everyone woke up. There are two Austrians, two ladies from London and a guy from Argentina. They're all very nice and stay pretty quiet. I'll probably turn in around 10 since I have a long day of train rides starting at 8:30 tomorrow morning.
2/18 12:10 pm
I was in the room at 10 but didn't get to sleep until 12ish. I stayed up talking with the roomies. Lots of Q&A. They all got a kick out of how I handled the prostitute situation and one of the ladies from London asked if it was a "Jollyboy." I told them I wasn't sure because I didn't get a good look at them.
It is a good thing I set the watch alarm this morning because evidently I turned off the alarm clock when it went off and went right back to sleep. Got up at 7:05 and still had plenty of time to shower and get out the door comfortably.
So far on the train I saw an old castle and some awesome views of the Mediterranean. The monitor at the station we are stopped at says we are 10 minutes late...hopefully we can make up some time because my next train leaves 20 minutes after we were supposed to have arrived. I don't want to deal with getting new tickets. Of course we would be late on my shortest layover.
2/18 5:34 pm
On my train that will be headed to Nice. I hope I got on the right one since there were two trains on the board headed to Nice. I think I got it right though. Luckily the train from Marseille to Montpellier was late too so I had no problem getting here.
Walked into town but in Marseille but only briefly. There were more bums here than I would have expected. Unfortunately I found a McDonald's coupon in the train station so I was forced to use it and of course I ordered too much food. How American of me! I guess it's okay since I didn't eat breakfast and lunch was at 3:30. Well it's 6:15 now and a railroad person just checked my ticket. Must be good. Oh and I think I hear a cat on this train...
