6/13: Barcelona

good god I hope these dates are right. After we came back from the internet cafe yesterday we went walking around and had pita before we went to the Arc De Triomf here. We wandered by accident into this amazing park with a HUGE HUGE HUGE fountain. We took a lil catnap to the background of two flamenco dancers practicing near us. It was greeeeat. Then we went back, had bread with jamon y queso (ham and cheese) and gazpacho, where we saw an old man wading in the fountain in Placa Reial. He was collecting cans, but then the police accosted him, made him get out, lectured him, took away his cans, and gave him a ticket. He wasn´t very pleased. We went to bed pretty early that night, but it was good because we needed the break, and our bodies really appreciated the time to recuperate.


Today (Wednesday) we went to Parque Guell in the morning, which meant we took the metro, which was very pleasant and fast. The park was suppppppper crowded, but just like Adam said, The Turo de las Tres Creus was amazing. It is also amazing how fucking steep the street from the metro to Parque Guell is - it´s insane. they don´t warn the unsuspecting, unfit tourists about THAT shit! It´s weird how a city so beautiful on a micro level can be just as ugly and city-like as any other city when you see it on the macro level. I also noticed how teenagers, no matter what language they are speaking, are very very very annoying. The park itself was beautiful, and reminded Brett and I of Devil´s Slide in Idyllwild, and the mosaic parts were really crowded with people taking bad pictures, but very enjoyable to see.

After that we came back to the hostel for gazpacho, cheap wine, and fruit for lunch, then went to the beach for 3 or 4 hours, slept a bit, and managed through careful sunscreen application to once again avoid getting sunburnt. Had some beers on the beach, and some ice cream like the locals do, then went back to rest in our room for a while.

After that, had some amazing tapas at this random place-we had toast with smoked salmon, sour cream and caviar, plus mozarella and tomato, and oysters on the half shell and some great red wine. Now we´re drinking beers in the hostel, trying to make a big night of our last carefree night in Barcelona. Tomorrow we´ll have to go to bed pretty early, because we need to be at the other hostel by 7:45 for our bus ride to Valencia. It´s only a 20 minute walk or so, but we have things to do to be ready, like shower and pack back up and stuff the night before. It´s nice that this hostel has lockers to store one´s shit in and stuff, because the other´s don´t necessarily.