Saturday July 23 Barcelona , Spain

First let me tell you how sleeping on a night train when you travel really messes up your day of the week and month schedule. Since you go to sleep in one town and wake up in another…it is really difficult to remember which day it is. That is a small price to pay for a great benefit, I think.

One small story, Meredith who was traveling with us has a minor in Spanish. Like everyone else, if you don’t use it, you lose it. So she was a little slow but still able to comprehend what was going on. Before leaving the train station, we reserved tickets to go to Paris. Dylan, when talking to the ticket man was speaking nothing but English. He decided that he needed to throw a little spanish in there to compensate. So when asking for tickets he stated “ Yes sir, I would like TRES tickets” all while holding up his pinky, ring and middle finger signifing 3. It was another moment for the ages.

We stayed in a place near La Rambla called Hotel Colon. It was a Youth Hostel and we got a room with 5 beds. It was very tight. There was a double bed and three single beds. There was also a sink and a really crappy locker that didn’t have the proper clasp on it. We decided to skip showers since it was once again hot as hell…it was off to sightseeing. We walked for a long way down La Rambla…this was a median between both lanes of traffic. There were street vendors about 4 wide for miles down this street. It was actually really cool. We went to eat at a brewery and decided on a name for the last days of our trip. The “Tore de Liver” in honor of Lance and his impending win. We had some very good burgers and fries at this brewery, and were so hungery just happy to get anything at that point.

We headed to the Picasso Museum, which was not that impressive. Ol’ Picasso was a little more of a pervert than I previously thought. He had some interesting paintings…that is all I am going to say. After leaving the museum, we headed towards the Barcelona Basilican Cathedral. It was really nice. What can you say, I was with a bunch of Catholic Tallies…and they were into their churches. We walked through a really nice park. It had a huge fountain that was really cool. Then, there was a full size wolly mammoth beside it…I have no idea what that was about. Of couse it was a perfect photo op.

We headed back to the hotel and finally got cleaned up. The only people that probably knew we smelt bad were the Americans. Take from that comment what you will. We walked along the water to try and find a place to eat dinner. There was a small problem however the good restaurants do not open until 7:30. That is not cool when you are used to eating at American times. I had the Steamed Mussels for appetizer and a Cod for entrée. It was really good. I ate more fish and seafood on this trip than I have in a long time.

We then headed to small pub near our hotel. It was of course an Irish Pub, and I drank some Murphy’s Irish Red. It was outstanding. Lenny and I met 2 German Girls from Cologne named Mike and Katja. (Think Eurotrip) They of course knew country roads and we really fun to talk to. They took all 5 of us to another bar called the Forest. It was really like moving into one of those movies. There were realistic trees everywhere and they were low hanging. All the tables surrounded trees and it was really dark. It was a really cool place. Brain, Mere, and Dylan wanted to find another bar so they left. Since we didn’t want to leave anyone alone, I stayed with Lenny. After closing the bar, and trying to find another one we walked the girls to the cab stop and sent them on their way. Lenny was extremely disappointed, but those Host Families…you know. That ended our first day in Barcelona.