We got into Barcelona around 8 PM and decided that we had far too many lame nights and decided that we had to step it up for the last part of our trip and the first night of doing that was this night in Barcelona, the eve of Jeffs 26th Birthday. The first guy we met in our room was a Turkish guy who spoke broken English and whose name translated to Victory. He told us to call him Victor so naturally we called him Victory all night. When we asked him if there was any good places to eat he pointed us to the McDonalds across the street. We both laughed and said we wanted real food. His response, “I don’t understand, for breakfast McDonalds, for lunch McDonalds, for dinner McDonalds, late night eat McDonalds.” We then met our other roommate Ruby who was from Australia and was waiting for her friend Andrew to get back so they could go out. There was a large amount of alcohol on the table and they told us it was the rooms alcohol so we began to take shots of some very cheap liquor. Jeff also busted out our apple champagne we bought in Bayeux. When Andrew got back we found out he went to go get batteries for a shirt he bought that is an equalizer that lights up to the noises around it.
We headed out to the main street, La Ramblas, where it was flooded by bar promoters. One guy offered us free entry and a free shot and we decided to take him up on his offer. After “free” shot (free after we bought a drink) I bought Jeff a shot of Jose before we headed back out.
Taking our shot
Taking down Jose
We started to walk towards the beach. As we got closer to the beach the number of fireworks going off greatly increased, this was because June 23 is San Juan day in which they celebrate one of their patron saints by lighting off fireworks. We decided just to buy some booze and go chill at the beach. The liquor stores weren’t allowed to sell alcohol anymore since it was too late so what they would do was you would tell them what liquor you wanted reach behind the curtain and had it to you (in this case Andrew) and tell him to put it under his shirt and walk out as the other person would go to the counter (Jeff) and pay for “nothing”. After that shady transaction we continued towards the beech where we found a nice spot on top of the storage devices they used for the lounge chairs.
After sitting there for a while the little kids around us began to get a little more testy by throwing the fireworks closer and closer until one blew up right by me. I pointed at the kid and waged by finger, his response was to throw a firecracker at my face which I smacked away about a second before it blew up. Eventually we ended up befriending these kids as they let us lit off some fireworks and we help pull them on top of the shelter we were on. Well they must of got board because then they started throwing fireworks at other groups of people, people that could easy beat us to a pummel so we made them stop before we had to get into a fight caused by a little kid.
A pic of us on top of the shelter with the juveniles
So as we are sitting there one of us ends up saying muthafuka and one of the little kids who speak little to no English repeats. I tell him he shouldn’t say that word and in response he dances around me yelling muthafuka. He would stop for a couple of minutes until he would single one of us out again and continually call us muthafuka until he felt satisfied. The kids eventually headed off and we sat there and finished our liquor. When finished we headed back an realized how late it was when we could see light on the horizon. We ended up getting back around 6:30 am and by the time I was ready to go to bed the sun was well above the buildings and shining light in our room.
When we book our hostel in Barcelona originally we only had two nights, but after that mess up with the trains and losing a day in Paris we had to add a third. Well we didn’t realize that the hostel we stayed at had three locations and our booking for the other two nights was a good 20 minute walk from the one we were currently at and to top it off checkout was at 10 AM! 3 ½ hours after we went to bed. I set an alarm for quarter to 10 and then woke up Jeff so we could check out. We ended up waking up Ruby and Andrew in the process so we all went to McDonalds for breakfast. After that we headed towards our new hostel.
When we got there we decided to meet back up with Andrew and Ruby around 6 PM and then we went and checked in. As we were in the main lobby we started talking to these two brothers from Chicago name Scott and Steve. They were both heading to the beach and told us to meet up with them later. As we made our way to the room we were trying decide who got bottom bunk, but we would quickly realize it didn’t matter. The room was set up with beds on the ground floor, and then a loft built about 10 feet above them that had beds laying on the ground. The beds in the loft were separated by walls of plywood, but in some of them they managed to squeeze in two beds which we were fortunate enough to get. Jeffs bed was right next to the wall, mine right next to his, and next to mine about a 2 foot by 7 foot strip to put our stuff. After getting settled in Jeff and I headed towards La Ramblas to do a Rick Steves Walking Tour (which turned out to be pretty terrible) and then headed to the beach.
Highlight of the tour: A five story McDonalds next to a 3 story KFC
We couldn’t find Scott and Steve so we ended up just throwing down our towels at a random spot and soaked up some rays. Before we even had our shirts off Jeff was already accepting a 5 euro massage from one of the 50 Asian woman that wander the beach offering massages. After Jeff got his happy ending I headed out for a little swim in the ocean. It was a lot colder than I expected and when I came back Jeff was already passed out. I soon joined him within a matter of minutes.
We woke up about two hours later. Jeff never got around to putting sunscreen on his back and managed to get a pretty good burn and for some odd reason my trunks where hiked up a little bit pass the point that I applied sunscreen and were also pretty damn red. It was pretty much time to start heading back to meet up with Andrew and Ruby so we packed up and headed out. When we met them we decided to go grab some food at where else but the beach we just came from. We found this random spot crowded with locals where only a couple of the waiters spoke broken english in which you would order plates of the many types of see foods they had on display from 4 to 5 euro. We got four different plates all of which were amazing and all of which I forgot. I think they were fried dumplings, fried calamari, fried shrimp, and pasta salad with crab and shrimp in it.
We then headed back to the beach to catch some rays. It was pretty breezy so wasn’t too hot but didn’t stop Jeff and Ruby from swimming out to the break water in the very cold water. After they got back and dried off we parted our ways and we returned back to our hostel.
Back at the hostel we ran into Scott and Steve again who said they were going to the Sports Bar to watch the futball game. After we at our dinner we headed out to go join them. Walking down La Ramblas there were lots of people promoting pub crawls and when we met up them they told us they were planning on doing one of them. When we signed up they told us that flip flops and shorts weren’t a problem, but another person quickly came and told us that that wasn’t the case. Scott ended up talking to one of the workers (whose name was Kash) and said he would comp our taxi cab ride back to the hostel since there was another guy Ryan that had to change as well. Scott spoke a decent amount of Spanish and was able to tell the taxicab driver where to go. When we got to the hostel we already had a bill of 10 euros which was the max Kash said he would cover. Scott tells the cabbie to wait for us as we go change and by the time we changed and returned the cabbie was gone since he was illegally parked on a one way street waiting for us. We grabbed the next cab and got back in time for the crawl.
The pub was pretty laid back and it was easy to get more than one free shot with little effort. The one interesting thing that did happen was the last bar we went to was about a 40 minute walk! On the way there we were all talking and figured it would be around the next corner, it wasn’t until the night was over that we realized how far away we really were. I started feeling a little sick when we got there so wasn’t there too long so headed out a little earlier than Jeff. Jeff on the other hand had a more interesting walk home
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It was a night from a parallel world, like something you would see in a sci-fi flick. I kept making friends with Frnech people, and I like all of them! I met a guy from Lyon who I chatted with for a little, and when I found him in the club again he yelled, “Jeff!” from across the room and waved me over. I also met a group of French girls that Brandon and I cheeresed when we started the pub crawl with our first free shot. And then there were the 6 frenchies from our hostel I met on the way home.
I was at the last bar on our pub crawl and this is when I was certain the hands spin faster on the clocks in Barcelona. Before I knew it the time was 4:30am. So I was going to head back and two of the Frnech girls I met earlier were heading back to a street in town where they parked their car… that they were sleeping in. Cool girls. So I insisted I wouldn’t let them walk back alone and headed out on our 45min – 1 hour walk from the corner of the beach to the downtown of the city. On the way I ran into the new Frenchies from our hostel I had seen earlier. They were heading the wrong way so I asked if they were lost. They wanted to know if I could help. So there I was; leading 8 French people through the streets of Barcelona. I showed the two girls from the club the way to the street where their car was parked and left them with the two block walk because they insisted I walk the other group back to the hostel. It was probably a good idea, because they didn’t seem to be grasping the directions I was giving them. As I led them back to the hostel one of the particularly friendly guys in the group asked where I was from. When I said, “Detroit,” his reply was, “Your city… it is on fire, no?!” I just laughed and said yeah.
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Since I got back earlier than Jeff, I woke up earlier and decided to some sight seeing by going to the Picasso Museum. When I got back I woke Jeff up because it was about 1 PM and I was tired of waiting. After getting food we went back to the beach, naturally. After a couple hours there we headed back to the hostel, but not before stopping at the place we ate the day before. This time we got sardines soaked in vinegar, steamed clams with cheese, and a seafood pasta salad that had shrimp and squid in it. We got back a little before the Spain v Chile game. We met two girls, Karen and Alyssa, who were also looking for a place to go watch the game so we all headed out to the bar. It was pretty packed, but one of the benefits of going with girls is that they can ask people to make room and they generally do. We shared a table with 3 guys who were all from Barcelona. At first we didn’t really talk, but by the end of the game we were planning on where to go next.
I should mention that the bar we went to was in the basement with no ventilation so it was hot a smoky. It just made me uncomfortable, but Jeff said he was feeling pretty sick and rather than coming out with us he ended up going back to the hostel. I found out the next day he “lost his lunch” when he got back. We ended up going to some small bar where we ordered a large number of appatizers. Can’t really recall them too well, but they were types of toast with tomato paste and different types of fat and salty meat which was just what I wanted. We stayed there for a while, talking about which version of The Office is better, how ridiculous 30 Rock is, and naturally how much of a classic Seinfield is. It was weird hearing someone from another continent that has never been to the States quote Seinfield.
By the time we got back to the hostel it was about 2:30 AM. Jeff was asleep and the room was at a comfortable 85 degrees or so. I also forgot to mention earlier that another good selling point about our beds was that when the room was that hot, the climb up there involved just enough work to break out in a little bit of a sweat as you laid there and tried to go to sleep.
The next day we had our sleeper train at 9:30 PM to Granada and decided that we would finally have a full day of sight seeing. The first stop was Sagrada Familia (The “holy family” given I spelled it right) that was started by a man named Gaudi in the late 1800’s and isn’t expected to be done until 2050.
Each pillar is named after one member of the Holy Family, the Jesus tower which is suppose to be the biggest has yet to be started (no this is not a joke there will be a Jesus tower)
The statues where unique to say the least.
The place is huge, meant to be seen by people entering port even though the church is a good mile inland.
The next stop was Parc Guell. This was suppose to be a neighborhood for Barcelona’s upper class, but it failed to catch on. It did however make an awesome park. It was situated on top of a hill so it offered a great view of the city. The thing that wasn’t as great was there was no close metro stop so you had to walk up the hill in the blazing heat. Luckily the vendors at the top only tripled the price of water showing they really do care.
Entrance
The view. In the middle right you can see Sagrada Familia
The last stop was Parliament/Olympic Park. When we got to the square in front of Parliament there was a demonstrating going on. When we walked through, Jeff was handed some condoms, lube, and a zip lock bag of 3 smarties in it that we just assumed was a cover for ecstasy. As you might have guess it was a gay pride rally. When we got to parliament, there was a good amount of stairs to climb.
About ¾ of the way up there was two girls, probably in high school, asking us to sign a petition to install a wheel chair ramp for the disabled. At first we thought nothing of it, but when they showed me the petition I said no thanks as soon as I saw the donation box. Jeff on the other hand didn’t see that and began to sign it. After that was when he realized the donation portion. Being suckered in he gave a euro (don’t believe he did it because he felt morally obligated). After he caught up to me, we realized how ridiculous it was what they were saying and that the 2 or 3 signatures were very similar and both from the USA and the fact there was a road that came right up to Parliament on its side.
Behind parliament was Olympic Park, where a majority of the 1992 Olympic games took place.
The torch
We then headed back the way we came, half expecting to see those girls eating some ice cream on Jeffs dime, and got back to the hostel around 7:30 PM. Jeff made a quick detour to check out some apartments designed by Gaudi, and then we headed out about an hour later and got on our sleeper train to Granada.
When we originally booked the train we reserved a seat, but the guy booked us the wrong night. Earlier that day we noticed the mistake and when we went to get it corrected all the seats were gone, but were luckily able to get a bed. At first we were pumped to be able to have a bed and have nice a/c blasting on us. When we got there though, we were sharing a very cramped room with a guy that had a very unique odor. He was gone most of the time at the lounge luckily. Another guy joined the cabin a little later on but luckily didn’t bring an odor. When it came time to go to sleep, it felt nice to be able to lay down and actually feel like I need to use the sheet.
This was short lived however when Jeff woke me up at about 1 AM and I realized I was sweating profusely. Jeff said he could hardly breath it was so congested and the a/c stopped working. He left to go tell one of the conductors but couldn’t understand him. He ended up waking up another person in our room to talk to the conductor. He said the a/c was broke and they would send someone to fix it. Luckily about 5 minutes later the a/c turned on and about 10 minutes later the room probably got down to a comfortable 90 degrees or so and feel back to sleep because of either exhaustion or heat stroke.
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