Barcelona!

Our last day in Paris ended with a long night train to Barcelona. When I booked the train in Amsterdam, the guy told me it was luxury, and a hotel on wheels. That is not how I would describe the 12 hour train ride we took. The tiny room we had on board was nice because it was private and had 4 beds, but by no means was it luxury. The accomondations were nice enough to sleep and most of us did during the train ride.

We left at 8:30 pm and arrived at 8:30 am. Upon our arrival we booked our trains for the rest of the trip, and this is when we encountered some bad news, and canceled our night in Granada. We would have only been in Granada for less than 20 hours, while spending more than 10 hours on the train there. After making the decision to cancel our night in Granada, and book another in Lisbon, we took the metro to our new hostel which is where we will be for 3 nights in Barcelona. The yellow nest in Barcelona is a very nice hostel, but after the first night we realized that there are some issues, not with the hostel, but with another resident. There is an old guy sleeping in our room, I mean really old for a hostel, probably in his mid 60s. We believe he just stays at the hostel to talk to people, because he told us he has lived in Barcelona for 3 years. The worst part about him was the snoring. I had the luxury of sleeping right above him, and after he came to bed at around 4 am, he started to snore. Initially I thought there might be a lion sleeping on the bunk below me. Seriously he snores like a lion, unlike any snoring I have heard before. We all have to survive him for 2 more nights, so I will keep everyone updated on any more stories.

Other than the crazy old man in our hostel Barcelona is an amazing city. The metro is extremely efficient, clean, and most importantly air-conditioned. Definitely less crowded than Paris also. Our hostel is on the same metro line as the Sagrada Famalia, so we decided to visit the amazing unfinished church first. The church impressed everyone in our group, even in its unfinished state. I can only wonder how long it will take to be completed, and if it will look as Gaudi wanted. Becky´s friend from camp, Laura, a local here in Barcelona, met us at the church, and then gave us a great tour of the city. I asked to go see the Parc Guell, Gaudi´s park, so we hopped on the metro and Laura guided us there. I did not realize that the park is at the top of a hill/mountain in Barcelona. The climb would not have been bad if it was not 95 degrees outside. We took a couple breaks, and even with the extreme heat, the park was amazing. The view of Barcelona from the park is breathtaking. The park was also a great place for Laura to point out different parts of the city like the Olympic stadium and port, the Sagrada Famalia again, and more of Barcelona.

After making the climb up to the park we stopped for our first meal in Barcelona, some tapas guided by Laura. We are all in agreement that eating tapas style is a great idea because you get to sample everything, and we are going out for tapas as much as possible while in Spain. Laura then led us to Las Ramblas, close to the main square in Barcelona, a pedestrian only street lined with stores and vendors.
We had a great day with Laura and her friend Fabian showing us around Barcelona. It was really nice to not use a map at all, and just have someone who actually knows where they are going.

When we returned to the hostel we decided to go out for tapas again, except this time we just stayed near the hostel because we wanted to watch the Spain-Germany soccer game. The game was very entertaining to watch, and the city went crazy when Spain won. Fireworks, vuvuzuelas, horms honking and people yelling were just a couple of things going on after the game. Even with all this going on, it was not hard to fall asleep since we had been going all day long, but it was hard to sleep in the early morning with the lion underneath my bed.

Today we rode the train to a beach just a little outside of Barcelona recommended by Laura. On another blazing hot day being at the beach was perfect. The water was cool, and we had a relaxing day. Some highlights from the beach were the paddleboats with waterslides attached, and the swim apparal (or lack there of) of many Europeans. Luke and I would have fit in much more if we had brought our speedos from our 8 and under years.

Tomorrow we are back to touring the city with a couple more Gaudi buildings to see, and the Cathedral of Barcelona.

Thanks for reading! The comments are greatly appreciated. (feel free to give us road blocks or detours)