Right. So since I last blogged I don't think too much has happened. It was Scott's 21st birthday, and I've had class and done lots of reading. I also had my first official fencing practice, which was neat. I had to put on the kit, which was really rather gross...like a marching band uniform except worse. And the mask smelled pretty bad.
But on to happier things, like Barcelona! We just got back a few hours ago and it was quite the trip. We couldn't seem to get anywhere without getting lost first. We arrived in Barcelona on Friday and set out exploring right away, well, after we stopped in at the hostel. On the way to the hostel, we passed through Las Ramblas, which is a huge market/street. Major tourist attraction. There were street performers and tons of people selling all sorts of miscellaneous things. Our hostel was right off the main street, in a tiny little alley that was kind of sketchy at night, but alright. The hostel was mediocre, cleaner than I expected, but still a bit gross. The beds were remarkably comfortable, and the six of us shared a room.
After stopping in there, we thought we knew where we were going, but ended up nowhere near where we were hoping. We saw the plaza with Cris Colon, which was impressive. It reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean since there were so many palm trees and similar architecture to Port Royal. Ironically enough, one of the areas was call Royale Port. We found a really old building, which we couldn't get into, and stopped in Corte Ingles (the Harrod's of Spain). On our way to see the gothic part of the city, it started pouring. As in monsooning, torrential downpour. Seems we brought traditional London weather with us. Needless to say, we were all thoroughly soaked despite our attempts at using umbrellas and stopping in a shop for shelter. The rain let up a little bit and we decided to go to the Olympic Village. Of course, we ended up in the complete wrong area, BUT...we found a beach! I, of course, took of my shoes and splashed around in the water for a bit. We walked along the piers and what did we find? A huge jungle gym climbing contraption! It was marvelous! I climbed up to the top, and the view was great. We started walking back toward the hostel, and Scott found a zip line in a park that was meant for kids, age 6-12. He jumped the fence and decided to take a ride. It was rather comical since he's so tall, and the park wasn't really designed for vertically gifted people. Since we can never head in a straight line, or even in the right direction, we found ourselves on Born, which was a nice street with loads of restaurants. We ate at Origens, which was delicious. I got tomato and potato sopa and a stuffed apple, which was interesting, but delicious. The apple part tasted like dessert, but the pork and veal were mildly spicy. After that we wandered into an exquisite cathedral, Santa Maria del Mar. Finally we headed back to the hostel to get ready to experience Spanish nightlife. We headed out around 11 and walked around the pier, ate some Ben and Jerry's (real authentic, I know), and sat by Cris Colon for a while. Everyone was pooped, and my feet were ready to go to bed. We got in around 2, but slept until 10.
Saturday was jam packed with sight seeing. We headed to Parc Guell first, and rode tons of escalators to get there. It was super high up, but had a great view of the city. We explored that for a bit and stopped in the Gaudi museo. The building itself reminded me of the candy house in Hansel and Gretel. From there, we took the metra to Sagrada Familia. It's impressive, but I think it looks like someone threw oatmeal all over it. The Stations of the Cross are on the outside of the cathedral and were really cool. Although we wanted to go in, the queue was really long, and we didn't have time to wait since we wanted to go to the Olympic Village, too. Lunch was at a tiny restaurant near Sagrada, and it was delicious. I had a Spanish Omelette Boqadillo and it was soooo good. Egg, potato, onion, cheese, and french bread. Estadio Olimpico was next up. To get there, we walked around a museum on Mont Juic, which was elegant, fabulous, beautiful. I think it's my favorite building thus far. Of course, it started raining again, but we didn't have far to go to get into the museo. The stadiums were there, we only got to see one, but it was still awesome. The museo had a basic history of sports, pictures from all the Summer Olympics, and of course, artifacts from the Barcelona 1992 Olympics. There was an interactive exhibit where you could run and jump against Carl Lewis, and you could test your vertical jump. It was a great museo, I loved looking at everything.
From there, we headed back to the hostel and napped for a good two hours. We went out for tapas around ten. It was the perfect way to end our trip. We had 24 different dishes, 12 cold and 12 hot. The fishy things were rather disgusting, but the chorizo/pork and potatoes were SO good. We walked around for a while afterwards and got some gelato, which was delicious as well. And sadly, that was the end of our trip. We caught the bus at 3.15 and got back home around 10.30. It was a grand time, definitely a change from London. Now I've got a nice little pile of reading waiting for me...so until another story of merit comes around, adios!
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