Oh Barcelona...

Mollie

Well we have spent a couple days now in Barcelona and I´m pretty much loving it. The first morning we allowed ourselves to sleep in : ). Then we woke up and decided to walk around the town. We went to this shopping area called La Rumble. It is just a huge shopping place with lots of different stores. Naturally there were also all the street performers etc to keep us entertained as well.

Probably the most memorable part of the day was when we ran into this huuuge market. (Mom and Amy: it was about the size of the flea market we went to in Daytona). It was really neat and consisted of fruit, fruit juice drinks, nuts, meat, seafood, olives, etc. Amanda and I realized that we never realized how terrible olives smell when you have like 20 different kinds all together. And if you know how I feel about seafood you can imagine how I looked everytime we had to cross by another huuge seafood stand just covered with all the different weird things. Ick. There were full, complete fishes--eyes still in tact. It kind of started Amanda and I when we saw all these lobsters and other unidentifiable creatures still moving on the stands.

We also saw what I can only guess to be a cows head. Again, eyes still in contact. Don´t worry I got a picture. The fruit stands were definitely the funnest. Yes, funnest, not most fun. Side note: I really feel funnest should be a grammatically correct word, so I chose to use it like it is. Anyways, the fruit lay out was soo colorful and really organized. They also had 100 percent real fruit juice for only 1 euro 50. (Yes that is how they say it). Amanda and I shared a pineapple-strawberry juice. It was delicious! We also tried some dried fruit there (mostly b-c we had seen it throughout our whole trip and we always thought about trying some, so we just decided to each get a piece).

We then walked over to the beach and checked it out. It was quite large. Lots of people, but even more sand--so that was looking good for us for the next day.

That night we decided to hit up our first full fledged European night club. It was quite fun! The hostel organizes a bunch of people to get together and then take you there which is nice since otherwise you would really have no idea as to where it is. This club was located right on the beach which was kind of cool. The club closes here around 5 am...us being the Americans we are headed home around 3 30 and thought that was just fine! Lots of fun though.

The next morning we slept in, woke up, and got ready for the beach! We enjoyed the sun for awhile. Eric stayed for about 3 hours then decided he had had enough. he then went and did this little tram that takes you over top the city and has some cool views. Amanda and myself continued to be beach bums until about 5 pm.

That night we again decided to go on the hostel organied actvity. They took us to the Magic Fountain. In the words of the worker who described it to us, "when I saw it I felt like a kid again!" And let me tell you, it was quite amazing. Its just this huge fountain, with a giant castle looking building right behind it. They do a really neat light show as well as playing lots of differnet music. Some of the selection included:My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion made famous by Titantic, The song from Star Wars (daaaa, daaaa, da, da, da, daa, da etc.) , and much more. It was fuN! Then afterward we all went down to this bar or pub, I am unsure as to what the correct term is here.

It was huuuge. It kind of reminded me of a middle school cafeteria. But it was cool. Lots of pool tables and foosball. I bragged up my skills about the two (falsely) and then totally got called out on it when some Ohioans made me play with them. That was a humbling experience haha.

We have mets lots of different people throughout the trip. I spent the night hanging out with a bunch of French guys. They were really quite funny and all spoke pretty good English. Well all except one but I didn´t have the heart to tell him that. lol. We have also hung out with a guy from Chile a lot here. We love the accents...for some reason they can say like two words, and if an American had said it you wouldn´t even think twice, but for some reason when they say it its just hilarious. But as much as we love getting to know people from different countries whenever I hear someone speaking American English I get so excited to talk to them b-c you can just talk, and not have to think about the best way to say words or explain them. Also, it´s impossible to listen in on conversations over here--since I don´t speak the language. For those of you who really know me you know how much I enjoy doing this :)

Afterwards we came back to the hostel and A & E decided to call it a night but I decided that I needed to make up for my lameness in Florence on the 4th of July and decided to bum in the common area of the hostel with some of the people who had gone out plus the hostel worker. He was off duty, the hostel desk closes at 3 am. I love hearing everyones stories about what they are doing, and why they are traveling. It was fun.

Today we are heading to Sitges. It is about 30 minutes from Barcelona and is supposed to have a fabulous beach. Oh one thing I have forgotten to mention. At the beach there are lots of topless women. It´s not weird to them at all...but it is weird to us. We have seen a little bit of this throughout our trip but normally it is older women (women 50 plus). But here in Barcelona there was tons of it and it was generally the younger population (women 18 plus). Its funny bc you can tell who the tourists are by who has tops on. You can also tell who the tourists are that are pretending not to be by taking their tops off. It is pretty easy to identify them b-c yes even though they are following the local trend, they still have the tan lines that prove them otherwise.

So today (Saturday)= Sitges.

Tomorrow (Sunday) = train to Madrid, Prado Museum (only b-c its free for students that day ;) ), some shopping, last night dinner at the Oldest Restaurant in the World.

Next Day (Monday) = airplane ride back to the US. : ( yet : ) We have a 7 hour layover in New York so I think we are going to venture out into the city for a little bit b-c I have never been there!

We then fly into Chicago where we will be staying for a few days with mine and Amanda´s aunt! Then we will make the drive from Chicago to SD.

So theres our little itinerary.....see you all sooN!