Spain, Part 1

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Welcome back to to my travel blog. It's been a while since I've written, so I think it's about time to let you know what I've been up to.

I think the last time I wrote, I was on my way to Spain. I started off in Barcelona, which is a fantastic place, and spent some quality time with my good friend Borja. I spent the first couple of days staying in a hostel, right on the beach and became a tourist for a change. It was the first time I really felt like a tourist, since leaving Edinburgh. Not that it's a particularly bad thing to feel like a tourist, just different. I went on a walking tour of the city centre, saw some nice buildings, learned some Catalan history from a South African, and met some lovely Slovenian girls. It was a good time, especially when I was able to finish the day off with a siesta and then a few hours lying on the beach, right outside my hostel. Day number 2 included the amazing Sagreda Familia church, designed by Antoni Gaudi. Construction was started in 1882, and is still be built! It's the most incredible church I've seen so far, so much different than anything else, but I guess that's Gaudi for you. He didn't go in for making typical looking buildings. I took many pictures from the outside, but decided I didn't want to wait in line and spend €12 to go in. Apparently it's equally as amazing inside, but I figure I have to come back sometime when it's finished, and I can go in then. My Barcelona sightseeing also included the 1992 Summer Olympic stadium and the surrounding Montjuic. The 1992 Olympics are the first ones I have any memories of, and the only one is the lighting of the torch because it was the best torch lighting ever. I intended on seeing more of the city, but alas, the weekend days were fairly quiet. After my sightseeing, once Borja was done work and his siesta, we hit the town.

Drinking in Barcelona is a lot of fun. I never made it to any clubs, and didn't make it to many pubs, except for some tapas. The real Barcelona drinking experience is walking around the streets, buying €1 Estrellas from sketchy Pakistani dudes with plastic bags full of beer. They can also get you other things as well, but Borja and I did just fine on the weekend sticking to the beers. Friday, Canada Day, we wandered over to a bar that had some cheap and fantastic food, and randomly ran into a lovely young Canadian couple. We had a few beers with them, and then we all headed off to another joint, where we had €3.50 mojitos. After a few of those, the Canadian couple headed home, and it was just los dos amigos again. While being accompanied by a few street beers, we randomly wandered into an empty pub where we proceeded to have more cheap beers, and a few shots and meet some Argentinians. We ended up partying until the wee hours of the morning and eventually decided to head home. As we were walking, some random drunk dude with a guitar tried to take my beer. Borja in his infinite wisdom decided to slap the guy in the face, that's right Borja slapped him. Needless to say the drunk dude didn't take too kindly to that and tried to attack Borja with his guitar. After some words between the two (they were Spanish or Catalan and I couldn't understand), a fight was brewing, so I had to get in between to keep Borja in one piece. We did eventually make it back in one piece, around 5 in the am. It had been an interesting night, to say the least. The only thing missing was Captain Canada.

Saturday was a pretty good night as well. It just so happened that there was a massive outdoor party all over Montjuic that night. There were stages set up all over the hill, 7 or 8 in total, with acts from the various summer music festivals. It was a good taste of Spanish music. I can't remember the names of the groups we saw but it was a little bit of everything. Some Spanish hip-hop, some incredible Spanish guitar, and a Catalan guy who had some good music, but seemed like a bit of a nut job. Nothing too crazy happened that night, but it was a good night.

Sunday, I decided to head down to Granada for a few days, and meet up with my new Slovenian friends, but that will be another tale for another time when I have wifi access.

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