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After an insane 24 hour marathon of travel we arrived in Barcelona yesterday safe and sound. We took an 830pm night train that was scheduled to arrive in Barcelona at 10am the next morning.....perfect! Unfortunately our train was delayed 15 minutes which made us miss our connecting train thus creating 24 hours of transferring, training inland, 4 hour lay overs at 5 in the morning....etc. It was quite the little ordeal but we ended up getting into Barcelona at 7pm last night. We found an awesome hostel right in the heart of the main drag. Barcelona is a very cool place....very vibrant and full of life, lots going on. We attempted to catch the 12pm train to Pamplona this morning but after RUNNING to the metro, running to the train station, we found out everything was sold out! Oh well, we wanted to be there for opening ceremonies but we signed up for the train tomorrow and are expected to arrive in Pamplona around 2pm tommorow.....exciting! This gave us a chance to explore Barcelona today so it worked out very well for us. Today we saw the Sugrat Familia (horrible spelling im sure) and the Gaudi park that is high on the hills over looking the city (recommended by Lauren!) which was fantastic...we had a great day. We just finished watching the Wimbledon finals at our hostel which coincided perfectly with happy hour here! Very good match...we really enjoyed it.
Im watching the timer tick down on my internet use (5 minutes to go) so I will wrap this quickly. We were in Nice for 3 days before Barcelona and had an amazing time! Went to Monaco the first day, saw the Casino and the harbour and the set up for the tour de France....very cool! The next day we hit the beach and drank wine on the harbour watching the sun set. We celebrated Canada day BIG TIME at our hostel......tattoos and stickers all over us. There were about 35 Canadians at our hostel, including a student I knew from Terry Fox who graduated!! (small world) We had an absolute blast! Nice was fantastic.....great hostel, great times!
Yikes 1 minute..... have to go! Pamplona tommorow! We are very excited. Ill update again soon.
Love and miss everyone. Take care
Kevin!
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Dad
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Yo Kev
Kev; " Opening Ceremonies" in Pamplona are dick all. They have opening ceremonies every day, when they parade to and from the bull ring. You have to go to a bull fight or two - it's an incredible cultural experience. Go to the bull ring a little early and buy tickets from a scalper. Shade ( sombre) is better but "sol" (sun is cheaper) They start at 5 P.M. or so, about four or five bullfights. The "Banos Publicos" are public showers that you can line up for. Pamplona is a very hot, inland city and one needs a shower occasionaly! Don't run with the bulls - witness it as closely as you can - it's incredibly dangerous and many a tourist has been gored or killed. The Spaniards see it as a machismo thing, with young teen aged boys proving themselves by running at an early age (15 or so) One thinks one can run with the bulls and just stay a respectable distance away and be fine - wrong! The streets are narrow and barricaded and the cops will not let you bail out if the going gets tough. A bull or bulls can stop at any time. fixate on you, and beat the piss out of you. These bulls have had needles stuck in their balls just to make them combative to humans. Imagine how combative you would be if you had had similar treatment. Pamplona is tough - crowded, hot, and drunken. There are ,however, no better United Nations parties anywhere that i went in Europe. Sing O Canada, talk to the Aussies, tell the Yanks you love them but their foreign policy is ridiculous and their medical system is even worse. I wish I was thirty years younger and could be there with you, Kev. Be careful -Spanish cops are not collaborative and there are fights to be avoided. Two to three days will be plenty for you in Pamplona. I made it five days once, but San Sebastian for me was a write off afterward because of fatigue lack of sleep. Cheers, Dad PS I seem to recall that we couldn't get a Pamplona train either - we had to go to Madrid first and then weasel our way over to Pamplona from there The bars are down the streets which spoke off the main city square ( where the parades start) Don't forget that PAmplona is Basque country and the basques don't really wholeheartedly love Spain - they would like to separate. If you start singing "Viva Espana" you might get dropped....