adios Barcelona

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This city definitely needs more time, but Italy is calling rather loudly. So loudly in fact that I´m skipping Stockholm even though I´ve already paid for airfare there and back. For some reason, accomodations are very difficult to find in Stockholm, and I will actually be paying about 1/3 of the cost to for 3 nights in Florence.

A couple days back I went on the free walking tour. We only had about 7 people, so it was almost like a private tour and very intimate. Tour guide was from Modesto, just traveling around picking up odd jobs here and there. Cool guy that showed us where to get cheap (but good paella, 3 euros), 1 eur beers, bag of churros for 1 eur. Good stuff. Met a couple of Australians, a couple of S. Africans, a chick from Chicago and a chick from London. We all hit it off and were laughing and joking the whole tour. After the tour we received a complimentary beer and all just sat around getting to know each other better. We all decided to do the cooking class later that night, so it was a whole day affair. I took a little siesta back at the hostel(because I´m old and I knew the sangria was gonna be flowing later on) and met up with them back at the Travel Bar. The paella itself wasn´t hands on, but we got to make our own sangria and tapas. Making our own sangria meant being able to control the amount of brandy! So our table was feeling pretty good after a couple of pitchers. After dinner and sangria we stumb... walked to a bar around the corner that boasted a menu of over 400 shots for 2eur each. The majority of what I saw were basically just a few liquers with a flammable liquor thrown on the counter and lit up for show. Of the x that I took, only 2 of them actually tasted like alcohol. The others were basically toothaches in a shot glass. A couple people took a few that were extremely over the top explicit - not taken out of a shot glass, etc. Talking late night, cable tv, or pay per view explicit. After we were all fully inebriated, we filtered out the door for a stumble down Las Ramblas. On the way, one of the Australians decided to try and hop on a scooter that was parked on the sidewalk. As soon as he sat down, a couple of Spanish military guards stormed out the gate and started yelling at us in Spanish. Quickly, sobering us up and not wanting to get thrown in jail, we kept it moving. A few of the folks were leaving the next day, so a couple of good byes.

The next day, I met up with one of the Aussies and one of the S. Africans, and one of their new hostel mates, also S. African to take the bus tour and see some of the Gaudi stuff. The Gaudi stuff is definitely worth seeing. Sagrada Familia is one of the most awesome things I´ve seen since coming to Europe. Unfortunately, according to the brochures, it won´t be done for another 50yrs or so. That means, Í´ll have to come back for my 80th birthday. At the suggestion of my hostel mates - I also went back to Sagrada after dark. It definitely was a different atmosphere at night. No more tourists, but still relatively well lit.

Last day, I decided to just wander Las Ramblas again. Popping out of the metro station, I saw Trobador - one of the restaurants Jen wrote about in her blog. I decided to check it out and quickly saw something on the menu I´ve never tried before! Bugs bunny died for my dinner! It does taste like chicken, but no skin - so I´m assuming it´s healthier. Anyways, off to Rome tomorrow morning, but first a morning in Girona. Thanks to ryanair for forcing me to fly out of an airport an hour from the city.

more pics later. the pc sucks here.

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Comments

[DZ]

Las Ramblas
Barcelona is definitely a party place. I liked just getting my drank on and people watching on Las Ramblas. Did you ever check out the beach? Lots of topless chicks. Not sure about this time of year though. Sagrada Familia was awesome too. Keep on walking.