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June 13th 2010

Published: June 13th 2010

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Cous Cous

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Plaza Real...from the perspective of our hostel.

Hey all.

So here's another update (hopefully a few of these will be coming out fairly soon)...this time on Barcelona.

Amit and I took the night train to Madrid where we were then going to get a connection to Barcelona. Well apparently the ticket booth guy thought we were doing the Madrid-Barcelona leg of the trip before the Lisbon-Barcelona leg because he reserved us seats for a train the day earlier. It was actually a blessing in disguise because it gave us time to sit in the train station and realize that we wanted more time for Barcelona. That's where we made the decision to skip Marseille (for now) and go right to Rome...via 22 hour ferry.

The first day, we pretty much spent the entire time going from ferry port to train station and back to determine how/when we were going to get out of Barcelona. The train to Milan, with our passes would cost 70 euros, but the ferry cost us around 7...so the decision was quite easy. We extended our stay in Barcelona (as I was saying) and we ended up spending 4 nights in Barcelona (and not 1 too many).

Our (first) hostel

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Las Ramblas

was located in Plaza Real, right off the main artery...Las Ramblas...so we were pumped. They had an awesome lounge (which was basically a bar) with cheap beer, so it was really easy to meet people and hang out. Free dinner and free entrance into a night club...what more could you ask for?? (well, actually, if you mention it...it would have been nice to have free unlimited internet, but who's asking?)

The next day we spent time wandering around Las Ramblas, the market attached to it, and the water front. Unfortunately the 'free' walking tour we planned on taking was no longer operating. So instead, we took a gondolla ride from the beach area of Barcelona across the waterfront/harbour. We got some really great views of the city. And by gondolla, I mean the things that take people up and down on the ski hills, not like the gondolla rides in Venice.

Our third day was action-packed. We started out looking at the famous (and still unfinished) church...Sangrada Famillia, then to their version of the Arc de Trimof, Parc de Ciutadella and the Picasso Museum. That night we took some amazing pictures at the National Palace and some of

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Las Ramblas market

the other sights we had already seen. The next day we stuck close to the water and did another boat tour as well as checked out the Aquarium. We also saw the Olympic Stadium from the 1992 summer olympics. Then finally on our last day, we hit the beach all day...a much deserved day of relaxation. After spending a few days in the city so close to the water and not touching it, it was nice to finally get a dip.

The weather was awesome, more sun that you could ask for...the only thing is the water was freezing...quite refreshing though!

Its hard to describe how awesome Barcelona is in words, so I hope the pictures I post do it justice. To this point Barcelona is my favourite tourist spot. The architecture we saw in Barcelona was levels above anything we'd seen in Spain thus far. Not to mention scheduled naps, beaches, waterfront, great food, and a lively night life.

Even though we lost our reservation fee for the one train to Barcelona, I'm quite glad we had to sit in the station for 2 hours. Extending our stay by 2+ nights was the best decision we've

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our first sighting of the beach

made so far. Kind of good that we miss Marseille, rather than another big name city. Hopefully I will be able to drop by there before meeting Dad/Braydon in Paris.

I hope everyone is doing well back home and the weather is staying in the high 20's. How's everyone's golf swings so far in the season??

Congratulations Blackhawks! Hope everyone is enjoying the world cup!

Cheers,

Jason

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