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Published: July 17th 2006
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(august 7th to the 8th 2005) the train ride to barcelona was nice and quiet. had a little nap, and saw some of the mediterranean sea as we made our way. get into town at around 830 at night and we dont know where to go. our travel guide says that most hostels will be booked by noon in barcelona, so if you want one, get it before then--and there is a little surprise that we don't know about. we leave our bags in the locker, cause we ain't gonna walk with them, just a change of clothes in the back pack. get on the metro and head to the gothic neighborhood. we get lost, good lost, finding hostels that the book suggests, every single one of them booked for the night. get to see the city. very beautiful, even at night. walk to the ramblas, packed with people, and countless of objects we cant make out. we decide to stop for a beer at placa reial. see a hostel, ask for a price, they say 76 euro. we are like hell no, we're sure we can find something else. no no no no no.
walk around town some more, and
Barcelona
At the train station no other places, all full. wonder around, and get pretty far out of things. walk through parks, all full of people, ready to go to bed--we thought it was a barcelona thing. crowds, coming from every directions, just happy to be in barcelona with no night sleep. my brother and i just thought this was a regular night, and the travelguide was right, you do have to get a hostel before 12 in this town due to the tourists. not knowing what else to do, we head to the train station. closed, with about a 500 to a thousand people around it. a park next to it, full of people, ready to go to sleep. my brother has to piss, and we walk through the park to find him a nice hidden place. we see a woman pissing in the middle of the sidewalk showing everything as if no one is watching. my brother does the same, but not so open. we head back to the station and sit down with everyone else, to get some sleep.
the surprise, well, U2 was playing in town, and 80,000 fans came out of the stadium, with no place to sleep. it was
good. we ended up sleeping outside the train station, until they finally opened it up early morning, and got a seat, to nap some more.
we brush and wash up at station's bathroom, see the massive crowd at the stadium in the morning papers, and head out drowsy to see the town. get breakfast, see the empty street that was devilishly enchanting the night before (the ramblas), and the numerous architectural styles that you can see on the buildings, right on top of one another, and head towards the olympic village. nothing there, little boi takes a nap on the bench, while i look out into the sea covered by a very grey morning. he feels better, and we get the metro to see some of the famous landmarks. we find ourselves back to the gothic neighborhood, after seeing local things (the sagrada familia for example)and walking in some parks. we see the cathedral, and walk around the area, seeing beautiful women, now the sun has come out, with their pseudo-aviator sunglasses, grrr. we go back to the ramblas, now more crowded, see the market. they don't have posters up for nothing along the ramblas, because we see a poor
irish man get robbed 300 euro, and a fight break out. the game were you have to guess where the ball is in one of the three cups. wow, i still cant believe he felt fo it, and didnt even look up. the whole time they were setting him up, three of them, winning fifty here, ten here. every local telling the irish man don't play, don't play, but he wasnt listening. finally a big bet, the 300. he turns around, i was behind him a few steps, turns to his wife, and says, 'i got this'. i look at my brother and shake my head. still everyone saying don't do it, don't do it, but he wasnt listening. the ones in it, are egging him, i say uh uh, let's go, and we step back and look. poor guy chooses wrong, they clean up and head. but not before a local screams in their face, and starts pushing them, sayign this is not cool. one of the guys can care less, and slaps the poor man across the face, everyone else comes in and breaks it up, and the crooks run off. sad. i wished i could have helped,
but i wasn't going to get into trouble in a place i did not know the laws to the t.
we head north of the cathedral, and get drunk before our night train to nice. good place to get hammered. barcelona is a great place, and the only shame i had on the trip, because we were only there for a day. should have been there longer...
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