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Published: June 11th 2010
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Geese
in La Seu After I wrote my last entry I sent out a million more couchrequests, and the next morning I got up at 10 (after not falling asleep until 3 and then waking up for a while at about 5, so I don't wanna hear it, mom!) to find that one of my CouchRequests had been accepted! It's this hostel / villa run by two dutch guys, an american guy, and a british girl, and they also apparently accept both paying customers and CouchSurfers who get the same thing for free. This is their website - http://www.noworries-barcelona.com/ The villa is in a town of 7,000 people called Montmelo which is about a 40-minute train ride, which is way shorter than it seems. So, since checkout time at my other hostel was 11, I rushed to shower and get all my stuff together, paid (56 euros!), and headed straight for the train station. It only cost 1.60 to get here from Barcelona, which I thought was awesome.
After I got off at Montmelo, I called Paul (my host) and he came to pick me up. The villa here is awesome! There's a pool, tennis courts, and a menagerie (!), and it's on this
View
From the top of Parc Guell really nice hill with all these huge and awesome houses set back in the trees. There are a bunch of other people here coming and going (mostly couchsurfers), and I just spent yesterday hanging out in this town. An Arizonan named Felicia and I walked around the town - we went up the hill which was really nice and then went into the next town over, Monternes, which is surprisingly big. She wanted to find some kind of snack, and we went into this grocery store where I had to talk to the lady and determine the prices of various nuts, and as we were leaving she complemented me on my Spanish, so that was exciting! Then I came back and read my book and then there was a barbecue here with chicken, pork, and sausage! So then we all hung around the barbecue yesterday evening and then went to bed.
This morning I took the train into Barcelona and went to the Fundacio Antoni Tapies (the guy who did that falling bed sculpture), which was pretty cool, although kind of disappointingly small. Then I walked around for a long time, and then went into Barcelona's old cathedral, Le
Parc Guell
This really cool rooftop area with benches all around the perimeter Seu, which I thought had WAY too many people in it, so it just made it kind of sad and stressful. But there was a courtyard where they have apparently had swans there for hundreds of years, so that was cool. Then I went into the History of Barcelona Museum, which was really cool. The whole exhibit is under the museum, and it's all these old Roman ruins that were just sitting under the city. They did a really good job with it, but it's still not even comparable with Greece.
Then I took the metro up to Gaudi's Parc Guell, which was AMAZING! People had told me it was pretty cool, but I was definitely not prepared for how cool it really was. You climb up this relatively steep road to get to it, and then you go in, and there are some crazy-looking guardhouses, and then you climb some stairs and then some paths and then some more stairs, and every time when you think you're at the top part you notice this little set of stairs behind you and go up still more. So finally, after having thought I was at the top like 3 times,
The bench I was sitting on
Every part of that really long bench was unique and really intricate and cool! I got to what was really top, and the view was really great! The park is really well-designed and big, so even though there are probably a ton of people in there at the same time, since it's a big tourist attraction, it still feels really secluded. There are just a ton of little paths that go all around, so you could really spend all afternoon there!
After that I walked around the neighborhood right below the Park, which was really awesome! I think that there aren't really any museums or anything to bring tourists to that area, but there were all kinds of really cool and funky restaurants and stuff. I also saw this guy in a plaza playing guitar completely naked! I really wanted to take a picture, but didn't really want to look like a tourist or a pervert. I had dinner at this weird Egyptian-looking place, where, halfway through my meal they turned off the lights and this lady came out and did a belly-dancing routine! Then I walked a lot more and then got on the train and came back here and started typing this. And about 10 minutes ago everybody came in singing happy birthday to me and gave me a cupcake with a match in it! Happy Birthday to Me!
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Baddaddy
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Excellent Trekking Ulrich
Hi Nate, Thanks for the update. Keep the info flowing and the pictures also. Happy Birthday and what you might need is a small motorbike for riding around. Can I come over and bring my GT750? Keep it safe andwe all love you. Regards, Baddaddy