Day 16, 17 and 18: Barcelona, Spain

It's been a few days, hasn't it? The heat has made me lethargic plus I'm in Europe, give me a break! Plus, I've noticed you all have been quite silent yourself, eh? Mostly just KateDawg and Dad responding these days! My sister is missing in action, I hope she's ok! If you're ok, let me know!

So.. I left off on Wednesday night when we had our Eddie Murphy party. It was great fun, Julie and I made a huuuuge dinner. (Actually she made it and I "assisted"). We had a quiche, carrot-ginger soup (I'm so getting the recipe), brie with honey and almonds, and ice cream spanish style! Plus the cookies we had made before, mmm. Julie's friend Mel (who is originally from Aarkansas) came over, she's working as an au pair for a French family. Hearing all these different experience has really opened me up to the fact that it's so easy to just get up and settle down somewhere else, regardless of language, or family, or anything else. Mel used to be a pilates instructor and then she just decided she wanted to leave the country. How cool is that?

On Day 16 (Thursday) we headed over to La Sagrada Familia where we waded through the tourists and sat across the street to see the enormity of the building and ate our picnic lunch (I'm eating quite well here). The story behind La Sagrada is quite famous, it's a large church designed by Gaudi and he ended up spending most of his life working on it. There's supposed to be three sections with 4 towers each (to symbolize the 12 apostles) and in his lifetime, Gaudi only saw the first section completed. They just finished the second part and expect to have the 3rd part done within the next 10 years. The church is just MASSIVE. The We didn't go inside as it was really really crowded but I was satisfied just seeing it from the outside and having one of my regular talks with Julie about life. I find it amazing that she decided to come here without knowing the language or very many people just because she felt like it was something she needed to. It's really admirable and living in another country (or even just visiting) just opens everything up. I know I've said it a bunch of times but I cannot even wrap my head around the fact of how much traveling has taught me and it's only been 3 weeks!

We tend to stay up pretty late watching movies or stand up comedy while cooling down from the heat. I've felt incredibly comfortable here, like I'm at home except the setting it so much different! This settling down time came at a great point for me in the trip to recharge my batteries and I think by the time I leave, I will be amped to be where I am going.

It was a little bit cloudy but we decided we should still go hit up the beach since I wanted to see the water while I'm here. It wasn't too crowded and it seems like that area would be a lot of fun if you're into that meat market techno club scene (which, I am not). The water is really warm but the beach is terribly dirty. It made me long for my freezing ass Pacific Ocean and views from West Cliff. We had a beer on the beach which reminded me of Cabo before heading over to see Julie's friend Alex who works at a bar around there. I got to have traditional tapas and they were excellent. I also got to try this type of drink that's like beer and lemon juice/ade that was much lighter than regular beer. Mel met us down there and the three of us talked for what seemed like hours (it was almost 4 hours) before Julie and I realized that we missed the metro and would have to take the night bus home!

Friday we headed down to have a croissant at the bakery right below Julie's apartment and man, the bakeries are delicious here! And if you know me, you know I love my pastries. We headed up to Montjuic which is a huge park like Golden Gate Park. They have the Joan Miro museum, some botanical gardens and another medieval museum. The botanical gardens were fun because they'd have these random playgrounds that we'd go play around in. There was also no one around (though we tend to go out during "siesta.") and it just made me feel like I'd escaped city life for a moment.

I've never really contemplated living in a city before, they've just always seemed too busy and bustling for me. And especially living in Santa Cruz where life is pretty slow. If you'd asked me a year ago if I'd ever live in the city, I'd definitely say 'no way," but I've learned to appreciate the city life. It's just good to know of places you can go to "get away" when it gets to be too much. I don't think I could ever settle in one but I think it'd be interesting to at least try it out for a bit. Now which city is the question... (yeah right, you know it'll probably be San Francisco... but hey no use in giving up dreams of being abroad for a little bit!)

Julie took me to lunch at a place called Juicy Jones which reminded me a lot of Santa Cruz. The food was super healthy and I had my first real gazpacho which was so so so good. Plus a fresh mint lemonade which was refreshing since the weather has turned extremely humid and hot. My main was a tofu sandwich which I shared with Julie who shared her "menu of the day" dish with me (which was Indian food). I love spending time with someone who loves food as much as I do! I grabbed some postcards after that and you guys probably won't get them till after I get home since the mail is so slow here but it's the thought that counts!

We went shopping for a little bit and I got two shirts at H&M for 4 euro which is like 6 bucks! Yeah, buddy. I wasn't planning on shopping while I was here since I have to carry that shit but my clothes are starting to look a bit raggedy already from the frequent washing and wearing. C'est la vie. But we ended up staying there longer than we expected and missed the original time of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" so we just decided to catch a later one.

Ok this is a brief interlude from the trip but I have to say (don't hit me), I was a bit disappointed in the movie. Johnny Depp is amazing in it, I think it's wonderful how he can get into character that much. And I like the originality that Tim Burton always brings. BUT, I felt that the movie itself was really rushed and there was too little character development, particularly with Charlie. It's called CHARLIE and the chocolate factory for a reason. It seemed to be a bit of a hybrid of the original movie and the book. It was weird but not particularly in the way that I was expecting. I guess Johnny Depp was saying that he also felt that the movie was really rushed too (production company of course). I almost wished they didn't have songs rather than the ones they did have.. what happened Danny Elfman?? At least they used the original lyrics from the book though. Maybe "The Great Glass Elevator" will be better although that book is even TRIPPIER.

That night we watched some Eddie Izzard Julie had downloaded and I've never seen his stuff before, he's great! Check him out. There was also some Robin Williams that we watched and that man is CRAZY. Seriously, he never stops moving.

Crissy came into Bareclona yesterday so we made plans to meet at the hotel around 1:30pm. Julie came with me downtown and we went and met with Kurtis' parents who happened to be in Barcelona too! They had just taken a Mediterranian cruise with Barcelona as the final destination and are flying to Portugal to visit a friend there. Julie went to lunch and took them around town while I went to go find the other Americans.

After some turn arounds and uncertainty, I finally found the hotel and right when I walked in, Cris and her brother Casey had just arrived, how perfect! I haven't seen Cris all summer so it was lovely to be reunited. We got them settled in and caught up a bit. Turns our her friend Seena is also in Barcelona! How many people connected are going to show up in this city?? So cool.

The three of us went over to the Picasso museum which is small but I liked a lot of the stuff they did have. Picasso did this whole analyzation and interpretation of Velasquez' painting "Las Meninas" which I saw a lot of during Art History class so it was quite interesting. I don't know if I've ever seen a real Picasso before so it was rad to be surrounded by hundreds of them. Amazing.

We needed to meet up with Seena after that so we headed back to the hotel before going out again down La Rambla. I haven't really done the tourist thing the entire time I've been here (hey, I've got a local!) so it was a bit of a culture shock to have to deal with crowds and crowds of people! We stopped over at the Cathdral and got to see the inside. It's true what they say, "Once you've seen a cathedral in Europe, you've seen them all," although it can't be denied that they're all beautiful. Plus they were having some mass while we were there which I'm always fascinated by.

Luckily I called Julie after that as reservations for dinner with the Moyers ended up being at 8pm instead of 9pm. I said goodbye to the Solhs and headed over to Plaza Reil to the place Julie and I had been eyeing for days now. The Moyers arrived shortly after and we were seated inside which was nice because there was air conditioning. Air conditioning, bad for the environment but good for not passing out due to heat. The dinner was absolutely FABULOUS, very creative and artistic presentation. Amazing salads, great entrees (I had the fish tempura but Julie's duck breast was my favorite) and delicious desserts. My favorite part was the fact we kept exchanging plates and sharing our meals. Kurt's parents told us some fun stories and the conversation was animated and flowed well. They are such nice people and of course they insisted on paying. We also had dessert, I had this strawberry tiramasu but it wasn't really traditional. There was also La Crema Canela which I'm not too sure what it was good but it was good! And of course a mini Chocolate Lava cake with chocolate sauce. Yum.

We walked the Moyers back to the hotel and were so full that we decided to head back too. When it's this hot, it's hard to get motivated with wanting to go out and party. You feel gross, it's sweaty, and you're dehydrated. Not incredibly inducsive to drinking alcohol although I'm sure most of my friends would disagree ;) I was very satisfied letting myself digest while watching the rest of Eddie Izzard and Return to Oz (another trippy, weird movie but strangely entertaining).

Now it's Sunday and it's been a lazy day as most things are closed. Tomorrow morning at 8am, hopefully I will be on a train to Granada. It's my first experience with my Eurail so I am a bit nervous but hey, it'll work out someway, right? I've now realized that my Eural being $600 is actually a deal because a ticket from Barcelona to Sevilla is almost $200 alone. Damn. I'm meeting up and staying with the Solhs tonight which will be nice since I haven't seen Crissy all summer. And the next few days should be fun exploring Granada which Julie raves about. The only thing is that it is BROILING there right now but the humidity isn't as bad. Time to bust out the Tilley hat! And I have to practice for Italy which is miserable right now. Agua, agua, agua!

I'm sad to be leaving Julie! We've turned into such a pair the past few days. You know how there are those friends you just can't travel with because you're too different? Before I got to Barcelona, I hardly knew Julie but we meshed really well and I've had such a great time with her. Honestly, I don't think I could have had a better time and I got to do it local style! It was much different than my previous experiences but that's a good thing, gotta mix it up with a long trip like this. Speaking of long... so Tuesday officially hits 3 weeks. I can't believe I've been gone that long, that's almost a month! Ordinarily, I think I would've gotten homesick but since I've gotten to be with people and don't stay in one place longer than a week, I haven't noticed as much. In fact, I would definitely not be ready to come home if I had to tomorrow. There still so much to see and do! I'll be back in Barcelona for one more night before a full day's train ride to Nice where I am staying the night en route to Florence.

Haven't heard from many people lately, hope everything is going ok. Check your boxes for postcards and let me know if any of you get one, I'm curious how long it takes to travel there. A couple people won't get postcards till Italy (Katedawg and Laura) but I swear they are coming! <3 Happy travels!