Ahh, Much Better

Finally, a real first day in Barcelona. The city looks surprisingly well, I am actually shocked at how quickly and well everything got cleaned up. Plus, I finally made some new friends! After I woke up, had breakfast, and got ready, my roommate was up. I had met an Australian couple the day before, but they were wandering on towards Octoberfest today so I didn’t really get to know them very well. But I had just met Ray, an Irishman, and he was very friendly so we got to chatting.

He actually was changing rooms that morning so we were no longer roommates, but I was very glad to have met him. After he got all situated I saw him in the common room, where he was talking to Melissa. We all didn’t have any real plans today so we decided to head towards the beach. I had actually really wanted to go to the beach, so I was pretty excited. We had a nice stroll though the city, which like I said looked pretty good after yesterday. We saw these weird tent-like things on top of a building, so we went to take a look. Turned out they were for reading, they just had a bunch of books inside, all in Spanish, so you could read in the shade. And the “tent” was just like a bunch of seat belts, it was kinda strange but very cool. I think they were on top of a museum so it did sorta make sense.

When we got to the beach it was nice and slow, and beautiful. We laid down for a bit to get nice and hot before jumping in the water. There were tons of people trying to sell you stuff while you’re laying down, massages, beers, mojitos, coconuts, empanadas. They did get rather annoying after a while. 

So it was time to jumpin, the water felt nice, I sunk in the sand which also felt nice. It was all going pretty great, until I took a picture of Melissa for her and she got stung by a jellyfish! Yea I didn’t realize they had jellyfish in Spain but they do. Then after he got her he was chasing me (not really, but floating in my direction) so I felt like I was in Jaws as I was running out of the water. We had heard you are supposed to pee on it, but we weren’t sure and didn’t want to jump right to it. So Ray kindly went to the restaurant nearby and asked, they said that pee actually is the best for the sting, but vinegar works well too and they gave us a cup. It actually did help, the stinging went down pretty quickly, but you could see where his tentacles got her and they left like a raised, red welt. It eventually went away the next day, but she had a nice battle wound to show off for the rest of the day. We decided not to get back in the water, even though everyone else wasn’t seeming to have a problem. We just laid out and dried until it was time to find lunch.

We wandered back in and stumbled onto a place called the Drunken Duck, and that seemed appropriate. So we grabbed a beer and some food. I tried a tapa, but they had sandwiches. I didn’t know what tapas were, but I always want to try local foods. I thought it was like a way of preparing food, but I found out it just means small dish, but I did try a small Spanish potato omelet, so I guess my purpose was served.

After lunch, Ray went back but Melissa and I went to the Picasso museum. It was pretty cool, I got to see a different part of the city on the way. I don’t know a whole lot about art, and before going to the museum I probably couldn’t have told you anything about Picasso, but we tagged along on a tour so I was able to learn a bit. I did begin to take pictures because I didn’t see a sign saying I couldn’t, but I was quickly corrected. The museum was really neat, it was mostly older paintings, his younger stuff, so I was able to see his style form. I didn’t know he was Spanish, or lived in Barcelona, or that he had just died in the 1970′s. But what was cool about this museum, was that he actually chose everything about it. He chose the location and I think the interior design, and all of the pieces were ones that he personally chose to go in that museum, they were all from his personal or family collection. The guide said that there are like four Picasso museums, but this was the only one that he had made decisions about.   

After the museum, we continued to wander around the city. We found the Barcelona cathedral, which was beautiful, but of course under construction. We were able to go inside and it was really gorgeous. Melissa asked me if I was sick of seeing churches yet, and I said no because they are all so different and magnificent in their own way. This one was no exception. But we decided it was time to head back toward the hostel to meet with others.

When I got back, a new roommate had just arrived, Matt from Oklahoma. I invited him to join us for dinner. We were also joined by these three from Switzerland, then there was Melissa, Ray, and myself. It was a good crowd. But of course I needed to have some good Spanish food. Melissa told me about paella, an authentic Spanish dish, so off we were. We didn’t have to go too far, everywhere has it, but we found a good Menu of the Day deal where we could get three courses. Unfortunately I didn’t like the first course, I love salad but their mixed salads come with tuna, and I don’t like canned tuna, but the paella was great! It’s basically just rice with a bunch of stuff mixed in, this one had a prawn, some chicken and mussels, so good! But I did have to tear apart the shrimp myself, it still had the head and scales on, but it was fine. Then for dessert, I ordered the wrong thing again! I love creme brûlée, but it is never actually called that on menus, so I don’t know to order it. But the three guys all ordered creme Catalonia, and were given creme brûlée, and I got vanilla ice cream, haha. Luckily Ray let me have some of his, but that is the second time I have done that.

After dinner we had a night on the town. We went to a bar, got a few bottles of red wine, until I guess we cleaned them out. It was a cool place, they played like 60′s funk music, but it was Spanish so that was refreshing. All of the songs sounded like I had heard them before but I hadn’t. But no one there was dancing, and we really started to feel the beat so we moseyed on. We tried a couple hopefuls but, the one we ended up going to closed shortly after we got there, but they did give us a free entrance card ti another place that was still going. And this was the club we were looking for. They had three rooms all playing different music, the big one with popular dance music, all familiar, and another with like underground rap, I didn’t know it but it sounded good and was easy to dance to. We were out until about 3:00am and I definitely danced my ass off! It was great, and I even got a complement on my moves, which I gladly took. It was a great end to a great day.