The Rest of Spain

Hello All,
We leave Spain tomorrow so I figured an update was necessary. We spent three more days in Madrid with Sarah, Aurel, and Dobs mostly just cooking, drinking, and talking. The last day we were there Aurel suggested that we actually see some of the city. So we woke up at the leisurely hour of noon, had some breakfast, and finally got out of the house at 2pm. The great thing about Spain is that even if you don´t see daylight until mid afternoon, they still view it as having the whole rest of the day left. We went to a cafe for some sangria, tapas, and internet access. Then off to the train station to try to figure out eurail tickets. The process of reserving them is not as easy as it sounds and can take hours with the result of not getting on the train you wanted. I´m quickly learning to go with the flow and relax a little. My new motto...whatever it is, its not worth getting angry about. After that we went to La Reina Sofia, a museum that houses tons of Dali and Picasso stuff. It was really cool but we didn´t have long there so it was a little rushed. We also got to see a cool street performance in front of the museum. Thats one good thing about traveling in the summer, there are so many outdoor, free events!

One night Sarah, Aurel, Dobs, Devon, Chelsea, and I cooked dinner, by that I mean I cooked dinner and everyone ate it. We got sufficiently drunk and walked around Madrid to a gorgeous dessert place. I scarfed down a oreo sundae and we took lots of awesome photos.

Chelsea and I left Madrid early on Thursday morning. We ended up having to wait in the Madrid train station for 2 hours and then the Barcelona station for 2 hours. With a 3 hour train ride in between. The ride was pretty cool. The landscape is a lot of desert. I´m not sure what I expected to see riding through Spain but that was not it.

We finally reached our hostel in Barcelona, tired and very sweaty. The people at the hostel were all really cool though and they quickly boosted our spirits. The accomodations here are great with a kitchen and living room on each of the four floors. Chelsea and I decided to attend a hostel event that took us to a club on the seafront. We each drank a bottle of wine before we went out, thinking that we then wouldn´t spend money at the club. We were drunk but not too bad. Then the people we were hanging out with decided it would be a good idea to steal a bottle of whiskey from behind the bar. Needless to say, we left the club almost falling over. The taxi dropped us about a block from our apartment and it still took us 45 minutes walking to find the place. We walked in the wrong direction! On our walk we encountered an couple interesting characters. At one point, we were crossing the street and had to shuffle between a couple of cars. On the sidewalk stood a man, fully dressed, except for his man parts which were sitting, erect and waiting, in his hand. He proceeded to wag them at us so we quickly walked away. When he started to follow us, I used my hard earned street skills and turned around to confront him. I gave him my most intimidated stare and yelled ´NO!´as loud as I could. He freaked out and turning, running, in the other direction. Some serious awesome points for me. I felt like a million bucks. HAHA.

Today we woke us with massive hangovers. We managed to roll out of bed at noon and found that, after throwing up, walking was the only thing that made us feel ok. We walked La Sagrada Familia, Gaudis infamous Cathedral that has been under construction for over 100 years. I stayed outside because I´ve already seen it, and Chelsea went inside and to the top. I enjoyed some people watching in the park inside and had the gorgeous view of the cathedral in the background. We then got on the metro, not a nice experience while drunk, and made it to the beach. The beach in Barcelona is stunning. Really long and with beautiful sand and warm water. We collapsed in the sand, underneath an umbrella, and let the sound of the waves sooth our pounding heads. There were tons of people walking around the beach trying to sell things Chelsea was checking her facebook and read a message from Lisa Prior saying that we should seize every opportunity that arose. At that moment, an woman walked past offering back massages. What better opportunity than that! Haha. Two asian ladies gave us a 15 minute back massage for 5 euro. It worked out all the backpack kinks and only helped to relax us. It also killed the last of the hangover blues.

We hadn´t eaten all day and found a restaurant that was recommended by the lady at our hostel. She said it was a local joint and had the best paella in town. It was a little pricier than our budget but the food was delicious and we have leftovers to last at least another day.

Now we are back at the hostel, going to bed early so we can have an early departure to Montpellier tomorrow. I´m missing home a lot tonight. It probably because I´m fretting about money and consumed by pure exhaustion. All in all though, life is amazing. Chelsea and I were sitting on the beach wondering how our lives could be so great. How do we have opportunities like this and the means to seize them?? Its incredible. Cross your fingers that a good nights sleep gets rid of my sad mood. I miss you all like you wouldn´t beleive.

Hope you´re all having great days.
Ash