Barcelona

Hola,

I'm presently on a long day of travel from Barcelona to Pamplona, taking a couple buses (any way to save a few euro). Boy did I love Barcelona. We spent 4 nights in this amazing city and could have spent much more.

For me this was a city of beautiful sights. Beautiul beaches, beautiul architecture, and beautiful people. After all my travels I can consider it my expert opinion that Spain has the largest population of beautiful women in the world. Someday I hope to even talk to one :-P. The beaches were great and since this would be our only city with such an attaction, we made a point to spend a good amount of time there while we could. The first day was just a relaxing visit swimming and sunbathing and the second day we played some rummy with cards on our towels. Which we've been playing whenever we have down time and were keeping a running total going and the winner will finally be announced once we land in the US again. And after after the beautiful beaches and women, they have the architecure too.

This is the city of my favorite sight I've ever laid eyes upon. Nothing can compare to the monument that is Sangrada Familia. This is Gaudi's incomplete cathedral. Gaudi's apartments, which we saw first, were cool, different, very flowy and unqiue. But they did not hold a candle to what we saw after. This cathedral is the most unique structure I've seen to date. It reminds me of what we thought the future would be in the 40's-50's. It is the greatest mish mash of modernist art. Much of it planned out by Gaudi originally, is very centered around borrowing many facets from nature in it's architectural forms, as well as mathematical equations and shapes. I will post pictures later because my words can not describe it's beauty and forms, and those are even flawed in expressing it's grandeur. If u ever get to see this go for it. They've been workin on it since 1880's but were disrupted by the Spanish civil war which destroyed many original structures and models, but it's back in full swing and should be finished in 20 years. It's already massive and when it's finished the final structure will dwarf the present height. The highest tower will top out at 178 meters. It'll be the first thing you see when coming from see to Barcelona. I can't wait to see it then. We never got to see the Gaudi park, yet another reason to return. But we did make it to the Plaza Espana for a very large light and music fountain show. I'll post the pics and videos soon. Very unique in it's location and surroundings.

This was not a city of wonderful food for us. I know wonderful food does exist in the city, especially if you get off of the tourist streets, but we were not able to enjoy it this time. We've all recently taken a view at our bank accounts and decided we ate a lil too well in Italy. So we went to a large market and bought bread, meat and spreads to use for the week. Cheap and great for our backpacking needs. When we ate out we mostly had kebabs, which for those not blessed to have had a kebab, are basically the Turkish equivalent to a chipotle burito. They're quick, greasy, cheap, and delicious. Obviously no one in their right mind would have more than one a week, but you gotta do what ya gotta do. We ate at subway thinking it'd be a cheap, filling meal but like every other US fast food import it actually ended up being like 10 euro! So American fast food is not the way to go.

This city, above all, was a city of friends. The hostel we stayed in was called the Alternative Creative Youth Home. And in it's reviews it said it was supposed to be the quite hostel in Barcelona. Us and all our friends decided to challenge such a stereotype. We met some great great people while living there. Majority people living there were Australian (which by the way are always the majority of backpackers). One friend from Denmark, another was German and the others Canadian, and we all had a blast in our nights out. The 14-17 of us would find a bar and make their night with amount of people we'd bring in. It was quite a feat herding that many people around but if you were ever seperated you were to find the Steve Beacon in the distance (me). We usually ended up in the basement of this Irish Pub we all enjoyed. It was a lot of fun bashing nationalities and hearing some really diverse opinions on issues all of us have at this point in our lives. It was a shame to leave em behind but that's how this works in every city. This is definitely a turning point in the trip for me. I hope to reach out much more to the people in the hostels we'll be staying in. It makes for much better nights and better atmosphere.

So now I made it safely out of Barcelona (with a decent tan) and all my belongings (Barcelona is highly known for it's quality of pickpockets and thieves). And we've been traveling by bus since 930 and were supposed to get to Pamplona in 2.5 hrs (19:00). Right in time for the championship of the World Cup. SPAIN vs Holland. We were in Barcelona the night they won the semifinal match against Germany and the place went absolutely nuts. There were lots of people hangin off cars and scooters with horns blazing and flags waving. Very loud fireworks were bein thrown everywhere and people danced in the streets and fountains - all night. And funny thing is that they don't consider Barcelona to be too patriotic as many who live there wish Catalyuna to be a seperate conutry. So I can't wait to see how Pamplona lights up tonight if we're blessed to be here for a Spanish victory (knock on wood).

My Spanish is slowly comin back, although I really have forgotten a lot. But anything helps. Lookin forward to postin more photos and vids soon hopefully.

Ps - this hostel did laundry for 3,50 euro! Woot! Clean clothes again!

Adios
Esteban Diebez

Present Rummy Scores:
Aaron - 335
Steve - 300
Teddy - 345