Barça: part Monday - Wednesday

Monday: Anna and I woke up around 10:00am. I asked her what time it was and I completely thought that she said, 8:00am. Then, I proceeded to sleep until 11:00am. Anna did not seem too happy with me. Apparently, during the extra hour of sleep, I missed the depart of the other two Americans. Darn. Well, we went to the Museu de la Xocolata (Museum of Chocolate). The entry ticket was a bar of dark chocolate. DELICIOUS. They had a bunch of stuff on history of chocolate, how it's processed, and some very interesting chocolate sculptures. All the sculptures looked amazing. At the end, we decided to buy some odd chocolates, so I bought "ginger" and Anna bought "cheese and honey." Both are disgusting. After, we went to the Parc de la Ciutadella. It was a nice park: a lot of foliage and grassy areas, a huge lake, a zoo, some historical museums, a greenhouse, and a huge Gaudi monument that had fountains and a waterfall. It would be really nice in the summer. We went to the port after to eat lunch. We ended up at a restaurant called "Toc de Mar." It had a real nice "menu de dia." I had a calamari, a HUGE plate of arroz negro, dessert, and wine. The calamari was real nice. Arroz negro is a paella dish, cooked in squid ink. Anna had the salmon carpaccio and the seafood paella. WHAT A HUGE AND DELICIOUS LUNCH and all for 12 euros. Beautiful. After lunch, we explored the beaches of Barcelona. The weather wasn't the extremely nice, but the beaches looked real pretty. We ended the day by going to the mercat (market) on Las Ramblas and buying some bread, Spanish ham, and cheese. After such a huge lunch, we decided to go for a light dinner. Spanish ham is sooooo delicious, but it is quite expensive. I can see why people tell me that Spanish ham is the best in the world. That night, two Australians checked in: Maddy and Margot. They had just finished their tour of the US and are now doing their European adventure. Impressive. Maddy is an editor of children books and Margot is doing for Ph.D in creative writing. They are just real lovely people.

Tuesday: We went to the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia. It's this huge roman catholic cathedral that has been under construction since the 1880s. It looks amazing, but the interior is mostly unfinished. It was definitely not worth the 10 euro entrance fee. For those going to Barcelona, just look at it from the outside. The interior is not worth the 10 euros. After, we wandered around Barcelona. We accidentally ran across the Arc de Trimpf. Cool. Anna and I were feeling pretty tired that day, so we went back to the hostel and took a big nap. That night, we went for tapas with all the hostel people. Real fun! There were the Polish people, Margot and Maddy, Jimmy, and then, Alessia and Mirko joined us later. All the dishes were real good. At midnight, we sang Happy Birthday to the birthday girl, Margot, in Spanish, French, English, and Polish. She seemed to really enjoy it. We got back to the hostel around 2:00am. What a great dinner.

Wednesday: First thing, we went to the Miro museum on Montjuïc. I really enjoyed it. You should google Miro if you don't know anything about his works. His style is real simple, almost kid-like. We explored Montjuïc a bit more after and ended up at the Olympic stadium. After, we went for lunch in the center. That night, we went out for Margot's birthday. Insane time! Mirko cooked dinner, which consisted of rice and spanish chicken. Delicious. We finished quite a bit of cavas, which is Spanish sparkling wine. We went out to a bar around 11:00pm which had live music. Real good. I bought the birthday girl two shots of tequila. (To all, if it's your birthday, I will buy you a drink.) I drank quite a bit that night. Maybe a bit too much. It was so much fun and I had so much fun dancing. We got back around 3:00am. HORRIBLE DECISION. I had to wake up around 7:00am to catch the train.