Finishing Barca

I stayed in Barcelona for quite a while because a lot of the friends I have met on my travels were coming here this last week. I got to see a few people that I have become friends with, and also ran into a few people that I had barely met while in other cities. Barca must just be a huge tourist destination... which unfortunately is its down side. My first few nights I was staying in the really popular and touristic part of town pretty much on La Rambla street, which is the most famous street in Barcelona. You can not walk outside there at night without being asked to buy drugs, being potentially pickpocketed, or being mobbed by prostitutes. You learn to stay away from all Moroccans and all African girls because apparently all of them are seedy people that lack all morals. They come up to you and grab you and surround you looking for opportunities to steal from you, its really disturbing. The police are all very corrupt and dont do anything about whats going on there. I had a run in with the police but am ok. Thats all the details you need about that. They really take Barcelona down a notch, because without these particular characteristics it would be one of the best towns in the world.

I eventually moved away from the seedy area and to where more of the local stuff was, and it was a great decision. The beach was so close and I wasnt hasseled at all while I was there. The city is the most beautiful one I have visited on my travels. It is like walking through a museum. It has the best architecture and the best parks and fountains, it has some cool churches and museums, the weather was great and there are lots of palm trees. The city itself has about 3 miles of sandy beach which was nice to enjoy. One day I was lying on the sand and a girl ran over to me and pulled me off my towel. At first I was wondering what was going on and then she pointed to the sand, and there was a spider about 4 INCHES long climbing into my shoe, of course was shocked and everyone around me jumped up and started looking at the ground. Then some Indian guy came and killed it and threw it away. I dont know if it was poisonous or not but it was huge. The girl that got my attention brought her stuff over to where I was lying down and we bought some beers from the Indian guy (there are Indian guys everywhere carrying around 6 packs of beer selling them for 1 euro, you cant go more than 10 seconds without one of them walking by and hearing ¨cervesa, cold beer¨) and we enjoyed the rest of the day together, which is how I got sunburned.

I got to see my good friend Sean that I traveled through Eastern Europe with. He is going to Nice to work on a cherry farm for a few months, a job that I was offered as well. That would be a really cool experience. Sean went to the Barcelona game also but had a really good seat, and we were pretty pumped still so we were singing all the Barca songs together which was pretty funny. Baisically we were just up to our usual antics which you can learn about later.

I have not been eating that well in Barca for the most part. I had a day where I ate nothing but chinese food, and I also had my first burrito in a while. It was good but it doesnt compare to Albertacos cali burritos. I did however find one of the best things Ive eated on this trip. There is a place that I found that is only open for lunch and only open on the weekends. What they do is roast chickens on a rotisary(spelling?) thing and drench them in a marinade every so often while they roast. The chicken itself is amazing but what made the meal is this: The chicken juices drip down and form a bit of a pool on the bottom of the oven, which is heated. That juice burns off and sits there for a bit, and the guy roasting the chickens throws a ton of garlic into that juice on the bottom and then a bunch of cut up potatos on top of that and mixes it all together. So you have these amazing roasted garlic potato bits that are cooked in the juice that is dripping off the chicken. It really is delicious. The sangria in Barca was also good, but its really hard to not have good sangria. I am really craving sushi and a real burrito.

The beds in my last hostel were by far the worst. It was like sleeping on a wooden plank. They creeked a ton and the hostel doesnt provide blankets for free, so I was sleeping in all my clothes to keep warm instead of paying 5 euros or whatever for a blanket. Everything is so expensive that uses the Euro, its really sad, California is going to seem really cheap compared to most of the places Ive been.

The coffee in Spain sucks, but I think that it is because I am just coming from Italy where I had the best coffee ever and it was only a euro or less, where as in Spain I am getting worse coffee for about 3 euros.

I found an English speaking non denominational church in Barcelona for Easter, and afterwards I was invited to a wedding, which was cool. You are asked to stand up and introduce yourself if you are new there, and through that got to meet some good people. It was nice to have fellowship once again.

My last few days in Barcelona were spent with a group of 5 French people who were a lot of fun and I really enjoyed their company. Fortunately Im in Valencia now and I love it here. Ill make a post about Valencia tomorrow I suppose. I have 2 weeks left in Europa and that seems like nothing, the time really few by. Time to organize my thoughts and get back to reality. I think Im going to get back home, see my parents for a bit and then get down to San Diego. Take some tests to apply for grad school while looking for a job. I really like the idea of going back to school at this point though.

Adios ?¿?¿?

-Kyle