Barcelona in an nutshell

Hannah, Steve and my big night out on the town ended up in this cute bohemian neighborhood that we'd heard of called Gracia. We did dinner and drinks, mingled with the locals and hit up the rock and roll bar to play some darts. I convinced this guy to teach me Spanish pool, which just so happened to be the longest game EVER. Hannah was convinced that he was just letting me win in the beginning, until she realized that, no, he was just really bad. We ended the night trying to speak Spanish with a couple of people in the bar and generally just enjoying the laid back atmosphere of the area. We got some tips on beaches close by for the next day and called it a night sometime in the wee hours of the morning.





The following day was a rough start, but I ended up rallying the troops and getting us to the beach in Sitges, about 30 miles south of Barcelona, before 1pm. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, the sun was shining and the water was cool, but refreshing. I loved it! So far the Mediterranean has been more than I expected. It's clear waters and soothing waves have been a dream. We spent the entire afternoon lying in the sand and then made our way back into the city.







I have to say, the hardest part about traveling up until now has been leaving behind all of these amazing people I meet at each stop. In Florence I met loads of friends, in Cinque Terra I had the apartment with Kitty for two days, and in Barcelona, I've had not only Hannah and Steve, but I met a great couple of people in the hostel. You befriend these people and you hear about their lives and what they think and where they're from and they become a part of the experience each city brings....and then they are gone. I met Mike and Zahar in Barcelona and they became wonderful friends to drink, eat and just generally hang out with during my down time. I really enjoyed it and I was sad to leave that place.

On my last day, I wandered up to Parc Guell, this stunning park with beautiful view of the entire city and the sea. I slowly made my way through there and then decided to walk straight through the city to go meet Hannah and Steve for lunch. The walk over was perfect, with Ipod blaring and all, until I was standing at a cross walk and somehow a bumble bee came up and stung me on my stomach. It really friggin hurt! Luckily, I found a place to run into the bathroom to check it out, and shortly after, a cold beer bottle next to it made it feel just fine. It hasn't swollen too much. Just more of an itchy annoyance than anything. We had an absolutely delicious lunch and a few drinks while doing our last stroll up La Rambla, I introduced Hannah and Steve to my new friends in Barcelona, and then I headed off to the airport.



Nothing too bad about the sleeping in airports bit this time around. Except my flight from Barcelona up to Gatwick was through a thunderstorm. Apparently we have what is generally termed as a "normal misapproach" landing. During this, all of the landing gear is down, you can see the ground, and the pilot freaks out and aborts the entire landing, taking you straight back up into the air at an alarming rate...only to go back and try again. Yeah...for a person who hates flying, I was pretty terrified. Luckily the anti-anxiety meds had kicked in at the time and I was feeling alright. Apparently due to weather conditions in London, the pilot was attempting some sort of manual landing due to the fog...and he it took him two tries to figure it out. Probably the scariest flight ever...

After getting a few hours of sleep in the airport in England, I caught my flight down to Munich and Germany seems wonderful. Brad and Darin met me in the lobby of the hostel, and the 40 bed dorm is worse than it sounds. Luckily there was a screw up and now we are in 4 bed dorms above the chaos of the bar below...life is a lot better than it was 30 minutes ago. All of the girls and boys in Munich are wearing their Drindls and leiderhosen....and I just went out and got myself one for tomorrows festivities. I'm hoping to get some pictures to you guys before I leave Germany. Oktoberfest will definitely be an experience.