Ola!

So I did fall in love with France. I know I spent a lot of time in Paris, but the time I spent in Northern France was really amazing. I think part of it might of had to do with the fact that I really did that leg of my journey alone, mostly. I took my time and enjoyed the views, which were incredible. The pace there was great, and the french was so nice to listen to. I have discovered, and I am not sure if I already wrote this part (since I am keeping a blog, as well as a journal, i tend to forget what and where i wrote stuff) but the french here is easier to understand than back home. And I just met a guy from Montreal tonight in my hostel who is from Montreal and he even said it first. Here, they prounounce, or enunciate better. There is less of an accent i suppose. It's been great for learning.

I left France for a couple days - arriving in Barcelona at about 8:30am from that overnight train. In the info office of the train station there were about five of us looking at maps and reading our lonely planets, so we all decided to check out one hostel together, since three of them already had reservations there, coincidentally! So we were off to find the metro and the hostel, which turned out to be not so hard. I played leader, since it seems to be my natural role with large groups, and they said they were relieved not to have to think but just follow me. They had room for us, so four of us shared a room. Three of us, this couple who are from San Diego - Jen and Rick, and I, started walking around town. We had our trusty map, and after yet another baguette, yes I know!! but seriously, that is the easiest and cheapest thing to find anywhere in Europe! Even in Spain!! We came across the first Gaudi house a block away - so this Gaudi guy is an amazing architect who uses geometric designs in his work and lots of mosaic tiles. It is very different, I expected geometric to mean straight lines, like squares or trianlges, but instead, everything is very bulbous and rounded and unsymmetrical. But very colourful and pretty in it's own way. There was a huge line to get in and it cost over 16euros, so we kept walking. We saw a few more examples (a little hard to miss in Barcelona), until we finally reached the Sagrada Familia, or Sacred Family Church or Temple, or whatever you may call it - it was absolutley breathtaking. It's the largest thing I have seen, and to think that they began building it in like 1882 and it's not quite half finished!!! We paid and waited in line to go in this one, and it was jaw dropping. His pillars are meant to look like trees, the artwork on the facades was so - emotional. I love how he uses facial expressions, very defined jaw bones and muscle definitions, very expressive art. The stained glass of course, and just the use of windows and arches... there was so much to take in, we didn't say much, just walked around and around. After we went to the Park Guell, which is another Gaudi artform. We climbed to the top to see the three cross monument and had an amazing view of the city itself, built in a valley surrounded by "mountains" and the sea. (I put mountains in quotes there only because i come from the Rockies, and so these were really hills to me... but technically, they are mountains!)

We did so much walking, we took the metro back. However, we did stop for a snack outside the park. We found a tapas place, had a sangria (which burned a little, but the pomegranite seeds made it worth while!) and then we ordered a few things we assumed we knew what it was - pollo - chicken, for example. Plus, Jen spoke a little spanish so she was our translater. They were delicious. Oh yah, and then we had our own version of dessert tapas - we got two pieces of cake from a bakery down the street and passed them back and forth while we walked to the metro.

That night we went down to the La Rambla, which we kept calling Las Ramblas, not just because it sounds cooler that way, but we were insistant that we saw it with the s's in our books. We were a little disapointed. It's a massive street with a huge boulevard down the middle, and many many fancy shops and restaurants. There were markets down the middle, with a few buskers, but it was busy and not what we expected. We found a place to have dinner - see, when you travel with people, eating becomes a social thing and you do it way more often. Plus I don't usually sit to eat, i grab something and walk with it, so this was different. We got a dinner for two at a nice place - tapas all around. This egg/potatoe quiche thing that they call tortilla here, meatballs, sausages, mashed potatoe balls (which were really good), and some other stuff. We were really exhausted and walked back to the hostel - but again, we made our dessert stop for some gellati ice cream...

The next morning, we thought of going to Montserrat, but decided to finish seeing the sites in town. We walked down our street, through some markets and then finally found the spain we were looking for - narrow streets, markets, shops, churches, colours!! We found the Picasso Musuem but the line went all the way down the street! Crazy. We found some beautiful churches and then down to the waterfront, back up into town via Las Ramblas (where we saw more of those human statues, and this crazy homeless lady whack her crazy homeless man friend in the head with a tin cup - you should have heard the sound, and then there was blood everywhere! The first thing we did was grab our purses close to our bodies from all the stories we heard about distractions and pickpockets...) We made it to the main park in town - Montjuric? (see, when you can't say the words, you remember less how to spell them!) Again, walking up and getting great views of the city, and this amazing museum at the top. We walked down along fountains that were not on, but imagined how beautiful it would be if they were. This is where the Olympics were held in 1992...

That night I let Jen and Rick go for dinner alone, as I wanted them to enjoy a nice night in spain together too (didn't want to be a tag along, though they insisted I was not). I went out and met my friend Todd, who I met in Paris at the hostel. We emailed back and forth and I found his flat and him, his flatmates and I went out to this nightclub on the beach (called Catwalk, I think). That was wicked fun. On our walk there, I was talking with one the girls, and there was a group ahead of us, and one behind. All of a sudden this guy comes out of no where from behind us and grabs her purse and then tries to pull it to the ground! Luckily she was holding onto the strap so he only managed to break the leather strap from the purse but wasn't fast enough to pull the whole thing away from her. amateur. No seriously, it was scary! both our reactions seemed sooooo slow - I totally thought if I ever saw that I would kick some butt, or at least yell or hit or something, but when it happens, you are so in shock you litterally just stand there and watch him run away with your mouth wide open like a dummy. Then we burst out laughing, but in a holy cow scared kind of way, and everyone was just as stunned as we were. So. Lesson learned. I hold my purse strap at all times, and wear my jacket over the straps when I can.

My final day in Barcelona - I spent over two hours at the stupid train station because I picked up number 310 from the ticket thingy so talk to a station agent, and they were at number 217. yep. made myself comfortable. It was good in a way because then I sat and read my guide and decided what I wanted to do in Italy. Finally. After I - oh wait, it gets better. So I see number 308 come up on the screen so I pack up my purse, and when I look up again it says 314 - oh yes, I missed my number!! I ran up to the front, saw a girl with 315 and showed her mine, and convinced her to let me go up with her and she could go first!!! The agent was reluctant at first, but I think I would thrown a fit and cried if he made me take another number, so he helped me - I was just making a reservation for my overnight train to Nice, France. It took all of two minutes to do. Grr.

So I walked back to that Park Montjuric, to the spanish villages and did a walking tour there. Covered all architectural styles in Spain. bought some cute earrings. Walked back and ran into jen and rick at the hostel. We were on the same overnight train so we went to the train station and had some dinner there.

We had a train to Cerbere first, in France then transferred after waiting two hours in this ghetto train station with about fifty other backpackers. This next over night train was not quite as posh as my last one, but it sufficed. I slept well, and woke up in Cannes!

Ok, you can go back to whatever you were doing now. I am realizing these entries are ridiculously long, but hey, they are as much for me to read later as they are for you, so indulge me! Plus I realized, while making a calendar of events while on the train, that I am actually gone for seven weeks, not six, so I still have lots of time left! this is crazy.