Recovery and exploration

the crew
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Since I have been used to waking up at 0700 or 0800 recently, waking up at 1300 from yesterday´s party felt odd but we all definitely needed it.  We had an amazing 4-course breakfast which was really just a large lunch.  Before eating, I had three cups of fresh-squeezed orange juice.  They have a juicer that leaves no orange undone.  The juice tasted so refreshing and sweet.  Lunch was a salad, some fried eggplant, salted tomatoes, olives, esparagus, and some more homemade bread.  Then the main course included some cod in a lasagna-type setting and Pere´s mom somehow stuffed pork and other meats into a chicken and roasted the entire thing.  That was great!  Desert was some cheesecake she had made.  It was topped with fresh strawberries.  Finally, I had a couple of chocolate eggs to celebrate Easter.

with pere's friends in their favorite pub. It was kind of a activist pub...down with fascism, free Catalonia, etc.
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We set out, by car, to the beach in San Sebastian.  It wasnt overcrowded like youd expect a touristy beach to be.  I guessed this one was more local than those in central Barcelona.  Pere´s parents are both teachers and both very interested and knowledgable of their town´s history so we got a great guided tour from them and translated by Pere (they speak very little English).  We briefly stopped at the Palau Marycel (Palace of the Sea and Sky).  I noticed that the buildings were all built and painted in the same style as those on Aegina Island.  I was told that many Mediterannean coasts have the white buildings with blue accents to represent the sea and sky.  These were unique though because a painted blue line ran along the bottom of the buildings where it met the sidewalks...supposedly it represents the buildings floating on water.  We had some ice cream in a gelato place on the shore.

look at this amazing desert! It was a cake with fresh strawberries.
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I´ve come to really enjoy ice cream in a cone.  I guess I never liked the ones from Foodland and stuff because they always had soggy cones.  But these were obviously fresh and so crispy that it can hit the spot!  We walked through the small streets in the town and learned that each street competes annually in a decoration contest.  They are only allowed to use floral decorations.  The street with the best decorations receives a ceramic tile that they can proudly place on their walls.  We didnt see any examples but Peres parents told us that the entire street: walls, sidewalks, signs, etc. are covered in floral petals.  They try to make designs with the various colors too!

The dinner table was my favorite place in Barcelona
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It was great walking around with Pere´s parents because they were so excited to share the history of the area with us!

We got lost trying to find the car and got more history.  On the way back, we stopped at a lake that was overlooked by a small castle.  All of us tried to skip rocks across the lake´s surface.  I found the rock and was able to get five or six skips!  The road along the lake was windy and many motorcycles were going up and down repeatedly in each direction, I was so jealous!

We stopped at the castle, which was called Castelleta (little castle).  It was humorously redundant because the title plaque on the castle read Castella de Castelleta.  It is privately owned and not open to visitors but we were able to see an amazing Catalonian sunset.

Came back home and had left overs for dinner.  They had a leg of smoked pork and Pere cut thin slices that were very yummy.  Pere´s dad also did a neat thing with the baguette bread.  He cut fresh tomatoes and simply rubbed them all along the exposed bread halves and sprinkled a little olive oil on top.  It ended up tasting like sun-dried tomatoes on bread!  As always, the meal was amazing and we were stuffed.  Pere´s dad and I finished off the rest of the fresh strawberries and he was telling me that he loves to eat it with orange juice or honey.

I have noticed that a large majority of the meal is vegetarian in nature (not sure if she´s catering special because Cam is a vegetarian).  The meals are very healthy even though they use a lot of olive oil.  Water tastes just as good as in Hawaii.  I have also come to the conclusion that all moms are amazing cooks and each has one recipe that is arguably the best dish in the world for its class!  Pere´s moms is easily the cheesecake with strawberries.

Now that Im a content stuffed pig, I´ll sign off.  Cheers all!

Oh yeah, could somebody please tell Geeps and Geems "I have received your letter.  Thanks for writing!  Am healthy in Barcelona and will soon be finishing my trip in Italy!"