Thoughts on Barcelona

Well no update last night because we all went clubbing. I'll attempt to catch up. Then I want to reflect

Yesterday: Early train to Barcelona, Met some Aussie girls staying at our hostel on the train. Checked into hostel after getting lost, walked La Rumbla (miss spelled). As a side note La Rumbla is a crazy walking street. Probably the best walking street I've ever been on that still supports cars. Lots of shops, and streetperformers, very intresting. I've got pictures, I'll put them up later. Moving on we walked down to a newly redeveloped pier. I thought it was fantastic. Great artwork, and facilitated a public space where shops could flourish and people could hang out. After that we wandered towards the beach. That same Turkish guy that I thought about not helping also tipped me off to a tram/ ropeway ride (Rope way is Japanese, I thought it was called a gondola ride, but rope way makes more sense to me now.) It was a great view, and at the end of it we decided to hike up a hill and we found a castle. It was my first castle, good times.

That concluded the tourist part of the day. On the way back we found two guys from Okalohama and we showed them to our hostel. I saw them later in the night.

Then we met up with Lars' friend Matt, a different Matt than the one we already met, and went out to a Tapas dinner. Tapas was cool, lots of small snacks for only 1 euro. After that we went back to the bar in our hostel. It was a really cool place. We met three Germans and they were really chill so we went out with them to a bar called the Dow Jones. Prices of drinks fluctuated as the night went on, but everything was at least 5 euro so it was really just a rip off. Its was also very crowded, especially for a Wednesday night. After that the 3 Germans left us and it was just me, Lars, Jeff and Matt. We went took a cab to a club called Razmataz, but it was closed so we went to a beach club called Shoko (しょこ). It wasn't my scene. Lars and Jeff were determened to get the real European clubbing Experience so they stayed until the club closed at 3:30. I wasn't feeling the club, to loud, the people were all elitist and it just wasn't a fun place to hang out. I just hung out on the patio until they were ready to leave. I met some cool people, a group of guys from Israel and a group of guys from Michigan. The guys from Israel were cool to talk with for a different perspectice and the Michigan guy was really interested in tech entrepreneurship, we had a good conversation. We got back to the hostel at 4:30 and I had to get up at 8:30 for checkout. Not fun.

Today I woke up we went to our new hostel and needed to wait for checkin. To pass the time we went to the beach. I just about passed out on a nice Patio chair, but was woken up by a guy asking for 5 euro for the right to stay on the chair. Needless to say I went to the sand. There I did pass out. This was at about noon. Lars and Jeff wandered off and said they would be back in an hour. After 2 hours I got up and thought it was odd that they weren't back yet. Thats when Jeff jumped on me. It turns out that because I moved 5 feet and was sleeping with my face down in the sand Jeff and Lars had been looking for me for over an hour.

We went to the hostel after that :)

I was still grumpy and tired after we checked into the hostel so I just passed out until 7:00. I woke up and we went to our first real Gaudi building the Sagrada Familia. It was breathtaking blah blah blah. See pictures and thats the best you can do with out going yourself.

Now I'm back here and kind of tired of Barcelona. Some quick thoughts before I go on my rant.

I liked our first hostel better, more English.
-- This is where I got interrupted typing and went out clubbing again with random people (we only stayed out until 1:30 and I manly hung out with these two very nice Belgian girls)
This one is fine to though you just have to meet the right people.

Anyhow, for the nth time I've come to realize that parties aren't about location, but about who your with. I didn't like the nightlife last night be cause to be brutally honest Jeff and Lars don't have the same stance on partying that I do. I also disliked Barcelona today because all I've seen of this damn city is tourist stuff. It gets old when you realize people are just trying to take money away from you.

Tomorrow I think I'll see Gaudi and Pacaso and then go for a swim. That sounds like a much better day than today. Even though today ended well.