Day two we woke up after sleeping straight through until two. Been a while since that. It's the life style here though. If you wake up and get started you still get a full day if your making it to at least 3a.m., which most people are, or later. this was a waste of a day though. Not really because we were all in good company, walked the street got some coffee. Kind of neat to just live it where you are and not pack in any sights. We gave it a second attempt after resorting to everything to recover. It was poor but it was an attempt. At around one we went to a famous piaza with some bars and went into this place that oddly enough had an elaborate tabacco pipe collection. Played a little poor had a beer, then Sarah sarayha and I headed back. I gotta give it to page for going all night. In the morning the four of us got shoved into a three bed room, where we stayed, unknowingly the next two nights until Monday. It was perfect because it was cheaper with four paying the three bed price and we could just be a mess.
Saturday we got some business tended to. Needed to figure out a train out. Straight through might train was 70euro for a reservation and reservation needed. I am so lucky I decided to get a eurorail pass. Without it trains are like two to three hundred euro. Unreal. After that I whipped up a gourmet hostel lunch of assorted grilled cheese, communal bowl of beans, cauliflower dipped in mustard after tearing it right off the head. There might even have been some bag salad left. Living large. Three other girls are a lot to coordinate. I took off to see some of Gaudi's architecture and the famous Granada familia. This is still not finished. Gaudy is a revolutionary architect and his stuff is very trippy. Like the artist picaso and Miri he had a little help with his visionary work from the drink of the time, absinthe. The way this liquor was fermented was in old wooden barrels. The chemiacl in the wood this barrel was made out of would be soaked up by the alcohol and had the same effects as magic mushrooms. It all makes sense now. This is why the myth of it making you hallucinate is not true, but it is still extremely strong. The popular one of that time wS the green fairy. There is a very peculiar building in thr middle of a beautiful square, near the gothic quater, and also near some ancient roman walls and the entrance to the underground roman city that has a story of absinthe behind it. It is a very ugly building, intentionally set in the middle of the square by Franco s architects, to show how little the beauty of Barcelona meant to him. Ironically enough it is an office building and library of architects. On the front there is a picture that had been saved and presented to the builders to be placed on the front. One night while Picasso and some colleagues were enjoying there absinthe talking of art, the topic of Miro being the greatest artist of the modern era came up. Picasso was adamant that this was not the case and that he drew like an infant. He argued, give me ten minutes and I'll do a perfect mire. At it's completion the critics agreed it was. This was presented to Franco and he thought it brilliant to take the drawing of Picasso, in exile in Paris for his political views and being a communist, taking a piss on Miro, who was also in exile for being a nationalistic catalone, to show how little these two artists really meant to him,as after all they were just two old crazy absinthe addicted men. Later, after Franco's reign it was asked of Miro to do a crack on Picasso. So the random ugly building that is the library of architects has on it's front an picture done by Picasso to take a piss on Miro while hallucinating on absinthe and on the sides vice versa. Entertaining really. Hmm, maybe that it not really at all for you guys when I think about it. I though it was brilliant.
You should all google Gaudi s architecture it is incredible really. He has five buildings, that is more than any other architect in the world, on the protected unesco heritage list. it kind of reminds me of the huderwasserhausen in Vienna, except that Gaudi was designing this stuff in the 1920s. He died by wandering around and getting hit by a bus. He was so crazy looking and resembled a bum, that he was just dragged to the Sid elf the street. His work, the Granada Familia, was not a cathedral until recently. The pope, needless to say at the time did not want to grant this to a hallucinating old architect, and no joke this place looks like your going to church on acid. The pope just recently ordained it, or wetf they do. It was hugely protested. The Grenada familia s construction is entirely funded by visited fees, and now a portion of this has to go to the catholic church. Many citizens prefer to have it complete led and feel no satisfaction with it's affiliation with th catholic church. The popes visit was also protected, because it costs the city 86 million dollars to have him there. The city is in debt and the unemployment rate is soaring, so for the majority of people, not being a part of institutionalized religion, and the controversy with this specific pope in general, it was seen as not worth his coming. Finally the large gay and lesbian community here had a huge protest. This was really quite brilliant. Over fifty thousand homosexuals, and others, liked more than two kilometers of the street the pope was being taking down on the way to the Grenada familia, and as he was shuttled by looking miserable and old waving as usual all the homosexual couples started kissing. Down the whole over two mile stretch. This place is unreal.
After this I went back, where is still beat them on getting ready and we headed off to the Barcelona game! All along the streets on the way you can get beers and cans of Estrella, btw there are Jo open container laws anywhere here. It's absurd but great. The whole crew from the hostel marched down but Sarah srayha and I broke off tom get our seats. The game was good. Zero to zero, but Barcelona was clearly in possession of the ball the most. There was some intense shit that went down. Even a punch during the penalty kick. Super cool. Made it back through the crowd and called it a night. The game didn't even start until ten. Even when you don't go out you don't get home until two here. It is like Italy where restaurants don't even open until 7 or 8 sometimes because the night starts late.
The next day, after getting woken up by the hostel lady. All the hostel workers were cool, and they cut us so much slack letting us all squeeze in together. It was 11:30. We Ll slept through our alarms. I set off for a solo day. I wandered around after missing the first two walking tours, then caught one at 3. It was interesting, but certainly not that much walking. Got a little more info on Las Ramblas, the famous boulevard, which we were staying on. a lot of the other little tidbits of info I gave you. The patron saint of Barcelona Oralia, I think who at thirteen was tortured for proselytizing Christianity in 70 something ad. saw the gothic churches. Saw the Columbus statue at the end of the strip the next day. He was considered a hero by some but also was the one to introduce syphilis to Europe, the queen Isabella being one of the first to get it and then passing it on to Ferdinand . Scandalous. Colombia should have been the richest man in the world but after his discovery of the islands and the atrocities he committed there were reported Ferdinand, who already despised him, for his own reasons, probably his affair with Isabella, the contract was no longer honored. Colombia still died a very wealthy man, After first of course successfully driving two of the three tribes of Trinidad to extinction, and this was before spreading small pox to the America, raping, pillaging everything in sight and introducing syphilis to Europe with the help of his skeezy crew. What a glorious man, no wonder we all get school and work of for a day to celebrate that man that first starting driving the indigenous population to extinction. Hey but at least the Protestants had somewhere to go to practice there religion and Europeanempires got rich off the resources. Anywho
After that I waited with the girl hmisha from the tour and we walked around the wine expo that's e had seen. It was huge. Wine makers from all over. You paid 6 euro and got a glass and four tickets to get four different glasses of wine. It was the last day so we also got some tasty treats that they were trying to get rid of before closing up shop, and had to purchase some cheese of course. I stumbled back stadiums eight, and intended on meeting up with her again but after she requested me on Facebook I think I responded to late. It was alrig because it was my last day with Sarah Sarayha and now page. They are so sweet. They got me a patch when they were out of Barcelona, the same number as the jersey I got at the game. I almost dug through the garbage that had already been taken out when I lost my patches one afternoon haha. It was quite a dilemma. Joe, the sweet guy that Page might be living with saw them and found them for me. Hahaha. That night we met up with a couple more people, two friends Muhammad and Husan, two scotiah kids and Joe and his crew and after dinner went back out to the piazza. The music was sick. Like jazz tunes and salsa. Let's just say I grooved, and I mean grooved. I didn't even a get a drink the entire time. Joe rocked out with me. I was hooked once I got the steps down from the south American guys at the hostel. After four consistent hours of sweating out every drop of fluid I had, and an empty dance floor we walked home. No one else could make it quite as long. Sarayha ran into us on our walk back and we had onenlast wander through the streets of Barcelona. The next morning, the girl from the front desk, who was hammered the nightnbefore dancing around the hostel, we had that place bumpin, woke us up as promised. It was a drag getting upland cleaning after a past six bedtime again. I went to get lunch with sarayha while the other two slept, walked around the market, then took a walk down to water, finally during the day haha, while they all got ready. And then we said our goodbyes and set off. And here I am now. Finally in London waiting for the last bus to Cambridge whichnthen arrives there at 11pm. Four trains, a boat two busses, three countries and thirty hours later, thirty three when all said and done, I have arrived at my destination haha. It really does not seem that long when you don't really have an objective or anything important to rush off to. It was bitter sweet saying goodbye to the other girls. Nim sure I will see them again, just as I am now visiting Aleks again and Leanne and juls and zak. I'm so excited actually! Yaya. You probably won't be hearing too much from me. After this weekend I'm leaving for Amsterdam. I will try to Skype, but write about cambs and London on the way. Love you all!
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