Buses and Beaches

Our first full day in Barcelona was a mixure of good and bad. Yehuda wasnt feeling well. His stomach was hurting and he had a headache. We think it was a combination of tap water, last nights dinner, heat exhaustion and lack of sleep. So after breakie, he went back to the hotel to sleep and Mary, matt and I went out and about in the city.

In most cities, they have these hop on hop off bus tours, so we decided to do that here, since a lot of sights are spread out and we only really have one full day in the city. There are 3 different bus lines, so we took the one closest to our hotel and went around that loop, seeing sights like the university, a monestary, some nice buildings, the olympic stadium, the soccer stadium and lots of other places.

We then got off on the main sqaure and walked the famous gothic quarter, which included an amazing chuch was a garden in the middle. Mary wasnt dressed approprietly, so she had to buy a shawl for 1 euro! hahahah it was beautiful!, well not really, but it was funny enough. Then Yehuda after his morning nap met up with us. We continued walking the quarter whcih was really nice, then had lunch at a place recommended in the travel book. It was good, and we all tried the rabbit that Matt ordered. It was actually good!!! (Yes that is jessica saying that! hahah)

Yehuda, again not feeling well, went back to the hotel to get some sleep, and we continued on our bus tour, doing the second route. This route was longer and we saw lots of great things, including some great buildings designed by gaudi, the view from the hill, monuments and fountains and lots of buildings. The tour really gave us a good idea of the city. The day was mostly a bus day with some walking though, it was a nice balance.

Yehuda met up with us once again, and we walked up La Ramba, the main street, with shops and street vendors and weird people posing in strange costumes. It was sooooo busy there, we kept a good eye on our stuff.

We then came back for showers and went out to bar near by to watch the semi final game of the work cup, spain vs. Germany. It was a funny little bar and we had great seats, the last good table. It was an amazing game, with spain winning 1-0!! The peeople went crazy!! They are really good fans, clapping even when a shot is missed but saying like "good shot" or "good try". You would never see or hear that at a hockey game! hahah We had some drinks (with matt and mary having most of them - too funny) and some really good potatas bravas (potatoes with a spicy dip).

After the great game won by spain, we headed to a crepe place next door for a late dinner. My dessert crepe was caramalized bananas with chocolate sauce...sooo good!! (mary had the same but added coconut ice cream). We were happy campers!! Then back to the hotel for bed.

Today, (Thursday I think), We headed to the beach. We went to a beach outside of Barcelona in a city called Sitgas. It took about 30 mins to get there but a lot of confusion at the train station as of where to go. We made it though and the beach was beautiful. We rented some umbrellas to protect us from the sun, and sat on the beach and relaxed. The water was great. Cool and sandy with some nice size waves. Mary and matt left us early to head back into the city to do some other sites. Yehuda and I stayed a bit, had lunch then headed back around 6.

We needed to get our next train tickets for cordoba, so we went to line up. we got our number, which was 110 away from the number they were on, with only 4 ppl serving. The line was not moving, only changing numbers once every 5 mins! Not wanting to wait, and being a quick thinker, Yehuda asked if there was somewhere else we could go, and lucky for us, it was on the way back to the hotel. We hopped on the metro, got off at the right station, and saw that we only had ot wait about 5 mins!! We got all our tickets and then Yehuda and I headed back to the hotel by bus. On the bus, some guy tried to pick pocket a girl, she stopped him and yelled at him, then when he was getting off the bus, the girl kicked him! Yehuda saw it all, i did not, but he said it was funny and was proud of the girl for sticking up for herself!

We are now freshly showered, with sand and salt off of us and are going to dinner the two of us, since Mary and Matt are still downtown.

Tomorrow we are heading on a wine tour! It should be fun!!

Hope you are all doing ok with the heat, we are being very careful here, drinking lots and taking the shady side of the street!

Miss you all

(p.s. there is another new blog below)