Normandy Beaches to Berlin

Wow, Europe is great it seems like a month has gone by in the last week or so. Before we jump into what we have been up to we would like to share some of the great advances we have made in our planning for the rest of our trip.

1. We were able to secure accomodations and transportation to see the first mainland european leg of the tour de france. We will be watching the finish of the leg in Gent, Belgium. We are very excited to get the chance to see such a great international event.

2. Aubree was able to make contact with her grandmother's cousin in Finland. It appears that we will be visiting them towards the end of July. It sounds like there is alot of extended family in the area. It will be a trek to get there though as they live near where finland and sweden connect at the top of the Gulf of Bothnia. Should be crazy being in the arctic circle.

3. We purchased tickets to fly from Cairo to Munich on September 22nd. This means we are pretty confident we will have enough time to cover most of Eastern Europe, Greece, Turkey and Egypt in August and September. We are pumped as we were not sure if our budget would hold out until then and it still might not be we are committed now! As of right now we are planning on flying to London after Oktoberfest (Sep. 27) and hanging out there for a couple days before we head home (Oct. 1st?)

So with the rest of our trip coming together here is what we have been up to lately.

On the 26th we took an early train from Paris to Caen, France in the Normandy region with the hopes of visiting the American Cemetery. We were promptly told by the bus company it was "not possible", luckily we have been traveling enough to know that when the French say "not possible" there are probably many ways to get there. We headed off to the tourist information office to find out where to rent a moped, bicycle, unicycle?? anything to accomplish what we had set out. They promptly told us "why don't you just take a bus" and they gave us a pamphlet with the information detailing how to get there. Hazen asked for two pamphlets to politely give one to the person at the bus company for her FILES. All the stress and walking was worth it as the place was breathtaking. The Cemetery grounds were immaculate and captured a beautiful view of Omaha beach. The Visitor's center was very well done and we left feeling very good about the respect the fallen were given. However, we were quite disappointed with the lack of information and ease of use for those wanting to reach the beaches without a car. I would hope in the future a efficient route will be installed to make this sight available to all those who need to see it.

We spent that night being all romantic at the eiffel tower. Hiked the stairs to the second level (669 stairs). What an amazing view! Plenty of pics, don't worry. Speaking of pics this internet cafe doesn't have a USB port so no pics this time.

The next day was spent traveling to Munich. We had another morning of dealing with stress travel situations and the French. Not going to get into it as we are trying to keep Hazen's blood pressure down.

Arrival in Munich was brilliant. Everywhere you go the smell of beer and brats wafts by and smacks you in the face. Pretty much the best smack in the face we have ever had. We were WAY overdue for some hearty meals. Aubree particularly enjoyed the giant pretzels. Spent some time with a crazy Swiss couple on holiday. They had been taking english lessons for five years and we were the first native english speaking people they ran into. Needless to say our voices were fairly hoarse from carrying out such a conversation in the middle of a huge beer hall. Also able to meet up with our friend, Katrina from Bellingham. So great to see a familiar face.

The next morning we headed to the Dachau concentration camp and you can imagine our feelings. It was a somber four hours touring the prisoners section of the camp. This was the first concentration camp of its kind opening in 1933 and operating for TWELVE years until its liberation. What an unbelievable time in history.

The next day was filled with a little more of a lighthearted affair. We took a train to Fussen which is in southern bavaria on the border of Austria. The most notorious king of Bavaria, "Mad" King Ludwig built an amazing castle here. This is the castel Walt Disney got his inspiration for the Disney castel. We actually chose to tour the nearby castle, Hohenschwangau, which is where Ludwig was raised. It was used as a summer retreat and hunting lodge. These guys had some cash back in the day. Fun visit. Somehow we snuck away from the tourist crowds and found a luge course sleeping at the bottom of some great mountains. We shared six rides and damn that was fun. Aub was quite the rebel whipping down the course at break-neck speeds. Lots of fun to watch. Took a long train ride back into Munich and had a last beer (of course before we come back in September)

This morning we were awakened by two of our "adult" hostel mates arguing over the bathroom. Would have been more entertaining if it wasn't six in the morning. Jumped a train to Berlin and arrived about 16:00. Great another metro to figure out. This one has been pretty confusing and expensive but a must as the city is not walkable. We are in a dodgy part of East Berlin (Yep, they still call it that). However we are just happy to have our own room for the first time in a week. Unfortunately Aub has come down with a nasty cold. By the time we got into town all the apothekes (pharmacy) were closed so no medicine tonight. Bummer. Had a good Sushi dinner to celebrate Hazen's birthday. We are just planning on stumbling around the town for the next couple days doing some of the usual and unusual sights. After we leave Berlin, we will have another 5 nights to scatter around Germany but not quite sure where yet. We will post some pics when we find a decent computer. Take care

Quickie

Guten tag,

We have been very busy and only have a couple minutes for this post. When we get to Berlin we will put up a decent one.

A couple days ago we visited the Normandy beaches. What a beautiful place. It was a great honor to pay our respects to some of the bravest people in American history.

Long train to Munich. This place is like heaven for us. The beer flows like the salmon of capistrano!!!!! We have been to a lot of beer halls and eaten our fare share of brats. Can't wait to get back here for Oktoberfest.

We took day trips to the Dachau Concentration camp and "Mad" king ludwigs castels in bavaria. Two amazing days. We are traveling to Berlin tomorrow. Talk to you all soon.

Catching Up

Castle in Toledo as the sun was setting. You may not be able to tell from this photo, but that is Mick Jagger in black, waving at the crowd. Closest we will ever be to the Stones.

Crowded beach in San Sebastian. This is what happens when the sun comes out after several days of clouds/rain.

Hazen's first attempt at surfing. He looks happy because he hasn't gotten in the water yet. Later he was disappointed that the topless girl in the background had her arms up.

Unfortunately we saw our first non-woman nudies. For some reason Aub picked a spot right next to them.

Cathedral in San Sebastian at night.

Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. We didn't go in, not into modern art.

Versailles Palace just outside of Paris. It was too big to fit all in one picture.

Notre Dame Cathedral. We didn't see the hunchback.

Found the hunchback, or maybe the gargoyle.

The Louvre. What a beautiful place.

Hazen's impersonation of the Eiffel Tower.
Getting artsy with the pictures. Had to try out the black/white.

We have been pretty busy lately. Since our last post we have been to Toledo, San Sebastian, and Bilbao in Spain and Paris, France.

Toledo was a nice little town close to Madrid. We went to a museum that housed several El Greco paintings. He is a great religious artist, painting in bright colors and elongating heavenly figures. We visited a couple different churches, one that had the tomb of the Count of Orgaz. El Greco was brought in to do a painting on the church wall to capture the events of the Count's death. It was a masterpiece that made this small church worth seeing.

Our next destination was San Sebastion, a small coastal town in norther Spain. We were especially excited for this stop on our trip since it was one of Hazen's dad's favorite spots when he visited Spain several years ago. Arriving in the area it was clear to see why. There was so much green! It was not like any other part of Spain we have seen. It was almost like being home. There were several beautiful beaches that we did get to enjoy for a short period of time while the sun was out. The beaches on one side of the river were for swimming and the beach on the other side was for surfing. Of course Hazen had to try it out. He "learned" to surf from watching the travel channel. Turns out he could have used a few more lessons. He decided to stay close to the beach since the guy at the rental shop said that the rip tide was bad and would take him out to sea in a hurry. That might have been his mistake since he was right at the place where all the waves were crashing. He took wave after wave in the face about every 10 seconds. He was completely exhausted and his head was throbbing after an hour and he rented the board for 2 hours. Took the rest of the day pretty easy. It was only a couple days later when the sun was out again that he thought he needed to try it again. He must have learned from his mistakes because it went much better and was even able to ride a couple waves.

We did a day trip from San Sebastian to Bilbao. We weren't there very long but did a nice walk around town. Tried to use a bathroom next to the Guggenheim but I think the bathroom used us. Hazen walked in to a blast of water in the face as the bathroom was cleaning itself off. Stupid high-tech toilets.

We took another night train that was from San Sebastian to Paris. This one turned out to be much better than the last, and we didn't even have to pay the higher price for first class. The seats actually leaned back and there was a foot rest that raised up. We got much better sleep than on the previous train. We could tell this by how tired we were the next day. We didn't feel the need for the 3 hour nap when we arrived as we did the last time.

Paris has been wonderful. What a beautiful city. We had been told by other travelers that it was very dirty and they didn't enjoy it much. Our expectations weren't very high which may be why they have been exceeded. The Eiffel Tower is HUGE! You can see it in the distance anywhere you go. Until you have to walk to it, you don't realize how far away it is. It takes forever to get there when it looks like it's right in front of you. The Notre Dame Cathedral had a very intersting exterior. The spire on the cathedral we learned was added much later and didn't seem to fit with the rest. Versailles was everything we imagined, plus way too many tourists. We originally planned to go inside the Louvre but decided we weren't big enough fans of art to appreciate it.

We had a very hard time trying to find a place to stay in Paris. We finally found a hostel that looked like it was further out of town but still accessed by the metro. We were sold. When we arrived we found out we had to first figure out the metro system (google the Paris Metro and see what we mean) and then try to find our hostel without a map. We were able to find a bus stop with a map and were on our way. When we arrived we realized there was definately something different. It turns out we are staying at a Korean hostel. Last night there was a Korean from Virginia Tech who spoke english but he is gone now. Basically we are the only ones who speak English. Luckily we are able to still communicate a little as a few people know some English words. Breakfast and dinner is included here and it is ALL Korean. We are not really use to eating so much rice; even for breakfast. Hazen has spent most of the evening with a group of guys his age trying to learn Korean and Japanese drinking customs. Very elaborate and they are quick to correct him. The drink of the evening is Soju a traditional rice liqueor in Korea. Definately a unique experience that we were not expecting.

We will be up early tomorrow to head to the beaches of Normandy. There will be a small train ride to the town of Bayeux, followed by a bus out to the beaches. The following day will be a long train ride to Munich, Germany. We can't wait for the beer(mostly Hazen) and brats. Hazen's quote was "Germany without beer is like ". Our friend Katrina from Bellingham will be in Munich at the same time and we will hopefully be meeting up with her. We can't wait to see a familiar face. So on that note, we still have plenty of trip ahead of us if you have decided you can't stay away from us and want to meet us over here somewhere. We would love it.

Little Fuzzy

Lagos at sunset just after we arrived. It was all downhill after that.

Braved a dark underground tunnel and came out at the bottom of this well. Spiraled to the top and this is the view at where we came from. If you visit this place, bring a headlamp. Spoooooky.

The palace in Sintra. A few pictures down aub is on the roof terrace on the upper left of the palace.

Hazen navigating the stones in the pond at the palace grounds. He had to turn back because the cave he wanted to explore was far too dark.

On top of the palace in Sintra. Note the two other castles up on the ridge.

Castle overlooking Lisbon.

Aub enjoying her first ever juice box wine. Quite tasty.

Wind isn´t cooperating with aubs hair as we explore the castel above Lisbon.

Players addressing the crowd from the balcony. Quick history on the building they are in:

Originally built in 1790 as a post office

Franco used it as a police headquarters and many prisoners jumped to their death trying to escape.

The war on Napolean began in front of this building.

And now it is a government building that hosts special events.

Kinda Crazy.

Celebration for Real Madrid in the main square.

Giant Cathedral in Madrid. The Real Madrid players are inside being blessed.

We are a bit delerious from taking a night train last night so bear with us. Here is what we have been up to. On our last post we mentioned that the weather was cloudy but not raining. However, from the moment we left the internet station after that post until yesterday it rained on us; a lot! No big deal we got out our umbrellas and pretended it was fall in Seattle.

Left Lagos for the equally not sunny Lisbon. We enjoyed Lisbon quite a bit even though we had some bad experiences. On a trip to see the local castel we jumped a tram and were immediately greeted by a couple pickpockets. We gave them some nasty looks and that was all it took. They left us alone after fondeling our goods. They moved to the back of the tram and all we could hear was people yelling out ¨pickpockets¨ from people trying to warn others.

The highlight of Lisbon was a suburb called Belem. They have a huge Monestary and a famous pastry shop. The best pastries of our trip so far. Vasco de Gama was buried in the Monestary. Forgot to mention we saw the tomb of Columbus as well. So we are on quite the explorer kick lately.

Spent a day trip to Sintra. A small town outside of Lisbon. It has six castels scattered around the town. This area was a hotbed of royal activity back in the day. We were not disappointed and spent two hours exploring the grounds of a magnificant palace. It was like Disneyland for adults. Except without the crowds. Our imaginations ran wild as we explored very dark underground passageways and hidden rooms of the palace. Definately a must see in Portugal.

Decided to take the night train from Lisbon to Madrid to save time. If you get the chance to take that train pass on that. We bought tickets one day in advance but all second class was full so we got stuck in first class. When Hazen asked if first class meant free drinks the ticket agent replied that there is no difference between first and second class except price. That bastard is lucky he was behind plexiglass.


When the ten hour train ride screeched to a halt, we stumbled out to ironically make reservations for another night train (san sebastian to Paris) that we GET to take in about a week. Then we had to try to find a place to sleep tonight. Both equally stressful events. To top it off we had to try to figure out how to use the metro system in city of 4 MILLION people. Definately the most confusing we have seen yet. Figured it out and made it to our room just in time to take a 3 hour nap.

When we awoke from our hibernation, we headed to the main square. The place was a mess. Real Madrid (soccer team) had won the league championship last night and they we setting up for the medal ceremony. At the time we had no idea what was going on but grabbed a spot on the barriers to wait and see. About an hour later and thousands of fans behind us the real madrid team arrived in their team bus. They headed into the government building with ¨we are the champions¨ blaring through the loud speakers. Quite a bit of fun listening to the chanting, singing and all out celebration. Saw a couple young kids get taken away as it looked like they had heat exhaustion. Really neat event and probably as close as we will get to a major soccer match. Tickets for last nights event were going for 600 us dollars each. Planning on walking around and relaxing the rest of the evening before heading to Toledo tomorrow. After a night there we will head north to San Sebastian. We are hoping to lay on the beach for three days or so but we will see if the weather will cooperate.

"chillin" on the beach (aub came up with that)

Hola,

Definately enjoyed our last night in Sevilla. Two gals from South Africa, staying in Sevilla for an extended visit, cooked dinner at the hostel. They cooked up a great thai dinner with serious flavor and spice. Sure was good to eat something that packed a punch. We spent the time chatting with a diverse crowd. Hazen looked at Aub one second and she just sat down with dinner and he looked over again and everything on her plate was gone. Including beans, peas, and broccoli. If you know Aub you know why hazen was so amazed. What a great evening hanging out with friends. Hazen continued his arguements/conversations with his friend from the UK, Peter (PEE-a)

We arrived in Portugal a couple days ago. Went all the way to the small town of Lagos. Very charming place with amazing beaches. Unfortunately, as the title implies the clouds rolled in with our autobus. No rain but cloudy, Bummer. Did get some beach time yesterday but not as much as we would have hoped. Have spent the last couple days relaxing in our posh digs. We found Francisco in his office and he took us to our flat. Dandy place filled with antique furniture, kitchen, and a two person tub all overlooking the garden. Wow we got lucky. By far the best place we have stayed. Tomorrow we head for a few days in Lisbon. We are confident we will get back to the sunshine.

Outtakes

This is our second post today. You all probably figured this out already but if you click on the photos, a larger version is shown. Thought we would throw a couple photos up of our moments of borderline insanity.

Hazen´s first MD of the trip. Yes he shaved. Marathon adventure to chop it down with a razor. Now a funny tan line on his face.

Didn´t have to fold in the mirrors but it was close.

Aubsters having a great hair day. Might be a bit greasy(no shower for three days)

Greasy too. I think we might have been bored. We had a greasy hair competition. You choose the winner.

Julliet - yep, you are suppose to cop a feel for good luck in your love life. Decided to take a pic of someone else as the place was annoyingly packed.

Our first two bottle night. Notice the price tag is covered. We´re cheap bastards.

Oragami night at the hostel in Lugano. Aub (pink) Hazen (Blue) Who wins?

Our old friend mooey from Gimmelwald. Gave a good moo each time we saw him. He loved his head scratched.

Hazen trying to sneek a pic of aubree while she was sleeping. He got caught.

Trying to take a nap on the streets of Barcelona. Our feet were throbbing from dodging scary mobs of annoying tourist groups that think they own the entire sidewalk.

Hazen is so giddy over his first steak he can´t contain himself.

Where to Begin....

Town of Alicante just down the coast from Valencia. Great castle overlooking the city.

Evening at the hotel. All of the guests and owner are pictured (except aub). Old guy on the right is Miguel the owner. He calls himself padre/Don Corleon/El Capitan. Very fun evening.

View from atop the castle in Alicante

Small town in Cabo De Gata Natural Park. We slept in the car just above town.

Definately off the beaten path. Endless pristine beaches. Our Toyota Aygo (aka Home Sweet Home). Sporty little bugger!

Another beach we stumbled upon. Warm water and soft sand.

Huge fields of Sunflowers everywhere. We think they use them for Biodiesel.

Aub finally got her Paella. Very tasty. Decent setting, lounging on the beach.

The highlight of the three day drive. Town of Olvera. Picture taken through the window of the castle looking at the Moorish Cathedral.

Same view of Olvera with town in background.

Olvera - City view from below.

Inside the cathedral in Sevilla. Very decorated cathedral.

Small portion of the exterior of Cathedral in Sevilla (3rd largest in the world)

Hope everyone is doing well. Sure are missing people alot right now. Seems like we have been doing a lot lately and are very excited to share.

We picked up the car in Alicante about midday. Somehow we successfully made it out of the city basically pure luck. Unfortunately they gave us a really nice car with only a tiny sratch on the back bumper. Minimal insurance on the car and 3 days of navigating some crazy places. Only hit a couple curbs and never got honked at!

Headed down the beach with freedom on our minds. It was a great feeling to stop at any beach or go where we pleased. Spent the first night in the car overlooking the sea in Cabo de Gata Natural Park. Hung out in the park most of the next day and then slept on the beach in a town called Calahonda. Up early (not a very comfortable beach) to roar into Granada. Thought we would take a driving tour of the city (mistake). Aub was the navigator and did an excellent job. Only a little lost which was a miracle. Somehow we escaped without causing a wreck. The final full day was spent heading toward Sevilla. During the drive we came over a ridge and Aub spotted an amazing town in the distance. The town was Olvera with an awesome castle and Cathedral. Walked up to the castle payed a guy 4 euro and he unlocked the front door and said enjoy. We had the castle all to ourselves to explore. By far the best castle we have seen; very well preserved. The town was almost completely deserted. We think this was our first undiscovered find. Slept in the car again in Utrera and headed for Sevilla the next morning. Aub was on the ball and got us through the town and to the drop off location without a problem. While the drive was fun it was surprisingly nice to be on foot again.

Yesterday we were so glad to get to the hostel and get a shower. Felt a little disgusting after only one shower on the beach in three days. If you ever hear spaniards complain that Americans stink it is our fault. We had our own herd of flies that followed everywhere we went. Not pretty.

The hostel is very nice. Took in the cathedral while mass was going on. Couldn´t understand much of what was happening. There was a massive organ and we were lucky enough to hear it being played. Last night the hostel had a free tapas (appetizers) tour. We hit two places before they dropped us off with a crappy map that had an ¨X¨marked where we were so we could find our way back. Probably wouldn´t have had the last few drinks if we knew we had to get ourselves home. They left us at a bar that was having a Flamenco show. Very exhuberant dance with great guitar and singing. Great experience. Spent a couple more hours chatting (yelling) with an old guy from the UK. He was a wild man. We collapsed into bed in exhaustion. Feeling so happy to actually have a bed.

We were both really tired when we arrived in Sevilla and we both were contemplating how much longer we could travel. After a great day in Sevilla we got our answer, as long as it takes. It seems that when we have gotten bogged down the travel gods have always thrown us a great day. Now we´re well rested and heading to Portugal tomorrow for the Algarve Coast. Small town of Lagos. Suppose to be some of the most beautiful beaches in Europe. We will let you know if this is true.

Gonna try the car thing

Sorry no pics this time. We tried to download them but couldn´t figure out how on this computer.

The day we headed out of Barcelona we decided to hit the Picasso Museum. Our reason for doing it that day was because it was free for the first Sunday of the month. Since money definitely has gone much quicker than expected, we can´t pass up free. It was a very interesting museum though and glad we went. There was a temporary exhibit set up from a photographer that had taken many photos of Picasso in his older years. It´s weird having a picture of someone in your head and then seeing what the guy actually looked like. We didn´t realize that he was a more recent artist, continuing to paint until his death in the 70´s. His artwork throughout the museum started from age 12 and was much different than his later work. It was cool to see how his artwork progressed through his learning.

Headed for the train station and just missed the train to our next destination, Valencia. We had to wait 2 1/2 hours for the next one. Got in around 6pm and saw flyers in the hostel for a cooking class on paella (local rice dish). It was suppose to be a very cheap dinner but much to our dismay, the stove was broke and we couldn´t do it. Decided to try the metro and head to the beach. There was a large America´s Cup park set up but not much action. Turns out the America´s cup doesn´t actually start until the end of June. The Louis Vittoun Cup finals are going on to find a challenger for last years winner from Switzerland. The race for that day had already finished and there wasn´t one scheduled for the next day. While sitting on the beach we did get to see a couple boats practicing though. They are very massive sailboats and can move quickly. A first for us in Valencia was the cockroaches. What a nasty "little" bug. Hazen was having nightmares about them and couldn´t sleep without his feet covered. Overall, Valencia was a very beautiful city and we enjoyed staying.

Right now we are in Alicante. Another coastal town with a huge castle towering above it. One of the first things we decided to do when we got here was relax on the beach. We finally decided to break down and buy a beach mat. Laying on sand isn´t much fun. We walked in to the only place we could find that had beach parafanalia. They had a couple roll-up mats for $2.50 that we were going to get but we were upsold to a mat that could fold up smaller and fit into our bags easier. The lady raked in an extra $10. Made our way down to lay on our new purchases but the wind was so severe that they were flying around everywhere. Aub was determined to soak in the sun and we got our skin sand blasted off. Needless to say, we are still cleaning sand out of places sand shouldn´t be. We hiked to the top of the castle this morning. A little disappointing that it wasn´t all the guide book cracked it up to be, but it had some great views of the town.

We are staying in a run down pension in the middle of the old town. Cooked up dinner and ate in the courtyard with the five other people staying in the place. We had a great time chatting with other travelers and sharing war stories. Hazen befriended the owner by sharing a strawberry flavored tobacco smoke on his hooka. The owner didn´t speak english and Hazen doesn´t speak spanish but they chatted for a good portion of the night. He is very similar to Hazen´s grandfather. For example when two girls left the table he put a fake spider by their food so when they returned they gave out quite a squeal. He laughed at himself most of the night.

We will be renting a car for the first time tomorrow. We will have it for about 3 days as we make our way to Sevilla. Definitely going to try to find some private beaches. Also will be good for a change of pace. Will probably be in Sevilla for our next post.

Barcelona is ALIVE!

Tossa De Mar Beach lit up at night. Great views from the top of the hill.

Our first bottle of under 1euro wine. 88cents!
Another huge meal at our apartment in Tossa. Notice the little red boombox we picked up at the market. Its no mp3 player but it has been handy to listen to while sitting on the beach.

Sagrada Familia in Barcelona - Has been under construction since 1881.

Awesome festival we stumbled onto in Barcelona - They are celebrating the second easter?

Yep, still have no idea what is going on. But if there is a festival you can count us in.

Aub sporting her new day bag. Market in Tossa in the background.

First steak of the trip. Mighty fine. Ate most of it before the pic was taken.

Took a very windy bus ride from Tossa to Barcelona. Sweet views of the coast. Got into Barcelona about noon and trecked to our hostel. Dropped the bags and hit the town. Walked all over town until our feet were numb. Aub refuses to rent a bike because she doesn't want to get run over or run someone over. Therefore we take lots of breaks. We are definately professional bench-sitters. Have been able to occupy the same bench for hours at a time without hardly even changing position.

If anyone wants to stay in a hostel where everyone sleeps during the day and leaves the hostel to hit the clubs around 2am and gets back around 5am then we found the place for you. Aub and I barely made it until 1am when the crew was just finishing getting ready to hit the town. They sure made us feel old. Also we have been dealing with an unidentified stench lurking in the bathroom wing of the hostel. This isn't your everyday bathroom smell; It ain't right. It is kinda fun waiting to find out what the quirk will be when you arrive at a new place. Luckily we haven't had to endure anything that can't be laughed about, hopefully that streak will continue.

We were up early (Relative to our roomates) and ready to hit the town. Jumped the metro and got some lunch on the Rambla. The Rambla (crazy pedestrian only strip that is the heart of Barcelona) is definately all it is cracked up to be. There is more free entertainment on this one street than anywhere we have seen. Right when we hit the street we spotted a gambling scam. We had read about in a guidebook. A guy set up a game on the ground and people all around were betting on it. It was obvious all of the people betting were in on the scam and they were trying to sucker a person into betting too. A guy finally threw down some money and they talked him into throwing down more because it was a sure bet. Well, he lost. And apparently when this guy loses he gets mad. The whole group got into a big scrum of pushing, shoving, and people trying to rip money out of other peoples hands. After looking back the whole show, even the fight, was probably staged to distract tourists so the rest of the "workers" could go around and pickpocket. Luckily we were pretty savvy and had a death grip on our valuables the whole time we were watching this. What a show. The Rambla is the top spot in all of Europe for pickpockets. We haven't used our money belts on this trip yet and if we get through Barcelona unscathed then I think our system is probably ok. We decided to head for the beach as we needed a break from all the commotion. However, on the way we ran into a monsterous festival in a small neighborhood called Barceloneta. Within the neighborhood each sector had a small group of people dressed up going crazy with dancing and drinking. Every group had its own band and they kept rotating street positions every couple songs. We probably watched six different groups and WOW, they were loving life. We found someone who spoke english and he said it was to celebrate a second easter. Basically, we had no idea what was going on but it sure was fun to watch. Finally made it to the beach and rented a lounge chair. Hung out there for a couple hours and then headed back to the Rambla to find dinner as there is a huge market just off the street. Hazen went back for his second steak in as many nights. Just pick the giant hunk of meat you want your steak cut from and tell the butcher how thick. What a beautiful system. We grilled up onions and potatoes to go along with and had the whole hostel envious of our grub.

Barcelona sure is an amazing place that seems to march to its own beat. Definately a lot of passion and gusto. It is also a very friendly place to visit. Lots of wide sidewalks and friendly people. Pretty cool town.

Headed to the Picasso museum tomorrow morning as it is the free day and then we catch a train to Valencia to watch the America's cup. New Zealand is winning the final with a couple days left to go. Should be a good time to be in the city.

We have met some really cool people and so far we have an open invitation to visit a friend in Melbourne where he will teach us how to surf and another invite to Lima, peru to do some hiking in the Andes. Gonna have to hang onto those email addresses.

Sorry about the long post but free internet is not a thing to waste around here.