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.