The Mediterranean Sea

We Left Madrid on the 14:30 train out of Estaciones de Atocha. If we have learned anything thus far it´s Europeans travel in style. Our seats of course were the only spot on the train car with no window, so we watched the in-track movie. It was an American movie to our disbelief but of course it was in Spanish. I politely turned on my Ipod while Mal was whisked away into the fast past Spanish version of another awful Keanu Reeves movie. Our train ride was short and sweet and arrived in Barcelona promptly at 17:30 or 5:30pm to the piggish American. We found our hostel in about thirty minutes and realized how well we have taken to finding our way about. As we entered the hostel we once again prepared for the foreign experience that comes along with hosteling. To our surprise the front desk receptionist, an english bloke and swedish blonde, politely said hello and how can we help you. All of our fears dropped immediately and realized we were staying at the most Americanized version of a hostel possible, google centric point hostel youll see. As we took our room keys and ushered ourselves up the 4 flights of stairs we arrived at a 12 bed room with 8 Americans, 1 Englishman, 2 Asains and a few empty beds. We quickly began exchanging stories and felt welcomed to finally speak freely in english with other humans again.

In typical fashion Mal and I seemed to make our way to the beach as soon as possible. Keep in mind this was June 1st which happens to be some sort of Spanish holiday. Parades on every street beer, vino and sangria flowing freely and two Americanos in the middle of all of it. As the parades finally died out we arrived at the water. Mallory immediately headed for the water. We spent the next few hours or so enjoying Sue Wilbourns favorite past time of sea glass hunting as the sun went down over our shoulders. We wandered back to the hostel just in time to head out with the other Americans promptly at 12am. We enjoyed each other company a few different bars and restaurants and wandered through La Rambla, the main street of barcelona, until about 2am. In typical fashion I enjoyed one to many beers and was rudely awoken at 11am to Mal bantering about the beach. I changed clothes since Mal was already in her suit and we were off. We spent just under 7 hours on the beach and enjoying the water and turning away street vendors every twenty seconds. Literally thousands of asians asking if you want a massage, spainarids selling beer water cola fanta or pot and some sort of eastern europeans offering henna tats and fresh coconut pieces known as dode dode dode. We befriended an older couple of Aussies who were traveling europe for 2 months before preparing for their 6 month trip across Australia. Apperently they got tired of work and wanted to start retirement at 55. We couldnt have been more entertained by Greg as he bought a massage, two beers and a majoito in the span of 15 minutes. As he had told us after the massage he would gladly by pay extra for the happy ending if Coral had allowed. We all laughed and spent the rest of the afternoon exchanging stories of travels and experiences. Mal and I decided to stay in the next night and were joined by Jonny the english bloke for dinner. We found a buffet of sorts and enjoyed talking the differences and similarites of the english. After dinner we enjoyed the rooftop terrace of our hostel for a few drinks and met a band of dutch teenagers on a school trip. From around 8pm until 1am we couldnt stop laughing with Willam, Jan and Denise. They couldnt grasp the idea of pot being illegal in the US. We promptly took a picture with them holding up their own supplies in the middle of the bar, picture to come soon.

Our last day in barcelona has been spent wondering the street markets for memories and trinkets as well as purchasing our train reservations to Nice,France for tomorrow morning. The afternoon will surely have beach time and more roof top terrace to come. Mal and I can´t believe how fast the trip is going and eagerly look forward to each new city. We love and miss everyone and love hearing from anyone so please comment or email.


Things we learned in Barcelona
1) The dutch enjoy pot I know all the stuff about Amsterdam but seriously the quote from Denise was 'A lovely little country fu**ed up by drugs and alcohol'
2) The street vendors at the beach are trying to make a living too´¨quote Greg the Aussie
3) McDonalds is loved here more than in America and they give you a kit kat bar in your dollar cone.

Things we loved in Barcelona
1) meeting so many people
2) the beach
3) every one here owns a golden retreiver
4) Mal loves the beach
5) our adopted travel stuffed animal shelly the turtle, pictures to come.

miss and love everyone
m&m

nice, france 4th and 5th
cinque terre 6th 7th 8th
rome 9th-