Happy birthday to my grandma, happy Mother's Day to my mother and all mothers, congratulations to Adam for graduating with his masters and congratulations to Eric for graduating the police academy.
The statue I thought I saw coming into Barcelona wasn't a statue, but the castle was indeed a castle. I want to go to this castle but it seems pretty out of the way and isn't on my list of sites that I know of.
On day two of Barcelona true to my plan I easily got in touch with a free walking tour and also the hostel promoted a "boat party." I looked up the boat party online and there were comments about it being the best thing travelers did in Barcelona - I was in.
I didn't shower, got dressed in running clothes and went to the walking tour. I had planned to run after the walking tour then take a quick shower and head to the boat party but the people at the walking tour, including the guide were also going to the boat party and the guide took us (two guys two girls) to local spots to grab tapas and local drinks. It was a pleasant change from the tapas I had earlier in tourist central , and about 1/5th the price.
From there we met the boat and made new friends, a large group was there from a bartending course, people across the world came to Barcelona to get certified in serving drinks, I thought that was an interesting choice and I bet they had a lot of fun, they were fun to hang out with. Another large group was another stag party from England (stag is the same as bachelor) and I was challenged in a game they were playing. The real beauty was the boat, a catamaran, and pretty comfortable out in the sun looking at barcelonas coast, being on the water is nice.
After the boat party we met more people back at the hostel and went to the largest club in Spain - our group was quite funny and we found all these places we could climb to or down to and secret spots within the clubs. I didn't get any drinks there and after we were done exploring I went to bed fairly early.
I woke up at 930 am which is pretty early here and went for a run. My phone was near dead so I left it behind to charge. I had been recommended to run to park Montjuic (mountain of the jews) by several people so I went there. I found out there was another castle here and set out to find it. Up and up I went with no idea where the castle was (I couldn't see it that's for sure) and much like budapest the climb was more than I expected, seemingly forever. Eventually I got to the top, out of breath and running real slow - as a local passed by me without any problem or sign of fatigue, I commented on how he was a machine but I don't think he knew English.
I went inside the castle still running and didn't have to pay a cent. The views were awesome, but I heard from many people the best views were at park guell - somewhere I will go later today or tomorrow. I found it hard to believe there were better views, but I really trust what they said so we will see. I ate lunch at the castle and could not find the orange juice. I asked the waiter in my broken Spanish and he asked if I wanted fresh, I said yes and he took me back to a machine that cut and squeezed the oranges. I watched him put 4-5 oranges in the machine and it made enough for one glass, one delicious glass of orange juice that I would never had believed was freshly squeezed if I didn't see it. It was so so sweet, I wood have thought there was sugar added. It's been a while since I had fresh oj. Prices were cheaper here at the castle than on tourist road (las ramblas) which is kind of an insight to how much they rip tourists off there. I am bad at history but I saw cannons or really big guns mounted around the castle and I marveled at what they were doing there, they looked so modern, was this some kind of world war defense?
I missed out on a lot of pictures, oh well I thought. On the way down I saw a ski lift type suspended transportation system and immediately headed over there. I double checked the prices which were fairly low and excitedly jumped in - happy to not have to run down the hill again. All in all the hill was supposed to be 2 miles from my room but the hill itself must have been two miles of winding roads. My 30 minute run turned into two hours and I was thankful for the transportation. Once inside the cable car or ski lift, whatever you want to call it, (it's actual name is telefèric de Montjuic) I saw the best view of the city I have had so far. It also took me over a good portion of the park at Montjuic and eventually dropped me off at the place where I think the Olympic diving was a few years ago. It looked like they were setting up for the x games and there was a half pipe or whatever you call it for skateboarders set up, the view of the city in the background - really pretty.
I ran back to my room a different way and had to write this before I forgot, since I have no pictures. I am hoping to see Picasso museum, guell park, Montserrat monestary and sagrada familia. Yesterday I saw where Picasso went to school, and I have been interested in Picasso's art, how he was truly gifted.
Lots to do so I will close here.
The statue I thought I saw coming into Barcelona wasn't a statue, but the castle was indeed a castle. I want to go to this castle but it seems pretty out of the way and isn't on my list of sites that I know of.
On day two of Barcelona true to my plan I easily got in touch with a free walking tour and also the hostel promoted a "boat party." I looked up the boat party online and there were comments about it being the best thing travelers did in Barcelona - I was in.
I didn't shower, got dressed in running clothes and went to the walking tour. I had planned to run after the walking tour then take a quick shower and head to the boat party but the people at the walking tour, including the guide were also going to the boat party and the guide took us (two guys two girls) to local spots to grab tapas and local drinks. It was a pleasant change from the tapas I had earlier in tourist central , and about 1/5th the price.
From there we met the boat and made new friends, a large group was there from a bartending course, people across the world came to Barcelona to get certified in serving drinks, I thought that was an interesting choice and I bet they had a lot of fun, they were fun to hang out with. Another large group was another stag party from England (stag is the same as bachelor) and I was challenged in a game they were playing. The real beauty was the boat, a catamaran, and pretty comfortable out in the sun looking at barcelonas coast, being on the water is nice.
After the boat party we met more people back at the hostel and went to the largest club in Spain - our group was quite funny and we found all these places we could climb to or down to and secret spots within the clubs. I didn't get any drinks there and after we were done exploring I went to bed fairly early.
I woke up at 930 am which is pretty early here and went for a run. My phone was near dead so I left it behind to charge. I had been recommended to run to park Montjuic (mountain of the jews) by several people so I went there. I found out there was another castle here and set out to find it. Up and up I went with no idea where the castle was (I couldn't see it that's for sure) and much like budapest the climb was more than I expected, seemingly forever. Eventually I got to the top, out of breath and running real slow - as a local passed by me without any problem or sign of fatigue, I commented on how he was a machine but I don't think he knew English.
I went inside the castle still running and didn't have to pay a cent. The views were awesome, but I heard from many people the best views were at park guell - somewhere I will go later today or tomorrow. I found it hard to believe there were better views, but I really trust what they said so we will see. I ate lunch at the castle and could not find the orange juice. I asked the waiter in my broken Spanish and he asked if I wanted fresh, I said yes and he took me back to a machine that cut and squeezed the oranges. I watched him put 4-5 oranges in the machine and it made enough for one glass, one delicious glass of orange juice that I would never had believed was freshly squeezed if I didn't see it. It was so so sweet, I wood have thought there was sugar added. It's been a while since I had fresh oj. Prices were cheaper here at the castle than on tourist road (las ramblas) which is kind of an insight to how much they rip tourists off there. I am bad at history but I saw cannons or really big guns mounted around the castle and I marveled at what they were doing there, they looked so modern, was this some kind of world war defense?
I missed out on a lot of pictures, oh well I thought. On the way down I saw a ski lift type suspended transportation system and immediately headed over there. I double checked the prices which were fairly low and excitedly jumped in - happy to not have to run down the hill again. All in all the hill was supposed to be 2 miles from my room but the hill itself must have been two miles of winding roads. My 30 minute run turned into two hours and I was thankful for the transportation. Once inside the cable car or ski lift, whatever you want to call it, (it's actual name is telefèric de Montjuic) I saw the best view of the city I have had so far. It also took me over a good portion of the park at Montjuic and eventually dropped me off at the place where I think the Olympic diving was a few years ago. It looked like they were setting up for the x games and there was a half pipe or whatever you call it for skateboarders set up, the view of the city in the background - really pretty.
I ran back to my room a different way and had to write this before I forgot, since I have no pictures. I am hoping to see Picasso museum, guell park, Montserrat monestary and sagrada familia. Yesterday I saw where Picasso went to school, and I have been interested in Picasso's art, how he was truly gifted.
Lots to do so I will close here.
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