Barcelona
Posted 11-25-2008 8:56 pm by
Well, I have to say that the one city I wish we could have more time in would be Barcelona

Well, I have to say that the one city I wish we could have more time in would be Barcelona. What a cool city. We took a night train from Madrid to Barcelona and it would have to be one of the worst rides so far. We had to sit up the whole time in lumpy chairs next to a traveling couple that had just finished sleeping in hostels filled with mice and what not and they smelled. Anyway, I probably got about 3 hours of total on and off sleep that night. We arrived in Barcelona at about 8 that morning and made it to our hotel but of course it wasn't ready because it was too early. So they said come back at 10, but the problem was my mom's friend had a son (Ryan) who spends the summer in Barcelona and we were meeting him at 10 to tour the city (he speaks fluent Spanish and is going to be a sophomore at a liberal arts college in Ohio). So, I hadn't showered in 2 days and had been in the same clothes as well. Needless to say, we were both gross. We finally were able to get into our room at about 9:40 and showered, changed and made our rendez-vous with Ryan. We saw some of the sights but the best part was he took us by train to his host family's house in one of the suburbs of the city.

It had to of been one of the best days so far. The family doesn't speak a word of English so there were a lot of hand motions between them, Andy, and me. But Ryan acted as our translator. They offered us lunch and we accepted thinking it would be a taco or something small. As it turned out they made a huge deal out of it and went out and bought fresh ice cream and new bottles of wine. We had a great meal! The only problem was we were so used to eating light that when we finished we were starving for dinner because our bodies were not accustomed to that type of meal — that sucked! But besides that it was great learning about their culture and travels.

After the meal the father invited us to see his gun collection. Wow, wow, wow, wow — is all I can say! At first it was impressive because he had a small case with old pistols from pirates and from the 1600's. It was cool stuff but we had seen all that in museums before. Then, after he showed us his book collection dating back to 1602, he pushed a button and the bookcase moved out and there was a secret room filled to the brim with guns. Then came his gun tour. He had rifles from the Napoleonic era, the Spanish civil war, grenades from WWII and loads of other things, from pistols to assault rifles! We weren't allowed to take pictures or really talk about what we saw because he said he could get in a lot of trouble with the government. All I will say is he could have his own army and invade a small nation with what he had.

After the guns, Ryan, Andy, and I then went to the beach and swam and laid out for a few hours. Andy and I caught the train back to our hotel, read a little and went to bed because we had an early train to catch to Nice in the morning.

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