The South Moves Us

I know, it's been quite some time since I've put anything up here. Not because I haven't done anything, but because my camera was relieved of me somehow in Spain, which I'm writing about now. I got a new one thanks to Dad!

SO... Spain.

A big group of us decided that it would be nice to escape the rainy weather of Trier for one of our long weekends. We found a flight with RyanAir for about 50 Euros that would take us to Barcelona, Spain for a short trip around the famous Catalon region. We had to take a night bus to the airport, as our flight was one of the first to leave the next morning. We stayed the night in the airport. Most of the clan fell asleep somewhere, but Paul and I stayed up all night playing billiards, darts, and sticking nickels in the electric slot machines. It was a nice evening!


We flew into Girona, about an hour outside of Barcelona and took another bus into town. We had a short nap and found our ways around the city with the help of Danielle's Irish friend, Gary, who was living there as a bartender.

We saw lots and lots, but unfortunately, got into a bit of trouble, as well. We went to a strip of clubs, there were about 15 right in a row. This place is cool, but has an infestation of thieves. The first night, Paul and I were out, everyone else had gone home, and he got his wallet stolen. But we knew who had done it, so we put a little pressure on them, and sure enough, there was the wallet! Criminals are stupid. He lost maybe 10 Euros, so it wasn't too bad, no missing Visa card or something... The next night, some little 16 year old tried to take mine, but I caught him and... well... he didn't get mine. :) That same night, my friend Paz got in trouble too, so although it was nice, maybe it was a good idea not to go out the last night.

Barcelona is right on the edge of the Mediterranean, so the last day, Klaus, Danielle and myself went for a short walk to find the beach. We didn't end up finding it, but we did find a nice place to sit and look at the water. It was on a bridge, where we were sitting, and that bridge was a drawbridge. But it didn't draw upwards. Rather, it drew outwards, like the doors to a saloon. Pretty cool. Also there were lots of street vendors. Among them are also home/jobless dudes walking around with a six pack of cheap beer asking if you'd like to buy any. Rather strange, but hey, don't judge a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes, right? There were also a lot of drug dealers and prostitutes! So if you're ever in Barcelona, stay off the Ramblas (the main streets) after 2 am. : )

We saw a lot of neat things though. The famous architecht, Gaudi, is very prominent in Barcelona, and many of his things can be seen there.







Definitely some weird stuff, Gaudi did... Cool enough, though.

















A statue dedicated to Christopher Columbus. It's really tall and you can actually go up to the top of it and look out over Barcelona and the Mediterranean Sea. Too bad it was closed when we got there...













Here's some more of Gaudi. Actually, it's not all his. Only part of it's his design. It's a church that has been in the process of being built for some 100 years or so. More than that, even. It's still a construction site, but has limited funding, so it's a slow process. Maybe someday, we'll see it done.








We also saw a movie while we were there, in English. We saw the Illusionist. Quite good. Also, there are more Irish Pubs in Barcelona than anywhere I've seen. More Irish ones than there are Spanish ones... Neat atmosphere!

So, no more month-long gaps from blog.


From Dylon With Love