Nicola's FANTASTIC weekend with Barrett

It's Sunday morning and its harder than usual to get a sandwich in this town! Then again it is siesta time and we only just got up. I suppose I should start from the beginning. If you can't already tell this is obviously not Barrett writing this. I'm Nicola, we know each other from THE sailing team. I am traveling around Europe with my sister and decided to make a stop in Barcelona to see him. We, the we being my sister and I, got in at about 2am Friday morning from Amsterdam and stayed in a hostal in Barcelona. All day Friday we just sort of walked around and saw the sights while waiting for Barrett to get off work. It rolls around to just before 7pm and he meets us in the city and we walk to have some dinner and drinks on the beach, definately relaxing I might add. And during our pizza eating there are about 6 guys, most likely British (I can say that!), that drop trow and run into the ocean. Mind you there were quite a few empty Estrella cans scattered amongst where they left their clothes. After dinner we head over to a bar Barrett had been too, I call it the Fairy bar. It's called bosc de les fades. Something about fables or fairies or something? Anyway, this place is pretty awesome, they have a wax museum in the front, trees with faces and the leaves are weed leaves. There are also ponds and stuff. It makes you feel like you are in Fern Gully! After more drinks we head back to the hostal to get our stuff; then haul it to the train station to come back here. Apparently they stop running trains around midnight, but turns out it wasn't until 1 and we had over an hour at the station. So we head back up and have some more drinks and ice cream. Then back to the "Quantum Penthouse" for some sleep.

Day 2 = Saturday. We didn't wake up until super late. Well I take that back, I didn't wake up until almost noon. Then we slowly got out the door and made our way to the beach, which is not a very far walk at all! At the beach we pick a restaurant and of course its all in Catalan.... Barrett is actually getting quite good recognizing words and such and speaking spanish! So we all pick something, I get "Fantastic", Cleo "Beicon con Queso," and Barrett the longest most unrecognizable thing on the menu. Which turned out to be a ham and cheese sandwhich?! Mine was tuna and sardines which were actually really good! And Cleo's bacon and cheese. We have a couple drinks and head down to the beach. Which is amazing! We siesta, read, and swim, and burn! Barrett pretty much looked like a tomato! Then back to the Penthouse for showers and then off to Barcelona around 9pm for food and yes, more drinks!

Sorry, this is getting super long but it ended up being an eventful night. So we are trying to get Paiella for dinner and end up sitting in the wrong seats of two restaurants outside. So wouldn't ya know we get a pitcher of Sangria, calamari, and crab. We walk around and then go the Paca Reial for our actual dinner! We get another pitcher of Sangria and Special Paiella. It was awesome. Seafood that included crawfish, clams, shrimp, muscles, squid, other seafood, on top of delicous rice! So by the end of food and drinks its about 11:15pm, yes this is normal, we decide to party like Spainards and stay in Barcelona until atleast 5am when the trains start running again. They shut off for about 4 hours. We try to go back to the Fairy/fable place, but it was closed so we 'follow the crowd.' But it seemed like everyone was going every which way. We head towards the water front because we figure something has to be going on there. We end up at the mall? and can't quite figure out why everyone is walking up and down the stairs, then we follow the pub crawl. And wouldn't ya know we found a pub! We have a drink and decide to check out where all the loud music is coming from on the other side of the mall. There is a HUGE line to get in and we decide we don't really wan't to wait. But the crazy thing is there are already drunk people passed out everywhere. We go back to the other bar have a drink, and decide to go and get in line. We finally get into this club and its is packed! We were in there for about 3 hours just dancing and drinking and having fun. It gets to be after 5am and decide it is probably time to head back and go to bed. On the way out there are even more drunk people, one guy passed out on the side hunched over backward with his backpack on. I am sure Barrett will include this photo later. But after taking the picture we decide to be good samaritans and check to make sure we didn't just take a picture with a dead guy! He was breathing.

On our way back to the train station the only place open for food is the sandwhich shop and everyone is in there. We get 'breakfast' at now around 6:30am and are well on our way to the train station. We get there and have to wait about 20 minutes or so and there are people passed out on the stairs of the station, and not just a few but a lot. I must admit that I too fell asleep! So we get on the train and are getting back to the 'penthouse' and on the walk back it is necessary to wear sunglasses! We get in bed around 8am. We made it!

This morning, or afternoon, we wake up starving and need to find food. So in our broken catalan, spanish, hand signals, and english we spend about 30 minutes trying to find a sandwhich! We finally got one and now it is time for a siesta! And my sister and I are off to Valencia while Barrett recovers for work!