Day 18

This morning we woke up in our bunk beds very excited to get the free breakfast from the hostel. We knew it wouldn't be a buffet from Ritz but were still a little disappointed by the pile of white bread and bowl of corn flakes. At least there were multiple jars of nutella. We ate our bread with the hopes of making some hostel friends. I walked over to a group of boys to say intorduce myself and asked them where they were from. I got 5 blank stares and a one word response of "Germany." I'm going to assume none of them understand English.

After we ate, we deicided to use our first day in Barcelona to explore the area and do a little shopping. Since it was Sunday and almost every single store was closed, we walked around the city admiring the beautiful architecture. After hours of exploring, and remembering all the stores we needed to come back to, we decided to treat ourselves to a big spanish lunch consisting of tapas and paella! Due to our grumbling bellies we walked into the first place we found (which looked really great from the bar area) and ordered a tapas and paella special. We eagerly awaited the feast we had been dreaming of. When the food arrived it did not look as delicious as we had pictured it, and it tasted just as bland and mushy as it looked. Let's just say we were not impressed. And when we asked for some free bread like the couple next to us received they refused to give any to us. I don't think they liked us very much due to our fuss over wanting TAP water, with ice, por favor. We were still hopefull for the dessert that was included in the meal until our waiter plopped down a yellow custardy thing in front of us both. After one bite we exited the restaurant in search of a gelateria (we couldn't break our streak now).

After delicious gelato (the best yet in Spain!) we returned back to our hostel and rested up with a long nap. We woke up for dinner time. Since we were disappointed by our lunch feast we were determined to have a great dinner. We took Reid up on his recommendation of a Mexican restaurant (the only thing we crave more than peanut butter is chips and salsa). The tacos and margaritas were great and definitely made up for our previous meal. We left the restaurant full and happy and got ready to make another attempt at making some hostel friends.

We went to the hostel common room and quickly got asked to join a group of french, canadian, and brazilian people who were playing card games. The group could not have been friendlier, and hours were spent playing games in french, spanish, portugese, and english. Despite some language barriers the group bonded over games that were familiar to everyone. We learned that we had to "take a glu" instead of taking a sip. The different pronunciations of "ace" was also a continuous joke throughout the night.

The group of us finally made it out in search of a bar near the beach that has 300 different types of shots. Unfortunately we got to the bar so late that we were not allowed inside. We were even too late for Barcelona. Instead we wandered to the beach and hung out while some braved the ocean. We, however, refused to go in the water for fear of our shoes getting stolen from the beach. Maybe tomorrow night when we have our bathing suits.

We took a long walk home learning different expressions in different languages and perfecting our french/spanish accents. We are ready to hit the sack and turning our alarm off for a good nights sleep.

-J and C