Barcelona Spain

Ola!

On the day I was supposed to leave Canada, I decided to book an immediate ticket from England to... well, on a complete whim... Barcelona Spain. On the airplane from London (England), I sat next to a girl who turned out to be from Toronto, and whose sister was living in Barcelona. After arriving in Barcelona, my first mission was to find a place to stay which proved rather difficult for 4 reasons... 1) it was late 2) major car show in town 3) massive Sonar music festival 4) my Spanish stinks. After I finally got settled, I got hold of Brooke who invited me out for some drinks with her and her sister´s friends until they left for some sleep. My jetlag hadn´t yet kicked in, despite my lack of sleep, so I decided to wander around La Rambla (a very popular urban esplanade) until 3am.The next day, I had another dilemna... where to stay. It seems this problem won´t go away. Damn Maslow and his triangle... I decided to put that off for a little while, since I wanted to see the Sagrada Familia designed by Gaudi. Every aspect of this religious temple contains hidden symbolism, and strives to mimic nature in terms of structure and form. Brilliant! After the tour, I got down to business and secured a hostel that was quite out of the way. I also managed to book a pension for 2 nights in a row which relieved a lot of stress.

After wandering La Rambla again and venturing out to see the ocean, I got hold of the girls again. The younger sister was incredibly hooked up with a local promoter, and I got put on the guest list for a rather intense party on a cargo ship docked in the main harbor. Apparently the owners of the boat are a Spanish version of the Cirque du Soleil, bought the boat and now rent it out for parties, hence the very large and Burning-man-like hanging dude from the crane - one of their old show props they no longer needed. The event was sponsored by Vice Magazine which began in Montreal, and has since become very successful internationally for their content on debauchery, sex, drugs, violence, and social issues. Free beer, free jaeger, and since we knew the organizer, free hard liquor! The deck of the boat was filled with crazy people revelling in the party atmosphere, while down in the bottom of the boat, the DJs were spinning and the people were dancing. I ended up meeting a bunch of awesome people from Bristol England, who were a complete blast to hang out with! The evening ended with me and my soon-to-be-hangover walking back to my out-of-the-way hostel, arriving after the sun had already come up.

Yesterday I needed some recovery time, and went to the beach down by the Olympic site. The volleyball was out in force, the water was beautiful, the sand was warm, and the women were topless! Actually, it was really no big deal. I wish that North Americans were less inhibited, but perhaps that would also involve eating a lot less McDonalds! My next stop will be in Sevilla, then on to Grenada to see the Alhambra.