Ole' Ole'!!!

Hot and Humid!! Two very good words to describe the weather in Spain right now. But somehow this manages to fit the culture and Spanish experience. So does their time schedule. Stephen and I decided to go on a bike tour of Barcelona. The first tour started at 11, so we slept in, ate a meager breakfast of toast and jam (like I said, not big on their breakfasts), grabbed a Starbucks which was conveniently on the way, and arrived at the bike tour place half an hour early. All the shops were just starting to open and the tour place was closed so we decided to walk around for another 15 minutes. We arrived back at the tour place at 10:50...and still shut down. A couple minutes to 11, an official looking guy comes walking up and opens shop. He introduced himself to us (he was from Australia himself) and picked a couple bikes for us to ride then we waited about ten minutes longer to see if anyone else would show. No one came...so Steve and I got our own personal tour guide for the day!
We took off on our bikes and explored the city of Barcelona. Highlights from the 3 hour ride was the Christopher Columbus statue (which does not point East, even though they had intended it that way), the beaches, and several buildings designed by Goudi. This man was quite the architect. His buildings generally have no straight lines and relate to nature, they are very intricate, and somewhat abstract. I will post pictures later, but if you have time, look up the Segrada Familia which was only partially built by Goudi (and is actually still under construction 100+ years later) until he died. We also spent some time at a small wine shop, drinking wine, eating tapas (bread topped with tomato sauce, cheese, and meat), and talking to our tour guide. Because there was only two of us, he also showed us a couple other places that the tour doesn´t normally include. We cycled back into the shop at 3:30, thanked our tour guide, and went to find lunch.
Our guide had suggested a good place to eat, but after waiting in line for a good 20 minutes (must've been good, but they were also slow), we opted to look elsewhere. I grabbed an apple, almonds, and an avacado (an "A" quality meal...pun intended..) while Steve ordered his hamburger from McDonalds.
We had a something special planned at 6:30 so we walked around awhile, grabbed drinks (I made my own iced coffee cuz they don´t see it here), then walked to the Monumental. We found our seats at the very top of the stadium and at 7:00, we saw our first ever Bull Fight!!! You couldn´t help but hold your breath as a charging bull ran full force toward the Spaniard with his bright pink or red "cape." (excuse my lack of technical terms as i don´t know what they are...) Each time the bull charged, the crowd would chant "Ole!" and clap when the Spaniard had successfully evaded the bulls charges. They continued to tire him out, poke him with spears and swords until finally he lay down from exhaustion. I will spare you the bloody details, but in the end, the Spaniards defeated the bull. :) We stayed to watch four fights then walked downstairs to watch them skin and cut up the freshly killed bull. Steak anyone?
I wasn´t really hungry at this point, and my camera battery was dying, so we spent about 15 minutes at the hostel so I could charge my camera enough for the rest of the night. The Metro took us to the top of a mountain where we met a huge commotion and a massive crowd of people. We had heard that a fountain show would play every half an hour so we started searching for the fountain. It soon became apparent that the massive crowd of people were not there to see the fountain, but to watch a concert. Furthermore, it was a gay-"pride" concert. yikes. We pushed our way through the sea of people, observing quite a few odd sights, then finally emerged only to encountered a different show: this time the fountain show! :) It was a mixture of the Belagio and Disneyland. Music of all genres accompanied an impressive water show shooting water high in the air, creating mist, and changing colors throughout the show. It was so relaxing to sit on the steps of the castle and enjoy the night with a singing/dancing fountain as our entertainment.
We ended the night by sitting at a restaurant on Las Ramblas (the main street of Barcelona...reminded me of 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica), eating a late dinner, talking, and observing the people around us (including a hissing cat lady...).
The internet wasn´t working at our hostel, so we just went straight to bed.

Although, I wouldn´t mind staying longer in Barcelona, I was very happy to say good bye to our hostel. It was the dirtiest we´ve had, and very noisy at night. However, it was also a place to sleep and it served its purpose.
I was hoping the internet would work this morning because I needed to get directions to our hostel in Valencia...our next stop in Spain. But...no such luck. Maybe it would work later in the day. So we grabbed our coffee at Starbucks, shopped for our breakfast and lunch, and headed off to see a couple more sights before leaving. Our first destination was the Parc Guell. It was a community of houses that Goudi had built intending to sell it only to rich people; however, the rich people took one look at his odd designs and refused to live there. He was forced to open them to the public and people are now able to tour them. Some of the houses literally look like Gingerbread houses. As soon as we ented the community, we felt like we were at Disneyland or some sort of zoo. It felt very much like an amusement park..but without the rides. Despite the intense heat and humidity, we walked around the Parc, admiring Goudi´s unique architectural designs.
Our last stop in Barcelona was back to the castle...but with no concert this time. :) I´m actually not sure if its a castle, but thats what it looked like. It stands on the top of a hill, so after climbing multiple sets of stairs, we reached the top only to find out it´s closed on Mondays. Instead, we admired the superior view of Barcelona and only had a few minutes to walk around anyway. The gardens at both places were so beautiful with plenty of green and various colorful flowers.
Our train was set to leave soon, so we returned to the hostel to grab bags and with fingers-crossed we asked if the internet was working. Nope. BUT we did find a solution. My Kindle happens to have internet and I was able to look up the hostel and gather directions! (Thank you Popsy!!!) And guess what? Stephen and I had been smart enough to buy tickets to Valencia yesterday and we had NO train complications!! woo hoo! We found our platform (it literally was a sauna down there), found the correct train and seats, and since we didn´t have to change trains, it took us straight to Valencia with no complications. phew! Once we arrived in Valencia, we actually remembered to get our next train reservations and we found a map of Valencia with good directions to our hostel as well. Such a good traveling day. :)
While walking to our hostel, we decided to stop for dinner. Stopping to eat was a good idea, but the place we decided to stop at, was not. We´d seen a few places called Pan & Company, so we tried it out. It was disgusting...and I´m not very picky to begin with. Stephen´s chicken was not cooked through and I know the pictures of meals always look nicer than the actual food, but if you had seen his sandwich and tried to find it on the board, you wouldn´t have even known which one it was. So far we´ve had really good food experiences so I suppose a bad one was bound to pop up sooner or later.
We continued our search for the hostel and found it with ease. Now we´ll probably go find something real to eat. :)