Tho Many Thingth to Thay

If Barcelona was a food, it would be pumpkin pie. Graham loved it that much. 

If Barcelona was a drink, it would be wine... and Jess would drink too much of it, which she did. We're still trying to figure out who is enabling who in this relationship. Also, Jess's Oath of Sobriety (v2.0) sounds like it'll be making its infamous return. 

What were we going to say again?

Oh yes, Barcelona. Or "Barthelona" since every Spaniard seems to have a lisp... lithp?

For a city that is the second largest in Spain, what a beautiful place. It feels as laid back as Valencia, has beaches as nice as world famous Wasaga Beach (whaaat?!) and people in the service industry who short change you where possible. 

Now, where to begin? Let's start by talking about how we've been finding our way in these foreign cities because it is a process. The night before we go to a new city we Google the hotel in relation to the train station and then we take screen shots on our iPhone. When we arrive at the station we look at the screen shot and then follow the map. Seems like a good idea, right? Well it is until the 28th day of travel because on this day when we came out of the station we looked at the map and did not have a clue which way to go. Sometimes we forget to plan our next day whilst totally clear in the head. This was apparently one of those times, so we flipped a coin and went left. Nope. So we went right. Nope. Forwards? Nope. Surely, it must be behind us then! Nope. 15 minutes later it was to the left. Wandered a bit and found the brand spanking new Hotel Ayre, which was a pleasant, modern surprise. The only thing missing from the room is one of those lovely little facewashing basins that strangely sit beside the toilet in most of our other hotels. 

Dropped our bags, tended to some uncomfortable sunburns and headed out for lunch. Graham jokingly told the waiter to fill Jess's wine glass/stein up to the brim and he happily did so. Jess was quite funny touring around for the rest of the day. Saw the Arc de Triomf (yes, the real one), Sagria Familiar church (wacky Disney-esque castle church, obviously under repair because we showed up), and homeless people. 

We found some salami, cheese and Cava to snack on before dinner and watched some Spanish music videos while doing so. Headed over to the city's Gothic Quarter which is a funky collection of artsy buildings, narrow cobbled streets and Chinese vendors selling everything from YOLO tshirts to flamenco dresses. Ended up finding a tapas restaurant which offered sangria jugs and tapas plates ranging from chicken curry to chili con queso. Very delicious and fun spot. Being true Spaniards, we didn't finish our meal until 11:30pm.

Woke up the next morning to housekeeping knocking at the door at 9am asking if we'd like our room cleaned. Call us conventional, old fashioned even, but we both prefer to be out of the bed before it is made. Grumpypants Graham and Shutyourpieholegraham Jessica emerged but disappeared once we went to find some caffeine and the best pastry experience to date for Jess. Then headed down to the waterfront for a lengthy tour, some drinks and tapas, obviously. Naturally sat down at a lovely patio but for some reason the conversation wasn't flowing between us. Some may think it's because we've been traveling for 28 days and we've run out things to say but actually we were both fully involved in taking in our surroundings. We've added two pictures of the two different views we had. We'll let you decide who was looking at what. 

Distracted perhaps, we tried to find our way home. Like a couple of complete boobs (uhh?!), we took an hour to walk a route that should have taken 20 minutes. This includes walking around the same church TWICE somehow and for those of you that think Venice is a bitch to navigate, I encourage you to try Barcelona. 

After resting our feet for a bit at the hotel bar (and researching Groupon for 2 for 1 rehab specials) we were back to the waterfront for our final nice dinner in Spain. Barcelona has a waterfront promenade that attracts alot of characters, so we settled on a seaside restaurant where we could observe both the sunset and the trainwreck of inexperienced rollerbladers trying to avoid first time bicyclists. Truly a very memorable and dare I say romantic evening under the stars to tell the truth UNTIL AMERICA SHOWED UP. Bizarre couple that felt the need to read aloud (and very loud) online reviews of our restaurant as they were waiting for their drinks. And then discuss what it feels like to go unconscious. And then when they asked the waiter for a suggested fish to try, they also asked to use his phone to they could Google what the fish tasted like. Amurica apparently wanted something not too fishy but not white; muscle-y but not fleshy; and something local, "not from Alaska". Who needed a dinner show!

We splashed around in the sea for a bit and got an Emma Rohmann moon-tan amongst the homeless people sleeping on the beach, and who likely woke up the next morning in another city (the waves were massive!). Enjoyed a casual walk home and learned that the Indian guys selling water by day turn into marijuana retailers at night. We also came across an Armin van Buuren concert, which appears to be the biggest thing in Barcelona since The Wiggles World Tour. And then of course we came across a... ahem... pantsless obese prostitute on the walk home. Luckily we had a side/back view. 

Never a dull moment in this land of selfish, deodorentless people. 

Til next time,

Jessasita and Grambino