Barcelona

While we were in Paris, it started to rain. We did not like it. Instead of sucking it up and going out there like adventurous travelers, we went on Weather.com and found out that Barcelona had wonderful weather for the upcoming week. The next morning, we went to the train station and bought our train tickets. Less than 24 hours later, we were in Barcelona!

We've been taking it easy here (as usual) and even spent one day laying on the beach and napping. We walk around a lot and get lost often, but it's really enjoyable. On one of our long walks (I think about 8 km), we were walking past the Sagrada Familia, a really ugly famous building, when this guy frantically asked us if we knew English. He asked us to help him with directions and pointed at my map, so I unfolded it and tried to help him out. He kept repeating his questions and asking for more and more details the more I helped him, but he didn't even pay attention when I was helping him. Matt says he wasn't even looking at the map. After about a minute, two normal-looking guys come up to us and stand between us and ask us what we're doing. They flash a police ID and ask for our passports, where we're from, where we're staying, and if we have come in contact with drugs. We explain what we were doing but they still ask for our money (shady, right?) and they just sniff it, count it, and give it back. We were really confused by now, and the other lost man started objecting really frantically. The cops then send us away from the guy and tell us not to talk to people or exchange money for heroine and cocaine. We were very, very confused.

Other than being interrogated by undercover cops looking for drugs, we have had a fairly uneventful stay here. We took a bike tour, learned some history and got to see the famous things in Barcelona. We also went to church earlier today, met a girl named Hillary from Delaware who was also visiting the church while in Spain, and somehow got pulled into a birthday lunch with some Brazilians and Bolivians. It was a bit awkward, but it was tasty and the people were nice.

We also didn't have a place to stay tonight so we went around searching after church, but the hostels we wanted to stay at are full. The receptionist said we could store our bags, though, and we are also allowed to wait until 2 AM to see if anyone cancels their reservation (it happens often) and then we can take their room. Now we are waiting at one of the full hostels hoping that there will be a no-show or a cancellation on one of the reservations. Meanwhile, we will loiter here and wander the streets. We are really tired and want to nap but we can't, but there's not much we can do at this point so we are killing time. I guess living life spontaneously and not planning ahead has a price, but I still think it's worth it.

The more we live spontaneously, the easier it gets. I probably would have been freaking out if this happened 2 months ago, but practice makes it easier to adapt and it's actually pretty fun. I still haven't slept at a train station (my dad always talks about this, I think he wants me to), but if things keep progressing then I might really sleep like a hobo before my traveling time is up.

Oh, and I didn't write about Paris yet. I should, 'cause it was awesome, but I'll do that later.