Well the pic to the right doesnt seem to be working for me but i think it might work when this gets posted. If not i will change it cause i know it can be quite boring to read such ramblings. Anywho, yes well barcelona i am here and will soon be exiting. Kinda good cause this city is not so much for me. But on the much brighter side i have had a couple of touristy days that have brightened everything up. This city has some of the coolest architechture thanks to this guy named gaudi. I am kinda wondering if that is the route of why we call things gaudy, or is it pronounced gowdy. Not the english major but i am sure in his time 1890ish people were saying how gaudi something was and maybe it stuck and thats now what we call excentric. Who knows i will believe the formentioned until someone tells me how silly i am and how it really is. Moving along well yesterday i did not see gaudi. I saw another artist named picasso. Now i have mentioned his name in my vocab for time to time never having conected what he drew to him. I just knew he was famous. I might have been able to connect his later paintings to him the ones that are not so much realistic.....there is totally a word and i am not coming up with it. Again not the english major for a reason. Oh first i should mention this town also has a cathedral. What cool town doesnt in europe. I think it is actually the in thing for a city to do to get some recognition. But more on that thought later....pending i remember. Ok well did the cathedral cause it was free. My thoughts were, it was another touristy church. No not just that but had most of the basic cathedral things going on. Large, biblical refernces here and there, paintings, sculptures, candles for lots of money that you just leave there, no english pamphlets, and of course the always inviting renovating and restoring. Haha i sound so synical and i didnt mean to. Me being the slightly less of a biblical scholar they all are kinda the same. However i did notice some differences which i was proud of. In the spanish ones (err so far with this one) they were more particular with their floor. IN fact there was lots of plaques and stonework on the ground much of which was worn away which is a pitty. Next were the little alcoves all around the church were really gaudi (hahha i am a loser). No but really they were not nearly as cool as in france. I would guess that maybe it is due to when they did the last restoration and added them. I wonder what they had in the alcoves when it was first built. These could not have been original and didnt look as nicly crafted as in france. But france defindently did not have a garden attatched to theirs complete with well and drinking water (blessed i am sure). I didnt drink any for fear of becoming religious. But they also had these geese/ducks in the garden. It was confusing cause they looked like geese (which i am pretty sure they were) but they were all white and had a crazy little crownish thing on the top of their head. Scared geese i would assume. Well two post cards later i was outta there and off to picasso. So continuing with him yeh they have a huge collection complete with english all the way. I was doing good. Though i am still not an art conoseur so i still found it hard to study the pics. But it was intresting to see his transition and how his life parrelled the transition. I would love to get a tapestry of one of his designs. I really liked one of his later ones....not sure the name but it is a black and white and is the later picasso style that everyone is familar with. Also they used avant gard (gart ??) either way i knew what it was referencing from last yrs film class. Yes money is finally paying off.... I had already grabbed a french bread lunch and so i decided to walk a lot. Well my goal was the arc de triumph that this city apparently has as well but i never found it. Instead i found the harbor and decided to head to montjuic. It was the site for the 1992 olympics. Well me being in the walking mood i was thinkin of saving money and just walking it all. Little did i know my all day subway past would have saved me a lot of walking. Eh it was a fun walk. The whole way it is really modern landscaping prolly cause it is fairl new. The guidebook descibes the 1992 olymics as barcelona's coming out party. I also saw these cool little bike carts that bring you around which i almost got in but i couldnt bite the buck fifty a km. I maybe coulda if i had known how far it was to things but i didnt. I'll save it for next time im in barcelona...haha. Well got up half the montain and it was mighty warm so i figured i should splurge for the 5 dollar cableride. This is again where the alone part came it. Well i am waiting and everyone is in groups of 2,3,4. I am the only lone rider. And the lady asks out loud as this whole line is waiting how many in the groups as the cars can hold four so she makes sure the next group up economizes the system. Well yeh it was just lonely but i rode up with a nice little french family. I wanted to bust out some french but i wasnt feeling particularly social. Got to the top and there is a castle. For the best veiw you can go on top of the castle where they have a military museum. Well sduent id in hand the 1.25 i could deal with. The veiw was just about worth it. Though the haze over the city was not as cool. But the veiw of the harbor was nice and it is huge the amount of things they had intransit. The museum though pack with items lack descriptions and i think i was museumed out for the day. I saw a lot of guns and flags though. I departed and even got my own car on the way down. Then headed to see more of this olymicness. Well i hit this garden and i was done for. It was really cool. Again modern and really well kept but it was great to walk around. Sadly i was alone but peaceful none the less. And there was no one there so that was the greatest. Well i was getting beat so i figured i look to see whatelse the mont has to offer. There was another art museum and the pool. I did a cost benofit comparison in my mind and asked myself wwad. Haha and i decided i needed to do laundry as the 3 boxers i brought were not enough. If i had one less long sleeve shirt, one more pair of shorts, and 2 more boxers life would be happier. No actually i am really happy with most everything i brought. So i headed down the subway which was a diagnal one cause it has to go up the mountain. Kinda cool. Then did a real laundry fr the cloths for th elow price of 8 euros.....ouch. Even uconn only charges 2,50 for a full washer drier load. Had an economic dinner from the grocery store. While eating i met this club promoter. He was trying to get me to go on this pub crawl deal but i clearly wasnt gonna do it. But actually he was cool and gave me some cost saving ideas which was nice of him. Actually as i thought about it the hostel i am in is not tight on security or who is here and who is not. As long as it wasnt full anyone could stay there and no one would know. Unless it were full and the bed to person ratio gets a bit tight. Even then bust out my air matress sleep on the floor and say i walked in all drunk not knowing where my bed was so i just slept on the floor. No one would care let alone be able to check. Tempting. I am definatly not paying to leave my bag from checkout to whenever i leave via train for 3-6 euros. I will be leaving it in a corner somewhere. And it was funny the promo guy prolly knows this stuff cause he was saying he could live in the city for 5 bucks a day. And if you knew about how each place worked you totally could. He mentioned some free places to eat too. Though i have yet to find them i didnt try too hard. He even used the free internet in our hostel as he was chatting with people. All a matter of learning the ropes. So yeh i did a little arts and crafts then hit the internet to try to make plans for the next few days. I think the plan is going to be heading west (as east would find me a bit soggy) and then when i find out about timing with ray hopefully get a train back to barcelona (girona actually as tres mentioned) and then fly to rome. Pending that timing i may or may not get to hit up portugal. As it sounds like i have a place to stay i might try either way but it will depend on the timing and plane flights. But i will be departing this little town tom either way headed west. Then i was really beat so i went to bed at about 11pm. And suprisingly i really dont get awoken byt he stumbling drunks who come home at 230 or 3. And it is nice waking at 8 or 9 and they are all still sleeping so there is no line for the 2 showers for 30 people who live in the dorm i am staying in.

Well now for todays activities. Woke up like i said quick shower and had the complimentary breakfast. They should really call it something else cause it is not breakfast. I 2 inch around muffin, 4 oz of OJ, and 4 oz of coco is just not breakfast. And continental breakfast might be the right term but who came up with that term. Though we know continential breakfast means dont expect much, why use continential. That is a large word for such a small deal. Wow i am really probing into the meaning of life tonight. Well gaudi has built these numerous structures all over the city and he has this really unique style. I forget what they call it in one sentance but it is just futuristic looking. And the crazy part is it looks futuristic for now a days imagine when he built it in 1900. Well i saw a few ouse from the outside and toured one of them from the inside. Which was cool to see cause it isnt just the outside he designed it was everything. And i did the sacred family which is still in progress. I started in 1890 and is still going. The construction is really impressive. It is huge and their attention to detail is phenominal. There were some workers that you could see and eerything they do has to be desgined from scratch. The the molds they use to shape the concret. Unbelievable. Well since i splurged yesterday for the ride up the mountain i was gonna leg it up this one unstead of paying the 2 dollars. I should done it in the other order cause it took foreevr doing the stairs. Too many people in such a small space. And one of the most anoying parts was seeing this amazing stucture ruined by graffeti cause people were board going up. All through the stairwells. Also the amount of gum stuck everywhere was nasty. But ok so here is my thought about cities and large structures. I am thinking the people behind this are really smart cause half the reason they build these massive deals is that they know they are gonna be able to sell tix to people for a long time to come and prolly even forever to see these things. THis one today was only about 3/4 full and people are still paying to see it. Smart people. That and it puts em on the map and gets even more people to come to the city and spend money. Well i also had a run in at the grocery store. They are always fun cause i have no clue how they work. You think they are all the same but there are little differences and of course the big difference that it is in french or spanish. Well in france i had asked for a spoon for yogart. I just wanted a plastic spoon but they gave me a fork. But ti works then as i was checking out the lady comes running up to give me like this sourenier spoon deal. It was nice of her cause it was a nice spoon. Well here in spain i guess you weigh your own fruits. Well i had waited in the always long grocery line and then get to the front and she has rung in half my things and comes to my priceless fruit. She yells i shreek. Not really but she questions me why there is no tag. I reply in with my vast knowledge of the language, i dont speak spanish (i said it in spanish but i wont even try to spell it or megan will make fun of me). Well a nice english chap in the line says you gotta weigh your fruits here. Oh ok, i guess i will do that. I did and it didnt take long and she was able to keep ringing people out while i did that so not a huge deal. Funny none the less. It took me forever in france just to figure out laundry detergent imagine when i have to buy for a whole meal. Well the day had grown late and i headed back to make dinner and do this computing and a few other errands. And that is the status. Be good and i will catch yeh on the flip side....ummm i am so white...