After a few quiet days in Diss, it was Saturday and time to fly to Madrid, Spain. Jesse met us at the airport and we made our way back to his place via several trains and a metro ride. We went in to town and Jesse showed us the palace and cathedral. Marissa (Jesse´s girlfriend) met up with us and we went out for drinks. Tapas (free finger food with a round of drinks) are awesome and usually fairly healthy - great concept! We tried beer, expensive but tasty Mohitos and really good Sangria (Brenda is a fan). We were pretty tired so headed home just after midnight.

Sunday was a pretty quiet day with brunch and a visit to the park. On Monday Jesse had to work so we sorted train tickets to Barcelona and visited the park again to chill out. We booked the overnight train to Barcelona as it was quite a bit cheaper than the fast train. Tickets were only available for first class - so of course we got tickets thinking the trip would be luxury (was only a few dollars more than normal fare). However much to our disappointment, first class was crappy. No free drinks, no blankets, six to a room and the chairs did recline but two facing chairs would recline in to each other making for a pretty uncomfortable sleep.

The train arrived three hours late and with having a broken sleep staggered our way to the hostel. First impressions were not great as we needed a coffee and couldn´t find a jug or even boil a pot of water, ended up using the microwave. After a coffee we felt better and ventured out. We saw some interesting buildings designed by Gaudi, a famous architect and artist. We walked through the centre of town, seeing the main market and the cathedral. A visit to the beach was interesting - quite busy, reminded us a bit of the mount with cafes and stuff, however the beach was artificial and the sand was not very nice.

Tuesday was much more interesting. We went to some famous parks and went in an arena-style shopping centre. It was free to go on the roof (5 stories) which had great views of the city. It was possibly one of the Olympic buildings, not sure. We went to a park that was owned by Gaudi and his house is still there. There are a lot of paths held up by crazy pillars that he designed. One of the funniest things we saw was the market sellers. These were people (Indians we think) set up everywhere selling bits and pieces on blankets which seemed a bit strange. All of a sudden they starting yelling, whipped up their blankets and took off in to the bushes, all in about 10 seconds. Obviously they are not allowed to sell there and it wouldn´t surprise us if they are in Spain illegally. Turned out to be false alarm and over the next while they trickled back out of the bushes and set up shop again.

After the park we checked out another of Gaudi´s buildings before visiting his most famous creation, La Sagrada Familia. An amazing cathedral, still under construction (started in the 1800s, still has 30 years to go). The story behind the construction is really interesting and the decorations on the exterior is amazing. We took a lift 50m up and wandered roof passages with great views before descending via a tight spiral staircase. Finally it was time for a beer to finish the day off! Tomorrow we are heading one hour south to stay at the beach for two days, should be nice and relaxing before our next train trip to Paris!