Day 8: final post

I couldn't sleep so got up at 730 to go running. Crappy run but saw a cool pool under a bridge. Came back and showered. Paco came and we headed inland. Felt sick with sinus pressure - perhaps lack of sleep contributed. Stopped at Dinopolis and poked our heads in. Crazy overrun with kids so jetted. Parked on the far side of the city and walked in. Andy and Arnab went up a tower while Alisha, Thor and I got coffee. We walked over to some cool stairs and took a few photos. Andy got stamps and it started to rain. Walked back into the city and voer to the cathedral. Back into city. Andy got coffee and I went shopping. Tried to find skinny jeans. bad idea. headed back to kebap place. They had no veggies so i was stuck without food till the car. Played categories on the way back. good ones: rap cons, cookies, airlinge, countries that start with B. Stopped at opencor for dinner sutff. Alisha came back to Thor's and we made food.

and that's all i wrote. still another day worth of stuff - andy getting sick while Thor and i checked out the olympic stadium. and that's all i remember... anyone else?

Day 7

Drove south along the beach. Stopped in ? and wandered about on the beach. Collected a bunch of seaglass in the pebbles. Walked up the beach to get paella and sangria. Sat for a long time before the waiter came and then he told us that they didn't have paella. We left and walked down the road a bit. Found a traditional looking place with lots of tourists. We ordered sangria, guac and ham. We had squid ink paella and spicy paella. I accidentally ate a pepper. The sangria was very strong and the paella was fantastic. We had dessert of chocolaty caramelly creamy moussy things. Went back via the beach. Spent a long time throwing rocks at rocks. There was one crazy hard one to hit and Alisha finally got it.

Drove out to a hillside point above the ocean. Alisha and Andy climbed a little tower. We took pictures of the moon. On the way down, saw a dog in the middle of the road with a jogger. The dog ran in the road alot and the runner didn't seem to care even though he was blocking traffic. Drove back to Valencia. Talked about work, management vs. engineering.

Picked up ice cream, wine and beer at opencor. I ordered a pizza and somehow managed to order the number below it also. When it was time to pay, the guy seemed to speak great english except when i tried to clarify that i wanted just one pizza. Gave excellent directions to the atm to get me to pay for my unwanted second pizza. andy came down and got the other pizza.

Talked about classes. Thor and Arnab got kranky (Thor doesn't like to rehash classes i suppose) so we played kings. Some good stories and rules: say fuck after everything and telling drunk stories on every five. Ran out of beer so the boys went back to opencor. They were uncsuccessful so we went to bed.

Day 6

Woke up in the morning and went running with Alisha while Thor and Andy went to buy tickets for the soccer game. We found a spiffy little exercise park that even had a metal elliptical. some of the machines were less than intuitive and there was a guy who tried futilely to show me how to use them with Alisha translating. Ran up and down the sculpture thingies and then back to the apt. Went to the science center/mall to see and IMAX movie but it was sold out. The science center, amphitheatre and IMAX were designed by Calatrava, the same guy who designed the twisting tower in Malmo that I saw out the window during my last Eurotrip with Nora and Thor.

At the mall, Thor ordered an OJ at the cafe and it was quite tart and tasty and, of the course of all the drinks in spain, came with a large packet of sugar. And being my usual sweet-toothed self, i had a waffle with chocolate. Bought a Valencian goalie figurine for my boss Kai and a spanish book of jungle animals for Z, his awesome fat screaming baby. Shopped for awhile but surprisingly didn't buy anything else. Back to apt.

Off to soccer game, unfortunately feeling abit sick. Quite cold at the soccer game but everybody was excited and shivering more in anticipation than for the cold. Our seats were behind the southern goal in the third and fourth row and a little bit scattered. Very cool. The lady next to me was a chatter box, big Valencia fan, didn't speak any english but chatted with me throughout the game. When the game was starting, the balconies threw confetti down on us. there was a drum pit near us and they were playing the whole game. Opposite us, the balcony threw down a huge flag that covered the entire lower deck. Valencia scored the first goal and also the second. Valencia won 3-2 and Mata was the big hero. We gathered outside the stadium. The team came out on the balcony and threw jerseys into the crowd. Andy caught one and managed to also keep his glasses in the fight. Lots of cheers. Mata was interviewed and the crowd went nuts. Then someone set off fireworks in the middle of the crowd and everybody surged away rather happily (woulda freaked people out in the US). Went home and Andy was really happy about the shirt and Thor was quite jealous. Tried to get pizza but once again my pescatarianism defeated me in this meatcentric country. Passed out right away - maybe the excitement was a little much for me.

Day 5

got up at 5:25. Thor snoozed every two minutes on different devices but after 5 times i got upset because two minutes is just an unreasonable amount of time to snooze. We picked up Alisha and called her "a-lih-sha" when it should have been "a-lee-sha." Particularly awesome because she let it go for 3 hours even though Thor obviously knew better but was participating in the joke. Drove to Valencia , saw lots of pretty hills along the way. As we approached, we stopped for a break and we could already hear the bottle rockets even though we were well beyond the city limits and it was 9 am. We drove into the city and past the stadium and found the apt we would be renting.Got coffee and walked into the city. Saw lots of Fallas (here's a few: http://www.holavalencia.net/2008/03/16/map-of-fallas-2008-part-i/) along the way - mermaids, fish, big masks, one with lots of puns of city names, (gatova as gato-va: meaning cat go - a dude kicking a cat away). We found a tent near a fallas where an oompah band would follow people that were walking down the street. Arnab and Andy danced with them. then we walked to the city center and saw that a bullfight was going on at the stadium. We were hungry and tried to get food but gave up as it was almost time for the main event.

Went over to the main square to see the main event. As during the entire morning - lots of fireworks were set off at random while we played ghost and waited for about an hour. Then the show began. We all had earplugs but it was still amazingly loud. The fireworks show was about noise not lights - not anything like the american vision of a fourth of july show. Sooo cool. The finale was crazy. There were two tennis courts with fireworks strung across them a couple feet apart. They lit those off and they fired super-rapidly and then finished with a deep boom. Throughout the whole show, the ground was vibrating and tremoring. Sooo cool.

After the show, we spent a long time walking over to see the big Falla that looked like the genie in aladdin. Walked back to the apt, stopped for Tapas. Waited forever for the waiter. He took a picture of himself and we headed back to the apt - pretty tired. Stopped at Open- Cor for a pittance of food. I fell asleep while the others went scrounging for food. I think that the spanish strategy for preventing the residents from becoming obese is that the store owners have banded together and agreed that groceries will not in general be available for purchase except for very short periods at random times which change daily. Coming from my residence in SD where i can walk across the street to my grocery store anytime between 6 am and midnight, this food purchasing limitation was difficult for me to get used to.

Later, made pasta and pizza which were totally gross and played caps. Thor was on fire. The whole time we were playing and eating, fireworks were going off in every direction all around the apt. We got pretty drunk and excited and ended up hitting each other in the stomach. The boys were being total wusses about it so Alisha manned up and hit me really hard (comparatively). It was hilarious. After quite a few blows, poor Andy's stomach turned bright pink with fist prints.

Finally headed back out on the town. Walked towards the city center. crazy kids were shooting rockets at each other. Crossed into town and gathered around a Falla with grecian pillars and a jamaicanish dude. Stood at the edge for a long time. Little fireworks show and then they set off the fireworks strand that was wrapped around the Falla. After the Falla really caught fire - the heat was super-intense. I had to back up almost 6 yards. Not perhaps as impressive as the Texas bonfire but this was in the middle of a pretty small intersection and buildings were less than 10 yards from the fire and this was a smaller Falla than a few of the others we saw. Very impressive overall. Alisha, Arnab and Thor headed back to the apt. Andy and I went into town to see the Genie set on fire. Pretty crowded - small fireworks show again and then the Genie went up in flames. Huge fire.

back to apt and to bed.

Day 4: Thor got up and went to work at 9 (after very few hours of sleep!). When he came back at noon, none of us had gotten up (ha!). Thor went to the store and got supplies for pancakes and i went for a run. i ended up at the harbor and saw some really cool yachts - very high end. Big antennas - one yacht had two antennas that had at least 1.3 meter light bulb radomes. Another yacht had it's own helicopter! Really cool graffiti along the river path. Very tasty Swedish pancakes when i got back. Thor had some trouble spraying the whipped cream in his mouth (how uncouth!). he dribbled it in his beard. The raspberry jam was the best - i had six pancakes.

After b-fast, we walked across town to the mediterranean overlook and then down to the amphitheatre. Pretty cool old Roman thing - later inhabitants (perhaps goths or visigoths?) built a church in the middle and then became a dump. Of course, being a dump, it was well preserved. Went to the Tarragona museum and saw some cool ruins that had been found in the area, including several mosaics. We talked about how we all would like to put mosaics in our houses when we grow up. Walked up a Roman tower that had several levels - one had a model of the city as it was in Roman times, also had sarcophagi. Then went down into the catacombs that were built underneath the circus floor to ensure that the floor was flat. We also saw the area where the performers would gather before they would go out to perform. The signs noted that the roman walls were well preserved because as people built houses in the city, they used the walls as one wall of the new houses that they built. while we were down there, arnab played a joke on Andy, saying that the last room in the catacombs was the coolest room. Andy went back in to see what was so cool but there wasn't anything there.

Went back to Thors. stopped at a shoe shop- yay! bought my cool euro shoes (http://www.wonders.com/). I had to hold up my fingers to tell the woman what size i thought i was. After shoes it was pretty late so we walked over to the rental car place. Thor got the Europcar - it was a cool boy car, a siat leon. not many cool boys in US drive hatchbacks but sounds common in spain. We headed to the aquaduct. As it was pretty dark, we had to use our nighthiking skills. I was pretty scared when we walked across the aquaduct as the walls were pretty low. Then we walked back across the gorge. Thor tried to run ahead and scare us but we could see him because of his bright hoodie. Back downtown for dinner - had trouble parking so we ended up over by the cool yachts and the crazy building. We at a a touristy place called something del mar (just like california). We ordered a big group dish with seafood and vermicelli. had fried cuttlefish in honor of alex.

Conversation tangent - thor apologizing to me about honking my horn at andy's wedding - andy telling the story of how angry his mom was when he honked her horn - arnab told story of how he lied to his parents about going on a band trip - andy kneeing some kid named joe sicerella in the butt for not letting andy borrow his ice ice baby tape -talked about how homosexuality being genetic or not and how experiences in our youth can move you in a cult-like fashion in one direction or the other. Then we drove to the end of the pier where they give the rollerblading lessons. thor took us home and the boys stayed up all night playing video games.

Day 3: Got up early and ran to Park De Gaul. Got a bit of to the right and so didn't get to see the
Gaudi stuff - nice views of the Med and the city landmarks from on top of the hill. Ran back to the hostel and of course the boys weren't even up yet (sigh shake head but as Arnab said, I knew that they wouldn't be up). Went to bakery again and got chocolate and vanilla crepes. checked out of the hostel and left our luggage - took subway to the train to MontSerrat. Andy and I had espresso while we waited for the train. We played Ghost again and met a coople of girls from the states. One was from Edmund Oklahoma (wassup Neil King hometown) but alas she was much younger than us and didn't know of the infamous Neil King. In Montrisol, we decided to walk up the mountain to the monistary. Thor wore his funny stabilization shoes. We ran into a some children who were part of some sort of troop. The last little girl was very clumsy and said " ayyaiyai, hijo de dios! (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijo_de_Dios) Arnab said she must be related to me. Its true i'm pretty clumsy (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/clumsy).

When talking about Taylor's favorite movies, Thor guessed that perhpas she liked Se7en. andy was all like, what? We took a long time to go up - much more than the hour and a half that the website predicted. at the monastery, we ate in the cafeteria. i had sald/fruit while the boys got sausages and beans. We shared crema de catalan and andy got ice cream. Went and checked out the Basilica - lots of different chandeliers. Cool candles and mosaic in the floor. Story of montserrat: these guys climbed the hill and found an image of the virgin Mary. They decided to build a basilica up there. They call Mary the virign of Montserrat. Catholicism in Spain is largely localized and its common to find that churches are built for the the virgin of this town or that town or area (source - book on history of spain that i bought before the trip). Montserrat is a common Catalan name for girls in the area - it cane be shortened to Montsey.

We took the train down and played ghost on the way back. I won on arrival because Andy attempted to spell arrivable. Got our stuff and barely made the train to Tarragona.Thor made the greatest decision of the trip to get a cab back to his place so that we wouldn' have to haul our luggage all the way across town. We changed shoes and went to Thor's favorite restaurant, Tagliatelli. We had an excellent house wine, a local Tempranillo. I got the salmon, spinach and mushroom pizza - it was soo good. Olive bread was good too.

Went to a local Irish pub to celebrate St. Patty's day. Met Alisha (finally Alisha enters the story) and had pint of guiness. got free Guinness hats, hung out for a while, made small talk (which arnab was struggling with because he was tired), and then walked Alisha home. Andy and Arnab stayed up playing video games while Thor and I had a heart to heart that can only truly be accomplished at 2 am. Thor fell asleep with his arms behind his head and i woke him up to tell him (it looked really uncomfortable).

and then...

Day 2

Got up and got croissants and walked towards the Sagrada Familia. Watched all the people carrying the palms for palm sunday. Walked to Sagrada Famila and Arnab complained how the park was all sand, walked west across town to sans estacion. Saw more pople carrying palms and played guessing games.We remembered when Andy got mad - though of the time when he got back from Christmas and he found that Alex had not flushed before vacation. Arnab remember the time that he sent Andy all that spam because andy had mentioned how nice it was not to get spam on that account. Arnab also brought up the time he stole Andy's friend's car. Then we guessed what Andy would be wearing when he showed up. We though he'd be wearing a Tshirt and jeans and his blue jacket. As expected he said "hey" when he showed up. Then we went to the hostel and back to the Passig de Gracia and went South.

Randomly met Sujan and Kate (before we planned to) so we got sandwiches (mine was a chocolate filled pastry - best sandwich ever) and walked around looking for an internet place. We accidentally got an extra sandwich so thor carried it around like a gun. walked past a market (mercat santa caterina) with a cool roof and talked about siesta. headed south down a shady alley with palm trees and hung out while Sujan and Kate checked their flight. Arnab was right about their flight time - his memory is quite good. We then walked to the Arc do Triumph and through the zoological park. Saw a fountain with cool dragons.

St Jordi is the patron saint of Catalonia and he is famous for having slayed a dragon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George_and_the_Dragon and thus there dragons in alot of the artwork and statues around the city of Barcelona. On a similar note, previously Thor had told us about the origin of the Catalan flag. Yellow with red stripes because the king had a gold shield and as he died, he dipped his hand in his wounds and dragged his fingers across the shield: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senyera. Catalonia has wanted to be a separate country partially because they are a wealthier region and they feel they support the other regions unfairly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_nationalism.

We continued past the woolly mammoth statue and went south to the harbor. I was giant dork and noticed the antennas on the ships when we tried to ride the funicular. It was closed for inclement weather, so we walked around the harbor past a carnival where we smelled waffles and pancakes. Sat for awhile and then went to old town to find food. wandered down a random alley where an american girl told us to eat at Sinatra. Place was pretty good, Tapas and American style Spanish dishes. great patatas bravas and wine from Catalonia (Syrah). Made bets about where the waitress was from and Sujan was closest- he said Canada and she was from Idaho.

Sujan told his greatest moment story. He had been in front of Deering tossing the frisbee around. Then he was practicing headstands and he had Arnab toss him the frisbee . He caught it between his legs and then was able to toss it back to Arnab and it was the greatest moment of his life.

Got back on La Rambla and played Ghost for a long time: viviporous (now confirmed to be oviviporous), vandium, quintessential, beneficiaries. We said goodbye (prematurely) and then walked Sujan and Kate to their hostel and then to the train station. Ended up at a dead end transfer and had to walk the long way home.

And finally to bed.