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.

Day 1 (for Mal):

Ordered an Americano at the coffee shop at Barcelo Sants. Took the metro from Barcelo Sants to Sant Jordi Hostel and dropped off our stuff. Took train to Passig de Gracia, saw Gaudi buildings. Arnab found out that inded burberry shirts are more expensive in Europe. Thor bought several polos including one with purple and lime colored stripes. Went south towards La Rambla and saw “Dunkin Coffee” – who dunks coffee? Saw all the birds in the booths and a chinchilla. Went to La Boqueria and got juice from crazy juice stand: coconut; pineapple and mango, guava and orange. Walked through the market, saw lots of meat, fish andfresh food. Got pizza and walked around in a big loop looking for somewhere to sit. ended at a stoop where pigeons were. Pizza was average with lots of oregano. A pigeon pooped on the map and thor got oregano stuck in his teeth and when he tried to get the oregano out of his teeth, he got coconut juice in his beard.

Walked down to the christopher columbus statue where the angels were all raising their hands with devil symbols, signalling us to rock on.We walked from the harbor through old town and got gelato. Then we went to desigual and thor tried on several hoodies and modeled them in the mirror, repeatedly reviewing how his bum looked in the diffrent ones. He bought two pairs of striped briefs after lots of essential consultation along with a blue and whilte hoodie with black doodles on it. Then we walked past a shop with shirts that were funny, based on the bulls running:kukuxumusu from the basque region. I bought underwear with a ladybug humping a mushroom. Arnab got an FCB shirt form the official store.Then I really had to pee because i'd been holding it since before pizza. WE went to the Plaza Real and had estrella damm. I saw a couple kide fighting with chinese fans. Waiter was a bit rude but i didn't understand anyway. walked to the metro and got off at espanaya. Saw the Palau National with the choreographed fountain, lights and music. Thor pointed out the control booth (it was like realizing santa claus is jus a dude in a red suit with a beard on). Then we were pretty tired so we went to the hotel and then to dinner at a spanish place on the road that led to the Sagrada Familia. Patatas Bravas (too mustardy), olives and a very salty tuna sandwich. The table next to us had a little girls with big saucer eyes who giggled alot.

And finally to bed.