Once again I find myself in Barcelona. I have now revisted every city that I had done on my first ever Europe trip. Kind of crazy! In the morning we awoke and did some laundry in the sink, about time we were getting rather stinky. I met up with my Montreal friend to find the tickets to go to Italy. However I realize a little later that I can not go to Italy because I will be in Pamplona at the time. Ops I have not been doing well at keeping my dates straight. So I have to tell them I can not join 
Sad Story. I still might try to meet up with them in Croatia. We shall see. After laundry we make breakfast. EGGS!! get some protein in my diet. The Eggs were amazing. After breakfast we had to to check out and then try to get to the walking tour. However checking out took us longer than expected so we didn´t really get on time to the walking tour, which thankfully turns out was non existant. Rather than get off the metro we continue to take it up to Park Guell which is the Gaudi Park. It was nice to return and brought back flashbacks from being there 6 years ago. I can´t believe its been so long ago. I was climbing on one of the pillars to try to take a picture and a lady walks by and calls me crazy. At first I think she is joking. I then realize she wasn´t when she asked if I lost my brain. ops. I am not sure if it was because I was crazy that I could get hurt climbing or it was crazy because it was disrepectful, either way she was not having it. After walking around for a while at the park we went to fill up our water bottles in the toliets. The three other girls were yelled at for doing the same thing, but I was really thirsty and had not seen anyone around, so I went for it. Out of nowhere the potty natzi comes up from behind grabs my water bottle and dumps out the the water, including about a half of bottle that I had already had. I was not a happy camper at all. We then go to visit one of the houses-apartment complexes that Gaudi had created and went inside. It was okay but I was a little disappointed in how plain the regular rooms were . The terrace and the Attic were awfully neat to see, but not sure it was work the seven euros. We then decided to get some food and walk down to the end of la Rambla to eat it, maybe in a park or at the port. We got food at Carrefour (where I would shop in France) and then found a shady area to eat. It was a lot longer of a street than I remember from the day before, maybe because I was hot and hungry this time around. After dinner we went back to the hostel to get ready for Pamplona and then go to watch the Spain Game. (Which secretly I was cheering for Germany) I wanted to be in Germany for the final but they let me down Now it looks like I will support holland! We had to leave the bar early to catch our night bus, but I was able to see the goal by Spain. I also was able to catch the last minute of the game right outside of a bar near the trainstation. After the win, Fireworks started going off!! I am sure it would have been a good time had I been able to stay and celebrate!
Archive for » July 8th, 2010«
So today- last night we took an overnight bus from Barcelona to Pamplona. All we carried with us was ourselves, fully dressed in white ( White tank and white shorts) enough money to get us by, a bag full of food for the night and for breakfast, a camera, a phone and thats about it. All of this compiled into a small purse and a sac. The bus was super hot, so thankfully we didn´t freeze in our outfits, however it was unpleasantly hot so it made it hard to sleep. We had heard from a friend the trick was to get half way in and then run till you get in the stadium with the bulls. So this was our plan. However we did not know much else. Upon arrival to Pamplona at 5 a.m. We were greeted by many drunkards all very very dirty covered in spilt sangria and other nonsense. I tell you no one sleeps around Europe. We walked around aimlessly trying to follow people who looked like they knew where they were going and tried to find other english speakers. Both of those were not successful. We stumbled upon the path after asking several people the way to the street. We were followed by a drunken Canadian who wouldn´t leave us alone till we talked to him. So we tried to get information out of him to figure out what to do. At this time my nerves finally set in and I litterally was making myself sick. Part of it was the uncertainty of what I needed to do and how I could accomplish the run with out getting gored. A spanish guy came up to us as and was talking to us trying to give us information. I am sure I asked the same question millions of times as how I was supposed to get to the middle with out actually having to run beside a bull. Eventually we made friends with Parker a guy from Cali who seemed to have done his research. We waited in the plaza and hung out for a few hours as that was where we were supposed to be. This whole time I am bouncing back and forth doing my nervous dance. We tried to move our location to get closer to the end about 5 minutes before the bulls were to be released and as we were nearing death corner, we were picked off by the police. The purse that Marina was carrying was not allowed. We at this time had alrready ditched the sac of food. We empty the purse with neccessities in my money belt and hide the purse in an alley and try to find our way back into the street. By now it has been all blocked off and there was no way to re-enter It was litterally only minutes before the guns went off which meant that we couldn´t even find a decent place to watch the bulls run. We were able to catch the steers run by.. Wahoo! Now we are heartbroken and stuck in Pamlona until late tonight when we have another night bust to catch. I contemplated staying for tomorrow and figuring out then what to do. However I didn´t want to sleep by myself or go out with the drunken masses of people. So one day I shall return to Pamplona again and that time I will run with the bulls 
After I had posted the previous.. We went to take a nap in the park to try to pass time and to sulk a little in our saddness. We decided that we could go watch a movie and then still have time to go out before catching our bus. We went to see Eclipse in all Spanish. I didn’t understand much of it but Marina was being my translator. I could pick up a few phrases here and there, my spanish is definitely getting better. Which gives me something to look forward to back in Texas. After the movie we heard some loud drums so we decided to follow them. The whole streets were lined with people going Crazy. It was a massive party everywhere you turned. So we decided to go to the grocery store to get some fanta to make our own drinks and share a donner kebab my favorite( although they are very different in Spain than in France). So we sat and ate as we watched a parade go by and all kind of excitement. We just wondered around meeting people. Then we went to this dance party place which was just a blast. The crowd was much older but still lots of fun. We then wandered around again, making friends with some locals. It was a ton of fun and I have to say it totally lifted my spirits. Some how we stumbled onto a street preformace, where I totally was amazed by one of the dancers. He pulled me out into the circle which was pretty crazy. I then believed I tried to talk to him after but he kept avoiding me I think. Oh well it was to catch our bus, I didn’t have to time to chatter. When we get to the bus station we were told our tickets were no good and they were for the day before. Which made no sense because there was no way possible we could have made it to pamplona to even catch that bus. We left Barcelona at 11 and our bus was to leave Pamplona at 1 am. Its a 7 hour drive. So the guy at the bus station when selling us the tickets made a slight mistake and we didn’t catch it. Thinking that it was the next day but technically 1 am means it would be the following day. So now we trying to plea with the driver to let us on, I even offered sleeping with the luggage. He was not having it and started yelling at us we made a huge production. Then somewhere in our minds (I believe Marina’s actually) we decide to try the bus next to us. It was going to Barcelona as well. We thankfully were able to get on and I’m sure if the bus driver even noticed that it was for the wrong day or wrong bus. But thankfully were we able to get home on time and Marina was able to catch her flight. On the bus we happened to be sitting next to the guys we were going to run near. I think I chatted to him half way through the night, and then we decided we should probably get some sleep. Good idea.
Sorry I have not been posting often, life has been kinda hectic and when I have a spare minute there is one of 2 problems. My phone is dead, or I am tired and all I can think about it sleep. I should be having a long travelling day where I shall be able to catch up. I have mostly kept up in my notebook at least writting down memo´s so I can return and fill all of you guys in. I can share my last past few days now, so they will be slightly out of order. OPSIES.! Oh well here goes for some of the posts from the past few days. I am going to work backwards now, so don´ t be tricked. Also as far as future plans I am not sure yet what is going to happen, I have a few ideas a brewing. There is soo much I would like to see and soo little time. I am highly regretting that I bought the Eurorail about now tho =(