Barcelona Continued

As beach week continues the stories just get better...

We have strangely met tons of people that come from the same corner of the world. JW met two girls from seattle and one actually had the same bday as him. Drews buddy Drew also had two cougs staying in the same room at the same hostel, and two others guys played football for Idaho.... six degrees of seperation in full force.

After I last left off our night continued on with a pub crawl hosted by the hostel, only 7 euro including a free shot at each bar. We wondered in a giant group through back allys out towards the marina front. The first bar was quant and we all hung out outside. A vendor offered me free roses because he was going home so darrick decided to pay for them anyway...free shots will do that to you. Justin and Darrick proceeded to talk business the entire time. The next bar, Chupitos, was by far our favorite, providing a list of more then 200 shots. Mitch and JW purchased their B-52 plane tickets and ended up with flaming shots down their throats (hey, were in Barca right?). The third bar was hazy but we defintely made more friends and cradled our beers. At this point Mercer was walking down a zig-zag path. The group left back to the hostel and Rick (Darricks alter-ego) just had to continue his convo. Justin stayed back to walk with Merc and two new American buddies that live in the area. After about 10 minutes of no Justin or Darrick, Drew and I started to freak, walking back into the sketchy ally full people you normally wouldnt want to be around.

After 45 of no shows they finally showed up with the local american buddies.They had some run in's with back ally women and open bars. Apparently Darrick asked if he could call the bigger guy Lane (after our buddy Lane from home) as he was helping him walk back. Darrick crawled up to bed, Keagan went to the club by himself (he definitely wasnt letting a single moment slip away), and the rest of us continued with the night.

The next morning we all got up relatively early to check out the touristy spots. We went up to Park Guelle on one of the highest hills in Barca to see Gaudi's amazing architectural work. Built into the hillside full of colorful ceramic art as well as a bench that continues around the area. It also includes two houses that Gaudi had previously designed for a gatec community. From their we taxi'd down the La Segrada Familia, the famous Gaudi cathedral. Drew, Justin, JW, and I decided to go in and the others headed to the beach. To say the least, the interior is absolutely mind blowing. The outside is definitely a site to see but the inside is completely designed from Gaudis ideas of incorporating nature and the universe. The design started in 1882 and is predicted to be finished around 2030, following the plans Gaudi set out.


You can tell by the columns in the front that replicate the trunks of trees.

After the cathedral we went over the the Barcelona football (soccer) stadium. Unfortuntely it was way too expensive to go inside so we walked around and went into the team store (just as magnificent as a seahawks team store). After, we took a taxi back to Las Ramblas and wondered back to the Plaza Real. For dinner we paid 10 euro to go out to a traditional Paella dinner, including appetizers and a jug of Sangria. It was damn good, including Crawdawd, squid, and mussels. After dinner we wrapped up with a few beers while Keagan, Justin, and Darrick got ready to go out again.

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS DARRICK MERCER post is coming soon...
(No need to worry, but a good story never fails)