Barcelona! To get to our next city, we took a bus from Marseille to Barcelona. It was a fairly long bus ride, about 8-9 hours. But it was nice to see roadways and go though the country side...a slightly different experience then another train. It was a really hot day, but what made this bus ride extra hot...a broken engine ventilation system that instead of blowing hot air outside the bus, was blowing in through a large vent at crotch height (important, cause it made peeing a burning experience!) above the toilet in the bathroom! It naturally made the entire bus heat up, because it was blowing so hard we could feel the hot breeze from our seats. What made it worse was that it came with the lovely light aroma of bus bathroom! We were very happy to arrive in Barcelona! But not just for that reason, all along the trip to this point we had met many people that had been there and gushed about how amazing and awesome Barcelona was! So we were excited to experience it and see if it lived up to all the talk!
We enjoyed Barcelona quite a bit, the 900 photos that we took in the seven days we were there are proof of that! Because of so many things to post, we are going to break Barcelona up into a few different posts instead of one giant one. Our first day, by fluke, happened to be Barcelona's annual, but only 2nd, gay pride!
We stayed in a hostel, sadly we could not find a couchsurfing host here. There was a grocery store across the street from the hostel, and well, one of the first things we did was buy food and some booze! Spanish is awesome, and Stefan thought "Coronita" was pretty cute!
The hostel we stayed in was quite great. It was 4 floors in a small mid rise apartment building. So everyone was staying in an apartment that had anywhere from 3-4 bedrooms. So it was like having roommates but with your own private room! There were two bathrooms, a small kitchen, FREE ENSUITE LAUNDRY (which was pretty exciting on a backpack trip!), a full living room with tv, and balcony! We met some really nice people that we shared the apartment with, mostly Canadians and Australians. Here Cliff is washing up after dinner!
Gay time! So this looks like a decent crowd hey? Well, when we got there, there were way less people, and what you see is almost all that was there! We were surprised how small gay pride was in Barcelona, and that it was only their 2nd one ever! Thankfully as it got closer to the parade time, more people showed up. Unlike Toronto, you don't have to show up hours before! One thing that was good and bad at the same time, was there were no barriers on the side of the street! So people would push the crowd closer and closer to the parade, which was fun cause you felt more connected to what was going on, but it also meant much more a chance of ending up under the wheel of a giant float or bus!
It's Spain, lots of gay guys, almost wearing nothing...need we say more?! :P Hahaha
A cool sculpture in a square very close to where the pride parade started. In case you can't figure out what it is, it's two staircases on top of each other!
So, during the parade, we say this in a store window...at first, we laughed...thinking it was a joke, maybe cause of the event...but no, apparently there is a market for these HUGE granny (but granddad) briefs! Really, you these would come up so high you could use these as underwear and a scarf at the same time!
At the start area of the parade, a marching band was warming up...there were great to watch, but the one in Avignon would have kicked their asses! What is awesome...how hot it is in Spain! So the parade starts at 6 in the evening, cause it's too damn hot in midday! Jealous!? *snicker* ;)
Gay bus!
Gay people! Hahaha, not all of them :P Just the crowd and a cool building!
The next bunch don't need any explanation...just a bunch of floats!
Pick one! (but not the red shorts one....he is taken!) Hahahaha
The crowd leaving after the parade was done. It basically followed it through the city, with the mass of people just walking and drinking in the streets...we followed for a bit, but then got hungry and went to eat!
On our way, aimlessly looking for a place to eat, we walked down this really cool street/alleyway kinda place. Would be great to live in one of those apartments!
Further down the same alleyway, with a random but cool palm tree in the middle!
How can you go to Spain and not have any paella?! So this was our first meal out (we had cooked in the hostel the first night) in Barcelona and in Spain. It's not easy to find a paella that doesn't contain any red meat or pork, so when we saw this paella on the menu we wondered what was in it. Our waiter was a crankyhead and didn't really care about our question...Stefan was avid about knowing if there was red meat or not in it. All he kept saying was "meat and seafood". When we asked what kind of meat, he said "I don't know, just meat." Some lady at the table next to ours said it's not red meat, just chicken. So we ordered it. And BOY was she wrong!! Damn her!! There was seafood, as you can see. Prawns and mussels, yum! But the meat... oh gosh the "meat"!!! Stefan couldn't touch any of it, so Cliff ate it all, but to this day he still has no idea what exactly he put in his mouth! He's pretty sure they were random parts of cow organs. Having said that, the paella was actually quite tasty! Stefan enjoyed the rice parts very much!
Stay tuned for more awesome Barcelona!
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