Barcelona II: I apologize in advance for grammatical errors resulting from use of a spanish keyboard

So. Spain.

On Sunday we saw one of the houses designed by Gaudi -Barcelonaś epic architect- with some girls we met at the hostel who were architectural students studying in Rome, one of whom went to a rival school of my high school and knew people I graduated with. The world is the size of a breadbox.

Following that we got crazy lost looking for Las Ramblas, which is supposed to be this awesome avenue with shops and vendors and such. There were some street performers that were cool, I always enjoy people painted like statues for some reason, but other than that I wasn't terribly impressed. Eventually we got to the Mediterranean, which I don't think I'd seen before.

We eventually stumbled upon the Picasso Museum in the heart of the windy Gothic area of the city and got in free for reasons Im not clear on, something to do with the exhibits being redone, and that was kind of cool. Dinner at the most touristy ripoff place ever with sham tapas, suspicious seafood paella, bad sangria, and some sort of peculiar pastry from a box for desert, but even a tourist experience is an experience too. On that note its also kind of refreshing to be able to be a full-tourist and take pictures whenever you feel like it instead of in London where we try to be very discrete. After dinner we tried to find the Olympic village and couldnt seem to so finally called it a night and headed back to the hostel, but that ended up being only the beginning of the adventure.

As we exited the funicular station and began our way up the mountain path we noticed an unanticipated fellow traveller: a wild board. Like, a pig the size of a bicycle. Just chilling directly in our way.

I thought it was sort of neat and probably harmless but was torn between whether we should sneak past quietly or try to frighten it off. Latia was terrified beyond measure and burst into tears. Seeing as how sheś afraid of all animals, even small dogs on leashes, I suppose it was to be expected. We called the hostel reception desk who assured us that the animal was not dangerous but agreed to send down a van to get us anyway.

Another girl had come to the station by this time, who had lived at the hostel for a month and was not at all afraid of the boar but didnt feel like walking up the hill she ended up chatting with us for a bit. She was from France and spoke Spanish and a little English but I was thrilled that with my little bit of Spanish and some inventive gesturing we were able to breach the communication barrier pretty well. You wouldnt think that a hostel called InOUt would boast many semi-permanent residents, but it appears to. Surprisingly there are also very few youths, most people seem to be closer to middle age or are small children with families. Not what we expected but its working out fine.

Monday we went to see Gaudi`s masterpiece, La Sagrada Familia. Itś an incredible cathedral that is still only half way done, so even as we were touring it there was still construction going on and will be for the next twentysome years. We (perhaps Ive failed to mention that my travelling companions are Abby and Latia from the Belgravia house) ran into Rachel completely by chance, shes in Barcelona for a day or two before moving on to Rome. After that we went up to yet another Gaudi construction, the Park Guel, which was gorgeous and had great views as befits a place which requires four escalators and multiple flights of stairs to get to.

Returned to the hostel before sundown to avoid the boar and just hung out on the porch here for a bit, soaking in the sun we never see in the UK, and then had rabbit for dinner at the hostel restaurant.

Now weŕe going to try to find Spanish Epcot and some castles! Adios!