Life with MK: Biking through Barcelona

Yesterday I did the Fat Tire Bike Tour through Barcelona. It is the same company I did the bike tour with in Berlin and it was really fun (minus the sunburn I got even though I most definitely WAS wearing sunscreen).

The bike tour took me through some of the highlights of Barcelona, like the cathedral, the old bull fighting arena, the Arc de Triumph, the Sagrada Familia, the beaches, etc. By the beach there is a really cool architectural sculpture by Frank Gehry that looks like a sparkling fish in the sunlight. It's pretty cool. Besides me there were three other groups on the tour. One group from Texas, one from Dixon, CA, and a couple who went to Cal (and worked at the Nordstrom in WC!)

After the tour I walked around a bit and then went back to the hostel to relax some. I needed to buy a train reservation so I eventually headed out to Sants station to buy it. I took a number and waited for jut under an hour for my number to be called. When I finally got up to the window the man wouldn't speak any English (not that I expect people too, but your working in a train station in one of the most tourist frequented cities in your country), he was intolerant of my attempted Spanish and wouldn't speak any slower, and wouldn't sell me a reservation because my pass was at the hotel and not with me at the station. I have purchased at leader 5 train reservations and never have I needed my pass to buy it. It was so frustrating!!

Since my super long train experience made me upset and aggravated I decided I needed to eat dinner and on the way stumbled upon one of the famous Gaudi houses. I went to this tapas place called Tapas 24 and had a good meal. A girl sitting to my left was from SoCal originally and did her two masters at Michigan where she lived basically across the street from where I'm living. The lady to my right was from New Jersey and was an eating disorder therapist who made a documentary that happened to have debuted in Walnut Creek. So so weird. When those couples left, two girls sat next to me from DC. One is starting next month at the military medical school and doing Army! So many random connections, but it didn't stop there. On the way home from dinner I passed a girl I went to the Virginia state fair with back in October! I have now officially run into five people I know in four different countries (one in the Louvre in Paris, one in the British Museum in London, one walking down the street in Beijing, one on the Olympic green in Beijing, and one walking down the street in Barcelona). I love randomness like that!

Anyways, I had a pretty good first day here (once again minus the sunburn).