Day 12...and Day 13

Day 12, June 26th:

Barcelona Day Tres! 

After just a few hours of sleep, Danielle and I were off to the La Boqueria, an outdoor local food market hidden off the Las Ramblas.  It was so much more than I ever expected!  The market was full of individual stands stocked full of various fruits, vegetables, meats, seafood, grains and spices.  There were some pretty disturbing things too.  For example, whole skinned rabbits, whole fish being chopped in front of you, pig heads starring through the glass meat displays, saws with blood and meat remnants, as well as the wonderful smell of cured hams that were hanging from the ceilings of many of the booths that mulled over the entire market. That’s enough of the gross stuff…moving on to the healthy and cool part.  The locals are very keen on fruit juices; therefore, many of the fruit stands also specialized in the making of various freshly made fruit juice blends.  There were millions of flavors including coconut, pineapple, guava, strawberry, kiwi, banana, passion fruit, orange, watermelon, cherry, blueberry, peach, lime, and all of the possible combinations of these flavors and more.  The glass of fresh juice was only 1.5 euros, so we both had to give it a try.  I chose the pineapple coconut flavor and Danielle chose cherry mango.  Mine was delicious.  There were small shreds of coconut, so it was like drinking orange juice with a little pulp.  Delicious!  I also purchased a small fruit tray with pineapple, strawberries, kiwi, coconut, oranges, and a few grapes for 1.5 euros as well.  It hit the spot, since we don’t get very good fruit that often on the ship. 

After indulging in our wonderful fruit concoctions, we headed back to the ship to pick up Heather and head to one of the three places the ship told us not to go…McDonald’s.  It had free Wi-Fi, also known as Wi-Fi gratis, so I could Skype back to the US to Mom and Dad.  We/I talked for over an hour.  While I was chatting, Danielle spotted 6 free Coke World Cup glasses on a table after the people left, so we split them between the entire “group.”  They are pretty cool.  Apparently, you don’t throw your trash away while in McDonalds in Barcelona, as they do it for you. The next stop of the day was the Museo Picasso, located in the middle of the Barri Gothic (Gothic Quarters).  The museum displayed Picasso’s paintings from the Golden Ages, the Blue Period, the Rose Period, his pottery, and more.  As you guys know, I am not really into art, but it was interesting to see everything in one place.  Even his one set of paintings, entitled the Las Meninas series, revolves around the same basic figure overall, but each painting was totally different.  It was cool to see how much changed in each of the 56 paintings and you could tell what kind of mood he was in when painting each piece.  I am glad that I went!  I was upset that we couldn’t take any pictures, even of the outside of the building.  I got a few anyways! 

Once we left the museum, we ran to a restaurant to grab a bite to eat because our stomachs were screaming for food.  We ate at Pleasure 23, which was right around the corner from the museum.  Heather, Danielle, and I have been ordering three different items and sharing them so that we all can taste more of the local cuisine.  It may have been one of the best things we have done!  We ate chicken nachos, steak and chicken kabobs, and tortilla espanola.  For those of you with a good memory, I wrote about tortilla espanola several days ago…it is a lot like a frittata, which is made of eggs and potatoes, cooked like an omelet and served like a wedge of your favorite pie.  I really enjoyed the tortilla espanola and the chicken nachos.  They served homemade salsa and guacamole with the nachos that was absolutely amazing.  That is what made the nachos so delicious…   Danielle also got a local cervesa, so I had to give it a taste. 

While waiting for our food, music began playing from around the building on the street.  Of course I had to jump up to see what was going on!  It was two people dancing in the middle of the street.  Both people were wearing large costumes that were supported by a wooden frame, which they placed on their shoulders.   A small marching band accompanied them to provide the music for the dance.  It was pretty cool.  They march all over the Barri Gothic stopping at various street corners along the way on various evenings.  What an unexpected cultural surprise!  But it only gets better…

After dinner, we wanted to be sure to go to Valor Chocolates to have chocolate con churros for desert.  But we before we flooded ourselves with more deliciousness, we decided to sight see a little bit more in the Gothic Quarters before the sun went down.  We went just around the block to the Barcelona Cathedral and this cool building with an extremely colorful mosaic roof shaped like a wave.  The cathedral is so beautiful and full of architectural detail.  It is located on a large bricked walkway/square/park thingy and as we begin to explore this thingy we hear some live singing from down this alley behind the cathedral.  Of course, the three of us wanted to explore yet again.  Along the way, we noticed three vans of the Spanish National Guard, but we didn’t think anything of it…hindsight 20-20, this should have been a clue for what was ahead!  Anyways, we head down the alley to find two locals singing for a crowd of people.  I love that about Barcelona.  There are local artists, musicians and random people with talents that just set up camp on the side of the road and do their thing for all to see and listen.  On the alley, we decide to stop in this cool shop to buy some gifts and look around.  Within a few minutes, the streets are full of people and they are making all kinds of noise.  There was chanting, music being played from speakers, etc.  I ask the store clerk if there is a festival going on and she says she has no idea what is going on.  Of course, I have to see what is going on yet again…see the pattern of our trip!  Well, little did we know…it was not a festival!  It was a rally for equal rights during Barcelona’s gay pride week.  We realized this rather quickly as the first thing we see is a truck full of girls and guys with their shirts off, some of the girls only had fishnet stockings on (THAT’S IT…).  The National Guard had bordered the square with riot helmets and batons strapped to their waists.  Several of the soldiers were standing back up the alley where we were standing, so we felt pretty safe.  It was definitely not what we expected!  We expected to see 14-foot tall dancing characters and instead we see a massive blob of people holding rainbow flags spanking each other with rubber whips.  Yeah…enough said!  Not what we were expected at all! 

We then proceeded in the other direction and headed to Valor Chocolates for dessert.  We ordered the chocolate con churros and a scoop of Crema de Catalana ice cream.  Chocolate con churros are sticks of fried dough, similar to funnel cake, that are served with a super large mug of pure awesomeness…warm melted chocolate.  You either can dip the churros into the chocolate or some pour the chocolate over the churros on a plate.  It was absolutely amazing!  I don’t even like chocolate that much, but if I owned the restaurant then I would eat it out of business!  I really want them again now…thanks blog for making me hungry (Daniel went there and didn’t even order them! He had a Spanish coffee, which is supposed to be really good.  I am sitting here talking to him about them and I just told him that I am not friends with him anymore because he went all the way there and didn’t get chocolate con churros!).  We also had another Spanish favorite:  Crema de Catalana helado (that’s ice cream for you non-Spaniards).  Crema de Catalana is a Spanish variation of Crème Brule awesomeness.  The helado was muy muy muy bueno!  I would have spent every second we had left in Barcelona there eating those desserts if they didn’t kick me out.  Again, both were incredible! 

After filling our bellies, we decided to walk it off by heading back to the ship.  Daniel and the girls wanted to go to the clubs dancing, but Clark and I said we didn’t want to go.  Clark and I began writing our blogs while everyone was getting ready; however, once the girls were ready to go, Daniel fled the ship in search of the city on his own without updating the group of his new adventurous plan.  The girls searched the ship, but he was M.I.A.  They then decided that they were going to the club on their own!  Once word hit Clark and I, we threw on some long pants and flew off the ship to meet them waiting on the bus.  We couldn’t let them go into the city at 2 am alone.  By the time we got outside of the club, it was 3 o’clock in the morning.  I was sooooo tired.  Clark and I were just planning on sitting outside, so we were there when they came out.  Heather then remembered that she couldn’t go in either because it was too smoky for her asthma.  So the three of us, went for a walk along the boardwalk in search of a restroom and food; however, everything was closed so we walked the ENTIRE boardwalk to the Westin Hotel (known as the big W), which was very close to where the ship was located.  We thought that the hotel would have a restroom we could use in the lobby, but the hotel staff kicked us out of the building before we could even look for a restroom.  Ohh well!  It only took us about 30 minutes to walk there, so we decided to walk back a different way.  Once we arrived back at the club, we sat on a bench outside of the club.  That was an experience in itself.  We saw someone get kicked out of the club, a drunk guy pass out on a bench in front of us, a few prostitutes, a guy get handcuffed by police and many other exciting things.  We had fun people watching until the girls came out around 4:30 am.  We finally got back to the ship and hit the hay around 6 o’clock.  What a night (especially since Clark and I really wanted to get to bed early)!  I was glad we went with them because even with the two of us, many of the Spaniards kept walking past saying 15, 20, 30 dollars.  Prostitution must be high in Barcelona. 

Overall, it was a really interesting day!  Let’s recap!!!  First, we saw whole skinned rabbits, hams hanging from the ceiling, fish being chopped to pieces, and millions of various fruits and vegetables at the la boqueria market.  Followed by Picasso’s paintings, a group of locals dancing in the street wearing super tall costumes, the Barcelona Cathedral, and people singing in an alley.  We moved on to seeing National Guard members protecting buildings around a gay pride event with riot gear strapped to their waists and naked females standing on the back of a truck right behind the Cathedral.  Then we ate chocolate con churros and crema catalana helado, went on the underground metro at 2:30 and 5:00 in the morning to go see hookers, drunks get kicked out of clubs, and the entire Barcelona boardwalk along the beach minus the restrooms at the Westin hotel.  Now, what did you do on Saturday night?  Was it entertaining?  The worst part was putting your head down on your pillow and the sun is starting to shine in on your face under the blinds.  Since we got back so late, it felt like one day for us so here is what happened next…