Barcelona-Madrid Day 20

April 19, 2010

Day 20 Barcelona-Madrid

Most of our room got woken up this morning when a girl fell off the bed from the top bunk.  Trevor asked her if she was okay and another guy went up to her, but she fled the room and wasn't seen again.  I went to the bathroom soon after and didn't notice her in there (though truly I thought it was a guy that had fallen off.  Trevor had a better view because we were sleeping in 2 different beds on opposite sides of the room and he was one of the closest out of all of us to the girl who fell.)  After getting up and getting our free breakfast, we headed to the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, an amazing church in Barcelona.  It looks like it was carved out of one solid piece of rock.  (Unfortunately it was under construction, but it still looked crazy!)  It looked incredible.  We then figured it was time to head to the beach (so I could get my beach day in) and even though it was a long way, we decided to walk there.  On the way we saw the outside of the bull fighting stadium.  We thought about going in, but it was way too pricey and decided just seeing it from the outside was satisfying.  We then tried to make our way through a lovely park.   In the park there were some cool things like a temple of sorts and a huge mammoth.  Unfortunately, all our chosen routes were blocked so we ended up going right back to where we entered the park and took the long way around to get to the beach.  Finally, we made it!  It was definitely cooler when we finally got to the water, but the sun was shining and I was ready for some lounging.  Trevor went and climbed on some jungle gym while I suntanned and watched as some girl was getting a massage.  After much contemplation, I finally got up the courage to ask one of the passing masseuses how much it cost.  5 euro for 15 min and I was hooked!  So there I was getting a massage on the beach!  I commented to Trevor that it's funny how normally when I've gotten a massage they play ocean sounds in the background.  Here, you got the oceans sounds along with "Cervasa, beer, Fanta, Coke" as the drink seller passed by.  The massage was awesome!!!  I'm so glad I got up the courage to ask how much it cost.  We hung out until the wind got so cold that we couldn't stay any longer.  It was time to hunt down some food.  We found a cute place just off the beach and I ordered some paella while Trevor got the squid.  The food was very good.  The prawns in my paella were so sweet and so good.  It was awesome.  After the good food, we headed back toward our hostel so we could pick up our bags before our train to Madrid.  On the way we stumbled upon a street band.  They were a lot of fun and I'm pretty sure the guy who was dancing as if he was made of rubber also thought so.  It was some random dude dancing and his dance moves were interesting to say the least.  When he swung his arms as if he were jumping rope backwards, it definitely caught your attention.  We took the music in for a while then headed towards the hostel.  We took a detour toward the Christopher Columbus statue and finally made it to our hostel.  We headed to the train station that apparently is a bus station and an airport (or at least the signs showed airplanes).  We had to walk through security this time and it felt like we were going to board a plane.  They even checked our tickets before we got on the train (which was weird since normally they do that in the train) and once on the train we got headphones to watch a movie or listen to music.  It was very fancy.  The train ride was good and uneventful (other than our sneaky 1.5L of delicious Sangria).  Once in Madrid, Trevor led us to our hotel and we settled in for the night.