Understanding

Put me down!


Yesterday I woke up early to checkout and head to the bus station. I checked the day before and busses to Barcelona were at 10am, noon and 2pm. The earliest I could catch a bus to town was 9am and then I wouldn’t get to the bus station in time for the 10 am bus, but I would hopefully have time to make the noon bus and at the latest 2pm. I made it to the bus station by 11am to buy my ticket to Barcelona but the noon and the 2pm busses were full I would have to wait 5 hours until 4pm for the next available bus. Like any good American I went to the mall to look around and then went to McDonalds to play on the internet. Every item that you buy gives you 30 minutes of free internet, good thing they have a 1 Euro menu.

While walking the mall I spied a man, who I assume to be homeless walking the mall reading a book. I wondered to myself, what kind of books do homeless people read? When he passed I glanced over and saw that the book was in Spanish. Wow, I thought not only is he reading a book but he also knows Spanish. Then I remembered that I am in Spain and if he were to be reading anything it would most likely be in Spanish. I forget that other people speak other languages because my thoughts are always in English no matter which country I am in.

Finally I couldn’t stall any longer and I returned to the bus station to wait. They have an indoor area with doors that they prop open and allow pigeons to walk in and out of. I don’t think they prop them open so pigeons will come in, but it is the result. I sat there and watched the pigeons for a long time. I learned that pigeons, at least the ones at the bus station have an order to how they do things. The first pigeon to find new food has a right to it and other pigeons that come along have to give first right to the finder of the food. The pigeon that finds the food, even if he is smaller, will scare away larger pigeons. They kept me entertained for over half an hour, I know I am easily amused.

My bus was supposed to be at gate 31, but there wasn’t a bus there. There was a bus in the next gate but it had a different location on it and other busses kept pulling in around my gate and everyone would walk over to check the destination but they weren’t ever Barcelona either. Finally around 4:15 the driver for the bus that had been parked in the gate next to mine for 30 minutes returned from smoking and changed the sign on the bus to Barcelona. It was basically a miserable bus experience because the driver was late and drove too slow, which meant we couldn’t stop so I could eat, I sat next to the stinky bathroom, people kept coughing and sneezing, there was a kid behind me kicking my seat and the guy next to me kept shouting into his cell phone.

I think my hostel in Barcelona might be the largest hostel in the world. There are 7 floors, one is reception and half of one is the common area. Assuming all floors and rooms are like mine there are 14 rooms per floor and 16 beds per room. That makes for 1232 possible people staying here. I’m sure it cannot actually be that big and that there must be smaller rooms and smaller floors, but it is a very large hostel.

Why are old people always so ugly? Were they better looking when they were young or is it only the good looking ones that die young? If that’s the case and only the good and attractive die young, then I will nearly live forever!

Today I woke up early, ate cereal from an industrial sized bin, I hope no small children were buried alive at the bottom, then I headed into the city. I was here in 2001 and I only have one day so I decided to take the quick tour and see the big sights from the outside. I went to La Sagrada Familia, a church they have been working on for over 100 years and it still isn’t complete. I couldn’t really see much in the way of changes in the last 8 years, but I’m sure they are making lots of progress. I sat down in a park nearby to rest and look at the church. I noticed behind me was a dog park and I walked over to watch the dogs. A giant golden retriever looked at me and I looked at him and he ran over to me to be scratched and play. He was a fun dog and I kept his attention for a few minutes until another dog came along and he left to play with (hump) her. Then I went to a street with lots of street performers and outdoor pet shops. I don’t really get why they have outdoor pet shops of all the businesses in the world. I suppose someone opened one and was making money and everyone else just copied them. My last stop of the day was Parc Guell, a Gaudi creation that has to be seen.

Tomorrow I head to Rome, I am very excited, though I don’t think I know a single phrase or word in Italian, it should be fun.

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08_29_2009 Barcelona small