Our hostel had lock-out hours between 11 and 12 (meaning you can't be in your room or the bathroom because they're cleaning), so we slept until about 10:30, then quickly showered and got ready to go. Ben went to go find a phone to try to call his farm again, and frankly, I relished the few minutes on my own. I sat in the lobby and checked my e-mail, wrote a few to my family and Erik (mostly venting...a necessary task at that point to avoid being held liable for killing my traveling companion), and killed some time playing on facebook (the usual time waster) and checking out a couple guidebooks to find out how to get to the places I wanted to go that day. It was a nice break.
After awhile I decided to wander outside for a bit and see if I could spot Ben so we could head out on our next adventure. Armed with my camera and my e-mail from Andi about what to see and do in Barcelona, I made my way toward a little park at the end of our street. Of course the first thing I found was a group of Americans, enjoying the sunshine. :) I wandered into a cute little church and took a few minutes to pray and try to let go of my frustration. (I think it helped.) When I finally wandered out, I ran into Ben and we headed out to find Las Ramblas (a big road that is, apparently, very "Barcelona"--mostly very touristy, I think).
I let Ben lead the way (we were mostly successful...even though we went in a very different direction than he thought we were going). Eventually we made our way to Las Ramblas, and we noticed it was VERY densely packed with people. Ridiculously so. It didn't take us long to realize that there was some sort of a protest going on, with lots of young people shouting things in Catalan and Spanish (NOT the same, kind of like how Basque and Spanish are NOT the same), holding signs, etc. There were police EVERYWHERE. We didn't realize quite how serious this was UNTIL WE CROSSED THE LINE OF RIOT POLICE IN FULL RIOT GEAR. (And this is the SECOND time in my life I've had to this...I told you traveling was exciting!) Don't worry, though...it seemed like a pretty peaceful protest to me. I'm fairly certain the riot police were just a precautionary measure.
After we made it through the riot police, the crowed thinned out immensely. We marveled at the many living statues up and down Las Ramblas as we kept our eye out for the Market Andi had mentioned.
Eventually we found the market, and this was one of the coolest places I've ever been!! I know it's just a market, but seriously, it was amazing. There was fresh fruit and veggies and meat and eggs--you name it. On the seafood tables, the fish and crustaceans were still moving (Barcelona IS right on the Mediterranean, after all)! The colors were INCREDIBLE, and these are some of my favorite photos I took on my whole trip. I just think they're amazing. :)
They had these cups of juice you could buy for 1 Euro at many of the stands, and they were DELICIOUS!! They were obviously made straight from the fruit, and there were tons of different flavors to try. My first one was Strawberry Pineapple (AMAZING!!), and then I decided I had to be adventurous and try the bright pink cactus juice. It was awesome! :)
We spent quite a bit of time wandering through the market (I bought fresh strawberries for lunch--soooooo good!), then we continued on our way down Las Ramblas to the Colon Statue (the statue of Colombus, overlooking the Mediterranean and pointing the way out to sea).
It was then I got my first glimpse of the Mediterranean...
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