Thursday was beach day! I was pretty excited actually. Although, the weather wasn't as warm as we had all hoped. The temperature was mid 60's around 11 a.m. when we left the hotel and only rose to be around 70 for the rest of the day.
We took the public bus again to get to the beach. It was way overcrowded though and most of us didn't get to sit until we were almost there. About ten minutes after we got on the bus, Dr. Philibert was in an uproar about a pickpocket. The guy behind her had unzipped her backpack where our used tickets from Versailles had been and was working on unzipping the pocket with her sunglasses. Before he could she smacked his hand, and he looked at her dumbfounded. Thankfully, he stepped off the bus at the next stop to try someone else, I suppose; Dr. Philibert gave him a shove on the way out. She was telling all of us about it and making sure we were watching our purses and bags on the bus after that. We were all pretty paranoid, enough so that I was holding Justin's bag after awhile since it was in the way anyway. It was crazy to think that I saw the guy, and watched her smack him.
After all that chaos, we finally arrived at the beach. I think we all thought there were more people than we expected because of the weather. It was also super windy because of the water, nonetheless, gorgeous. Dr. Philibert warned us that the Spanish people are typically less clothed than in the States. The women are often topless, and the men wear speedos. I didn't see this too much, thankfully, but I did notice that it was mostly the older generation who had less on. That was almost worse.
Several of us found a spot on the beach and decided to lay out for awhile. I laid in the sand, since I didn't bring a towel, but it wasn't too bad. Although the sand was a lot more gritty, hard, and gravel-like than I had hoped. I was honestly expecting soft beach sand. That's okay though, it didn't stick as badly when I got my feet wet in the water. It did scratch some when I was trying to get the sand off, though.
After a little while, we all decided we were hungry and went to find some lunch. We walked a few streets before we finally decided we were just going to have to pick something. We ate at a Chinese place called Wok, which was very similar to the States. I ordered fried rice with chicken, cashews, and teriyaki sauce. It wasn't too bad, actually. I rather enjoyed it. My only negative was that the egg wasn't cut up in the rice, it was huge pieces; the same was true for the vegetables. The huge onions made me think of Sam. I missed him, but it was nice because this was one of the few places that we were able to get Wi-Fi access. I was able to text him and my mom through Facebook for a few minutes anyway, which I really appreciated. Another positive about the Chinese place was that they let us pay separately. NO ONE else in Europe let us do that.
When we were finished with lunch, we headed back to the beach. We decided to walk further down, closer to the pier this time. That was a bad idea. With the pier close, the wind seemed to only be stronger. So now as we laid in the sand, the wind would pick it up and it would sting when it hit. With that, everyone was pretty much done with the beach for the day. We walked down to the huge fish sculpture at the end of that section of the beach, and then several people walked down to the end of the pier. I just took pictures on the rocks at the back of the pier, since there was a sign saying that people weren't allowed past a certain point. Did I mention the Sea was beautiful?!
After that, everyone else was ready to head back to the hotel, but I wanted to go back to Las Ramblas since we were in walking distance (regardless of my complaining about walking the whole time). Although, I did wear sandals for the beach, which weren't the best on my feet for walking, but I dealt with it because Justin and I were on a mission.
Thankfully, Justin agreed to accompany me back to Las Ramblas because he saw some Sangria for sale in the fresh food market on Monday, and when he told me about it, we both agreed after that Sangria in Paris, we needed to buy some.
Once we finally meandered our way back to Las Ramblas, we found the market fairly quickly. We walked up to the Sangria and decided we needed to buy small one to try and ensure that it tasted as good as the other. So we bought one, went around the corner and opened it, decided it tasted delicious and we needed to buy some to bring back.
When we got back to the table, the lady said, "You're back already?! You tasted?" When we answered yes, she said, "Oh, no you have to put sugar and fruit in there to make it much more sweet," and she proceeded to tell us exactly what to do. We just laughed and told her it was still pretty good the way it was. She told us she'd give us two wine-sized bottles for $20 and we took it.
Since that was our only mission, we decided to head back to the hotel. When we got back, I spent a little time talking to my family, and then several people were heading out to get some dinner. We went to the pizza place again because we didn't want to walk too far, and Justin hadn't tried it yet. I got ham pizza this time, and it didn't make me feel as bad as the margherita kind, which was nice. We ate quickly then headed back to the hotel for a quick second before we were planning to go see the fountain show.
While they were all in the hotel, Justin and I stopped in a shop that he had been wanting to walk through since we got to Barcelona, and we took the chance since it was finally open and so close to the hotel. It was a small, but really neat shop. He had all kinds of things in there. I bought a couple souvenirs for my family, and we both really enjoyed looking around.
The fountain show was up in the fountain my the art museum, not to far from the hotel. It was pretty, but only one of those things you enjoy if you have your significant other there to watch and hold with you, or you have kids. Both of which, I didn't have. It was pretty, but I was over it after about ten minutes; it lasted an hour.
Because i took all the pictures with my phone today, they had to be attached at the bottom.
We headed back to the hotel after and I got ready for bed. Tomorrow's the last day in Barcelona, guys. Are you ready?
Adios, friends.
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