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| Three bottles of Sangria later we dressed ourselves up and headed down to the other hotel to pick up Jeff, who had agreed to take us out with some friends of his that currently live in Barcelona. Our journey soon became the highlight of my trip. We met up with Jeff and his three friends, Bianca, Uli, and Aaron at the hotel and started back out on to the streets of Barcelona. I didn't really pay too much attention to where we were headed with so much Sangria in my system and a good conversation with Jeff's friend Aaron about fishing (particularly fly-fishing) so I was a little shocked when we arrived at our destination. We ended up in this abandoned square that reminded me of a scene from a World War II movie. The walls that sounded us were gray and there was only one spotlight coming from the corner. |
| For some reason we went back to Jeff's hotel (I think they had to check kids in) and I called Corey to see if he and Ruddy wanted to join us for a night at the discos (it was about 12:30am now). They both came and we walked to the strips of discos that we had seen the night before. We went into the first one is the row and came across a group of our students. We found out that their curfew was 3:00AM (and once again, I was thankful that I was not responsible for those children). It was a matter of minutes that we decided we weren't too comfortable having a few drinks and dancing with the kids right there. So Corey said that he knew of another disco and casino just around the corner, and we were on our way. Well around the corner ended up turning into a 30-40 minute walk across town. I was not the happiest person when we arrived, mostly because it was now almost 2:00 AM, I was exhausted and my feet hurt. Luckily I was able to forget my woes as soon as I heard the music. I grabbed Tracy (because I knew that she would dance with me) and we were out on the dance floor. We were only out there for five minutes before Corey showed up. I was shocked to see that he wanted to dance, but happy to have more to our little circle among all those strangers. Well time flew by and soon Ruddy had to leave to check in the kids at three. Mary Katharine was really tired so she decided to go back with Ruddy, as did Russ. That left Tracy, Corey and myself to stay and dance for a while. We danced until after five AM. While we were there, it was mostly techno music but the crowd around us was completely entertaining. Most of the guys were wearing really tight shirts and pants, except for the ones that had their shirts off. The girls likewise were not wearing much, but there was a single chubby person there. At one point there was a little stage show with two men and two women dancing. It was a bit like something you would see in Montreal. One of the guys was dressed like a transvestite and he did his little dance. The other guy had on some kind of jungle thong thing and he did his little dance with a rope. And the two girls just had very little on and they each did their little dance too. Definitely something a little different, but then again, I was in Spain at a disco at five in the morning, I shouldn't expect it to be like "Akes Place" in Burlington Vermont, should I? By five o'clock we had had our fill and we went outside to try and catch a cab, knowing how long the walk would be. Unfortunately there was not a cab anywhere to be found. But what we did find was the beach. Tracy and I immediately took off our shoes and ran for the water. It was still dark out (the sun hadn't begun to rise) but it was light enough to see the ocean and the waves crashing up against the shore. The water was cold but I didn�t care, I just walked along the shoreline and enjoyed the wet sand between my sore toes. We walked along the beach until it took us in the wrong direction and then we joined Corey up on the curb. We walked another five or ten minutes until Corey was finally able to flag us down a cab. Corey had the cab drop us off by our hotel and then he walked us to the front of the hotel. We said goodnight and as Tracy and I raced up to our beds, Corey walked down the street back to his hotel. |
| The walls that sounded us were gray and there was only one spotlight coming from the corner. The walls looked as though the other side had been blown away. In the middle of the square there was a group of people all holding hands in a big circle (I would say at least 50 people), and in the corner where the spot light was there was a little stage with three musicians on it, and one musician was calling out all these steps in Spanish. Jeff told me that we were at Catalonian dance (Catalina is a region in Spain). Well excited by the whole scene we grabbed hands with some of the locals and started to try and figure out the dance. Throughout the course of the evening we must have done at least fifteen different dances, and they were all tradition, with dancing partners and all the women in one circle and then all the men in another behind us. A lot of the dances reminded me of dance that Maria dances with the Captain Von Trapp out on the balcony during their large dinner party in the "Sound of Music." I was simply thrilled to my toes to be something so full of culture and ethnicity. I didn't even care what a complete fool I must have been making of myself. We must have danced for three or four hours. When we left the crowd had doubled from what it was when we arrived. After that incredible experience, it was disco time. |
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| .Our mission became another long walk across town (we must have walked thirty miles in the trip already). When we finally found the metro we realized that our next stop was only right down the street. We decided to go to this huge flea market that they have daily in another section of Barcelona. Not knowing what to expect we discovered that most of the stuff was junk. There was every junk imaginable. It was the biggest flea market I had every seen. They had everything from clothes and shoes, to housewares and toilets. There was automotive stuff and antiques and collectibles. It was fun to walk around and see. At this point in the day it was around 5:00 and we decided to head back to the hotel. Russ laid down to take a little nap and the ladies headed back downstairs to grab a little snack and look around. Unfortunately I got separated from MK and Tracy and wondered around by myself for over an hour. But I enjoyed looking in all the shops and watching the street entertainers that lined the cobblestone path outside our hotel. About an hour and half later we all met up again and headed over to the nine story department store. We three ladies got side tracked in the lingerie department. A half an hour later we all walked out with new underwear. Poor Russ didn't know what he agreed to see a city with three women. Our next stop was a museum just down the street. It was a small museum so it didn't take too long to go through. I wasn't too impressed. gate to board. Our flight left a little after 1:00 PM and had a connection in Zurich to Geneva. We arrived in Geneva by four and were on the trains right away. Back in Leysin around six, MK and I went back to our apartment, unpacked and had time to head down for the Sunday night movie in the village. |
| Once again on Saturday morning we slept in. We had a lot that we wanted to do but getting in around 5:30 made it tough to get up early. We were out of the hotel by noon though, which I didn't think was too bad considering one shower for four people, all of which were out late. (We found out later that Corey didn't get up until after three in the afternoon). Tracy and MK had picked out our destination for today so once again we hoped on to the metro and were one our way. Our spot today was Gaudi Park. This park on the outskirts of town is one of Barcelona's favorite spots. The park is outside but it is known for the mosaic artwork. It is very difficult to describe. A lot of the park is gardens but in between the gardens there are stairs and foundations that are made out of this artist's Gaudi's mosaics. We spent quite a while walking through the park and I took over a roll of film in just that area. Hopefully the pictures will be able to describe it better than my words have. After a few hours in the park we tried to find a metro stop back |