Day 3 of Barcelona began with us once again laughing about the street pooper. After the laughter settled, we set out for our first formal introduction to Barcelona, a bike tour with Fattire Bikes. We arrived at the meeting point about 30minutes early and waited a bit for our guide, JJ, who informed us that he was South African, but had been traveling since 1994 around the world as a scuba diving tour guide. He took up the bike tour gig 3 years ago and said he needed something new to do on land before he grew gills. Another interesting note about JJ is that even though he was South African, he told us that he had spent a lot of time scuba diving off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, in which he must have spent a lot of time there since he appeared to have more of an Australian accent than South African. We were eventually joined by two American girls who were on their spring break from studying aboard in Switzerland, and then we were off. Our bike tour started off with us following JJ through small streets, bobbing and weaving through pedestrians everywhere. Another noteworthy point to make is that we figured out quickly that one of the girls that joined us was not the best bike rider. This was very apparent when she almost hit several people during the tour and also crashed into a post after Brittany had just ridden by it and yelled out a warning about it. She also rode onto jagged rocks while we all rode by her on a smooth sidewalk. We don’t think that she actually saw any of the sites; she was too busy trying to dodge people, children, pets, poles, and cars. During the tour, we saw the following sites: Placa Sant Jaume, Placa del Rei-Royal Palace, Bcn Cathedral(La Seu), Plau de la Musica, Arc de Triomf, Sagrada Familia, Parc de la Ciutadella, Vila Olimpica, Barceloneta Beach(which sucked because it is man made and is super small), Port Vell, El Borne, Basilica de la Santa Maria del Mar.
After the tour was over, we said goodbye to JJ (no goodbye was really necessary to the girls who joined us since they barely said much to us or even each other) and were off. Luckily for us, the day started off sunny and drastically changed to rain right at the end of our tour. We ended up eating at a falafel place that let you add all of your toppings by yourself, which proved to be very good and messy. We then wandered around for a bit and then retired to the hostel (which we had a 6 bed room all to ourselves every night so far).
Day 4 began with us just slightly laughing about the street pooper, and then we decided to make our way to the Guell/Gaudi Park, which was on the side of the hills of Barcelona. The park consisted of mosaic benches, columns, and 2 houses that looked right out of a Dr. Seuss book. We ate lunch up on top of the hill (which was very windy), and made the trek back down to the town. That night we wished to truly enjoy Spanish cuisine and we ate at the Subway, Deliciouso. The next morning we woke up early to catch the train out of town. On the subway getting there a smelly, smelly man came and encroached on our personal space. Thinking it was just because of the crowded train, we paid him less attention than we should have. After moving around David he wedged himself between Brittany and another person and as the train stopped, left with more than he got on with. This smelly disgrace of a person walked out with Brittany’s wallet which he had taken from her purse when the train bounced about. Not 2 seconds passed before she noticed it right after we got off the train, but the man was gone. Passports were safe so we continued to the train station to catch the train and call about credit cards. The man got no cash only credit cards and Brittany’s driver’s license. Brittany called the bank as soon as we sat down and after a brief struggle with the incompetent banker she assured her that the cards had been cancelled and everything was ok. What a relief that would have been if it were true! Turns out not only did she not cancel Brittany’s cards but she cancelled both of DAVID’S cards. The shear mechanics are mind-boggling as to how she could screw up so bad and somehow illegally cancel his cards without any proof that he even knew about it, which he did not. Later after ridiculously long phone calls with Wells Fargo, the supervisor advised the stolen cards were in fact now cancelled. Only time will tell if HE was any more competent than his counterpart.
Nice and Monaco: We arrived in Nice late in the night but quickly found our hostel. The hostel was a big building but only occupied one floor. Very confused we wandered around until a lady that lived there asked what we were doing and directed us to the front door. The hostel was nice, no pun intended, and we were in a 4 bed room with a mysterious roommate which we later met. That night ended gloriously at another McDonalds across the street. The next morning was when we noticed all of David’s credit cards were getting declined and had to deal with the whole bank situation. After our spirits lifted back up we marched down the main drag to “old town” in Nice as well as the beach. The beach was one of the most beautiful beaches we had ever seen. The water was royal blue and houses and what looked like castles or forts speckled the cliffs that stood at either end of the beach. The sand was in fact not sand at all but smooth rocks polished by the ocean. The fair 65 degrees outside permitted us short sleeve shirt wearing for the first time of the trip. The water however was not so nice and was very cold. We ate breakfast at an open air restaurant and had delicious pancakes, bread and jam. The restaurant was next to another open air market, while not as big as the one in Barcelona was, equally as cool. We went back to the beach and enjoyed the weather and walked along the shoreline (where we observed the section of the beach that seemed reserved to only topless women, and men clad in banana hammocks) back to the hostel where we hatched plans for a journey to Monaco. The train, for only 3 euro and 25 minutes, was our best option and we bought our tickets and headed off. Monaco’s train station is all underground and spans the width of the city-state, so escaping was not easy. We finally found the surface and looked upon buildings and empty streets. Monaco was strangely quiet, and we did not see more than 3 people on the walk to try to find the Monte Carlo’s Sun casino (The only Monte Carlo casino that didn’t require a shirt and tie). The silence was only broken by the occasional Ferrari or Lamborghini that passed us until we reached the port, where we saw what seemed to be the largest collection of expensive boats and yachts in the world. Monaco was a maze and finding the casino was not easy. We followed the coastline until we couldn’t walk anymore where we found an elevator that took us up to another street, where he meandered around until we found it. The casino was nice enough and we tried our best to win as much as we could with our little budget. 100 euro min bet blackjack was not what we were after so we opted for the slots and video poker! No one won anything and we justified our losses through the experience and entertainment the casino brought us. We came back to Nice around dinner time, which we decided it was a good time to do our second load of laundry, as well as enjoy a nice dinner of rotisserie chicken, potatoes, and salad. After dinner, we called it a night and prepared for our train trip to Florence, Italy.
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