July 18th, Barcelona

Since I haven’t been able to find a way online till now, I’ve been keeping up with posts offline. The second day in Barcelona was great! I woke up at the hotel, grabbed breakfast at their breakfast buffet (consisting of the usual eggs, sausage, cheese assortments, cheesecake, breads and orange juice), and then packed up to catch a taxi to the city. Royal Caribbean has an office in Barcelona right in the harbor in the World Trade Building, so I had worked it out with them that they’d send a taxi at 11, I could drop my stuff off, and then I’d be free till 7 to walk around the city. So I did just that. I dropped my bags off with Martin (sans one), and then walked outside with my map and no real plan. Basically, I just walked meandered around the city, finding monuments or just going down whichever street caught my fancy. I’d then stop 15 mins later and find where I was on my map just to make sure I didn’t get too lost. I was able to walk down the beach (see the Mediterranean for the first time), walk through a great park, see some more attractions, and get lost in the sides streets. The beach was beautiful, unfortunately certain choice old men enjoy their beach experience fully nude…well it definitely added to my experience. Check the pics for shots of that, the harbor, and the city. Walking through the streets though was just amazing. It was so much different than anything else I’d ever seen, and I loved finding all the small little stores I could tucked away in corners. The main street, La Rambla, served as my central point after the first few hours of wandering. La Rambla is the main tourist attraction for shopping, and also has street performers similar to the keys. I then ate at a nearby restaurant, which was good, and headed back to the office. The ship came around 7, and I caught a ride over with another office worker, so that was easy. I then signed onto the ship, met some of the musicians, and spent the night trying to figure out how to get around this massive boat. It’s huge…check the pics. I couldn’t leave the ship to spend the night in Barcelona because I hadn’t yet received an I.D. card. So that was my day, first full day in Europe, and so much different than anything I’ve ever experienced anywhere. Great!!!