Barcelona

August 25th-26th
Barcelona

Another overnight in Barcelona, I couldn’t wait! There wasn’t a whole lot planned for the evening, but I had high hopes for a great time. Mark and Patrick had just gotten off the ship but had arranged to stay in a hostel for a few days before flying back home. I wanted to find them that evening and spend just one more night with two of my closest friends on this ship, that was the only plan I was sure about.
The day started off with me and Ben (tenor) and a couple others getting off the ship around 1 and heading into the city. We split a cab ride to La Rambla, the main street of Barcelona, and began walking the street. Ben and I made a stop in a clothing store, where in the rest of the group split off from us. Soon after, Ben had to head back to the ship to work in the Internet Center, meaning I was left alone to go find Mark and Patrick. I had the address to the hostel, and after a few directions, soon found the not-so-impressive building. I asked the man at the desk where their room was and headed up to find them taking a break from there own exploring. After a short sit the three of us headed out to resume our exploring. We had decided it might be a good idea to buy some food and put together a picnic at the beach as a sort of final farewell dinner. I had bought some nuts at a market, Mark picked up some cheese, and after meeting up with Ben around 7, we all got some crackers, wine, chips and olives. We were shopping at a supermarket where they had bottles of wine selling for around 50 euro cents, or less than a dollar! We picked up our supplies and started walking toward the beach. Unfortunately Patrick had broken off from the group before we met up with Ben. Why? I have no idea, but it meant that we couldn’t find him for he remainder of the evening, kind of a drag when I knew it’d be my last time hanging out with him for a while. This left Mark, Ben, Jim (new guitarist) and me at the beach, sitting on the boardwalk having a picnic there by the Med. The beach was surprisingly busy for being night time, and we had a few interesting people walking by our site. One man approached us, not looking especially well groomed, asking for a few potato chips. He however didn’t ask lightly, but simply walked up, pointed to the bag of chips and yelled “Po-tah-toe!” Mark, hesitant to hand him some chips, evoked a few more requests out of our friend before giving the guy a handful of chips. He left with out another word while our group laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation. When the food was gone we packed up and walked back toward the city.
I knew the area somewhat well from my last few visits and led the group towards a bar I know to have live music. We stopped along the way for a restroom break and play a game of pool at a pool hall we passed, a fun detour, and then continued on to the bar. I was correct in there being live music, and despite it being really good and indicative of the area, Mark suggested getting back to the city to meet up with some other friends he knew would be arriving at the Columbus statue around 1AM, so we left (to my dismay) to meet our friends.
We did find a number of people back at the statue and reorganized the group, resulting in my now larger group taking a trip to a nightclub brought to our attention by someone handing out fliers. Luckily there was no cover and you weren’t required to buy a drink, meaning I could just hang out with out spending money. The club wasn’t quite as much fun as we’d hoped and we ended up leaving an hour later.
At this point it was getting fairly late, certain people wanted to get back to the ship, Mark was happy to try to find his way back to the hostel, and I was slightly disappointed in the club not being what I’d hoped. Half the group caught a cab back while I walked back to the ship with Jim, returning us to the dock by about 5:30AM.
I woke up the next morning around noon, and with the ship leaving an hour later, I didn’t have any time to get off again (as expected). This left the second day as being a usual ship day with rehearsals and shows, nothing really worth mentioning. I met the new drummer and piano players, and though I’m sure they’ll settle in, I really miss my old rhythm section. Well, one more cruise left and then I’m home...just a little bit longer! Thanks and have a great one!