Barcelona is pretty cool. With the beach and port as a big part of the city, it definitely adds a certain something to the atmosphere. The beach isn´t the best beach I have ever seen, but it gets the job done.

But, I am pissed off about all this Catalán language stuff. My Spanish is finally improving and I feel comfortable using it and then I decide to visit a city that uses a different language. It´s not really a problem for foreigners because the natives will use regular Spanish or English, but it´s a pain in the ass anyway. And to top it off, it is almost more similar to French than Spanish.

Now, we are having absolutely perfect weather here --it´s like 85 and sunny -- but my advice would be to avoid Barcelona in July and August because it is filled with throngs of tourists and foreigners. Walking down La Rambla (their famous street lined with bars, restaurants, performers, etc...) I have heard more English spoken in the last two days than I have in the last 2 months. It´s unusual because walking on the streets in Madrid you don´t hear much English and here it´s the opposite, you hear too much. And something that was absolutely bewildering to me were all the pet vendors on La Rambla. There must have been 4 or 5 within 100 meters of each other, easily. They sold birds, hamsters and I think I even saw a mongoose in there. How in the world can the industry support that many vendors selling the same product in what is essentially a tourist area? Do many kids go to Barcelona and instead of returning home with a t-shirt as a souvenir bring back a furry little mongoose or hamster? These places sold big ass cages and everything. I was tempted to buy one. There was a buy one parrot get a second one free deal...alas, unfortunately, we live in a bird-free apartment building.

We stumbled into a bar last night called "The Traveller". The owner, some Spanish guy, is a genius. They advertise on the internet and bill it as a place to meet other people travelling. All in all, a good idea, because anyone who hears of it is probably going to check it out. That´s how they get their hooks in you. They organize bar crawls and have other specials. The bar crawl wasn´t all that great. You go to Irish pubs and then end up at a club which we had already discovered, but it was an easy way to meet and talk to a large group of people from all over the place. The funniest part of the bar crawl was when I was talking to some girl named Jill from England. I watched her proceed to do three shots of tequila (2 were stolen when the bartender wasn´t looking -- they were laid out on the bar), make out with some dude on top of the bar, and then fall down on her ass all within the span of an hour. Her parents would have been proud!!

What really pisses me off though, is stupid people. We were walking down La Rambla the other day and we see a huge group of people, probably 80 or so, crowded around something. We make our way over to check it out and what do we see...FUCKING MIMES! Who gives a shit? And more importantly, who dedicates their life, or at least part of it to becoming a mime? Is that a career? Does he do it part time when he isn´t in medical school? Is it a hobby? I just don´t get it.

The other kind of street entertainment that frustrates me are those people who basically just don´t move. They are painted like a statue or a clown or something else dumb and they sit still. People stand for minutes and minutes watching someone not move. They take pictures with these people. They give them money. Am I missing something here? What makes you wake up one day and say to yourself, "You know what, all this moving around stuff is for suckers. I´m just going to paint myself and hang out on the street looking for money." But, I think I found out the secret to it. We saw a lady the other day painted as a statue but she was sitting down. As we walked past, I saw a wheelchair behind her seat. Guess it kind of makes it a little easier to not move then...or she is just really lazy and when she isn´t painted and not moving, she makes someone wheel her around in a chair so she doesn´t have to use her own damn legs...