the three beer bandits
thursday morning found us saying a tearful goodbye to the sunroller. we packed up and headed down to barcelona for our next set of adventures. despite getting lost three times we managed to find our hostal on a tiny street right near las ramblas. it was a tense morning so we settled in for our daily nap. but soon we were ready to check out the sights nearby. we were just casually walking when jon asked if we should pop into a store for a 55 cent beer to chug. sure we said, and then the 3 beer bandits were born. we soon began popping into stores all along las ramblas, buying cheap beers and then leaving the cans in a funny pose to show the bandits were here! Then after a bird left a enormously large turd on judy´s back we were off on a drunken metro ride to meet jon´s friends mike and john at a bar on the beach. They knew the night was going to be crazy when they saw us stumbling toward them in the sand at 8 p.m. it was a night of good conservation and laughter topped off with another naked dip in the mediterranean – this time mike joined in too!
The next morning, we were up early to do the tourist thing. we left jon snoozing to go see gaudi´s work in progress – la sagrada familia. despite the hangover we managed to climb 342 steps to the top of a tower for some amazing views of the city. later that day we decided to take our daily nap at the beach under cloudy skies. we then met up with mike, john and rosemary to see ¨war of the worlds¨ what were tom cruise and steven spielberg thinking???? our night ended in grand fashion with a light and music show at this huge fountain in the city – quite the sight to see. we had best meal of the trip with mike and jon after the lights. who knew that bacon, cheese, and dates could taste so good together!
Saturday began cloudy so we ventured to a park in the city, but as soon as the sun came out it was off to the beach one last time. we were really struggling to pull ourselves away, but finally did only to realize we were dangerously close to missing our flight back to madrid. we were totally those people you see in the airport running like mad to make a flight – marmaduke was in rare from swinging his bag to and fro. back in madrid we met up with a bunch of jon´s friends for gay pride fest. it basically involved the largest mass of humanity to ever converge in one place drinking, dancing, and reveling all night long. judy managed to get separated from the group and wandered around aimlessly for a half hour. but eventully she found jon and janet eating toasted pb and j´s back at his apartment and all was well again. a good time was had by all.
this morning dawned bright and early as we bid jon farewell to set off for the camino. we have had an interesting day of travel, involving a 4 1/2 hour train ride with no air conditioning (the temp inside the train was 34 celcius, about 100 degrees), buying multiple train tickets from non-english speaking clerks, and wandering around Leon looking for a place to stay tonight with only 4o euro to our names (it´s sunday and there are no money exchanges to be found)! but alas, we managed quite well and made it to our destination and found a cute little internet cafe/ restaurant. we will soon hit the sack to begin the walk tomorrow- hasta luego for now!
Tags: Travel
admin