Barcelona Dia Tres! Happy Bday Dad

So this morning I woke up and babysat for a few hours. Kristi was able to buy the paella tour that she didn’t get from someone so I had no plans or people to really travel with today so I told one of my extended families (my little brother Cash’s) that I would babysit for them because they were going on the paella tour as well.  So I watched Cash (2) and  Cal (5) for 6 hours today which really was totally fine with me and we had a good time! We spent an hour and a half at the pool!! =)

So the tour got back at 4 and then Kristi and I headed back out to spain.  We walked to the gothic quarters to see the inside of the cathedral this time and it was kinda a long walk but we are doing just fine with the distance walking surprisingly!  (minus my leg cramp spasm at 730 this morning! Ouch!) on the way we stopped at the tents by the columbus/“colon”” statue again to look through them (we did this the first day too) well there was a artist there (they are everywhere) but I really liked one of his pieces of La Sagrada Familia and that’s one of my favorite parts of Spain so far.. so after like 10 minutes of debating what to do he said he would give it to me for 15 instead of 20E and I accepted and I am very happy with my painting! 

 So then we walked to the cathedral… we got to go in and see that but there was a mass being held so we could only see half of it because they had the front roped off for mass only. We could see the front just not get close to it.. but that was fine.  So then we come outside and there is this massive group of people and music playing and then they were dancing in a big circle holding hands.. well many large circles were formed because of how many people were there.  Well I totally forgot about this but it’s one thing our interport lecturer and I believe my music teacher told us to go see.  Every weekend all lot of people gather outside of the cathedral and perform this song and dance that is old Cataluña tradition.  So we just happened to stumble upon it. For my music class we have to write 2 papers about some really cool musical experiences we’ve encountered so im going to use this!  Im pretty sure he is one that mentioned seeing this because whoever suggested it said we should try to learn the steps and join in… well we watched them for a song which was a good 5 or 10 mins then they take a few mins break in between so I tried to talk with a few of them about the dance and everything.. there were some big language barriers we tried really hard though and then I was trying to ask them if I could video tape their answers and they didn’t really understand that until the end but they were telling me how it was a traditional dance of Cataluña which is the community that Barcelona is in.. from my Spanish class I learned there are 17 communities in spain which are kinda like the states in the US and then Barcelona is the capital city of Cataluña. So then they were trying to describe something else to us… copla was what they kept saying and trying to describe.  I think, but im really not sure at all due to the lang barrier that it is the traditional unique instrument used… so then I wanted them to teach me the steps, although from watching the last song I pretty much knew them but I wasn’t allowed to for some reason and they told me I had to watch them and some women with stickers and a money basket tried to get me to give her money and so what Kristi and I think was going on was that you had to pay and get a sticker in order to dance.. so we watched them for half of the song smiled and said gracias and went up to where the band was.. I was videotaping the band playing and this older guy comes up next to me and we made eye contact and he was smiling and then he stood there behind me for awhile and then as I got up to walk away he started talking to me trying to tell me something about the music and I again think it was something about this one instrument the copla perhaps.. so it was really cool because the people were happy to try to explain it and the guy wanted to tell us stuff even though we didn’t ask it was just a really awesome experience!

So then we started walking to the Gaudi house that we wanted to go up in La Pragrara or Pagrada I don’t really know I’ll have to get back to you guys on that one.. well it turned  to be a bit longer of a walk than we anticipated.  We asked 3-4 people along the way about it and with a mixture of Spanglish we figured it out really fun to get to test out the Spanish speaking skills I only kinda have but enough to make it work which is exciting!  So as we were walking we came across some tents set up outside and so we walked past them and looked at them well there was one with this cool hand blown glass stuff and Kristi was looking at something (I cant say what ;)  ) but she was looking at something for a gift for someone (again not mentioning who just in case!)  but as she’s looking I notice he had glass blown rings and ive been trying to find a really cool ring.. well I was able to bargain with the guy and get my ring for 5E instead of the 9 that it was listed for! So im really excited about that we got to pass through what I think is really the first plaza we have seen here which was la plaza gracia it was pretty with fountains and statues! A few more blocks and at 7:35 we hit our destination! Only to find out though that the last entrance was at 7:30…..DARN IT!!!! But with our cool dancing experience and good buys from the glass guys we surprising took the disappointment really well.. like really not bummed about it at all.. so we went to the nearest metro station and used our great metro riding skills to get back to las ramblas..

Then we headed back the internet café where I struggled for an hour to get to video chat with my family but finally figured it out and talked to them for over a half hour I think.. it was really nice to get to see everyone and talk to them.. and today is my dad’s birthday and at 10 pm here (4 at home) I was the first one to wish him a happy birthday!!! And he goes well thanks these other 3 here (because everyone was in the room together) haven’t said it yet youre the first one today! And the rest of them start cracking up in the background! Haha im so proud of myself! =) im such a good daughter =P so anyways Happy Birthday again Dad.

After talking Kristi and I headed back to the ship and now time for sleep and my bike tour in the morning hopefully I survive this!! Hannah I’m nervous! It’s going to be much longer than our one attempt back home!!! AHHH!  Then we will head back to the Gaudi building, using our last 4 trips on the metro ticket we have purchased and head back to the ship early early so that we don’t get dock time! We sail out at 8 pm for ITALY tomorrow!

Okay so wonderful day again! Night night!