Barcelona

Last night after I posted the blog, I found out we had no bottled water, so I went out to buy some. It was late, nearly midnight, and I wandered around looking for a shop. People were driving around honking their horns. Beep beep beep-beep-beep! I didn't get it and figured it was standard Saturday night behavior in Barcelona. Finally I found a shop and got some water. By the time I got home Yanmei was getting worried and told me she already started planning her explanation to my mother about how she let me get kidnapped or killed in Barcelona. 😉

The next morning, or rather about lunch time we headed down to the beach, which is less than 10 minutes walk from where we are staying. There is a restaurant there two people recommended to us for paella. We found out yesterday that things work on a different schedule here. Restaurants open for lunch at 1pm and dinner at 8:30pm. Anyway we went to the restaurant and I ordered paella and Yanmei ordered fiduea, which is paella with noodles instead of rice.

In the afternoon I booked a motorcycle tour. Yanmei wasn't too thrilled with this idea.

I think she ended up enjoying it though. The motorcycle allows you to cover a lot of ground and the driver was also a knowledgeable guide. Having a guide show you a city really helps you learn about it. For example we learned that all these flags hanging from windows are indications of the Catalonian separatist movement.

There were a lot of people wearing Messi shirts, which reminded me that I knew Barcelona was in the Champions league finals (soccer) and it was soon. I asked our guide if that match was today. He said it was last night and Barcelona won. Suddenly the people driving around honking at midnight made sense. 🙂