Day 12: Barcelona with the Mumford Family

8:00 am: Tapas dinner last night was delicious. Basically just little appetizers (pieces of breads with various toppings). You just fill your plate with as much as you want and they count the number of toothpicks you have to charge you at the end. It's neat having all that variety but I don't feel like its that filling unless you spend a lot (but that's probably me just being used to N. American portion sizes). After dinner we met up with some of the people Nat works with to go to the forest bar. They were all really nice and friendly and spoke great english so it felt easy to hang out with them. In the summer in Girona, they set up these outdoor bars in the forest. Its a gorgeous old forest filled with makeshift bars complete with dance floors, strobe lighting, djs, etc. It was really cool. Drinks were 10 euros (aaah!) but they did make them very strong. It was hilarious hearing some of the music and seeing the dance moves. Europeans are either way ahead of the trends or really behind when it comes to music. The last time I saw a choreographed dance to "Saturday Night" was in Gr. 7 haha. It's too bad we were so tired because we ended up leaving early (and by early I mean 3 am). We woke up this morning at 6 to catch the train to Barcelona (after we got some delicious treats of course). We're all hung over/exhausted which has made for an interesting train ride. I'm anxious to meet Brian's roommates today.

8:15 am: Britt sat down in her train seat and it collapsed! Best part of the morning so far lol

8:00 pm: Great day in Barcelona so far. We went from the train station and met up with Britt's parents at their hotel. The 5 of us went on a walking tour of the Gothic Quarter at 10 am. It wasn't too pricey and it was really informative. I learned a lot of history and saw a bunch of cool squares, churches, buildings etc. One particular highlight was a churchyard full of geese (apparently the geese used to be used as security. Whenever someone entered the courtyard, they would honk loudly and wake everyone up). We met a digruntled goose that I named Gargamel. After the tour we went for tapas lunch. Had some delicious food (patatas bravas are my new favourite). Don picked up the tab which was really nice of him. The Mumfords have been awesome to me so far and it really feels like I'm traveling with family which is amazing. They have this tradition in Catalonia where all their bread is scrubbed with tomatoes so it has the flavour of tomato but no actual tomatoes in any of the sandwiches.
After lunch we explored another church and then parted ways. Britt, Nat and I walked along the Ramblas (the gigantic shopping street in Barcelona). They sell all kinds of things here including random animals like piegons, squirrels, ducks, chipmunks, etc. It's also full of street performers and extremely annoying vendors. There are these guys that put weird whistles in their mouths and then make these annoying duck noises, pretending they dont know where the sound is coming from. Then they try and sell them to you and they are all super sketchy and sleazy. I walked behind one for a while and make the quacking noise on my own. I dont think they liked me. I can see why the Ramblas is one the streets with the highest incidence of pickpocketing. Its just so easy to get distracted and its completely packed with people. After our walk we went back to Britt's parents hotel and had an epic 3 hour nap all in the same bed. I didnt think I could justify napping when traveling but I seriously would not have lasted the rest of the day without it. Traveling Europe does not leave you a lot of time to sleep lol. After our nap we brought all our stuff to Brian's. We mey his roommates Matt and Graham and they ended up being cool guys. It's nice how they are chill with us staying at their place. We've just been chillling and now we are getting ready to meet Ma and Pa Mumford for dinner (9:30 dinner....I dont think i can get used to this).