Location: Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain

Another day of solid travel...

Today started early because i had to catch the bus to Málaga at 8:20. I hiked to the bus stop and caught the bus (which came about 15 minutes late - an important detail later). We began the 2.5 hour bus ride to Málaga which was actually, amazing. With the sun rising first over Africa and then over the mountains west of town... the views were breathtaking. Even this far south, the sun still rises so slowly... so i feel like you get to watch it for like 2 hours instead of 15 minutes. And in the reflection of the Mediterranean? I was really lucky.

And then... as we pulled into the bus station I realized that it was 10:50 and my train was set to leave at 11 AND it was 2 blocks away AND I didn't have a reservation yet. I ran to the station... begged the conductor to let me on and for the first time on my trip... I missed my train. But, as luck would have it... In Málaga, the train station is attached to a shopping mall, so I spent my 3 hours shopping and eating. First, I got a little chair massage at one of those sleazy mall kiosk things, but it was totally worth the €2 I paid. Then, I went and got 2 cups of coffee and read the newspaper. Or, at least, what I could read. I picked 3 articles which were about American things, so that I at least could guess some of the context. My first article was about Mitt Romney and some business about Michigan and car making. I wasn't too interested so I moved on quickly (It was my warm-up). Second article was much more interesting: Basketball (of course I pick sports). It was about this kid who is playing basketball for UNC-Asheville who is 7'7" and weighs 370 pounds!!! (Yes, I had to do the conversions in my phone... 2.36 meters didn't sound that tall). Apparently, he's actually pretty good for a giant. Last article was my favorite and it was about the comeback of American Gladiator. I remember Andrea telling me something about this show coming back and I was really excited, but apparently it has started (before my return... the nerve) and is entertaining quite a large crowd of viewers. There was a picture of some of the new gladiators. HA!! Some things haven't changed since the early 90's I guess.

This took me about 2 hours to read. So naturally, when I had finished, I got a sandwich and headed for my platform. The next 7.25 hours were spent on a train. First from Málaga to Madrid and then Madrid to Barcelona. The first ride was quite lovely. There were hours upon hours of rolling hills filled with olive trees and grape vines. Millions of trees producing two of my favorite things (oh, yes and olives are now one of my favorite foods after eating my weight in them in San Ambrosio). I watched two movies in Spanish. The first was called Eragon and it was American and about a boy with a dragon and it had subtitles (in Spanish, but still it helped me to read along) and the people were talking in Spanish too. The movie was ok, but I'm sure I missed huge chunks of the story line in translation. The second movie was a Spanish film in Spanish with no subtitles and I had no chance. I think it was an indy film because it was quite weird and I think supposed to be funny but I'm not sure. I gave up watching it about a half an hour into it. I also managed to read about 300 pages in my new epic novel that my Australian friend, Gid gave me in Madrid. It's a very interesting book called The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters and it is quite entertaining. It's almost 1000 pages so it looks quite impressive, but it hasn't been bad so far. Don't judge me if it ends poorly though, I'm only about half way through.

Once I arrived in Barcelona, I walked to my hostel quite quickly and here I am!! It's a really nice place and I think I'm pretty centrally located, but I'll let you know tomorrow. Oh, and of the 9 countries I've been to and the 14 hostels I've stayed in, I am officially in my first top-bunk. I was on such a good run. Oh well.

Kind of uneventful, I know, but I had to give you an easy read after all of that drama from the previous week. And the computer room has just been overtaken by about 8 boys with beer so I think I need to go participate.

XOXO

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Now playing: Pearl Jam - Jeremy
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