Friday, July 6, 2012

Med Cruise Day 10: Back in Barcelona

Ray's Journal



The ship pulled into Barcelona before 5AM. We woke up to the announcement that everyone needs to disembark. Such a sad day for us.
We took cabs to the apartment hotel. The hotel was actually ready for us [surprise]! Its always nice when things work out well. After check in we all kind of just chilled in the apartment for a few hours. Then we walked a few blocks to the shopping mall for entertainment. We found a dunkin donuts!! We also found a chinese buffet for spaniards. Angie and I were the only ones brave enough to partake (everyone else had Burger King) and the word Angie came up with afterwards was “interesting”. It was a culturally thought provoking exchange. They had hardly any of the same “Chinese Buffet” items we Americans are used to. For instance they had what appeared to be onion rings - they we round fried cod. They had what looked like fried chocolate - it was fried sushi. All of their shrimp foods had the shrimp cooked whole (shell and all with eyeballs etc). Their “postre” or desert bar was fresh fruit , nuts rolled in sugar, and flan.
The rest of the day was spent in the hotel trying to wait out the rain (so we could swim in the outdoor pool) and listening to the tuberculosis ward that lived in “Grandma’s room” of the cruise ship (everyone who had stayed in that room came home coughing). We all had to leave to go home tomorrow so it was a subdued day.

Angie's Journal

The cruise was over. We got dropped back off in Barcelona. I booked us an apartment which we all crashed at for awhile. I took a nap (gasp!) for a few hours. We went to the mall/grocery store and stocked up on the things we would need for the day and evening until our flights left in the morning. It was cheaper for us to stay the night in Barcelona for the night rather than fly out on Sunday. Anyways, the apartment we got was quite comical, esp. the bathroom. The place looked very new and fresh, but cheap as if everything was build from IKEA grade building materials. The bathroom was the worst as I think everything broke in there at one point during our overnight stay. 

The day was rather uneventful, but the evening was very LOUD. The Spaniards are a loud group of people, which we learned from our earlier stay in Barcelona at the beginning of the trip. Unfortunately for us we happened to be trying to sleep during the big Spain vs. Italy in Euro 2012. Every goal the whole town either shouted loudly (and these are some loud people), honked their horns, or shot off fireworks. Then when the game ended it was complete chaos. It is a surprise we got any sleep that night, but we had a complete understanding and appreciation for their siestas. 

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