bread stop

tourist land

La Sagrada Familia was the first thing on my nonfood list. Jules said it would change my life, and while I wouldn't go that far, it was pretty incredible.

hostelmates

I like hostels. But I think most of the time I like the idea of hostels more than any of my memories of hostels. It's probably because I kind of forget nightlife is a think when I'm traveling. And hostels are all about the nightlife. But I'm talking about the proximity to other people within your age range who are also trying to do everything they can in this new city. Most of the time they are Australians, like the large group of dude dudes who convinced one of their buds to drink sangria out of his shoe. I didn't know real life people actually did that. Kind of the opposite of the Aussie guy who played a quiet game of cards with us on our last night. Though to be fair, he had moved to our hostel to get away from the crazy rowdiness of the hostel he was just at. 

So day one was a 1€ hostel pasta dinner, but day two was tapas and tentative rooftop bar views with our hostelmate from New Zealand. [He didn't make it because there's too much exploring to do in Barca, but we did bond over how aggressively loud our other three hostelmates were.]

We sat at the bar at Bar Cañete and marveled over all the dishes they were putting out. There was a lot of "I want that one" and pointing in my food making decisions.

And we found this on the back of the menu so... we liked this place instantly.

of course I went to a food market

This is a beautiful church (↑) and this is a lucky turtle (↓). 

The architecture in Europe is amazing. I wouldn't doubt that the oldest building I grew up around was probably fifty years old, and anything older than that was in ruins and part of a park (Bandelier). So going out of the country is always incredible. I can never fully wrap my head around how these things were built and how long they must have taken. Here I am getting antsy about the renovated common area plus gym that's supposed to happen in my work building, and that's only supposed to take two years or something.

sleep deprivation

Audrey had to take a nap, and I don't blame her. We were quite worn out from our 10-day nonstop adventure through North Morocco. I wanted a nap too, but I also wanted food. And I wanted to wander, and I didn't have to wander far to find some tapas.

spoils

Does it surprise you that I went away for three weeks with one duffel and came back with the same duffel plus an overflowing suitcase?

Well it wouldn't if I told you I brought home meats and cheese and fishes and my limit in port.