Rolling up the Guell (pronounced ´well´)

Today was an interesting day indeed. First I´ll start by setting the tone...

Last night everyone seemed to be in chill spirits. No one was eager to make evening suggestions, so some ended up drinking; some played chess; some went to bed relatively early; some decided to venture out with a bottle of vodka and a video camera at 3am to watch the sunset. My night consisted of the first few; the guys decided on the latter. At around 8:30am they returned home drunk, exhausted and full of stories from there night escapade. I was woken up many times during the night as they conspired and enacted their plans. Needless to say they had about 5hrs of sleep, until just before Sarita and I were about to take off and do our own thing. The day was overcast but warm, proving to be the best weather conditions for some outdoor exploration but the worst when you´ve practically pulled an all-nighter...

We all went to a beautiful public park. Its called Park Guell and has architecture inspired and built around the designs of Gaudi. He is a famous Spanish architect whose work can readily be viewed as part of the Barcelonian skyline. His work stands out compared to the usual North American plain-box building. Anyway after the exhausted guys thanked their lucky stars that a series of elevators to the park were working we made it to the top. There was an incredible panoramic view which I videotaped on my digital camera but am unable to download for some reason... we spent most of the day wondering the park trails were you see many large mosaic outdoor sculptures and fountains. We also ventured into the Musee d´Gaudi were he resided, giving us a glimpse of his furniture designs. Everything was very organic, as he was highly inspired by nature. This is a photo taken when we first began to see his architecture within the park:

This is some of furniture designs within the gallery: (I can´t figure out how to tilt photos in the right direction... sorry, you´ll just have to tilt for me.) These were large armour doors that he intentionally used green colored glass. The room had a strong aquatic feel, making it my favorite space in the museum............ [nevermind, this damn computer won´t let me download any pictures... maybe next time]

We all finished off the day of visual pleasure by giving our taste buds a treat. Just down the street from our apartment is an all you can eat buffet... for only 9.95euros we feasted. Two hours and five courses later, we all rolled home. I´m still full and I hope it lingers for days...

All in all we´ve been considerably more adventurous the last few days. Yesterday, we took a 30min train ride out of town to Sabadell. Since Pat came here last year he knew of a few skate spots there and we all battled the heat. We should have taken it as a sign when no locals are roaming around and the only people out are Finnish skateboarders at the same spot as you. During the prime afternoon, I wasn´t very good with the heat and physical exercise so I stuck mostly in the shade. We hit up about four different spots and ended up spending the full day there. It was nice to get away from the caos of the tourist city. Sabadell had a very similar look to the area in Barce that we are staying which was nice. If we have enough time we may end up going back there as the guys seemed to enjoy getting footage at a few of the spots... however, they seem to enjoy footage anywhere, so we´ll see.

Tonight is Sunday and according to an aquaintance named Kim, we met here from Norway, there is always a beach party on Sunday nights. This seems to be the plan for the evening... perhaps the boys will have enough energy for another sunrise at the beach...