A bike tour, two train rides, and 25k hike...

John and I are starting to get a taste of what backpacking around Europe is all about. You get some pleasant surprises, and some brutal detours.

-mostly jordans fault!

Sometimes the hostel situation is great, and other times you share a room with 9 Norwegian girls who never quite seem to be out of the bathroom. Overall we really enjoyed our time in Barcelona. However, it seemed like we were lost a lot of the time, and when we finally figured out the public transportation and the layout of the city, it was time go.

We went on a really cool bike tour of the city on Sunday. Our guide was Budda, a Aussie surfer dude, with shoulder length dreadlocks. He was entertaining and seemed to really now his history.

- he also new some interesting laws. (i.e. it is illegal to wear your bathing suit in the city, however, it is perfectly fine to be balls out nude. I've been scarred by a man on the subway excising this right.)

Budda showed all the cool buildings and parks around the center of the city. My favorites were the Sagrad Familia (the craziest, most creative looking church I have ever seen). It has been undercronstuction for a hundred years and is estimated to be completed in another 25.

- its a freaking mix of the bible and star wars; stone cuts of jesus and a shit load of storm troopers.

I also loved the main park downtown. It had a huge two-tierd pond with mythical creatures spouting water scattered everywhere. Very cool. We met up with Amy on her way back from Sicily on Sunday night, and shared the subway for about 10 minutes while she headed north for work, and John and I headed south for the beaches of the costa del sol.

Here are a few of John and my opinion's of Barcelona:

Thumbs UP: ----------------------------------------------------Thumbs DOWN:

Wigged-out churches and psychadelic parks --------------------The wigged-out smell
Nude beaches (theoretically)------------------------------------The actual bodies of the nudists
Cheap public transportation ------------------------------------Missing your stop
Flying through the city on bikes --------------------------------Almost dying
Seeing Amy ---------------------------------------------...for only 2 hours and getting no sleep
Sweet volleyball courts -----------------------------------------Never actually getting to play
Night clubs ----------------------------------------------------12 Euro drinks and house music
Co-ed Dorm rooms ---------------------------------------------Zero bathroom time
Siestas -------------------------------------------------------Waking up at 800 every morning
Fun on the beach ----------------------------------------------Dudes in Speedos

We hopped on the train to Malaga yesterday morning with a connection in Madrid. We rode first class for part of the way so we didn't have to wait at the train station as long.

- first class: awesome!

We took a cheap bus from Malaga to our destination, however, we hopped off a little too soon. Only two bus-stops, but it turned out to be just over 25 km. We walked for almost 2 hours in 90 degree heat, up hill most of the way.

- no comment >:( John is pretty pissed off here after I made him walk for 2 hours up hill in the Andalusian sun.

Yeah, yeah. My bad. I think it just made us appreciate Nerja all that much more when we got there.

- it didn't

Anyways, Nerja has been great so far. Not nearly as crowded of beaches, beautiful coast-line, and we found a place that serves all you can eat Paellas (a Spanish dish of fried rice with prawns, chicken, and clams). Very tasty. John had three plates. Right now we are planning the rest of our week. We are hoping to visit Gibraltar, and possibly Morocco. Wish us luck. We hear it's a little rough down there. We'll hit you all back up soon. Thanks for reading our blog. We love you.

Don't be afraid to comment on our posts. We would love to hear from you all.

Barcelona by Bicycle

Barcelona has been amazing so far. We have been staying at a great hostel right in the middle of downtown. Yesterday we spent a little time with Amy walking around the city before we dropped her off at the airport. I dropped her off at the subway, and said goodbye for the weekend. We are meeting back up with her late Sunday night before we head south, and she heads back to Platja d'Aro to her Au pair job.

We went to a couple discotecas last night with a bunch of people from the hostel. We hung out with a group from Turkey who loved to dance, a couple girls from New York who loved John (they thought he was crazy because he had so much energy and was dancing with both of them the entire night), and a few college students from Paris. It was a great first day in the big city.

Today was even better. We rented some bikes this morning, and took a self-guided tour of the city. We biked basically across the entire city stopping at some parks and buildings to enjoy the view. We grabbed some lunch at a little bakery, walked through a huge park, and flew down the busy streets at about 35 mph through traffic on our bikes. John said our lives were only in danger a few times. Regardless, we made it back to our place safely. John is taking a power siesta now, and I´m enjoying my home-made tomato, cheese, and garlic french-bread pizza. We'll probably lay low tonight and grab some dinner and play some ping-pong at the hostel. John said he is pretty worn out from all the walking and biking we did today. I'll post a few pictures of the city.

Sin Jordan

So today we got to Barcelona, and i wasn't exactly paying attention to were jordan was taking me. and after amy left, Jordan-growing accustom to the spanish siesta, passed out. i wasn't tired so i decided to explore a little. 5 blocks out i realized i didn't know were i was and was having trouble locating the streets signs(later i jordan told me they were on the buildings). so, there i was in the middle of barcelona with a map, but no point of origin. so oh well- i pressed on only to see a seriously nude dude getting on a bus- which poses the question, where was he storing the bus passes?

entonces, i thought i was fitting in pretty well, but then a couple of 80 year old Minnesotans, picked me out of a crowd of 100 people and ask me if i was American. there goes that thought. anyways, they wanted me to give them direction to them in a city that i had spent all of two hours in... talk about blind leading the blind. but then i remember my dad saying something about a blind squirrel and his nuts. so i confidently told them- "now ... here's what you want to do..." and proceeded to give them direction with my map and no point of origin- hopefully they got where they wanted to go =P.

not sure how but i eventually navigated my way back to the hostel.

There, I fixed the spelling bitches.

Day 2 - Beach Day

We met up with Amy last night and grabbed some dinner at a little cafe'. So great to get to see her for the first time in too long. :) John and I got up at 6:30 this morning to get a good workout in, in hopes of kicking the jet-leg quickly. Met Amy later on and after buying some groceries ended up spending a few hours on the beach. We all went for a great swim in the amazing Mediterranean Sea. The water is unreal; clear blue, perfect temperature, exactly what you would expect. We all took a nice afternoon Siesta after a big lunch. The whole town slows way down from about 3 to 6. A lot of the shops close down and then open back up in the evening.

Tomorrow we are all headed into Barcelona. Amy is flying out in the evening headed for Sicily to visit her good friend Rosana and her family, and John and I are spending four days or so seeing what the big city has to offer before heading south. Should be an exciting weekend for all of us. We are getting up early again tomorrow so I´m gonna hit the hay.

John's Quote of the Day #2

"Hey look at that sunrise. It's kinda like (pause) pretty."

John's Quote of the Day #3

"Clean A$$hole... Check!"

(After using the baday for the first time)

-John using the outdoor Baday.

john´s response

First of all- Jordan is being less than truthful when he says "i haven't used much English so far." he pretends to try to say something in Spanish, and then proceeds by announcing the location of the place we need to go. almost everyone take one look at blanco alto y yo and responds in English. cuz lets face it-we stick out like a sore thumb. admittedly i haven´t help jordan out as much with Spanish speaking as he thought i would. partially nerves and partially i like to watch jordan struggle.

Day 1 - Travel Day

Johnny and I landed in Barcelona today; smuggled in some beef jerkey which is apparently punishable by execution over here according to the signs at the aeropuerto. We both bought 2 lb. bags at Bi-Mart and weren´t willing to part with them. Our plan if they checked our bags was to eat as much dried beef as we could in 5 minutes and chuck the rest. I´m glad it didn´t come to that cause I just checked the bag, and there is 2 weeks worth of the daily reccommended amount of sodium. (Yes mom, we will be eating as healthy as we can)

Our travels have gone fairly smoothly so far... knock on wood. The plane rides actually went pretty quick. We caught the city bus to downtown Barcelona from the airport and then the subway to the SARFA bus estacion. Arrived a cool one minute before the bus to Platja d´Aro was scheduled to depart. My bullpen-Spanish lessons over the years kicked in, in the clutch. ¨Mucho chicas, uhhh I mean, tida la curball, uhhh I mean necicito compra una billet a Platja d'Aro. Finally got it. :) Haven´t used much English so far, actually haven´t used much Spanish either. Spanish-major boy keeps making fun of me, but I´m still waiting for him to step up and help me out. I´m not sure why I brought him. Just kidding, but seriously Mr. I get straight A's in Spanish class at WOU. I thought he'd be fluent. ;) Seriously though, John and I are going to have such a great time. I´m so glad he came over with me.

Anyways, we´re on a bus now headed to find the prettiest girl in Spain. I have a sneaking suspicion I will find her at the McDonalds in Platja d'Aro at around 9:45 tonight, but thant´s just a wild guess. I'll turn it over to John now. Apparently he has some exciting story involving Romanian gymnists, cream-cheese bagels, and an airplane bathroom. Who knows.

John's Quote of the Day #1

"Yeah, I saw you drop your bus pass on the ground, and was going to tell you... but I just didn't."

(Thanks for the back-up big guy)

Day -01 - Packing

Hey, John and Jordan here setting out for Europe tomorrow. We are going to be traveling for about four weeks. We will do our best to keep you updated on our many adventuras. We have our beds reserved for our first few nights, but after that we sleeping on the beach (just kidding grandma). Jordan still hasn't packed yet, so we're gonna call it a night. John says "why in the world do you need three different colored shorts and more than two pairs of underwear. You can turn them inside out ya know."