Barcelona study abroad Summer 2011: Day 6/Beach day and Montjuic De Nit

So today was a good day. Not only did we get to sleep in because it was a Saturday, but we also went to the beach and explored the city a little bit. We were at the beach for about 4 hours and it was beautiful! The water was clear and was in the upper 60's so felt really good. The humidity is pretty high, but not as bad as back in Wilmington so we weren't drenching with sweat. And the beach here has a great breeze. I ended up taking 198 pictures yesterday, so let's just say I am definitely getting my tourist on. The beach here is a little windy and pretty wide, but still big enough to accommodate all the beach-goers of this 1.6 million person city. I thought the concept of a topless beach would be more shocking to me, like it was when I was 14, but it really did not phase me. What phased me more was how many naked babies I saw running around, completely naked. No wonder they don't have farmer's tans or bathing suit tan lines! People were trying to sell beer and sodas (or refrescos) to people on the beach. Random, non-licensed people would come up with coolers and just walk the same areas over and over until they found some business. And they tried to make it as awkward as possible, my standing very close to or in front of you until you moved your attention somewhere else or laid down to try and sleep. A few other people were giving massages on the beach, and they looked very relaxing although there were no fancy aspects or comforting noises in the background, other than the waves crashing on the shore and the vendors saying the same things over...and over...and over. Where we were, there were no waves on the Mediterranean, but we did see a few surfers. I think they mainly just paddle around for exercise though rather than try to be gnarly wave-riders. A cool thing about the beach here is how there is a sudden drop-off at the edge of the beach. It is only maybe a foot or so, but it is immediately within three or four feet of where the shorebreak is. I didn't expect this at first, so needless to say I took a little tumble when getting into the water. After this, we rode the metro back to the apartment and cooked dinner. But then we met up with some friends to try and go to Parc Guell at sunset, but we were too late because they closed at 9pm. So, they wanted to eat dinner and I hadn't eaten out at a restaurant yet so I decided to eat again. Who cares? I'm in Spain! We ate at the outside tables near the street and luckily, we had my roommate there who could translate the waitress' words and order our food back to them, other than what we could point at haha. While walking to dinner, we passed a bachelorette party walking down the street who were all dressed up and tooting whistles. The bride-to-be was dressed up in all white as an angel, and the rest of the girls were wearing devil horns and darker clothes. While sitting down eating our meal, we saw a bachelor party walk by, also tooting whistles. The groom-to-be was wearing a chicken suit with a huge dangling penis and he would randomly hit the members of his group on the head with it and his friends were wearing street clothes with bandanas. After this, we went to a museum where they were holding a light show and music. This was such a blessing to see. It was absolutely beautiful and we took pictures while walking all the way from the metro up to the museum, and at every level of stairs to the top, where we could see the city and Sagrada Familia from far away. There were so many people there and it just further showed me how big of a city Barcelona is. The music show was more of a rap battle, and those are difficult enough to understand in English, let alone in Spanish! Sorry this is shorter than the other blogs, but I didn't get to write it yesterday so I am doing 2 today. Today, all the museums in the city are free (I forgot why though), so we are being tourists and going to Parc Guell and some museums, etc. to further check out some of the city's history and beauty. And I have to check out the inside of Sagrada Familia before I return to the States!