Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Last night in Barcelona

As the title of this post suggests, it is our last night in Barcelona as well as our last night in Spain. Tomorrow we head to Paris. I'm excited to see other places but Spain has been so fun and I think that I'll miss it.

Yesterday we finally did our kayaking and snorkeling trip. The trip got started an hour late and then we got stuck in traffic so it was almost three before we got to Costa Brava, a beach about an hour and a half outside Barcelona. There were about ten of us, including Michelle and I and the Australian couple, Amy and Dan, who we met at our Spanish cooking class. We were given snorkels and flippers, told to layer on the sunscreen, and given brief instructions on how to paddle a kayak. It took Michelle and I a little while to get synchrinized, but once we did it was relatively smooth sailing across gorgeous blue water. We rowed out a bit and then turned into a cove where we left the boats on the little beach while we snorkeled around. We were given literally no instruction but it's not that tough, and after I got used to keeping the tube above water and only breathing through my mouth I loved it. The water in the Mediteranean is really clear and warm and even though there were only a few fish, it was cool that you could see down so far. After snorkeling we kayaked along the coast and in and out of some caves. I wish I had been able to bring my camera along because the cliffs and caves were really nice. Based on the knowledge aquired from 21 years of being the daughter of two geologists, I'm pretty sure the rocks were granite and they were sort of pink and really pretty. One of the caves we went in was so narrow we could barely squeeze through and all you could see beyond the first ten feet was pitch black. After some more rowing and another stint of snorkeling, we headed back to the beach and had snacks before heading back to Barcelona.

The trip itself was kind of weird. It was less organized than the other events we've done and our driver who brought us to the coast had brought along a girl who he was essentially on a date with. In the van it was like we were all a bunch of bonus wheels on their date. Still being out on the water was amazing and I really like kayaking and snorkeling. When we got back to the bar where we started, we got food and a drink as part of the trip. This was good since we were starving and too exhausted to go elsewhere. After some mix ups with ordering, our food ended up being really late so the manager sent us more free drinks. Except signals got crossed and we all ended up with our own extra sangria plus two pitchers to share. We were all feeling pretty good when the food, which was delicious, finally arrived. We all ate and talked until late and then said our good byes and headed home to crash.

I was hoping to post about today as well but it's late and I have an early train to catch so let's leave that for tomorrow. I will give you a little teaser: it involves a man trying to get us to pay him for a picture of something we absolutely did not want a picture of...

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