Paranoid Priest (Sent March 11, 2012).

I had a 4 hour bike tour beginning at 11 and since everything is closed on Sunday's, I figured I would just walk around and check out the city before the tour. I get all the way to the ocean, had been walking about an hour, when I reach in my bag to take a picture only to realize the battery was back at the hostel. It was 10am. I walked as fast as I could back to the hostel, grabbed the charger, and headed back out. As I walked to the Plaza de Jaumes, there was people crowded everywhere dressed in high fashion of the 20s and loaded into really nice old cars. Apparently there is a car festival that happens once a year where really wealthy people come and show off their cars and drive 40 miles to Sitges. That was a fun start to the day.

I then got my cute yellow bike and the tour began. We rode all around town, the weather was beautiful!! I definitely have a Spanish suntan! We rode to the beach where the tour guide wanted us to eat at this Italian place. I am sorry, I am in Spain, I don't want Italian food, so I headed up the street to a place where I had some nice tapas. Not so keen on their potatoes with mayonnaise but when in Spain! The tour guide didn't like me too much for taking off to a tapas joint and 4 other people followed! Oh well. After the tour finished I decided I would walk to the castle at Montjuic. I am not sure what I was thinking wanting to walk but I felt like the road kept going up and all I saw was tour buses and cars, not too many people with my bright idea to walk.

I have to let you in on a little secret. Because of the large amounts of theft here, I find myself ignoring people, acting as if every single one of them wants to loot all my belongings and shove me in a trash can. I know it isn't that bad but I swear every time I see someone make eye contact with me, I feel like they are planning to take my camera. It is slightly annoying having to be so paranoid, it makes it hard to relax and is nowhere like any of the other European countries I have been to. Everywhere you go however, you are told to watch out for all the theft, so I suppose I would rather be on edge than get something stolen. At any rate, I made it to the top of Monjuic, which has the most amazing view of the entire city. I took a bunch of pictures and headed back down for some food. I saw a nice little ice cream shop so I decided to treat myself. As I have mentioned before, on Sunday the entire city is shut down so basically the only things that are open are touristy areas. Therefore, I ended up paying 13 euros for the worst paella I have ever had, then headed back to the hostel and may have gotten some more ice cream... maybe.

Tonight I am going to go out with a bunch of people from the hostel and then tomorrow is Montserrat. I have attached a few photos for your enjoyment :)