The eve of Barcelona

Sitting here in Lyon gettng ready for the big trip to Barcelona, Spain tomorrow afternoon. I am really quite excited. I know absolutely no Spanish, nothing about Spanish culture, and even less about Barcelona as a city. I realize that this will be a unique experience in that I will be absolutely 100% out of my element. At least here in France I can get across what I am trying to communicate even if it wasn't in perfect French. Luckily, there are two people in the group of us Americans that are going that took Spanish all through high school so we will be relying heavily on them for help. If not for their help, I'm sure my attempts at communication would be comical. A mix of charades, pointing, and a little French in the hope they might know some.

We are staying in a hostel which will be my first stay in a hostel and from the sounds of it I am glad I never saw the movie Hostel. The reviews on the website make it sounds like not such a bad place. Just a stripped down hotel from the sounds of it. Barcelona, however, is known for their pickpockets so we will have to be prepared for that. I am attempting to pack everything into a carry on bag so I don't have to hassle with the whole check-in process. If you know me you know I like to overpack so this goal may pose a bit of a problem since I have to bring my own towel and flipflops for the showers. I am excited for the food and obviously to see some of the sights of the city even though I will not know what they are or what they symbolize. I just hope I can kick this little headcold before tomorrow morning. It would have helped if I could have bought some cold medicine at the grocery store tonight but O that's right, they don't sell any medicine at the grocery store, its all at the pharmacy which closes at approximately 5. But that is a whole seperate blog entry. Instead of medicine I just packed in the oranges and apples today. We'll see how that turns out and hopefully everything will cure itself.

I'm sure I will return will all kinds of stories to blog about and to do my usual complaining about, but if I didn't complain, this whole writing thing would be no fun. Here's to what I hope to be another weekend filled with new experiences that I will not soon forget. Goodbye for a while and hope for the best!!