Spain Day Three!

By now, we were getting awfully tired. Walking miles a day really drains a person. We started out today with a “paella” tour. We headed out at 10am with a British tour guide who was born in Washington D.C., lived in Spain his whole life and spoke prolly four languages. He was super detailed, and we absolutely loved him. We visited some of Gaudi’s famous houses around the city, explored the Markets on La Rambles (where you can get fresh fruit and any kind of meat or fish. It’s a little overwhelming because it’s super crowded and the smells were strong. We didn’t stay long), and then went down some of the side allies around the area. The guide (William) took us to a square down one of the side streets. There was a nice little fountain, a small little restaurant and a nursery school. The walls surrounding the square though were filled with holes. The tour guide proceeded to tell us that during the Spanish Inquisition, soldiers would take right-wingers down to the square because it was easy to block off and execute them. Straight up. It was a little poignant. The children were running around. Life goes on. It was a touching moment to say the least (For a very poetic version, check out James’ blog). Next, we continued on down lots of small streets where we’d stop to hear some tidbit or another. Finally, we went across a bridge along the pier to this big shopping mall. We went inside one of the restaurants and literally watched chefs make paella in this little side room. They gave us spoons and we got to stir around in the pans as well. Let me explain paella:

It’s basically rice with some special yellow sauce. It’s got shrimp, prawns, calamari, and clams. The make it in a huge pan called a “Paella Pan” and everything is cooked together at the same time. It’s a long process, but it’s kinda cool. We took some good pictures and tried to track the progress.

We then continued to eat some appetizers and then the paella! Eating the seafood was pretty interesting because the little bodies were still intact on the shrimp and the prawns, but we made it through. We sat next to the woman who is the doctor for the Pittsburg Steelers. Her and her husband are pretty cool and it was fascinating to hear stories about how she takes care of “Ben”, as she calls him. Freakin A. I hate the Steelers, but it was still exciting!

After lunch, we walked down to the L’Aquarium. It was pretty cute. There’s lots of different Mediterranean fish, and some crazy sharks. There’s one that HAS to continually swim or he’ll drown. The Coral Reef Black Tip Shark (or something like that). There’s a 360 degree huge tank as well that you walk through. There were rays and sharks swimming above us and around us, and some really vicious looking eels. I have decided that I hate eels, with a passion. The aquarium was pretty sweet. There’s a jelly fish area that we saw, but we had to walk through the mouth of a sperm well and the exhibit was inside the whale. It was really rather trippy to walk through, haha. Which makes me sound pretty lame. It’s ok, I am.

After the L’Aquarium, we walked down to the beach! We were not dressed for the occasion, but it was still cute. I had pants and a longer sleeved shirt on, and James had tennis shoes on as well. We walked down the boardwalk and eventually down to the beach, which was interesting…to say the least. There were definitely a lot of topless women, and men in super little speedos. The women who were topless were pretty old…lol. But there were a few young ones. It was…different. Not gross or lewd, just different. I was pretty glad that we just walked it rather than spend time there like the other 98% of the other kids on the boat. While we were walking along, we were approached by this Brazilian guy. Turns out he goes to ASU and recognized James’ U of A shirt. We talked for awhile about the rivalry. He’s also majoring in business, and was vacationing for the summer. Best Part!: He Spanish kissed me! On both cheeks!!! Ciao Ciao, he said and kissed me. Sigh. It happened. I was really stressed that it wouldn’t and I would miss the experience, but no! Got it done, woop woop! Definitely a high light of the day.
Afterwards, we found a place to watch the USA vs. Ghana game. We found this little pub that was on the second story of a gelato place that was full of a bunch of Americans, some Brits and some Canadians. It was intensely rowdy, but the atmosphere was good for the game and the bread was good in general. The Spanish use Ciabatta bread and always top it with a tomatoes and onions and things. It is SOOO delicious, pan con tomato. That’s what it’s called.
So that was day three. Pretty good!