No more rain! Barcelona is an amazing place and very hot!

First, Paris pics:

And Versailles and Chartres:

I have a lot more pics of course! They are tough to post next to text, I think I will do a blog soon with only pictures on it, that will be easier. OK, here we go...

I need to post more often, I am seeing so many places and want to write about all of them! So this post will be long...

In Caen, we went to the D-Day Museum and spent almost the whole day there. There was a huge amount of things to see and read about, then two movies which were really cool. The hostel in Caen was very far out of the way, felt like we walked forever in that town. The following day we took a train and then a bus to get out to Omaha Beach. We walked through the American Cemetary where over 10,000 WWII Americans are buried. It was quite a sight, looked like the pictures you see of Arlington. We hiked down to the beach itself and walked around for awhile. You can still see some bunkers and concrete passageways built by the Nazis. There was a little map that showed all the German fortifications in the area, it even named some of the Nazis and which post they were manning the morning of June 6th, 1944.

We took the train back to Paris after Omaha Beach and spent one more night there. We went to (another) cemetary. I am forgetting the name of it right now, but it is the most visited cemetary in the world. There are over 800,000 people buried there, including Oscar Wilde, Chopin, and Jim Morrison. Next, it was time to catch a plane! We made our way to the airport for a relatively cheap flight on Veuling Airlines. I think it was about 100 euros for the ticket, cuz we bought it only two days before. I need to plan better so I can get 10 euro airfare!

Arrived in Barcelona and have now spent 3 nights here! This city is probably my favorite city so far on this trip. The layout is really cool with everything kinda centered on La Rambla, the main walking strip. All of the Gaudi architecture is really amazing too. We saw La Sagrada Familia today, which literally made me saw "WOW" when we turned the corner and saw it. It is a work in progress, so there is a crane and scaffolding everywhere. I guess it won't be done for 20-50 more years, those are peoples' estimates! And they started it in the late 1800s...

Yesterday was beach day! Spent the entire afternoon in the heat on the sand. I think it got to 38 degrees which is near 100 F. The water felt amazing, there were some huge waves, and I got a lot of sun. And all the half-naked girls sure didn't hurt :) We were watching our stuff like hawks, everyone says pick pockets and bag thieves are all over the beach, but I guess this whole city is like that. I haven't had any problems so far though. A guy tried to sell me cocaine on the beach, that was funny. I put sunscreen on all day long too, so no burn, just look really tan now!

We did another pub crawl last night, I think that is my 5th of the trip! And we are probably doing another one tomorrow night in Madrid! They are a lot of fun and a cool way to meet people and go to bars you would never otherwise know about. Except for the one in Paris, that one hardly had any free drinks and was crazy expensive. The one last night had Power Hour, all you drink sangria for one hour. All the food in Barcelona is really good, and can be cheap if you go to the right places. We went to this market today, the main one right on La Rambla. It was amazing to walk through, just the number of shops and all the stuff they sold. Every type of meat and seafood you can imagine, plus fruit and vegetables. But the meats were the most interesting, whole pigs, cow heads, every organ you could think of, it was pretty bazarre. The place was just huge, think Pike Place Market times 100. If I lived in this city and knew how to cook Spanish food I would go there every day.

Also went to the Picasso Museum today, which has over 3,000 Picasso works. It was pretty cool, though most of it was from his early career, not very much cubist stuff which is what I like most. Speaking of Picasso, our first night in Barcelona we went out with some people from our hostel to a bar which Picasso used to go to and drink absinthe, which we did too. In terms of art and museums, Paris definitely wins hands down. But for a budget traveller, the museums in London are the best: every one of them is free!

Tonight we are taking an overnight bus to Madrid so we don't have to pay for a night at a hostel. This hostel in Barcelona is called Hello BCN, it it probably the best hostel of my trip so far. The key you get is a watch and electronically opens all doors and your own luggage/storage locker. There is a bar downstairs with cheap beer and a huge lounge area (where I am right now). All the people that work here are really cool and helpful. And the people staying here are friendly and fun. Roxanne and I will see Madrid all day tomorrow and then she flies out the following morning. I will just hang out at the airport I think, because my dad flies in a few hours later! I am going to figure out how we will get down south so we can catch a ferry to Morocco! I should also read up a bit on Morocco in my book because we will have I think 12 days there so we should see a lot.

I think my plan after Morocco and my dad flies out of Madrid is to head out to Lisbon. I don't know much about Portugal, but Lisbon is supposed to be a really cool city and the hostels are supposedly the best in the world. Then I'm thinking about flying to either Marseilles or Nice, spend some time on the French Riviera before heading to Italy. I am probably going to miss all the rain in the U.K., Ireland, and Paris pretty soon. Barcelona is very hot, you sweat just walking down the street, and it's probably only going to get worse in Morocco! I don't really mind it that much yet. On another note, there is a scale at my hostel here that tells me I weigh 85 kilos (187 lb). That means I have lost about 12 pounds in the month I have been here, crazy! That is also less than what I weighed my senior year of high school. Must be a combination of walking everywhere, often with a pack, and not eating too much cuz I don't want to spend the money. I am not starving myself though, I make good use of the all you can eat breakfasts that most hostels have. And usually at night, sometimes I just drink my dinner :) No one worry, I haven't gotten sick on my trip yet and am staying healthy! I have now been travelling for more than a month, though it doesn't feel like it and I am definitely not tired of it! I have many, many more places to see and people to meet...