After our class discussion, we boarded a bus and departed for the port of Barcelona. The magnitude of goods and people coming in and out of this port is huge. Because it is only gaining in traffic, there is an expansion happening now, and we were taken to the work site where the site is being expanded to be able to accommodate the high volume of traffic coming in and out. There were large containers of goods, chemical storage, tourist cruise ships among those vessels coming in and out of the port.
After our visit to the port, we were given some free time down in the area of the port. A few of us did some walking in this area and found a quaint little place to grab some lunch. It was at this restaurant where I ordered one of the lunch specials. I had an appetizer of mussels and then the main course was the day's fish. I can't remember what kind of fish I had, but it was served whole, with the head and eyeballs intact... looking back at me.
So what was I to do but eat it? Eyeballs and all... I will admit, the fish was good, the eyeballs surprisingly crunchy, a little gel-like in texture around the crunchy part. Not much flavor. After lunch, Colleen and I made our way back to the hotel, stopping at a little sidewalk cafe for some coffee and conversation with some locals on the way.
We made it back to the hotel, where I tried again to get my train ticket for the next day situated so that I can travel down to the Valencia area to visit our Huhtamaki site in Nules, Spain. After some unsuccessful work online from our room, I went to the front desk to see if Ricardo could help me get the ticket worked out. We tried from the front desk unsuccessfully. I asked if there was a kiosk or a station somewhere nearby where I could get a ticket. Ricardo gave me directions to a travel office nearby where I could work with a live person to get a ticket for the Euromed. Colleen came with me and we found it very close. We went in and the gentleman behind the desk did not speak much English when I asked, so I attempted to explain in Spanish what I was trying to do. He was able to help me get my ticket for the next morning and I got a small discount from the web published fare and get directions via the Mitre to get to the Euromed station for the the next morning.
We went back to the hotel and gathered our things for a much needed trip to the laundromat. Our group consisted of Don, Colleen, Val, Danelle and me. Mind you, the directions we had received from the front desk when they explained things that were close by were actually close by. This walk was much longer, hauling suitcases with dirty laundry down city streets. Instead of going out to dinner, Don and Val went out to grab some things to munch on for dinner because honestly at this point, it was refreshing to just have some small munchies after all the eating we had done. They came back with some toasted bread, some brie, some Iberica ham, and another kind of meat. Don made one more trip out to complete the meal with some fruit and wine. A good light dinner and plenty for us to share. While Don made his trip out, Val was teaching some self defense moves to us girls. Very educational.
 |
| Working out how to combine loads for efficiency. |
 |
 |
| Colleen pretending she took Val down. |
 |
| Hands on explanation from Val. |
 |
| Colleen's turn to try it out. |
This group can make even the smallest chore a lot of fun. We had some great laughs while we got our laundry done. Glad that's out of the way so we'll have clean clothes for the rest of the trip.
After laundry time, we hauled our freshly cleaned laundry 10 blocks back to the hotel. Time to rest up for a big day ahead!
No comments:
Post a Comment