We woke up at 6:30, having not slept too great. It seemed all of Granada was outside on the street. We quickly organized the room, and I went out into the kitchen to set up breakfast. My mom had become pretty sick. We had some tea before leaving.
It was raining as we went to the bus station. I realized I'd forgotten the flight itinerary and wasn't sure if I'd need it, so after having my mom wait at the bus stop, I ran back to my room to get it.
The bus came on time and we boarded, making it to the airport in a little over 45 minutes. We checked in and didn't have to wait too long.
The flight went really well and I was much more impressed with Vueling today than last Monday. From El Prat, we caught the train to Barca Sant which linked us to the metro. Although still a little unsure of ourselves, we managed everything really easily and without any mishaps. Out of the metro, we quickly found our hotel and checked in.
Our room was even nicer than the one we had had last week. On the 6th floor, we had a wrap around balcony with a legitimate ocean view.
We had no set plans today, my mom's last day in Spain. We did have one mission though, find the little souvenir for my brother that we hadn't been able to find anywhere else. We weren't sure it was going to be there, but decided to try anyway, heading down to the park by La Sagrada Familia. We were lucky as they had the little guadí style bull that we bought for Hunter. With that task accomplished, I still wanted to take the cable car from Montjüic to the beach and we decided to test our luck to see if it would be operating. I was almost certain that it would be closed considering the weather was bad and it hadn't been operating last week, but when we arrived at cable car after taking the metro to Montjüic, it was running!
The ticket guy wouldn't sell us a roundtrip ticket and the second leg was closed, but we went on it anyway, wedged in with all of the other tourists. We rode the suspended line between Montjüic and the first platform tower. It was less bumpy then I would have thought and provided great views of the city. On the platform tower we took some pictures and looked out at the city; its toes in the Mediterranean and its head in the mountains. Las Ramblas stood out by its solitary three lined route, cutting a swath of color through the gray city. We took the elevator down to the street, walking past a huge installment of rings and circles.
Walking past the statue of Columbus, we turned to head back up Las Ramblas. We cut into the Gothic Quarter and spent a lot of time wandering around. We tried going to the Natural History Museum of Catalonia but it was closed. Instead we went next door to the Catalonian archives where we saw a great exhibit about King James I of Catalonia. The exhibit had all of the 800 year old documents, treaties, religious statues, on display in glass cases with a blurb describing each one. Very interesting and cool to see such historic documents in their original form. My favorite was a document in Hebrew describing a business deal between two friends.
We then cut back to las Ramblas and spent a lot more time wandering around, not afraid to explore and find new things. We saw some great street performers along las Ramblas and Plaza Catalonia. After 4 hours or more, we decided to catch the metro back to the hotel.
After an hour siesta, we got ready for dinner. We decided to stay close to the hotel and went to "Tapas Guadí," on Avenue Guadí on the way to Sagrada Familia. It was good but a little overpriced. After dinner we walked back to the hotel, stopping to admire Hospital Sant Pau. I took a hot shower and got ready for bed, knowing that I should rest as I would be beginning my next adventure tomorrow.
The days with my mom had flown by so fast. I love her so much and am very happy that she came and visited me. I miss her and the rest of my family a lot but I know I only have a few more months of this incredible year and will be home soon.
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