You'll have to forgive him. He's from Barcelona.

Hello All,

Greetings from not so sunny Barcelona. Thanks to my travel agent who suggested that I bring bathers. They would be so useful at the moment, given they are the only thing that I wuld have that was appropriate to get wet.

Anyway, enought about the all too expected European weather.

So far I have seen the following museums:
1. The Picasso Museum - cool and very well set out to show his development as an artist.
2. Gaudi Museum - he made quite awesome houses and I can´t believe that anyone let him build what he wanted to build 100 years ago.
3. The Monserrat Museum
4. The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art

The MACBA was AMAZING. There was a sound installation called The Killing Machine by 2 American artists. The Killing Machine itself was based on a Kafka story about capital punishment and it was really intense. The other displays were also really interesting. Essentially, through sound, they displaced the emotion that was evoked by the vidual images that were built or projected. It was really clever and well constructed. What was also cool was, because the gallery was close to a uni, the students used the steps as a communal meeting place. It was pretty cool to see them all congregate there. I don´t know if I would trade it for the Oak Lawn, but imagine learning among all that culture!

Yesterday I made a rookie mistake. I went on a bus trip to see some caves and Monserrat, a cathedral in the mountains about an hour from Barcelona. Imagine my surprise when we didn´t get to see any caves because ´caves´ in Spanish is actually the equivalent of sparkling wine and I ended up on a tour of a wine cellar with a tour guide conducting proceedings in Spanish because our tour person assumed I spoke Spanish and went to the international language school. Anyway, you got to see huge amounts of caves (see, it looks like you´re going to a cave, but you aren´t) and got a free glass at the end. It was 11am and we were on out way to a monestary. Yay Spain!

Monserrat was beautiful and would have been more so if it wasn´t raining and I could actually have got down to the Sacred Cave. Ah well. The view was stunning, if a little cloudy, and the church was divine. I dutifully joined the queue for the black Madonna and then wandered around the free parts of the museum before climbing come of the hill. Then it started raining again and we went home.

Last night I went bar hopping with some Canadian girls I met in my room. It helps getting free drinks if you are a group of girls, led by a California blonde, in a male dominated area. I have never got so many free shots in my life. Unfortunately, I couldn´t tell if I was being mugged or groped half the evening which was a bit disconcerting. Given I arrived home with all my stuff, I am going to assume the latter which is just plain gross.

I am meeting a lot of people - not lonely at all! Had dinner with an English boy the other night and always seem to be able to find people to chat to. Yay!

Anyway, I still have a lot to see and waiting for a fine day no longer apepars to be an option. I´m going to brave the rain!