Barceloneta

The only reason I left for the airport so early this morning was that I was awake, had no internet, was going to miss breakfast anyway so why not just wait in the airport instead of waiting at the hotel.

Well.  There is a reason.  Low cost airlines in Europe (the very rough equivalent to Southwest Air) have very long lines and security is time consuming also.  On top of that, they start boarding these flights about 40 minutes before it leaves (at tradition that started in the Renaissance). Even though I got to the airport 2 hours early, I have very little time to spare--just enough for a cappachino and a warm broiche.  Actually, both of them were delicious and could not have come from an airport.

I boarded the plane and we ended up waiting in the plane for at least an hour.  So I ended up waiting in the plane instead of the airport.

The train from the airport to the city was excellent, the best train system from an airport yet, although Rome did quite well also.  Poor little San Jose Airport. It makes me sad that there is no transit option to and from SJC.

I am staying in Barceloneta, a beach community of Barcelona.  My mission was to find Freddy, our host in Barceloneta.  He was busy cleaning when I got in, but I wanted something to eat anyway so I had some rather interesting fried cottlefish which are cousins of sardines.  It wasn't the best, but this is an adventure.

Finally Freddy finished and he showed me around the area.  Freddy is a medical student who is nearly finished.  He has exams on Wednesday and then goes back to his home in Chile.  It seems that educational costs in Chile are quite high now, so many students come to Spain for school and back to the hard charging economy of Chile after graduation.  Spain may want to do something about that.

Barcelonate is not my favorite spot.  It is a very high density, high octane vacation spot.   They have a great beach, many, many bars and more vacationers than I've seen.  It's like a gigantic spring break.

Duran arrives tomorrow and we start checking off his impressive list of sights to see.  I'll try to send pics.