Barcelona and Paris

We traveled from Nice to Barcelona on Thursday and met a young couple from South Africa: Cameron and Johanna, who we ended up spending our time with in Barcelona. When we arrived, we went to the ocean and walked around, then took a taxi (at the advice of a Frenchman, who spoke English, and had moved to Spain to work in the hotel industry) to the Olympic stadiums. It was really beautiful and fun to see something that is a part of modern history. We took a cable car/gondola type thing up to the top of the hill and toured around an old castle with cannons and a moat and whatnot. It would have been great fun except that I had to go to the bathroom very badly so it was hard to concentrate on much else. We have not had the best of luck finding public toilets, and particularly ones that are useable... I am awestruck at how dirty things are, generally, when it comes to bathrooms here.

We tried to catch the overnight train immediately to Paris that night, but it did not work out and, so, we stayed at the same hotel as our new friends and then caught the morning train to Paris. When we arrived, we were able to meet up with Anne and her parents, who are wonderful! We just missed Claire and Fabrice and their children, which was disappointing, but it is how things go when you do last-minute plans.

Being back here reminds both Steve and I of how much we love Paris. We went to the Champs-Elysees tonight, where they're having a big Christmas market and had mulled hot wine and waffles with chocolate and this wonderful garlic cheese potato dish that was kind of sticky - it was delicious. It's great to be here and I'm really looking forward to tomorrow, but must go to sleep now.