Biking Barcelona

Another excellent day in Barcelona. Like we had planed we decided to rent some bicycles and see the city on bike. We rented them from a place near the hostel, for 19E for two days, not too bad considering we save on the metro and taxis.

We started by visiting Park Guell, which is the park Gaudi designed. Getting there was easy enough, except it was entirely uphill, and so hot. The park itself was really pretty, like all the other Gaudi architecture we saw. It was made to look like natural things, so everything reminded me of giant seashells, and columns designed to look like pineapples. I'm am kind of getting enough of Gaudi, it reminds me of when I was in Kyoto, and we saw like 15 temples, but they were all pretty similar. Still have to see the Cathedral though.

From Guell park we rode to the coast, which was nice and completely downhill. We saw where they had some of the Olympics, and the famous "Golden Fish". We then rode the boardwalk next to the beach, and just kept going until it ended. All and all we probably biked around 10 miles!

Went back to the Hostel, and showered up. Which is an experience in this hostel because the showers are in like the middle, and you have to walk about 40 feet from the shower to your room, Of course as I was walking back, dripping wet, a group of four Asian girls were checking in, so I had to be like excuse meee. Probably made their night though!

Pictures to come soon, these computers are so old!

The Beach!

Once we got back to the Hostel we met up with our two friends from breakfast, and went out to dinner. It was a blast, and we got to eat right on the street, and do some people watching. Everyone sitting around us wanted to practice their english, so we helped them out. When I told people I was from Boston, they asked me if I knew any celtics, and I of course told them, I knew all of them.

From the resturant we went to the Super Marcado to pick up some much needed beer and headed back to the Hostel where we met up with even more people and started playing some drinking games. We taught them our version of Kings, but they taught us one I really liked called Horse Racing. Needless to say we finished all of our beer, in near record time, and head out for the night.

We went to this area of Barcelona called, The Beach, which is right on the beach. It's basiclly like a strip mall, but instead of stores, it's full of bars, and clubs. We went to at least 6 of them, and everyone was different. The music was decent, way too much regaton, but we're in Spain so what can you expcect. Many beers were drunk, and lots of fun was had. We stayed out until 530, and then crashed at the Hostel. Thankfully we were with all of the people staying in our dorm, so no one was woken up.

We're all up now, planning out the day. It's looking like a biking tour of Barcelona to the Gaudi park!

It's pronounced BarTHlona

Saturday was another awesome day, but when your in Barcelona how can it not be. After getting Jed and Ryan up, we all started to get ready, while Tim went for a run around the city. He says that there are no runners in Barcelona, and people were looking at him like he was crazy!

Once we were ready to start the day, we went out to breakfast with two of our bunk mates. I think everyone got a Ham and Cheese sandwich. It's reminds me of Paris so much, how everyone is always eating ham and cheese baguettes. It was pretty delicous, and after lunch we started doing some tourist things!

We first walked to La Rambla, which is one of the main streets. All along it our street performers, and "human statues". It was funny because they're were so many human statues, but only like 3 of them were popular. So there would be huge crowds around some and none around others, and whats a human statue without a crowd! We also visted a really cool produce market, where Ryan decided he needed to purchase a kilo of cherrys.

At the end of La Rambla we connected with Port Ver. It's really pretty, but not much to do. Apprently they built tons of real estate on Port Ver right before the real estate bubble, and now they have a vacancy rate of 75%, crazy I know. From Port Ver we walked up to "Old City" which is like it sounds, the original part of Barcelona from when the Romans first founded the city. It was really cool, the streets were so windy, and narrow. We even saw some of the orginal city walls. I think it's awesome to walk around a part of the city with so much history, because it's definetly not something you can see in the States!

Day Uno

The Lost Breeds made it to Spain!

We flew over on Iberia Airlines, which I had never heard of. Flight was decent enough, though it was on an airbus, and not a boeing so that means no tv at our seats. They only played one movie, "Tooth Fairy", which I did not watch. I also got stuck next to a really chatty girl for the entire ride. All I wanted to do was put on my ear buds and go to sleep, but everytime I tried, she started to strike up a conversation. Some people just don't get the hint!

I love how on transatlantic flights, they litteraly hit cruising altitude, serve dinner, turn off the lights for 2 hours, turn them on again, serve breakfast, and land. My body was not convinced it was morning.

We met up with Tim and Ryan in Barcelona with no problems, and from there we took a taxi to the Hostel. The Hostel is pretty nice, it's in a very central location on Av Diagaonl. Everyone staying here is friendly, though some are a bit socially awkward. We are staying in an 8 person dorm, all of us except Jed have the top bunk...he kind of lucked out. But the hostel has plenty of computers, free coffee and tea, and an acuoustic guitar playing manager. He played Jack Johnson for Ryan for like 20 minutes while Ryan sat awkwardly on a bean bag and listned.
But enough about our Hostel.

Barcelona is breaktaking! The archetechture is so cool, and Gaudi's inspiration is everywhere. The city is also a giant grid so it is really easy to navigate! We have only explored a litte so far, but it's seems every block or two we see something famous. The people seem really frendly, and everyone we have met speaks some English. Not that we need it too bad, Ryan and Tim are doing a pretty good job translating for us.

We got breakfast at a cafe and all of us got coffee, except Jed, who in typical Jed fashion, got a coke and a ham and cheese sandwich. From there we explored some more than went back to the hostel for a little bit of a siesta. When we woke up we talked to some other travelers who said everyone was going to the Primavera Sound festival. So after some discussion we decided to check it out too!

The ticket for the festival was about 90 Euros, but we decided to go for it anyway. The concert was held right on the coast, and we go to see some of favorite indie bands like The New Pornograhpers, Beach House, The Pixies, Wilco, Cold Cave, and Major Lazer. It was an awesome crowd, probably like 25,000 people, all enjoying the music. We all had a lot of fun, but I think it was defeinitly overpriced. The only thing that makes it okay was that I was at a major music festival in Barcelona, which is a once in a lifetime experience.

The concert ended at 6, but we left around 3, and got back around 4. We finally got some the sleep we all needed. The sleep was actually really good, though some of our dorm mates got in really late, and were kind of loud. But nothing that kept me awkae for too long! Well Tim and I woke up around 1, Jed and Ryan are still asleep.

I think I'll go wake them up!

The Lost Breeds Set Off Again

Hello Friends, and random visitors!

It's been over 10 months since the last time either of us updated this blog. And that can only mean that we are setting off again, on another adventure to an exotic destination.

The Breed Brothers are heading for an 11 day stay in Spain! We are leaving on the 26th, and coming back on the 7th. We will be visiting Barcelona, Granada, and Seville. With a small layover in Madrid. Also two of our best friends, Ryan, and Tim will be coming along with us.

So hopefully you will follow along, as we update this daily. Questions will be answered (what exactly is Tapas?), hearts will be broken (mostly ours), rooms will be shared (by up to 12 strangers in army barrack style hostels), and bulls will be fought (by professional matadors).

The City That Never Sleeps

For our last Saturday night abroad we made sure to live it up as best we could. Because we had been to Roppongi the last two days, we decided it was time to give Shibuya a try. The night started out like most other nights...with a sushi dinner. I think my favorite kind of sushi is now toro, which is fatty tuna. Sounds gross, tastes great.

In Shibuya we went to an English pub called hub. I liked hub a lot, but I would say the only similarities between an English pup and hub, is that the both serve beer. But the drinks were cheap, and we met these three Japanese guys, who really liked practicing their English with us. The bought some beer, so we of course let them practice all they wanted. One in particular named Shu was loving hanging out with us and he asked if he could come out and translate for us. And since no one in Japan speaks much English we gladly accepted his invitation. Jed said he read about a little lounge that played good music, so we headed to a place called Womb.

As soon as we got to Womb we all realized this was not some little lounge, this was the most popular club in Tokyo. It cost 4000Y to get in, but went in we did. We met some Brits in line, and they told us there was some super famous DJ playing tonight, so we were in for a treat. It ended up being a really great night! The DJ was named Magda, and she played nothing but hard trance, and house, which was a welcome break to all the hip-hop we've been hearing. We had fun dancing the night away, talked or attempted to talk to many Japanese girls, and drank a enough to make the night fly by. Around 4:40 we figured we had had enough, and got to see the sun come up for the third day in the row.

Needless to say it was not easy to wake up this morning. After hitting snooze plenty of times we made it up, got some breakfast, and headed to Harajuku for some people watching, especially to see the infamous "Harujuku girls". It was kind of neat, all these younger girls in the craziest costumes, most of the wore Gothic nurse outfits, or Victorian maid outfits. Besides the "Harajuku girls" there were also the "Rockabillies" which were basically Japanese guys dressed as greasers dancing to rock and roll. Yes kind of weird. I think Japanese culture is just too cute for words.

After Harajuku we went back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. For our last night aboard we got a traditional Japanese dinner, where you had to take your shoes off. It was a good dinner. I think its a safe bet to say we ate pretty well this trip.

Now were back at the hotel, packing, and getting ready for the 13 hours ride home tomorrow afternoon. Wrap up post to follow soon!

I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so

On Friday we woke up somewhat hungover, but not too bad, around noon. We got lunch at a Panini place and planned out our day. We decided to go to Akibara which is basically the geek capital of the world. Once we were off the train we were bombarded with anime, manga, pachinko, arcades, and tons of pimply teenagers. We went to a couple of arcades and finally found a DDR machine which we had to try and show off the moves.

There is a whole culture of geekdom in this place that we read about. Apparently, one of the staples of this culture is maid cafes. A maid cafe is basically a small cafe filled with girls dressed as anime maids who serve you soda and sweets, play games, and sing. They are everywhere in Akibara. Joe and I decided to try one of the more popular ones and it was actually pretty cool yet a little creepy. We got to @ home cafe on the 7th floor of some building and after being briefed on the rules (ex. no asking the maids personal information) we were seated. Everything is designed to look as cute as possible, from the pink interior to the J-pop music playing. It was filled with mostly young guys playing their PSPs but a couple of girls were there too. Joe got a little bunny shaped cake and I got a coke float. For a 500Y fee you can play games with the maid of your choice for 3 whole minutes. I ended facing one in some weird rock em sock em robot type game. After a hard fought battle I came out the winner and won a little prize which was a coaster with drawings on it by the maid. Joe got his picture taken with one for a fee too. The guy sitting next to us must have been to these cafes 1000 times because he had a book of all his photos with the maids. Unfortunately, he was a little shy to show us them but we saw the magnitude of his collection. It was a lot of fun and it was nice being a Tokyo nerd for the day.

Joe and I then went to Ginzu which is like Tokyo's fifth ave. There wasn't a lot to do there because we really don't have money to shop. We went to the Sony Building and looked at the new products. Then we stopped in a pretty big Apple store. We then went back to our hotel and headed back out for dinner. We found a conveyor belt sushi place that was amazing! The sushi chefs stand in the middle of the conveyor belt and just keep putting little plates on the belt while the customers just pick up which plate they want to eat. It was really inexpensive and the sushi was still excellent. Joe and I were stuffed by the end and decided to pregame in out hotel before hitting Rapongi.

Ropongi is the night life area of Tokyo. It's really sleazy and feels like Cancun. The bars don't get really going till midnight so we arrived around 11. It was a crazy night. Around 1am Joe and I arrived at the front door of a pretty well known club that had a 3,000Y fee to get in for guys. Just as we were debating on going in a out of shape white guy, who must have been in the club earlier, was denied entry by the bouncer because they have no re-ntry. After about 15 seconds the guy just leaped at the large muscle bound bouncer and a full brawl ensued. Joe and I watched for a little bit and just slipped right in for free. Yay! So that made us very happy. We met a ton of people and had a great but long night. The subways stop running at 1am so everyone stays out until they open up again at 5:30. This is what we did and emerging from the club to full sunlight wasn't a great experience. The trains were full of sleepy people and we finally made it back to out hotel around 6.

We tried to get up but couldn't till about 2pm today. With no motivation to really move we stayed local and saw "Knowing". Which actually turned out pretty good. Now we are planing out our 2nd to last night before going back home.