Spain, olé!

Walk through a half/closed but very fancy mini-mall with two restaurants, clothing shops, and a store completely dedicated to things that glow. Take the first exit you see, past men wheeling large boxes to somewhere, and you find yourself in an incredibly small alley, filled with book shops, antique stores, and sex shops, that is dense with cigar smoke. It's one pm and all the stores are closing their doors for the next three hours to honour the traditional siesta and the streets are near empty. Welcome to Spain.
I took a train from Toulouse to a small town on the outline on France. It was an afternoon train that pulled in at dusk and everything reminded me of a movie where everyone dies quickly, only somehow safe. The train station was away from any real "town" although houses sat around it like stubble on a chin and everything was cradled by huge French mountains. The place was almost deserted and my eight minute wait wound up being an hour and a half for my next train. All was well though and I rolled into Barcelona not even being sure where the heck I was because the train turns into another subway when you arrive in the city and I had to guess at which stop to get off at to get to the real subway. By the time I actually found my way to the hostel it was about 10pm and I was tired, embarrassed by my lack of Spanish, and looking for a party. I inserted myself into the liveliest looking group of kids, made quick friends, and was introduced to a game where you roll dice, call out a number, a person, and a dare, and if you get that number that person is bound to the dare. I bounced out to get something to drink (a litre and a half of sangria for less than two euros, thank you very much) and came back to join the revelry.
The hostel gang and I got good and rowdy and then took off to find a club. The metro in Barcelona is open all night on Saturday, what a great city! Instead of a club we went to an outdoor and free psycho-trance party. I was introduced to a different kind of sangria made with white wine and pineapple juice, and good times were had by all.
The next morning I forced myself to get up in time for the free hostel breakfast and then quickly got ready and jammed at least a few days worth of sightseeing into a few hours. I had a lot of things to see and a 6pm bus to catch. I saw Barcelona's most famous building, Sagrada Familla, a huge and looming gothic building hundreds of years old and still unfinished and under contruction. I saw the olympic stadium, city hall, the famous fountain, the biggest museum, the famous palatial parks, and then went ot a random section of the downtown and walked around. Barcelona is brimming with street performers and musicians. I saw some of the most amazing and chaotic live music and many living statues. I was drunk off music and beauty and fast-tracking across the city. I took the metro back to my hostel and walked over to the mediterrenean sea and the palm-tree laden beach. I then had a quick dinner in the hostel and rushed over to the bus station to take my bus to Zaragoza. I arrived in Zaragoza around 10pm, met my couchsurfing host, a nice computer programmer named Isaac, got to know him a bit, and then passed the hell out. Today I woke up early so Isaac could show me where the grocery store and his work was on his way to work. Zaragoza is a fair sized city but small enough to walk in and with loads of personality. I lost the grocery store, bought a baguette, came back to Isaac's flat to (finally) do laundry, and while it washed I got hard and heavy into "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac. I played jazz records and read a good third of the book. I then put down the book and got into some NIA-style improv dance around the flat to the tune of wailing jazz. I went back to Isaac's work to go for late lunch with him and his work buddies and got him to show me on the map where the grocery store is. I found the grocery store, bought groceries, came back to the flat, a bit more reading, then wandering around the "old city" for awhile before meeting Isaac again to go to the theatre.
We saw a dutch show called "Angel" a one-man and one-puppet experimental theatre piece involving puppetry, monologues, and modern dance. It was fantastic, even if I didn't understand the parts where he was talking in spanish. I would get so excited whenever he said a word I understood during his monologues that I would almost lead out of my seat. After that Isaac, myself, and a fellow Canadian now living in Zaragoza named Yohanna, all went out for drinks. This morning I got up, fed my now rampant addiction to "On the Road", then went walking in a part of the city I haven't been to yet. I saw an ancient Roman gateway, the University, and Zaragoza's biggest park, simply called Parque Grande. I absolutely loved the park for its diverse trees, cool graffiti, and amazing fountains. I read in the park under a tree before doing some wanderings around the city. I came back to the flat and cooked up a small tempest (food's cheap here so I've been eating like a king) and then Isaac, Yohanna, and I watched a delightful little documentary on Frank Gehry. Whew! That was a lot of updating.