I got out of class on Friday at 2:00 and since we had some time to kill, Jourdan and I went to a sandwich place called Bo De B. Apparently they have gigantic subs for only 4 euros. It was about a 10 minute walk and there was a huge line out the door. We decided to wait and it took about an hour to get our food. It definitely lived up to its expectations. The bad thing was that it took a long time so we had to rush back to catch the bus for the field trip. We only went to the port in Palamos and there was not that much. Here is a picture of the port.
We also had a bunch of questions that we had to answer so the whole time we needed to listen very carefully to what our professor was saying. While he was talking a small shark hit one of the girls in the class. I have no idea what really happened because we were on a 4 foot dock but I think a bird had it and it fell out of its mouth or something...who knows. Here is the shark
There were also some very nice boats on the harbor
After we saw the types of fishing boats that were unloading the daily catch, we went to the fishing museum that was a few feet away. Surprisingly the museum was not that boring. First we saw a video about how the fishing industry has changed and how it is regulated. Then we walked around the museum looking at the different tools used for fishing and saw diagrams of certain fishing methods. This field trip was pretty short but I learned a lot about fishing methods and the impact of over fishing.
Since we got home around 9:00 PM and had to wake up at 7:00 in the morning we didn't go out. We tried to go to bed early, but I fell asleep around 12:30. The bus ride was about 2 hours and I slept most of the way, catching up on my lack of sleep from the night. The first place we stopped was in the center of the delta where the town is. There was a small museum about the history of the delta and it had some fish tanks of the animals that live there. This area has been greatly impacted by humans from deforestation to alien species being introduced to increase fishing. The deforestation up stream led to lots of erosion that got deposited on the delta so around 1700 the total area of the delta almost doubled. Now there are lots of dams for irrigation of the major crop, rice, which trap the sediment and the delta is now shrinking. The next place we went was a lagoon where we saw some Flamingos.
There he talked about the impact of hunting. Then we stopped for lunch. I did not want to spend money so Jourdan and I made some turkey sandwiches for lunch. We ate at a picnic table and there was a cat that looked very hungry. I gave it a small piece of cheese and then it looked at me for a while, wanting more, so I took a picture.
For the rest of trip we answered questions about algae and sea grass that was not very interesting so I won't bore you. Our last stop at the delta was on the sea where there were a lot of shells and some soft sand. There he talked about the erosion of the beaches and how it has impacted the area...blah blah blah. There were some really cool sand dunes though.
These were some huge sand dunes that looked like rolling hills...not really. They were actually very small but I was in an artistic mood so I tried to get some cool pictures, and I think they turned out pretty well. The top picture is from small shells. When there is a storm, the waves wash the whole beach away and the sand around the shells eroded away, leaving little bumps of sand with small shells at the top of each one. It looked really cool. After this beach we headed back towards Barcelona but stopped along the way at another lagoon. There was a nice path to the ocean but apparently when it rains, it floods and forms a small river. Here is a picture of the beach
After that we just went back to Barcelona. The next day we were also waking up early for a trip to Tarragona. Tarragona was the first Roman city in Spain and was much larger and more directly linked with Rome than Barcelona.
That night we wanted to go out so we decided to go with the Brazilian girl in our home stay, Julianna. She had some friends visiting and they were staying in a hostel so we went there to have a few drinks. Her friend also bought us each a bottle of wine which was very nice. Also when we walked into the hostel I overheard someone smoking a cigarette outside say "there goes the Brazilians with a lot of money." I thought it was very rude but it was true because later that night they went to a club and got a bottle service and a table, which is 50 euros per person plus a 20 euro entrance fee. We only stayed with them at the hostel and had a few drinks before going back though. At the hostel they had a room with about 10 beds. In the room there were two guys from Chile, 3 from LA, and the 2 Brazillians. Everyone spoke English but people were talking in Spanish, Portuguese, South American Spanish (which is a bit different), and English. I don't think I had ever been in a room where people were speaking so many different languages yet everyone could communicate perfectly. It made me very excited to stay in a hostel. Who knows what kind of people you can meet...as long as they don't kill or rob you. I also thought it was cool how everyone knew more than one language, except for two of the people for LA. I have gotten the feeling that most people around the world can speak more than one language except for Americans. So I am very glad that I can speak Spanish...even if it is not that good. I can at least have a conversation with people. After that we just went home and got to bed around 2:30.
We woke up at 7:30 and our plan was to be at the train station at 9 to go to Tarragona. 4 people came. Two girls from Santa Cruz joined Jourdan and I for the day trip.
We took the 9:30 train towards Valencia and it is 1 hour and 5 minutes to Tarragona. In the train there is a digital board that tells you the next stop but about half way it stopped changing so we missed our stop. At first we were all kind of angry but it worked out in the end. We got off at the next station and the next train going the other direction was not for another 50 minutes. We walked about half a block to the closest bar and got some sandwiches. I got a bocadillo, which is just a sub, with egg in the middle. It was really good but could have used a little less salt and some cheese. We killed some time and got back on the train. We also didn't have to pay because you could just get on the train and no one ever came to check our tickets. Our plan if that happened was to just get kicked off at the next stop which was Tarragona. When we arrived in Tarragona we didn't really have any plans other than to see the Roman ruins and the old city. We found a map and just walked around. The old city is small enough to walk around in about 2 hours. The first thing we found was the Amphitheater.
This was really cool because it was so old and they had gladiator fights and executions here. So a lot of blood has been spilled in this arena. We did a lot of exploring here and found some cool passages. At one point we also hopped over one of the gates and went down some stairs to some secret rooms. Who knows what they kept down there...maybe some lions or slaves.
Next we walked towards the Cathedral. Along the way we found another map and planned out our tour. It was a very nice day out and in this part of the city there were hardly any cars. I noticed that this area was a very pedestrian friendly area and I like it a lot more than Barcelona.
Along the way there was this wall. I have no idea what it was and there was no sign but it was just in the middle of the plaza. When we got to the Cathedral there was a flea market. We got pretty detracted and walked around for a while
We finally entered the Cathedral but it was closing and there was construction all over the place. So our next stop was to walk around the inside of the old roman wall and then go to a Roman market area called the Torre de L'audencia. We actually didn't plan on going there but we just kind of wandered into it. It was really cool though because they had a model of what the city looked like before the fall of Rome. Here it is. We were on the left side in the big building with the pillars, although the pillars are not there anymore.
After that we basically walked around the entire Roman city. Our next plan was to go out to the point (lower right of the picture) and have a drink. We bought some beers at a bar and walked out there and just relaxed while soaking up some sunshine.
Jourdan did some more exploring and found a cave
We were all pretty tired by now so we just hopped on the next train back to Barcelona. On our walk back to the train station we walked along the beach and took our shoes off. The sand felt great on our feet...very satisfying. When we got to the train station it was packed. Everyone bum rushed the train and we got on around the middle but only found two seats next to each other. I let the girls take that one and I figured that we would find another seat. However, we had no luck, not even to find two seats next to each other. So we sat on the steps to get on the train on the side that didn't open for the hour ride home...it wasn't so bad though.
It was a very long weekend and I was exhausted by the end. When we got home we had some Paella waiting for us because it was Sunday. We wanted to eat as a family though so we waited until everyone got home. We ate some cheese and crackers to hold us over. I watched a tv show on my computer but passed out in the middle and didn't wake up until 9:30 when everyone got home for dinner. By now I was not really in the mood for Paella but ate it anyway and just went back to bed after dinner at about 10:30 and planned to wake up around 10 for class the next day. Great weekend, very busy, and I didn't do any HW.
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