Where You Going? Barcelona. Oh. - Day 9

On my final full day of the trip, I slept in until 9:30, got ready for the day, had breakfast at the corner café and headed off to the Barcelona Zoo. The parentals wanted to stay in to pack and get ready for the day, so I was on my own. I took the subway down to the Olympic Village and, while crossing over to the entrance, almost got hit by a tram, but that didn’t deter me from seeing some animals. The Zoo here is most famous for it’s albino gorilla, who unfortunately died a few years back, but they’ve got over 400 species to make up for it.



Once in the park, the sounds of animals waking and making noises filled the air. As I approached the giraffes I noticed peacocks wandering around freely. It was a little alarming at first, but it was interesting to see how close I could get to them. They didn’t seem to be scared of anything much and I got some good shots. It was amusing to see them scare little kids, though. And little kids there were- there was at least 12 sets of preschool-aged children making all sorts of racquets. I love children individually, but being in the middle of a sea of them was a little like Tippi Hedren walking out of that house at the end of “The Birds.”


Another attraction the zoo is known for is its dolphins, and they have shows a few times a day. Honestly, that was the primary reason for going, since I have a thing for them. They’ve got a total of five dolphins, three adult females ranging from 3 to 45 years old and two male calves that are less than a year old. The show was your typical dolphin spectacle and, as always the cute factor was high.

After hitting the rest of the animals (not literally, natch), I got back on the subway to meet up with Roz and Al and the train got stuck for 10 minutes. Luckily I wasn’t in too much of a hurry, but still kinda annoying. Once back at the hotel, we met up and walked our way up our side street to a local movie theatre. They went to see “Madrigal,” a Cuban film and I (finally) saw Danny Boyle’s “Sunshine”- in English and subtitled. While predictable, it was still an engaging sci-fi thriller in the vein of “Alien” and I enjoyed it more than his “28 Days Later.”

Afterwards, I went back to my room and started packing my suitcase. It’s amazing how much heavier it is once I put all purchases & gifts in there…

After taking a break and calling some friends in the US, we went out for some dinner and I ended our stay here at the same place we started- in a café with churros for dessert before trekking back to the hotel and finishing up my packing.

It’s been a wonderful stay here. The city is marvelous, the people generous and the climate was super. I’m gonna miss it.