Beach Day!

On Sunday we went to Mass at Sagrada Familia.  It was consecrated last October, but they don’t have Mass in the main part of the church yet, it’s just a tourist attraction while they’re still building.  During Mass people that were visiting the main part of the church (above us) were taking pictures of us – it was very distracting.  I think if I went to Mass in the main part I would just be staring at all the crazy details the whole time.  After Mass we looked around the chapel, saw Gaudi’s tomb and then started our stroll to the beach.

It was a beautiful day, so we took our time making our way to the meeting point with the non-Catholics.  We walked past lots of shops and busy streets, ran into a park that had a lot of things going on (ping pong tournament, marathon of little kids, singers on a stage, carnival), and then meandered our way to the beach.  We spent the afternoon lounging in the sand, watching random people try to sell various items and services.  There were people walking around with scarves, beers, and our favorite – “fresh” coconut slices.  At first we thought the coconut slices looked pretty good, until we were sitting by the showers, had a man try and sell us fresh coconut slices, and when we said no he walked to the shower, turned it on, and rinsed the coconut off.  It made it look super fresh, with water dripping off of it, the little trickster.  The kicker is he tried to sell it to us again, after he did that right in front of us!  We saw a little boy talk his mom into buying him a slice, and he took one bite, made a sour face and threw it away.

At the end of the afternoon we were all napping on the beach, and Kelsey was being our watchdog (although she is currently requesting FBI agent and CIA material).  She had us all hold our belongings closer to us when some creepy men came and sat in front of us.  They kept looking back at us, and talking to each other.  Eventually when Kelsey was turning around, they got up and snatched a bag of a couple next to us.  The guy turned around and they dropped the bag and walked off.  There was a big commotion and confusion, and when everyone around saw what happened a group of big men in leather (unassociated with the couple) wanted the snatcher to come back and fight!  The snatcher went back, and I filmed it in hopes of seeing a beat down, but they just yelled at each other and then the snatcher walked off.  As we were leaving the beach, the snatcher walked past us, knowing that we were watching him, and in Spanish he said, “Nothing happened!” He laughed and walked off. What a meanie!

We walked along the board walk to see Frank Gehry’s fish sculpture, and then met the boys for dinner.  We went to an awesome Mexican restaurant in the ghetto – we filled up the tiny restaurant and spent a couple hours at dinner.  It was a lot of fun, and we made our way home and passed out from an exhausting day at the beach.

Cara Marie