Going to Montserrat (monster rat??)

      So today, our second day in Barcelona, Spain, we SPLIT OFF into groups. It's astonishing, I know. Dad and I went to Montserrat (monster rat???) while Colleen and Mom went to La Sagrada Familia and toured around churches and walked about Barcelona. Montserrat is a mountain range with a monastery built into it in the 15th century. There's a lot of trails leading to the peaks of the rocks here. To get there, we took an hour long train ride to the cable that led up the mountains. After, we walked around the monastery. It's really warm up there, like upper 60s. I had to take off my jacket, the first time in months. Then, we took the Funicular car up the rest of the way to the mountain. Then we walked up for 45 minutes to get to the top of one of the peaks called "Ermita de Santa Magdalena". There, I was almost taken out by a fly. So in Ireland (and in everywhere else, really), all the insect life go away for October through May, including all the flies, so it was kind of a surprise to hear not one, not two, but four huge flies and a bee whiz past my ear. Near the top of the rock, after a handful of near-death experiences from slipping on rocks and tripping over my own feet, after Dad and I did our picture thing, there's a 60 degree angle side, full of smooth pebbles and killer rocks. At the top of that, there's a straight drop onto rocks without a fence. I was standing there, looking for an easy path on the 60 degree slope. Then, out of nowhere, a fly goes right next to my ear. I felt it's little fly hairs on my ear and I freaked. During the freak-out session (it was short-lived, you'll see why), I almost slipped on a rock and plummeted to my death down the slope. That fly, I swear, was out to get me. It continued buzzing near my head as Dad and I went down the other steep slopes. It turns out, we went up the hard way and down the easy way. On the way down, we saw a hole in the face of the mountain with a well of water in it. There was also a cool stone arch leading to the remains of a house that was built into the face of the mountain. After looking at that, we continued down the path to the Sant Joan house. By the way, the route we took to go up the rock had no path or pavement, and the few stairs that were there sucked, so the pavement was a welcome change of pace (get it :D). After checking out the house, we finally made it back to the monastery via the funicular. A funicular (fun•ick•you•ler) is like a subway that's slower and on the surface without seats. And poles. It also goes up/downhill. From there, we decided to have lunch later and took the cable car down to the hour-long train ride back home. We had lunch at a place called Tapa Tapa where I ordered a hot chocolate. Now, it's rare for me to do this, simply because I usually like tea better. After our food came, they brought the drink over to me. Guess what? It was, no joke, a bowl of melted dark chocolate. No milk. No foam. Literally a bowl of melted, hot, chocolate. It was delicious and I have no regrets. It was stressful to drink it though, because it was a little too hot to drink, but if I let it cool it would solidify, so I ended up using the spoon, mostly. I repeat: IT WAS DELICIOUS AND I HAVE NO REGRETS. After, we met up with Mom and Colleen to hear about their day, which you're sure to read about later.

Signing off after possibly the most stressful day of my life, 

Abby Cakebread

P.S. Happy Pi Day, too.

P.P.S. This entry is pretty late because the wifi of the places we've been in have been pretty bad and it hasn't allowed me to publish because of that.