what happens in Barca doesn't stay in Barca

For Layne's parent's 30th wedding anniversary they decided to go on a Mediterranean cruise and take all three kids and their spouses. Score! They had this trip booked over a year ago, so it's been a long time coming. And we were all so ready to get over there.

Wednesday - 4:30am wake up call. Woof. First stop, Atlanta, then onward to Barcelona. We met Layne's family in ATL, so what should 8 peeps do during a four-hour layover?...How about drink beer and make friendship bracelets. Haven't done that since hemp bracelets in middle school. Almost everyone wanted to do OKC Thunder colors, but there wasn't enough so some of us had to deal with others. Kyle's first pick was the Thunder colors, but when he found out there wasn't going to be enough he was totally ok because he already had his second colors picked out: white, red and pink. "These will go well with all the blue I'm wearing on this vacation". There was nothing Layne could say to that.

After an 8 hour plane ride we finally make it to Barcelona (luckily the plane had tv's for each person, unluckily Joe & Marilee's didn't work the entire trip). It was about 8:30 am Barcelona time when we arrived, so the first thing was go to the hotel and freshen up. Only one room was available at that time so 8 of us crammed into my parents typically-tiny euro-style hotel room. The guys all christened the toilet and then we were on our way to hit up Cafe Zurich, down the street from the hotel. It was now about 10 am Barcelona time, and we were all thirsty. So while everyone else around us is drinking their tiny, tiny espresso, we were drinking huge beers. So after that, the rest of the day consisted of seeing the Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, and some other rando things. Then 'cause we had been up for like a million hours, we all trodded off to bed pretty early.

Or so we thought.

Turns out that the dynamic duo known as Dino and Dina {callan and kelly} decided to go to the irish pub down the street {scobie's} and close the bar down. No, literally, close the bar down. They are such cheery people that they made friends with the Irish owner who closed down the bar early so them three and one other couple could hang out and talk in peace.

No offense to them, but we could tell they stayed out. Callan got approximately 3 hours of sleep before he joined us all for a run around old-town Barcelona. Kelly was so tired she didn't wake up to the phone ringing in the room. And lemme tell ya, calling that sound a 'ring' is pretty generous. It's more like a feral cat's cry amplified through a megaphone that is shorting out while windows are shattering in the background. Props to dina for not waking up.

{our awesome hotel}

{family at Cafe Zurich in Barcelona}

{la sagrada familia}

{ceiling of la sagrada familia}

{at park guell with view of barcelona in background}

Our run was through tiny Barcelona streets--love it cause gives you the true culture feel. The first real stop to this day was going to see Camp Nou, Barcelona's Futbol stadium. It's massive. Layne was really wanting to see Fabregas and Messi, but that obviously didn't happen with the Euro Tournament going on. Layne told Kyle to ask his taxi driver if he knew where Fab lives {there was girl-taxi and a guy-taxi}. He said no and gave Kyle a suspicious look. Obviously, Kyle cleared that situation up pretty quickly by telling him that the girls were the ones that really wanted to know.

{amazing pastry shops everywhere}

{layne wants to go back for these}

{joe loved the pastries}

{in front of Barcelona's futbol stadium Camp Nou}

{inside Camp Nou}

Before lunch we had to take a pit-stop in a Pharmacy. Layne had some type of huge rash on both her legs. It has started before the trip but it wasn't too bad until we got over seas. Don't worry, it's was just a spider bite. We just got some stronger type cortizone. It almost gone now. But. The pharmacist could only speak catalan. Pretty much no english. Kyle has a working knowledge of spanish, but really trying to describe an ace bandage in spanish to someone who really only knows catalan was a little difficult to say the least. But we ended up with exactly what we needed. Perf.

After all that we went over to the Spanish Village. First thing we wanted was lunch. We were starving. So we found this cute little restaurant where we sat outside on a perfect sunny day, in the shade with a nice, subtle breeze. Everyone got some beers, ordered our meals and then sat around and talked while waiting for the food. Great conversation, everyone having a great time. We first realize that the Dullea clan has huge, deep wrinkles on their forehead (Layne likes to think it's only the men in the family). After waiting for what felt like forever since we were starving, our food finally started to arrive. Kelly and Joe's came out first. Being so hungry, Kelly started to dive on in, no one blames her because our stomachs were making noises. Finally Marilee and Callan's pizzas arrive, Cameron's spaghetti arrives, Kyle's and Nicole's yummy pesto pasta arrive and then finally Layne's pasta arrives.

Everything happens so fast and there are so many perspectives of the incident.

Nicole: Nicole sees Layne look at her pasta, with her face so happy, smiling with a great amount of hunger in her eyes and then it vanishes in an instant. Layne pushes away the pasta trying not to make too grossed out of face/throw up. Nicole asks "Is there a hair in your pasta?"

Marilee: Sees Layne push her dish away with a grossed out face and asks "What's wrong?"

The real story: So hungry and so excited that her pasta finally came, she picks up her fork to dive in. Hold up. Layne being the overly cautious person she is with food, just looks at her pasta to savor the moment. And also to check if everything is good. She does this with everything she eats. Don't be offended. So while looking at her pasta, she sees soemthing. Face goes from extreme excitement because she is so hungry to watch out I'm gonna hurl. She pushes her food away from her.

Layne was conflicted on what to do. Tell and everyone be grossed out. Or not tell. Well obviously she had to tell because they would have found out sooner or later.

To answer all yours and Nicole's questions, No it was not a hair. And to Marilee, Yes something was wrong. Very wrong.

When Layne was checking her dish before she ate because that's how she rolls, she saw that on top of her pasta, the shredded parmesan was moving. There was a maggot in the cheese, having the time of his life. So she told people about it and boom. No one was hungry anymore. Kelly was a tad nervous because by then her dish was already 3/4 finished.

So when the waitor came by to ask us all how our food was we showed him. He felt so horrible and didn't know what to do. He asked Layne "Do you want us to make you a new dish?", "What else would you like?", "I'll go make you a new dish.", and then finally with the correct question "Would you like more beer?"

He felt so badly, that he proceeded to bring out the fresh pasta for Layne to feel, to let her know that it is so fresh that is not where it came from (which we bet our lives it was the next tables pasta that Layne was touching). Then he brought out the packed cheese that they use and that is not where it came from, but the fresh block of parmesan that they shred over the dishes.

Luckily no one else had parmesan cheese on their dish. Not like that changed anything.

Layne finally ended up getting something to eat. Pistachio gelato. It was the absolute best.

 {parents at lunch in spanish village}

 {beers were much needed at this lunch}

{dullea boy wrinkles}

 {kyle getting layne an orange to eat since she didn't have lunch. 

she didn't eat this either}

{spanish village}

So after quite the eventful afternoon, we headed back to the hotel to recharge and change before we headed out to the Brown for a tasty dinner. Pumpkin gnocchi was prettay dang good.

{family at the brown}

{amazing pumpkin gnocchi}

{saw this sign and made them get a picture since it was their 30th anniversary!}

We decided to hit up Scobie's as a family during the Russia v Czech game and there were some crazy Russian kids gettin' rowdy next to us. Mar and Joe headed off to bed but the six kiddos decided to make a memory in Barcelona. After a few drinks at the irish pub we asked the barkeep where the locals go. We checked out the street and found a nice little bar to have some more beers. 

This bar was lucky: we walk in and Cam finds a 20 euro note on the ground by our table, and being the corrupt vigilante he is, decides to keep it. But being the awesome-ly generous brother/brother-in-law that he is, he decides to put it towards the tab. Schwing! Ok so at that point we're all thinkin' "alright, that means we can all have an extra beer 'cause that'll pay for hopefully one for each of us." Sooo, after we all have two or three beers we decided to get the check and head back to the hotel.

Hold up. Is this the right tab? 21 euro for 14 beers?!? 

Obviously we decided to all get one more. 

We left at around 3am, and we're pretty sure the natives we're only getting started partying at that time.  Obviously the morning came quick.

Breakfast. That is all anybody wanted. Well, and water. And coffee. And more sleep, but that wasn't coming. We went to this cute little place we found while walking the streets and everybody orders the magical trifecta: freshly squeezed orange juice, coffee and water. We could feel the energy coming back into our lives. For the food portion we all order normal breakfast meals, except for the two Dullea brothers. They order the American on the menu. A cheeseburger. For breakfast. It actually sounded amazing and L regrets not ordering it herself. Greasy, substantial hamburger well-suited to mop up the mess in our stomachs.

 {two of the trifecta}

{the american} 

Barcelona was great, but we were only starting our trip. We then got on the boat whiiiicchhh will be the next post. 

Hopefully we didn't lose any of you at the maggot part.