Oh happy day and a holy experience

JOY! The student group packed up and left town this morning and I could not be more thrilled. I was a walking zombie but visibly perked up at the breakfast table when I noticed their mound of suitcases near the reception desk.

Nicole and I got ready early and successfully navigated the Metro to a train, which took us to Montserrat. The name means ¨the serrated mountains¨ and the views are pretty spectacular. In addition to the views, there is an old church and monastery up top, and the boys choir is known to draw a crowd -- we heard them sing at 1pm along with hundreds of other people. We arrived around 10:45am after a light drizzle so there was just enough fog to make the mountain like pretty spooky :-)

We had read that the only food at Montserrat was expensive so we packed our meals. Needless to say, we spotted a regularly-priced cafe with coffee and pastries rather quickly and caved to a pastry filled with what looked like the equivalent of the cream in a boston cream dessert. Let me tell you, it was 50 times better than that. I very rarely eat pastries, but this was one of the most wonderful things I have ever had the pleasure of eating. As someone said, it was a holy experience O:-)

I am only in Barcelona for two more days!! Where did the time go?! Sunday I leave for the airport early with Nicole for her flight, and then my flight for Istanbul does not leave until 7pm. I will arrive at 2am and have decided that unless I meet another tourist who wants to split a shuttle at that crazy hour, I will sit in a corner or on a bench until 6am when the metro opens. Then I hope to navigate Istanbul´s interesting looking transportation system and arrive at my Sultanahmet hostel relatively unscathed.

Abrazos!