Barcelona! And, okay, so I lied.

Well, not that I lied but I blatantly said that I would try to be better about blogging and then failed. Alas. Now, though, it should be easier - although my family only has one computer, hostels are often well equipped and, let's face it, I can always stay up late or get up early!

Anyway, now we're in mainland Spain, in Barcelona! Our flight out of Tenerife - the northern airport this time - was delayed by nearly an hour, probably because it is one of the most badly situated airports in the world. Apparently, they asked a german engineer to choose the site of the airport, and he marked bad areas with an X and good areas for the airport with an O - the builders thought it was the other way around, an chose a TERRIBLE place. The airport is also the sight of the worse aviation accident in history, when two jumbo jets collided (Josh's mom was in a movie theater in La Laguna when it happened, and she says that an announcement came over the speakers asking all medical personnel to report to the airport - when they came out of the theater, it smelled like burning).

But we made it. Barcelona is so different already - hot, humid, absolutely chock full of tourists and way more expensive. Sometimes in Tenerife I felt like a serious outsider, but here we're just one of the crowd, which is something of a relief. The hostel is also nice and quiet, and located in the center of the city, so its already exciting. We got in late last night, but early enough to watch Spain beat Portugal! Hurrah! (I don't think the Portuguese sitting next to us at the restaurant were too pleased, but they took it with good grace).Our first full day is still ahead of us, so we'll see what happens!

The last few days in Tenerife were slightly mad, as we tried to take my family to see as much of the sights of the islands as possible. The first day, we did an entire loop of Tenerife, getting back home around midnight. We did an absurd amount of beaching - well, perhaps not too absurd, given we were on an island - for my sister, saw many beautiful buildings and churches, and drove A LOT. Also tried to give them a 'taste' for the island, trying local cuisine and especially local wine. It was certainly fun, but also somewhat insane.

I miss Tenerife, but continent, here we come!!!