So this morning I woke up quite early because of how loud it is to arrive in the port. So I went and had breakfast in the LOUD dining hall. It really rumbles back there when the ship is docking.

At about 9 am, we had to head to the classrooms for the diplomatic briefing. This is possibly the most pointless thing ever. First the diplomat repeats everything that we were told the night before at the pre-port information session, and then he proceeded to ramble on about what his job is and what the point of the embassy and stuff is. After awhile I got to bored and headed back to my room to meet up with my roommate. When I got back to my room I found out that the briefing was on TV so there was no reason to even leave my room.

As soon as the diplomat was done, we got the announcement that the ship was cleared and that we were now able to leave. So Lindsay and I raced to the gangway, and we ended up being first in line. It was pretty exciting to be the first person off the ship in Spain. So we boarded the shuttle that would take us from the boat to the drop off location outside of the port. Our area of the port was under construction so we are not allowed to walk.

We got off the shuttle and then headed to La Rambla. Today was a holiday in Barcelona, the Feast of St. Juan, which is the day after the summer solstice. So most things were closed today and there weren't a lot of people out. I thought it was quite nice because it gave the opportunity to see the city and get my bearings before the next couple of days. We walked around for awhile before getting lunch. It was great to finally have food that wasn’t from the ship.

Lindsay had to  leave lunch before we could pay, because she needed to get back to the boat for here SAS trip. So I hung out for awhile and then paid the bill. I then headed back to the ship for my SAS trip. However, once I got to the ship and saw the busses that we were taking for the city orientation, I realized that I didn’t want to do it. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to take the amount of pictures that I wanted to take. Luckily there were people there who wanted to buy a ticket, so I sold my ticket to a girl who was standing there.

I got back on the shuttle bus to head back into town. The bus driver thought it was pretty funny that I had just ridden back to the ship on the bus.

In Barcelona, they had city-sightseeing tour buses. I had done this before in France and it was defiantly the best way to see the city. So I decided that I would do that here in Barcelona. I got on the bus and did the whole tour on the "red line." It went around all the important areas of town and I was able to take  quite a few pictures and get an idea of what I want to do tomorrow. I realized that I should have bought the 2 day pass, but then I found out that I could go to the tourism center at the end of La Rambla to pay the difference between the ticket (7 Euro) and then get the 2 day pass.

After that I decided to head back to the ship for the night. It had been a full and exiting day in the sun and I was quite tired. Tomorrow will be spent on that bus enjoying the city!!!