Tarragona and Barcelona

After arrival in Tarragona I spent some time with the family of my friend Nico who was away travelling in Italy for a couple of days (Note: Nico I met during a holiday in Barcelona). However following so much contact with new people I felt like having some space to simply be alone. So I spent a couple of days on my own cycling by the sea instead of talking to strangers in the streets. Nico arrived a couple days later and we spent two days together in Tarragona. "I will have to leave tonight to get to work in time tomorrow, also I am afraid that while you are in Barcelona I will have to work most of the time." Nico informed me just as we open the door to his parents place after a walk on the beach and a small work out session. "No problem, I will find something to do while I am there. I will see you tomorrow then, if I find someone to hitch hike with." I say and open the door to the kitchen from which the delicious smells of Elizabeth's (Nico's mother) cooking had lured us in. A good night rest and a lovely breakfast later I embark on yet another hitch hiking trip. Though Barcelona is only about 100km away, making it considerably easier than the trip to Tarragona. None the less I don't appear to have much luck and only after waiting for about 1 1/2 hours someone finally picks me up. "Hey, how are you?" I ask the man behind the steering wheel, he looked a little bit like Mohamed but much better groomed and it strongly smelled like Eau de Toilette inside the car. "Oh good, I am going to Barcelona. You want to come?" He says and points towards my cardboard sign reading 'Barcelona'. "Well yes, thank you so much. I am Noah by the way." I answer; put my bag into the boot and sit down in the passenger seat. I look in between our seats and yes, this time there were no empty beer cans scattered on the floor. I feel much more comfortable during this trip and the short stops every now and then which Alfons made to look at the scenery and not to buy beer must've aided in that. I safely arrive in Barcelona and following a short walk I meet up with Nico at his workplace. The following 3 days were filled with me cycling about on Nico's bike and exploring Barcelona. However most of my time I spend on the beach at the free standing pull up bars. There I fell in love with doing calisthenics and playing about on the bars. Besides these little trips Nico and I spent some time together once he finished work. Little strolls to the beach and talking to strangers in the streets filled the busy hours in Barcelona. One afternoon I decide to cycle to the area where my friend Elvis and I had spent our holiday about a year earlier. I find the old tapas bar where we always had patatas fritas and continue cycling up the 'Rambla del Poblenou' away from the beach. At some point I reach the 'Parc del Poblenou' and wander within it's green for a little until I decide to sit down on a metal bench and have the meal that I had brought with me. I begin feeling thirsty and look around to try and find one of the many water fountains that are scattered all over Barcelona, but no luck. I notice a young woman sitting behind me in the grass under the shade of the trees and decide to ask her if she knew. "Hey, do you speak english?" I ask the woman that was now eating sushi. "Yes, I do." She answers without any Spanish accent. "Do you happen to know where I can find a water fountain anywhere around here?" I inquire and hold forward my empty water bottle. "I am afraid not, but really you just wanted to talk to me didn't you?!" She replies frankly and smiles. I smile, there was no reason to not go with that story, after all it might spark and interesting conversation. "I guess you are right, I am Noah. Nice to meet you." I reply and put the bike on the ground to then sit down myself. "I'm Tamara, you want some sushi?" Tamara says and hands me a pair of chopsticks. "Yes, thank you. Where are you from? or why is your english so good?" I ask her the question that has been in my mind since we had started talking. "Well I lived in the US for a while. And I am kind of from all over. I like to live in different cities for maybe a year or two at a time, it varies. I was born in Nicaragua though." she answers as she changes her legs into a lotus seat. "Oh nice, Nicaragua sounds great. I attended a Global Ecovillage Conference in Switzerland not long ago and there a project from Nicaragua was present too. It sounds absolutely idyllic, it's located on a volcanic island within the biggest lake in Nicaragua." I say getting more into the conversation. "Haha that's funny, you must be talking about 'Inan Itah' I actually happen to know the founder of that project." she says laughing. "No way, you know Gaia? She was the one I met at the conference." I say laughing, coincidences like this seem to become quite the norm when travelling so much. We continue walking through the park and then some other bits of Barcelona as we talk about travelling and places until the sun starts slowly setting. "Well it was very nice to meet you, take care and I'll see you next time!" I say before taking off on my bike to head to Nico's place. He had just come back from work and invited me to come and have dinner with some of his colleagues. The football game of the year for most of them was taking place that evening. Hence FC Barcelona vs Real Madrid was playing in the background on a large flat screen TV of the Italian restaurant in which Nico's lovely colleagues asked me the usual questions someone gets after traversing around the earth for a little bit.