Barcelona seemed tired last night...

So while waiting to leave for our morning train to Madrid, a verbal recap of the cities:

Paris - Representative color: Brown with a blue tinge
Ben and I took the RER into the city at about 3, getting off right in front of the Notre Dame. Our first walking tour commenced, taking us east along the River Seine until we got to the Eiffel Tower, where we decided to climb to the top. The open air staircase for the first two floors was significantly less intimidating this time. But intimidating enough. And it rained sideways on the 3rd floor.
We descended, walked the park at the foot of the tower and then caught the metro to get to St. Michel. Meeting our Parisian friends at the fountain, we walked/drove around the Latin Quarter until finding a nice place to eat. French Onion Soup (though, shockingly, the menu omitted the French from the listing...), steak tartare, and heavenly chocolate mousse. A meal to cherish for the rest of the trip, I´d say.
Day 2 was abridged by concerns over my bag and then the discovery that our planned overnight train to Rome was sold out. We booked through Lausanne instead, meaning we had to leave 2 and a half hours earlier. Which meant we could check out the Palais de Bercy and then walk around the Yitzhak Rabin Gardens and then go back to the station. Of course, we didn´t have any of our stuff, having left it with our friends thinking we´d meet up before our later train...so we sweated it out before they found us in the train station 5 minutes before departure. We proceeded to hustle to the train, where we were literally the last ones aboard (Ben specifically, heavy red bag in tow). Highlight of the trip, clearly.
Our first train ride was a pleasant evening jaunt through pretty French and Swiss countryside, meanwhile sitting in the nearly empty cart next to the bar, keeping us fresh as we entered...
Lausanne - We were in town for about 2 hours. Walked down to Lake Geneva (coining the hope for humanity phrase ¨Finding the Lake¨), bought dinner, ate, played some guitar, walked back up. Seemed like a nice enough town, and who knew Switzerland still has their own currency (ironically, the Swiss franc)?
Rome - Representative color - a burnt orange/tan, sort of the color of the Colosseum but a bit brighter. Also, the Tiber River was green.
Very touristy city, but with good reason. My Italian needs much much work, but we got by more than bene without it. We managed the Fountain of Trevi, the Pantheon, the Ancient City, and the Spanish Steps in our 27 hours there, and walked around an entire country. Unintentionally. We thought it was faster that way.
Anyway, everything lived up to its billing and obviously the city deserved more time. But we did have a fun Monday night, which leads to a how to:
How to go out on Rome for 11 euros and feel full and happy:
First, go to hostel company bar, where a drink brings free pizza. Show up late so instead of a drink-per-slice policy, you get a whole tray of low-quality, lukewarm sicilian sliced pizza. They´re still carbs, and lots of them. Meanwhile order Cokes, drawing dirty looks from the Australian bartender, while talking with a Canadian mother-daughter touring combo (completely platonic conversation, don´t worry) and a Norwegian dude who looks your age but is actually 32 and in Rome because he´s having girl trouble at home and needed to get away for a week. Good man.
After filling up and spending five euros on coke, ask bartender where the action is, find out it´s at Campo Del Fuori. Then listen to him tell you not to put gum in the glasses, which you weren´t doing.
Catch a bus with traveling companion and new Norwegian buddy from the nearby Train station to Campo Del Fuori (the good old 40), quickly finding out that we don´t know how to pay, and then that no one really cares. Free bus ride takes you a little past your goal, but you instead turn to Piazza Navone, remember a bar that serves a free shot with each drink. Order a half liter of red wine and then gently nurse the drink over an hour and a half time while ignoring your shot, meanwhile conversing with the Brazilian bartender. Then ask him to send over one of the attractive waitresses, so as to ¨practicare il tuo italiano.¨Struggle pleasantly to have a conversation.
After the bar, pay il conto (the bill), with the wine costing only 4 instead of 6 euros. bonus. Get 2 scoops of gelato (chocolate and nutella) for 2 euros and head back towards Campo Del Fuori before deciding to head back to the hostel. All buses go to the train station, so the wait is short and the ride is again free. And end scene.
Milan - We spent about an hour here, but the gnocchi patate con bolognese deserves a mention. The cramped train ride here does not, except for meeting a Turkish girl whose favorite Dostoevsky book is Crime and Punishment, which she read at the age of 12, marking the end of her childhood. Yikes. I impressed her by saying her name, Budjo (As I guess) correctly on the first time.
Barcelona - Color - sort of a sea green.
Marathon day here in the Catalan ciudad. We get in, dump our bags off at our fratty hostel, walk around the main street (La Rambla), had a local specialty - churros con chocolata, or fried dough dipped in really thick hot chocolate, as good as it sounds - then down to the beach, a topless beach - all rumors about topless beaches showing the wrong kinds of tops were confirmed, by the way - where I got to dip my feet in the Mediterranean. Another body of water off the list. Anyway, back to the hostel to check in, then a metro up to LÉixample, the modernist strip, featuring the architectural works of Antoni Gaudi (as did most of the city). Crazy buildings, including the famed La Segreda Familia, a wee bit ambitious church that is unfinished, followed. Then we trekked up to the Park Guell, also a Gaudi staple with an amusement park looking entrance and much marching up to the top for a beautiful view of the city. It was most tranquil.

Then we marched back down the hill and took a metro over to Montjuic (named because it´s somehow built on an ancient Jewish cemetery, I need to read deeper into this), where there was La placa de espanya, featuring a great Palace, very eastern in design of domes and colors. We then walked around the Olympic torch tower, took in a few minutes of a summer league baseball game, and then scaled the mountain in the quest for another gorgeous view, this time from the southwest of the city rather than the north. We made it on time for the sunset, standing on walls of the well-situated old castle. A return to the hostel followed.

Late dinner even by Barcelonan standards (meaning 11 pm local time rather than 10) and then it was off to various night time scenes. While Barcelona was actually tamer than advertised for the most part (there were people chanting when I started writing this post at 5 am), we managed to get yelled at by the police twice for playing guitar outside. Meanwhile a bum came up and talked to Ben, filling him in on his life story, and prostitutes aggressively solicited clients (though Ben informed me that their act was legal, apparently unlike ours). Two warnings from two different cops is a sign to call it quits, so now we head to the train station for sleep and a ride to Madrid meanwhile.

Pictures with the next update, and I may have my backpack by then too.
Buenas noches,
Dan