I don't know why I'm writing these entries in reverse chronological order, but I want to fill in the gaps so let me just write briefly about my 1.5 days in Barcelona. Barcelona was dirty, and felt kind of strange, a little evil and decadent. The streets were narrow and plastered with dog shit. The main strip, Las Ramblas, was crowded and had more tourists than locals. The first night, I walked up and down Las Ramblas and didnt do much else. As I was going back to the hostel, I heard 3 or 4 successive explosions around the hostel and on the last explosion, a policeman on a moped dropped his vehicle and set off running into an alley. There were more sirens and police on mopeds circling around the area for the next 30 minutes, I guess they were chasing and looking for the people who set off the explosions. I got the sense that there was some kind of political upheaval going on I didn't know about. At the hostel, a guy from Australia told me he had his watch stolen off his wrist the first night he was in Barcelona. The next morning I went to the Picasso museum which was great and actually made the trip to Barcelona worth it. It was mostly works from his earlier period but it was nice to see that Picasso really was talented as a traditional artist. After the Picasso museum I went to the Sagrada Familia which is some bugged out Cathedral still under construction designed by this guy Guida who used a lot of esoteric symbolism to design the cathedral. His other works in Barcelona actually are quite nice in a normal, non-satanic way, but the Sagrada Familia was just a little bit weird for a church to have bizarre, esoteric symbols everywhere seemed to invite accusations of satanism. That was never mentioned though, and generally all the pamphlets I saw seemed to indicate that the Sagrada Familia is a beautiful, loved work in progress of a very devoted and faithful genius. After the Sagrada I went to the station and waited for the overnight train Nice. I took a regular train to France and then an overnight train from a little town. There was a guy from Texas who I met at the station who was kinda doing what I was doing, travelling alone with a railpass (and actually I think I saw him today at the Colosseum), and a couple from Australia. I seem to be meeting a lot of people from Canada and Australia, but very few from America.

The past 2 days I was staying at Nice, which was quite comfortable, although not as comfortable as Madrid and not as exciting as Paris. In the mornings I would take little trips along the coast, first day to Cannes and second day to Monaco, and in the late afternoon I would end up reading at the beach. The beach at Cannes was really nice and I spent a good day beach hopping. Didn't see any stars or really have anything to do with the film festival, but I didn't really expect to either. Monaco was also pretty cool because they were setting up for the Grand Prix in 2 weeks. I walked up to the Palais where the Prince stays and also went to the Musee Oceanographique, which is just a really nice aquarium once directed by Jacques Cousteau. On the last day in Nice I walked up to the Musee Matisse which was free and actually ran into two of the guys staying at the hotel who I had chatted with the day earlier. One was from Canada and the other from UK. I ran into them on my way out though so I spent the day on my own and I was leaving for Italy that afternoon anyway. So after the Matisse Museum I bought a great sandwich that was basically a tuna egg salad sandwich with onions, olives, lettuce, tomatos, tuna, and hardboiled egg all chopped up into little pieces and soaked with olive oil and vinegar. The bread was large and had a thick hard crust so the outside stayed dry but the inside was soaked with the salad dressing which made like a little pocket to keep the salad and the sandwich together. It was probably the best sandwich I had. I ate it in the park, drank 2 cans of ice cold coca-cola and finished the last 300 pages of the book I was reading, the Third Twin. I didn't realize it but I was sitting in the park for almost five hours in the same place. So that was my stay in Nice.

Arrived in Rome this morning on the overnight train from Nice. Managed to get a few hours of sleep even though I didn't have a couchette. I shared a seating cabin with a husband and wife from Thailand who were nice enough, but the husband's feet stank up the entire cabin, and he kept shutting the window after I opened it. The first place I visited was the Basilica of St. John Latera which was right next to the Roma Termini. It was 7:30 AM and there was hardly anyone out, but pretty soon people in suits on their work started coming in to pray before going to work. I found a dorm bed in a place near the station as well, although the manager made me come back 2 times because he was unsure of the bed situation. But he let me leave my bags in the lobby so I spent the morning walking around Rome, which overall I have to say is pretty disappointing. I went to the Colosseum which cost 8€ even though there really isn't much to see or do. The lady at the counter was also turning people away because they didn't have change for large bills. I only had a 20 bill but she must have felt sorry for me because she gave me the right change even though she turned away the people in front of me. Then I walked around the Roman Forums and visited the Palatine. Then I had lunch at a pizzeria near the Forum. I wolfed down the pizza in 10 minutes because I felt awkward eating alone. After that, I walked all the way back to the hotel, passing the Spagna stairwell thing and the Tervi fountain thingy, both of which I found tacky and crowded. At the hotel, they told me I had a bed so I took a shower and a 10 minute nap after which I felt much better. Then I went out to the Villa Borghese hoping to see the museum but it was closed on Mondays, so I just sat in the park and read for about half an hour. Then I walked back down past the Spagna and just kept walking for at least an hour until I got to the Vatican. By now it was around 8PM and starting to get dark, so I sat for 5 minutes and started walking back, but more directed. It only took 30 minutes to get back because I chose a path that was not necessarily the shortest but that would require the fewest street crossings, which are a total nightmare and a large part of the reason why I don't like Roma. It is definitely not a walkable city. A funny thing happened on the way back. As I was crossing the street where the Via Sistina turns into the Quattro Fortina an old man in a suit asks me for directions, which I somehow am able to tell him because it was the same way I was going. Then he starts chatting with me as we wait to cross the street and asks me where I'm from and whatnot. It all seems friendly enough, but then he asks me if I want to have a drink with him. He says he is a business man from Montreal who had just finished some business here in Rome and was now going for a drink at a bar someone told him about. The bar happens to be down a street right at the junction of Sistina and Quattro Fortina but its a dark, dirty street and there isn't a bar in sight. I tell him I don't drink but he says I can just have a Coke. Anyway, I'm not in the habit of having drinks with strangers who I meet at crosswalks so I was a little brash and just said I was going to go back to the hotel and so I started walking away. Maybe it was rude, but it was also a little strange, and the more I think about it the more strange it seems. Our conversation was totally initiated and continued by him and the invitation was completely unexpected. Then as I was walking up Fortina rather fast a cute girl who looked partly but not entirely Asian was handing out flyers and gave me one with a smile. I took it and smiled back and as I was walking away she said something to me in Italian I think but I just kept walking. I probably could have handled that situation better. Anyway, that was my day in Rome, nothing too fantastic to write about, and probably why I am writing at all, because I am back at the hotel early enough.