Barcelona: Day 2

Y'all it has been a long day. I almost went to bed without updating, but I knew that would start an ugly cycle, so here goes! I left my apartment at 9:30 this morning and didn't get back until 10 p.m.

I ate breakfast at Cereal Hunters, this cool 90's-themed café that specializes in all-things cereal. It was the first place I've seen the same cereals from the US. Usually in grocery stores they have the same types of cereal with different names, but here they had everything. To order, customers pick a cereal (you can mix up to two different types), then toppings and types of milk. They also have a few different food colorings to choose from for the milk. I chose pink of course. Here's my bowl of Cinnabon cereal with mini Oreos as my topping:

The ambiance of the restaurant really completed the experience, because without it I'd keep hating myself for paying 5 euros for this when I could buy a whole box of cereal for 0.99. There were pictures of scenes from Matilda and other older movies, and the furniture were all primary colors. They were even playing 90's music.

After breakfast I went to the Egyptian Museum. I was really excited to visit because I didn't expect Barcelona to have a museum like with artifacts from places like Africa.

I ate lunch at Bacoa Barceloneta, a burger shop. I ordered a Japanese burger, which came with teriyaki sauce, and added caramelized onions and cheddar. To drink I had a peach tea.

This restaurant was right on the beach, so afterwards I sat outside for about an hour just taking in everything because the weather was way better than yesterday. Also, I haven't been to the beach in so long, it was nice to be there even though it wasn't warm enough to get in the water. Although, I did see quite a few people surfing and I'm not sure what breed they came from (the high was only about 50 degrees).

While walking to the restaurant I also got a chance to see the pier. In this picture you can also see street vendors, but this is about only 5% of them. They covered the entire boardwalk, which is why I made a point to walk behind it because they're relentless. And all for some fake products! What would I look like coming back to the US with fake Nike and Adidas?

My next stop was the Barcelona Zoo. I took too many videos to post them one by one, so I made a short montage:

And here are the animals that I took still shots of!

Barcelona's zoo, like the city itself, is huge. I read so many info panels at different exhibits that I can't possibly remember even half of the things I learned. I think I spent 2.5 hours there. The fact that resonated the most with me was that lions sleep 20 hours at a time, and they're the most social of the feline family. They're the only large cats that live in groups.

Afterwards, I visited the Erotic Museum. It was my first time visiting one of these, and it was equal parts fun and funny. I don't feel comfortable posting pictures of some of the stuff in the exhibits, but if you Google "erotic museum Barcelona," I'm sure you'll get an idea of what I saw in the images tab. Here is a family friendly photo I took with Marilyn Monroe and my complimentary glass of champagne.

The next place I visited was the Hash Marijuana and Hemp Museum, which was just a short walk down the road. I know what you're thinking--"what kind of museums do they have in Barcelona?!" But I promise everything else is art and culture and all that great stuff. It's only my second full day here, so give me time to see everything.

I don't know exactly what my expectations were for the museum, but I didn't expect it to be as educational as it was. I learned that hemp is used for tons of things besides just getting high. Also, there's a difference between hemp and cannabis. Hemp is what farmers grow to make useful things like what would be used in clothes or paper, whereas cannabis is what's used for recreational purposes. Apparently you'd have to smoke pounds of hemp for it to have any type of effect, which would only be a headache. Hemp is also a much more environmentally-friendly option for making paper and clothes. Cotton strips the soil of nutrients during its growth process, while hemp works with its habitat to enrich the soil, and it also doesn't need pesticides to protect itself during growth.

Hemp is also used for beauty products, such as shampoo, lotion and chapstick. The items I saw in the museum were all-natural and had not been tested on animals. The plant is also proven to moisturize skin really well. I was going to buy one of the creams in the gift shop, but I had ran out of cash by the end of the day. However, I'm definitely going to research more and try some of the products!

Here are some photos I took throughout the city today between my destinations.