Weekend Adventures continued - Beach

I'm playing this carefully... internet access where I'm at is at a crawl, so posting piecemeal helps me make sure something will go up.

Saturday we rushed to get ready, having slept in too much and made plans the night before to meet the girls at 10 for getting on the train to the beach. The ticket machines were confusing at first because bus and train passes are basically the same thing, but eventually we got to the train (covered in graffiti). Not so nice of an interior. I had to give up my spot for an older man; wish I'd seen him first instead of being told to get up. We took the line all the way to the end, which took about a half hour. A bus from there took us to the beaches; I think the one we got off at was called "Paradise" (how original). We met some girls from a university in Philadelphia and set up camp on the beach next to them. I was a bit self-conscious the whole time, having one hell of a tan line from Wednesday's tour, but breaking out and running into the ocean was a lot of fun. I've been to the Atlantic before but never swam in it, so the super-salty Mediterranean was a kind of an unpleasant surprise. The waves were great though, and we had a blast wading out just to crash into them. I also got hella sunburnt despite slathering on a ton of sunscreen, but at least I'm red all over now instead of just on my neck.

The bus ride back was probably the most cramped I've ever been in public transportation. We were literally packed in like Sardines, and at almost every stop, someone else needed to get on. Our train back, by contrast, was much nicer, with air conditioning and a fully connected cabin (instead of individual cars). After some gelato (Italian ice cream, also fantastic) we got back home and showered/crashed, me for several hours. Later we decided to meet up with some of the guys up north, and went to an Irish bar called Scholar's. You wouldn't believe the feeling of being in a familiar environment again; most everyone was speaking english, and there were a lot of other college students about. It might seem strange but I found it therapeutic to be back in the 'rowdy asshole' routine in a crowded bar. Peroni's were the popular drink of the night, a bit expensive at €3.50 each but much better than the €5.50 I had spend earlier on a black & tan. There was a live band playing American and British hits, and I about orgasmed when they played "Wonderwall" near the end. Rounding up everyone to go home was a bit problematic (as was the morning after), but hey. Three day weekends pretty much make up for it.