It's already the Tuesday evening after my trip to Barcelona, and I realize I've been seriously slacking on blog updates. I've had a busy few days. It generally takes me an evening to catch up on emailing, facebooking, skyping, and picture uploading when I first get home from my trips. And not to mention napping. Then the entire next day is filled with classes, unpacking, and more napping. Now it's finally Tuesday and I spent my day stressing over an interview for my dream internship (which ended up being not only frighteningly competitive, but also in Chicago. Womp, Womp), and then having dinner with my Aunties' friend Karen, newly dubbed "Auntie Karen" (are you excited about being mentioned in the blog?? you're famous now!) So, now onto BARCELONA:
Day 1
More like Day 0.5 + Day 1. The concept of normal human time in Barcelona is incredibly skewed, plus we left for our trip at 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday night! The plan was to go to bed early to be fully prepared for a long day of traveling. Was the plan carried out? Of course not. We all found ourselves drunk off of wine at 2:00 a.m. skyping people from home and throwing a random array of clothing and possessions into our duffels. Luckily my checklist was already printed out, and we remembered all of the necessities even in our wine-induced state. After a long morning of traveling we arrived in Barcelona around 10:00 a.m. and took the metro to Amelia's friend, Cal's apartment where we were staying. This place was a bachelor pad if you've ever seen one. Small, dirty, lacking toilet paper and basic human necessities, and very lived in by one American, two Finnish, and one Mexican guy. Five girls and all of this. We knew this was going to be quite the experience. We dropped our bags and headed straight for the beach which was so beautiful. I managed to take a nap and fall into a ridiculously deep sleep, right there along the coast of the Mediterranean. What a tough life...
After they woke me up, we got a quick lunch at a cafe near the beach, and then Cal took us to Las Ramblas, which is the main touristy strip in Barcelona; complete with European street performers and people trying to talk you into coming to eat at their restaurants with unappetizing pictures of paella and pizzas. We went to La Boqueria, as well, which is the main market in Barcelona. It is ten times bigger and brighter than Marcato Centrale! We got delicious fresh fruit juices, and Alana was filmed as what we think was part of an Apple commercial (?). After spending a lot of time wandering Las Ramblas, we walked around the city a bit more and then went to another market to get ingredients for dinner. We decided to eat in tonight to save money, so we decided to make chicken fajitias! When we returned to Cal's apartment we were greeted by close to 15 Spaniards smoking, drinking, and yelling in a language foreign to us, all circled around the tiny living room (our bedroom). This prompted me to check into a hostel for at least the first night with Meg and Nicole. We somehow managed to all squish into his tiny kitchen to make dinner, and then got ready to go out for the night.
Our first stop was a local Irish pub down the street from Cal's. There, we met up with a few of his other guy friends who are all living and working in Barcelona as ESL teachers. Amelia and I got delicious mojitos, and then we all moved on to the next bar. Chupito's is a crazy, crazy place. And if you know anything about study abroad students visiting Barcelona, you know about Chupito's. 500 shot variations, each with a crazy name, none with a description of what the shot entails. After hearing rumors from other students, we were pretty knowledgeable about both the tastiest and the most inappropriate shots they offered. Meg's friend, Nicole, had never heard of any of these, so we offered her up one of the most ridiculously hilarious shots I've ever seen. I'm trying to keep this blog PG, so I can't tell you. If you're that curious, you can ask me personally. Amelia and I went for the famously delicious "boyscout shot" which involves the bartender lighting the bar around the shots on fire so you can roast a marshmallow on a stick, then dip it in the shot to put out the fire, take the shot, and eat the marshmallow. Greatest invention I've ever seen/tasted. And for only 2 euro! Following our interesting experiences at Chupito's we headed to a club called Sutton. I've never been anywhere like this before. My comfy little bars and pubs in Florence have kept me completely sheltered from the world of the euroclub. This place was huge, crowded, and fancy. In jeans and heels I felt incredibly underdressed. We all danced for a while until I found myself yawning on the dance floor (yeah, I'm that girl), and then I decided it was time to get my grandma butt home. That was the most comfortable, deep night of sleep in a hostel I've ever had.
Day 2
We got up fairly early to get a jumpstart on our touristy day in Barcelona. After the roommates' necessary Starbucks, we found our way to Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's famous basilica in Barcelona. It was so cool, but out of cheapness and what we've heard from others, we decided not to venture inside.
Later that evening we all tried to siesta (I never successfully got comfortable or fell asleep, which explains the remainder of my night) and then got ready to go out. We went down the street a few blocks to Cal's friends' apartment which was much bigger and they made us chicken paella. Delicious! We drank a ton of wine and by the end of dinner I was ready for nothing but bed. Bed was all I wanted. Particularly the couch in this huge, comfy apartment. The guys were nice enough to let me crash there while the others went out. I felt silly for staying in one night in Barcelona, but I never would have survived. I am a twenty year old grandmother. Turns out half of the group couldn't even get into the club and spent the night sitting outside of the club in the street, so I don't think I missed much.
Day 3
Alana and I woke up in this foreign apartment, but I was feeling quite rejuvenated after my 10 hours of sleep! We went back to Cal's to gather our things where the rest of the group was passed out, and then headed straight for the beach. Everyone else eventually caught up with us, and we spent the entire day lounging, basking in the sun, and enjoying the views with the whole group. This beach was incredibly beautiful:
- There aren't as many nudes as Gran Canaria
- People do a lot of drugs in public
- Sarongs double as beach towels
- Asian women try to sell you "masaje"
- Indian men try to sell you henna tattoos
- (My roommates got unicorn tramp stamps...quite the souvenirs!)
- American footballs do not exist
- You make a lot of friends in line for the public bathrooms
After spending all day at the beach, we headed back to Cal's to shower and get ready yet again. This night we decided to go out to dinner, and by out, I mean we went to Wok to Walk. Wok to Walk is the best invention ever. Chinese food in fast-food form. Genius. How America hasn't adopted this is a mystery to me. It sounds right up America's alley. You pick your noodles, meat, veggies, and sauce, and this precious little Asian man sings and sautés right in front of you. It was super filling, which was just what we needed to endure the night ahead. The boys took us out to a bar called Cyrano's. It was the smartest bar I've ever been to. Every bar in the world should operate by this bar's standards. Here is how it works: you order a drink. For example, I ordered a rum and coke. They hand you a bottle of coke (in the old fashioned bottles), a tall glass with three ice cubes, and a bottle of rum. You pour the rum yourself. You're not dreaming. You read that right. For 3 euro they let you pour the rum yourself. By cheap, poor, starving college student standards, that means pour yourself a tall glass of rum and use your cola as a chaser. Cheapest way to drink. Ever. We had a great time at Cyrano's, so then we headed out to a small club which I do not know the name of. There we participated in your classic euro dance party and met a bunch of people from London. Around 5 a.m. it seemed appropriate to call it a night (early by Barcelona standards), so me, Amelia, and Cal's Mexican roommate found ourselves on our way back to the apartment making complete fools of ourselves in the streets. This involves the Mexican roommate "borrowing" a bike to ride home, and Amelia and I doing ballet in the streets. Ah, Barcelona.
I luckily woke up by instinct at 9:30 the next day (when we were supposed to leave), even though my alarms did not work (I think my phone got drunk too...) so we packed up our things and ran out the door to get to our long day of traveling. No major travel blunders were endured, besides our very first RyanAir fiasco. They measured our bags for the first time ever, and three out of five of us had to pay 35 euro to check our bags. I was so angry. I guess I should rethink my packing decisions before heading off to Dublin this weekend!
Overall, Barcelona was one of my favorite places we visited so far. It has a lot of charm and a lot of really interesting architecture. And not to mention crazy people who never sleep! Coming home to quaint little Firenze is always a relief after a weekend like that. Now time for me to be the grandma that I am and go to bed :)
Ciao!
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