On our way to Barcelona
Mine and Suz's AWESOME Room
We got on the bus around 1:30 and headed to Barcelona. This time I actually got my bag OFF of the bus and didn't leave any belongings. I didn't even bring a purse because Barcelona is known for excessive pick-pocketing and mugging. I wasn't going to risk it so I kept a money purse in my shoe the entire time. After the 5 hour bus ride, we immediately went to our beautiful hotel. Suz and I had a huge room to ourselves and were in heaven compared to the "dog house" we stayed in when we were in Madrid. We loved the bathroom the most because it was huggggee and had a heated towel rack in it (not that we ever figured out how to use it). Once again our hotel was located in the most perfect area -- right in the middle of the city. Our entire group headed to a dinner at this restaurant called FresCo. IT WAS HEAVEN! It doesn't sound like much from the outside, I am sure, but we are SO tired of our food at the dorm. FresCo was kind of like a Jason's Deli -- it had a longggg salad bar with all kinds of toppings and pasta salads (no, still no ranch considering nothing like that exists here), pizza, pasta, my fav...artichokes with oil and garlic on them, frozen yogurt, café con leche, and fruit! We filled up on the delicious fresh food and headed back to our hotel.
Taylor and I
Listerine Shot -- Step One (I'm scared to death -- haha!)
Step Two -- FIRE.
Step Three -- Wait.
Eliza, Grace, Britt, Tay, and I at Chupitos!
Suz and I unpacked and got ready for our first night out in Barcelona!! A bunch of us went to Tay's room to pregame and then headed off to Espit Chupitos. The cab ride was pretty expensive compared to our dirt cheap cabs in Valencia, but we eventually got there! Chupitos=shots. This bar was so cool and absolutely
packed full of Americans. There is a huge sign on the wall of about 200 different shots -- you have no idea what in the world any of them are, but it was soooo fun to just pick them and see what crazy thing you had to do to take the shot! Some examples of these shots -- A Boyscout: they pour alcohol down the bar, light the bar on fire, give you a stick with a marshmellow, you roast your marshmellow, dip it in a shot and take the shot; Fourth of July -- They put a sparkler in the shot and you have to wait for the sparkler to end and then take the shot; Harry Potter -- Something involving magic wands and fire ( I didn't take this one); My Listerine Shot (above) -- She put this green stuff in the bowl, lit it on fire, put a glass on it and it sucked up into the glass somehow, she let out the liquid and put her hand over the glass opening and had me suck the air out with a
straw (tasted like listerine) and then I had to take some of the green shot! All in all -- this place was soooo fun, cheap, and made taking weak shots a BLAST! After Chupitos, we took a cab to a discoteca called RAZZMATAZZ! It was 6 stories and was packed to the RIM. Side note: Barcelona is soo different than Valencia....people speak English only, there are American students everywhere, and its completely full of tourists (these were my least favorite things about Barco). Anyways, the discoteca was full of Americans and DISASTERS! My shoe broke immediately when I got there so I was dancing like a complete "rahtard" as my friends would say, Ryan got punched in the eye while searching for Suzerz in the huge place, the band playing was sooo loud that I didn't even know that they were singing in english, you couldn't move being there were so many people so it was SO easy to get lost, we tried to fix my shoe with bubble gum=fail. We eventually decided to go back home and make sure everyone made it home ok! Luckily, everyone was back at the hotel, safe, and pick pocket free!
In front of one of Gaudí's houses in Park Guell
My favorite strange performer in the park
The cutest children alive -- I want to steal all of the spanish children
Where America's Next Top Model was!
One of Gaudí's houses
The next morning we woke up bright and early (and hungover) for a delicious breakfast in our hotel. I was so excited because yet again I GOT COLD MILK!!! Yummmmmmy. We got on our bus to go on a four hour tour around Barcelona -- lets just say we all were struggling big time. It was a really ugly day so my pictures aren't that pretty, but it was still an awesome tour minus the whole group being hungover. Park Guell was my absolute favorite. For those of you dorks out there -- It is the park where America's Next Top Model had one of their final fashion shows. It is full of Antoni Gaudí's architecture, ceramic mosaic walls, caves, fountains,
everything. He is officially my new favorite artist. His work reminded me of something that my sister would love. There were three houses in the park that Gaudí designed (one being his own) and they were the most amazing
houses I have ever seen. Everything looks like something our of a Dr. Suess book or Alice in Wonderland. He made me fall in love with mosaic. One time in middle school I made a huge mosaic table with my art teacher and this encouraged me to keep doing things like that -- its soo beautiful. There were also a lot of performers in the park trying to make some extra cash, but my personal fav was this black man from London. He had six adorable puppies and this long horn that made the most interesting sounds. If you
ever get a chance to go to Barcelona, I 100% would suggest going to this park. It was everyone's favorite place in Barco. The other place would have to be to see La Segrada Familia which is a HUGE cathedral that
Gaudí started building and never got to finish because he
passed away before it was done. It pretty much looks like an incredible
"drip sand castle" you would make on the beach. It was the most incredible architecture I have seen in my life...
After the group tour finished up, a couple of us (me, Suz, Tay, Grace, and Britt) went on our 4 hour search for the Museo de Picasso. It took us absolutely forever to find, but we got to see SO much of Barcelona on the
way. Barcelona is one of those places that has about a millions th
ings to do and we had 1.5 days to do it. But I would like to give us chicas credit because we got to do/see a TON of it. It tooks us soo long to get to the Picasso museum because we kept getting so distracted by Calle Las Ramblas. There were farm animals for sale everywhere (soo weird...even roosters? Why the hell would yo
u need a rooster in Barcelona...this I cannot answer), art, flowers, markets, street performers, etc. This was the street we were staying on but didn't really get to explore it until then. I kept thinking we were entering a different "land" because one block would be full of the performers, the next animals, the next food, the next flowers, the next art, the next souvenirs, etc. It was so entertaining/distracting and we knew we had to pick up the pace to make it to the museum. Along the way, we got to see the bridge built for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. I of course loved that because of
my Olympics obsession (ps..Men's hockey won the night before and I was sooo excited).
After searching forever, we finally got there. I loveeeeeed this museum and was in such a zone. This was the best museum I have been in within Europe so far. It explained Picasso's entire learning process up to his style he created -- cubism. It was so cool to get to stand in front of something as simple as a sketch and know that Picasso was sitting in front of it doing it himself. It made me think of how I always sit around (back in the states) and watch Alex sketch in her sketch book, work on projects etc -- this stuff could be in a freaking museum one day. You wouldn't think that such a famous artist started off exactly the same way -- starting off with the basics and eventually created a completely new perspective and style. Needless to say, I thought this museum was incredible. Afterwards, we went out to eat at this restaurant called UDON which was a good change. I was dying laughing because I thought there slogan was hilarious for some reason..."NOODLES AND FUN!!!". Tehe.
Taylor Chico, me, Molly, Brendan, and Eric at OPIUM
Mols and I at Opium!
Suz and I were EXHAUSTED after this long adventure and fell asleep for three hours in our hotel. I wasn't even planning on napping, but after walking miles and getting into my cozy bed to watch the Olympics, I couldn't resist the weight of my eyelids. Luckily, I woke up to my room phone ringing with Caroline screaming, "You're STILL sleeping?? Get up!! We're going out!" So, Suz and I sluggishly got out of bed, showered and got ready for the incredible night ahead of us. Molly's friend who are studying in Barcelona took us out on Saturday night. We went to an underground discoteca called OPIUM in Olympic Park by the beach. Me, Molly, Taylor (chico), and her two friends decided to get a "VIP Table" at the club because it costs about the same amount as the cover charge and we got free alcohol, fruit, drinks, table, etc! This was probably the best money I have spent in Spain so far. They took us down to the VIP section and we were treated like celebrities. They brought us Absolut, a huge fruit platter, Red Bull, Cokes, etc. We were in this section that overlooked the entire club and it was sooooooo fun. It had such a young and fun crowd. I had a BLAST with everyone (especially when Suz and Grace met up with us!) We just danced all night and went home around 6 in the morning...
Sunday was the day from hell. I felt terrible from the discoteca and was dreading the miserable 6 hour drive back to Valencia. Luckily, Ryan is the sweetest person alive and let me sleep in his lap the entire way to Valencia. At one point, I felt so terrible that I laid on the floor in between the seats. Haha! We eventually returned to our amazingggg home and I went straight to sleep for a couple of hours.
Barcelona was obviously INCREDIBLE. Its definitely not a place that you would ever want to move to but a great place to visit for about a week! Its a good place for people who don't speak Spanish! It really offended us that they wouldn't speak Spanish to us, but would be awesome for people who don't know the language!
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