Barcelona Dreams.

It's been so long since I have written I don't even know where to begin. But I think Barcelona is a good start, and fairly close to where I left off last time.

First of all Barcelona was amazing and a blast. It began with waking up roughly 2 hours after going to bed, and me having to stuff my entire sleeping into my no where near compatible backpack. I had to sit on my back pack and stuff it in with my foot in order to make it fit. Ryanair only allows one suitcase which has to be approximately 1x1 ft. (Slightly exaggerated, but still). I need comfort while sleeping so I had to bring it, Lauren also encouraged the idea. We took a cab there which was simple and easy. Checked in and were on our way shortly after. I slept the whole plane ride there considering I was extremely sleep deprived. Once we landed we were all talking about how excited we were to get countless stamps from so many European countries. But we were promptly informed that within the European Union no stamps will be provided. The people at the airport actually laughed in our faces when we asked if we could receive them.

The trip from the airport to our hostel was hell to say the least. (Excuse my language). First, we got separated from two of our travel partners on the first hour and a half bus to get to the city center. Then, once we arrived, somehow not 1 of the 13 of us had directions on how to get to the hostel. So we called Barcelona Dreams (the name of our hostel) several times, as well as paying a euro to look up directions on the internet at the bus depot. After about an hour of confusion, we found our way to the Metra. That was a whole other disaster. First we had no idea how to manage the Metra in Barcelona. So we all bought tickets. All 13 of us. We decided to manage our group we would count off numbers so when we finally were able to head to a destination we could call off numbers and if a number in 1-13 was missing we would know to go back and/or wait. Once we finally arrived at the train where we were supposed to get on, our tickets didn't work for the entry of that specific train. So all 13 of us had to buy tickets again! Nika and I were the first through and as we were standing there a man came up and started tugging on the back of her sweater. He looked disgusted and pointed to her shoulder aggressively where someone had spit all over her. He even got my attention to show me what he had noticed. So I helped her clean it off, and moved on without really understanding what had just happened. We were slightly disgusted and concerned as to who would do such a thing, but sleep deprivation makes these little things seem irrelevant. Especially when trying to manage 13 people. Once everyone got their tickets we headed down to the Metra, and as we were waiting Nika felt in her purse and realized her wallet was gone. She and 2 others ran up to try and see if she had left it behind, but to no avail. We realized too little too late that the scum bag who had spit on her sweater had stolen her wallet. 200 euro cash gone, plus her debit card, credit card, license, and all the other important documents a wallet usually contains.

It was incredibly unfortunate, but she handled it like a trooper. I would have been balling but she was was just fine. We finally arrived at the Barcelona Dreams, an adorable hostel. I haven't stayed at many hostels, but it was definitely a youth hostel with lots of young 20 year olds traveling Europe. We met one girl named Vanessa who was from Canada, she was a real cool chick. We talked about national health care, the war, the oxymoron of people believing in war and the death penalty versus opposing abortion etc. I always enjoy those talks, especially with intelligent people who are on the same page as me.

We also ran to the supermarcado a couple blocks down. We were all starving, so I bought some salami, tucs (the european brand of Ritz crackers), and Zumo. Zumo is juice in Catalan. Arriving in Barcelona and being able to speak the language was an incredible relief for me. The language barrier had been broken and I could finally communicate with people. Until I slowly realized, everything was in Catalan. I asked where the Jugo was, and the store manager had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. Only temporarily had I felt the brief satisfaction of comprehending the language I was surrounded by. Anyways, we also later met an Australian guy named Coffee (weird right?) who had been traveling Europe for the past 4 months or so as well. Coffee and Vanessa had met somewhere along the way and re-met up in Barcelona to continue traveling together until he left. After snacks, we drank some wine and headed out for the night.

Friday night we attacked Las Ramblas. The main street that leads the night life, which runs straight into the Mediterranean. It was a beautiful area, lots of tiny streets to walk down, full and energetic night life, and friendly faces left and right. It was a pleasant change from the dull night life in Rome, and the slightly pretencious Italians. We stopped in a couple bars and eventually made it home by 5 am. The next morning we were all slightly too hung over to get an early start, but most of us were ready by about noon. Let me just say here, I will never again travel with such a large group. Not only did we have our group of 13, we met others there who were studying abroad in different parts of Spain. We weren't able to get out of the hostel and into town until 2 o'clock. So, we hopped on an overpriced tour bus and hit all the main Barcelona tour spots.

First stop was Sagrada de la Familia by Antoni Gaudi. The construction of the temple began in 1882, and it is still a work in progress. He worked on it for over 40 years until he died in 1926. The overall plan of the church was based on the use of innovative geometrical shapes of naturalistic style. There are 12 belltowers within the church that are all above 100 meters tall that take form of trees, with designs on the ceiling that resemble leaves. The continuation of the construction is financially supported by the donations of tourists visiting the church. It was one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture I have ever seen. The value of nature within the structure put us all in awe. Next and last stop was Parc de Guel, also done by Gaudi. Aside from nature, mosaics was another artistic passion of his. I love mosaics. Probably one of my top favorite artistic forms. The park was huge, and at the top of a hill which had an epic view of the entire city as well as the Mediterranean. Full of grass, flowers, trees, fountains, and other structures designed and covered in mosaics. There was a cool, hip, and beautiful woman who was maybe a couple years older than us sitting at the park making unique and gorgeous jewelry. Katie and I sat and talked with her for a while, where she informed us about a rave happening in the city later that night (which we did not attend). Needless to say we both ended up buying some incredible rings from her. Only draw back is she promised us several times that is was pure silver which was the only reason we felt inclined to spend 20 euro. Yet within a couple hours my finger had already turned green. Bummer. I don't know why I am always so trusting with strangers. We had a fun photo shoot around the park and in front of the city scape before we were on our way. A little fun fact about this park: for all you America's Next Top Model watchers, this park is where they did a runway for the ghost brides dresses. I had no idea but there were some girls with us who were super hyped about that fact.

We made our way back down the hill and hopped back on the double decker bus where we sat on the second level and watched the city fly by. The wind was brutal, but we pushed through it so we could tour the city and see the sights from 30 feet up. It was more than a good time. Though we did see several trees down, and heard later on that 4 teenagers had been killed from the strong wind. I never knew that we could find another equally windy city across the world. We finally got back to Barcelona Dreams by around 8, hung out for a while, and decided to do our birthday dinner celebration at some place near by. Kaela, Amanda, Katie, Nick, Nika, Lauren, and I got a delicious dinner by around 11 o'clock. Typical time for a a dinner in Barcelona. We sang happy birthday a couple times, drank a couple bottles of wine, and headed out to face the Barcelona night life once again. We ended up back at Las Ramblas where we met up with a friend from back home Jane, who is actually studying in Barcelona. We also went to a nice laid back bar with couches and cool artwork on the walls. It was called the Flamingo bar. It was a perfect last night to end our adventures in Barcelona. We didn't go to sleep till about 6 am, and had to be up at 9 to catch the Metra, to catch the bus, to catch our flight in time. I never knew how complex traveling is when you don't have someone planning it all step by step for you.

We were all slightly sad to leave Barcelona after such an incredible time, where the people were fun, and we could communicate with natives. We all hope to return before we head back to the states whenever that may be.