Thursday during class, Laura, Shannon and I couldn’t understand why we decided to purchase a flight that didn’t leave until 9:45 pm, but we boarded the flight anyway. We didn’t reach our hostel, which was off of Las Ramblas, in a sketchy Arab neighborhood, until around 12:30 am. So we checked in and went to sleep for the night. The next morning we woke up to the other 12 people in our room finagling around preparing for the day. We made our way to the common room where we eat Nutella on toast and chatted with our fellow hostel goers. After breakfast we headed out to find the hop on hop off bus tour. We each paid 22 Euros for this excursion and it was totally worth it. The bus took us all around Barcelona: to Park Guel, the Sagrada Familia, the FC Barcelona stadium, and even the beach. We got off on most of the stops to take pictures and relax. After a long day in the sun, we headed back to the hostel for some resting, dinner, and showers. We were all very sunburned from the day on the open top of the bus and showering hurt! We made some friends at the hostel and went out to a nice fast food Asian food place with them for dinner, it was called Wok to Walk, get it? It was delicious; I miss Asian food in my life. After dinner we all got ready for the evening and ventured onward toward the beach. All of the cool clubs are located along the beach and Friday night we went to one called Shoko and danced until 4:30 am!! Party animals!
The next morning we woke up bright and early and decided to head to the famous Barcelona market to get some snacks and head to the beach. We wandered the market, got some fruit, bread, pesto, gelato, and more! We wandered the Gothic area for a little, noticing the beautiful architecture. We headed toward the beach, but since the beach was quite far we settled for the bay. We watched the sail boats and kayaks go by, watched people kissing with no care in the world as to who was watching, and munched on our snacks. Later, we got up and walked along the harbor and noticed a large ski jump set up. We sat by the harbor, people watching, waiting for the extravaganza to begin, however we did not know yet what was actually going to happen. A couple hours and a nap later, the show began. Crazy skiers and snowboarders walked up the plastic ramp and, one by one, they skied down, did a flip, and landed into the disgusting harbor water (they weren’t even protected or anything!) GROSS! So we waiting about 3 hours for the 10 minute show, but I thought it was fun!
After we were all sunburned and tired, we headed back to the hostel, but not before we stopped to get some much needed Subway (they don’t have it in Madrid). It was perfect, the best sandwich I had ever had! That night we hung out with the people in the hostel in the common area before headed back to the club area, but this night we went to a club call Opium Mar (get it, like the beach) and danced the night away there again. After the club my hostel friends and I hung out on the beach for awhile, my purse got stolen, I got it back, and then we headed back to go catch a couple hours of sleep before our very early plane ride the next morning.
Overall, Barcelona was a success and is an absolutely beautiful city.
On Monday the Arizona kids went on a field trip to learn to cook some authentic Spanish cuisine. We cooked Salmoreja (which is very similar to Gazpacho), paella, tortilla Espanola (sort of like an omelets), and bunelos de manzana (which is an apple covered in batter and fried, like an apple donut). I am very glad I learned to cook some Spanish food since I haven’t and I’ve been here for so long. Also, last night (Tuesday) my host mom and I cooked 3 whole tortilla espanolas, and she told me that I was a wonderful cook!! I’m learning already.
In fact, I’m going to go eat one right now!
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