Barcelona was my first non-API trip and I LOVED it. Elena and I went to visit Jacki and stayed with her at her apartment there. The first night we got in around 11 and were immediately confused by all the Catalan that we saw and heard. It’s basically a mixture between French and Spanish and basically sounds unlike anything I’ve heard before. Jacki was soo nice and picked us up from the airport and after the aerobus we had our first of many metro rides throughout the weekend…the metro was relatively clean compared to NYC and was soo easy to use, although I did clutch my purse the whole time and wear my backpack in front of me cause its famous for its pickpocketing! But we didn’t have any trouble and it made me wish that Sevilla had something like that since the metros in Sevilla don’t go to many places and are kind of expensive…when we got off we ate some delicious Pans and Company (which I have since found in Sevilla, so I'm excited) and got ready for our first night out! We started the night at Chupitos (meaning Shots) which quickly became my favorite place…I knew I was gonna love it there when we walked in, ordered an El Diablo and the bartender proceeded to light half the bar on fire, along with our shots. After that we did Boy Scout shots where the bartender set up a little “camp fire” and arranged the shots around it…you roast marshmellows over the fire, dip them in your shot and the take the shot…it tastes just like a Smore! After that we did a Pop Rocks shot and a Finding Nemo which was orange with whipped cream and you had to take it without using your hands. Then Jacki tricked me into doing a Monica Lewinksy shot…the details of that one are kind X rated but I’m sure you can use your imagination…after Chupitos we went to a fancy schmancy Oscar party where Nicholas Cage was supposed to be but clearly he wasn't there and we had 12 dollar red bull vodkas which was pretty ridiculous… I met a nice Ecuadorian gentleman who was from Cuenca and we bonded over the fact that I had been to Ecuador and then I met a Brazilian guy named Ricardo who proceeded to call me non-stop for the rest of the weekend....The next day we woke up and saw one of the Gaudi houses which was the first of a tonnn of architecture by Antonio Gaudi...the style of his buildings is soo crazy and abstract looking and I loved the way he used lizards and mosaics in almost everything he makes…his influence is all over the city and it was one of the things I loved the most about Barcelona, after that we went to an old fishing neighborhood that my host dad had told me about since he used to live in Barca..it was called La Barceloneta and now there is a beach there which Jacki informed me was only made when Barca hosted the Olympics in order to bolster up the tourism…we saw the big golden fish made by an architect named Frank Gehry and walked along the beach where we saw a ton of awesome, really intricate sand castles, they were seriously like works of art. It was a beautiful day and we ended up getting lunch at a place called La Fonda which was a really nice seafood place and Jack and I got paella with lots of interesting critters in it…After that we walked around the beach some more and had some awkward encounters with people we were pretty sure were pickpockets and we saw a guy whose main past time is apparently to walk around the beach naked (apparently there are no public indecency laws in Barcelona) That night we went back to the beach but this time to go to the Ice Bar there. It was awesome inside, they gave you cool jackets and gloves and entry came with one free drink so I got a Splendid Freak which tasted just like one of Block Island’s Goombay Smashes! They had an ice luge and the bartender let us take free shots, the TVs were playing Ice Age but the music was So Hot in Here by Nelly which was quite an oxymoron…After taking pictures with the ice sculpture of the cathedral the Sagrada Familia we left to go to a club called CDLC, Carpe Diem Lounge and Club that was Indian themed (I don’t understand Spain’s obsession with India…Buddha, Bandalai…the list of clubs goes on) but we didn’t stay there long and we ended up at another bar called Catwalk…all in all it was a really fun night. On Saturday we went to Park Guell which is the park that Gaudi made…it was absolutely beautiful with great views of the city, pretty mosaics, rocky tunnels and tons of cool vendors, I bought a few souvenirs and some fake Ray Bans and jewelry for myself ;-) we stayed there for a while taking in all the cool architecture and then we headed to Las Ramblas. This was just a really cool street where they sold everything from jewelry bags and souvenirs to live turtles and bunnies. I found this store that I loved and want to find in Sevilla called Desigual, their stuff was sick and I bought a purse that I’m obsessed with. We rambled along Las Ramblas some more and got to La Boqueria which is a huge market…they had every fruit, vegetable and nut you could imagine along with candy, smoothies, gelato and some gory stuff like full on fishes with their eyes still looking at you and chickens with everything intact except their feathers grosss..We got some yummy pita things for lunch and walked down to the Christopher Columbus statue…That night we went to the famous fountains that Jacki had told me all about. But I have to admit they lived up to her rave reviews because they were incredible. While we missed the first few shows we caught the last one which was classical music and the fountains changed color and shape based on the sound of the music. While I wish we could have seen the Disney music or hip-hop show I’m so glad we caught at least one cause it was one of the beautiful and unique things I’ve ever seen! For dinner we tried to go to a place that Irene my host sister suggested but it was the most crowded hostile place I’ve ever been in so we left and got hamburguesas haha then that night we went to this awesome bar that I loved called the Dow Jones..it was based on the stock market and the board of prices was computerized and the prices rose and fell depending on how many people were buying certain drinks…then every once and a while the market would crash so all the prices would go to two euro and everyone would scramble to buy the drinks before the prices went back up…I met this bartender named Helgi from Iceland and he seemed really cool until he tried to make Elena and I do this shot called the hand of God which involved snorting Sambuca…so then we just made friends with this guy from Manchester England who wanted to take a picture of the back of our heads cause he liked our hair…he introduced us to his Irish friend Wesley and their friend from Wales…they were laughing at us cause me and Elena had just had some Long Island Iced Teas to commemorate our Long Island heritage so we were pretty incoherent…at one point Elena asked the Irish guy if he knew her friend from Ireland and she threw out some really generic Irish name which they thought was hysterical…All in all it was a great last night in Barcelona and the next day we woke up semi-early to go see Gaudi’s cathedral La Sagrada Familia…it was the most beautiful church I’ve ever been in and the ceiling on the inside plus the stained glass windows were literally breath-taking, the coolest part about the cathedral was that it’s still a work in progress and it is most likely going to be even more amazing once it’s finished. After the cathedral it was time to go and I was sad to leave Barcelona…it was so nice to see Jacki and I had a blast there. It was my favorite place that I have been and while I’m really glad I chose to study in Sevilla, Barcelona was a very close second and it seemed like one of the craziest party cities in the world!
By the next day I was so exhausted that I almost didn’t make my 8 AM wake up call but luckily I did cause Gibraltar was beautiful. Crossing over into Gibraltar was such a cool feeling I honestly think its one of the most unique places in the world because you need a passport to cross over from Spain and the only way into the place is to drive or walk over an airplane runway (Fun Fact: Eloy and I were watching TV the other day and we saw a show that said Gibraltar was the fifth most dangerous airport in the world!!) When you get to Gibraltar it only gets weirder since it is owned by Great Britain yet its closest neighbor is Spain. Therefore, everyone speaks English (with a British accent of course), Spanish and most people speak a little Arabic due to the fact that it’s about 12 km away from Africa. While we were there we went to the three main sites which are Saint Michael’s Caves, the Apes Den and Europa point, where you can see Africa (Tangier) and the straits of Gibraltar where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea. My favorite was the Apes Den, although pretty much anything on the Rock can be considered an apes den since they have free run of the place. They were wandering around the gift shops and casually jumping on anyone who happened to have food. I wished I could have been there when my parents went since both of them were accosted by apes about a week ago….I’m sure it was priceless. I got out unscathed since no monkeys bothered me but other people weren’t as lucky. After our tour of the rock we ate lunch in Casemates Square where we had British food like fish and chips and I had a burger with eggs sausage and bacon…weird, but good. I didn’t do any shopping there though because they mainly use the pound which is even worse than the euro on conversion. I’m really glad I took advantage of el dia de Andalucia, our day off, to go to Gibraltar since it was a really interesting place. While my weekend was crazy busy it was one of the most exciting weekends I’ve had since I’ve been in Spain!
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