Girly drinks in Barcelona

Destination: Barcelona

After our amazing experience in Switzerland, Kaitlyn and I were both flying high when we finally got to Barcelona on Sunday night. This excitement quickly ended when we realized we had no idea how to get to our hostel. Luckily these two American exchange students overheard us talking and offered to help. Thanks to them, our trip from the airport to the hostel went from potentially catastrophic to somewhat orderly (relatively speaking). When we got to our hostel, we discovered that they put us in a 2 bed room instead of the 4 bed dorm we paid for - lucky, right? The only problem was that the AC didn't work so it was super hot and stuffy. This was apparently a huge problem for Kaitlyn....(Background: we were way overdressed for the warm Spanish weather, and we had just walked over a mile from the airport drop off point.) We weren't in the room for more then two seconds when all of a sudden Kaitlyn started frantically throwing things off her body. First her bag. Then her boots. Then her clothes. I just stood there completely dumbfounded because she gave me no warning whatsoever. Plus, she looked like a complete maniac so it was hard to look away. It's like when you pass a car accident on the highway - you know you shouldn't look but you can't help it! Anyways, that little "incident" left us giggling for hours.

Our hostel was in a really cool part of town. It was right off of La Rambla (a famous street in Barcelona) in a hip Plaza filled with restaurants and bars. The best part about the Plaza was that it contained this awesome tapas and cocktail bar with the most amazing girlie drinks. Something about being in Barcelona made us really want fruity frozen drinks. Hands down the best girly drink of the evening was the frozen Passion Fruit Daiquiri....cue the drooling...

Someone wrote a love letter to me on the bottom of my bunk.

Beach Town = Girly Drinks

Plaza Reial - a prime location for our hostel

We spent most of Monday walking around the city getting a feel for Spanish life and Spanish culture. There were a few famous sights we wanted to see, so we made a point to walk by those. The one downside to visiting Barcelona during the week is the fact that there were school field trips everywhere. A new pet peeve of mine is screaming children who stand in masses blocking the road so you can't pass. We have a really good friend who grew up in Barcelona, and she recommended we meander around Barri Gotic and Born, two historic districts in downtown Barcelona. We took her word for it and got intentionally lost in the intricate maze of alleyways. It was really fun to just walk down a street having no idea what you would find at the other end.

There was a ridiculous number of mopeds in
Barcelona.

Gaudí, a famous designer from Barcelona,
designed a bunch of odd looking houses
throughout the city. These are just two examples.

There were a lot of fountains and tree lined streets in the
city center.

Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sangrada Família - a large
church that was designed by Gaudí. Construction on this
church began in 1882. It is projected to be finished by 2026.
This church is a source of contention among the artistic
community in Barcelona because many feel it no longer
reflects Gaudí's original vision. Rather, they feel it is
now being built as a tourist attraction.

We had to visit a bullfighting ring while in Spain...

Barcelona Beach

A typical street in Barcelona

One of the many alleyways we explored

Hands down the best part about Monday was eating paella at a legit Catalunya restaurant near the beach. Paella is a traditional Spanish dish made from rice and seafood. It was fantastic! As an added bonus, I got to shell shrimp for the first time in my life. I have to admit, having the shrimp's black beady eyes staring up at me while I was doing it made me feel like a horrible person. But no worries, I powered through the emotional pain and relished in my victory ;). Keeping with our desire to experience Spanish culture, we returned to our hostel after lunch for a siesta, or afternoon nap. Perhaps it wasn't a true siesta since we spent most of the time having girl talk, but it's still fun to say I partook in the Spanish tradition of napping.

Amazing, delicious, out of this world Paella

Like I mentioned in my blog about Switzerland, Barcelona was Kaitlyn's city of choice. Thus, she had a lot of control over what we did during our visit. Before we left Hamburg, she found something called "Nasty Mondays" online. The only thing she could tell me was that it took place at a random club in downtown Barcelona. Reluctantly, I promised her we could go. Well, Monday night rolled around and we decided to go to a bar before tackling Nasty Mondays. We ended up meeting these people from Germany, so while Kaitlyn pre-gamed off cheap drinks from the friendly bartender, I practiced my German. Good deal, yeah? I've gotten really good at telling people: "Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch." A few cheap tequila shots later we finally make it to Nasty Mondays. It turned out to be this really big club with everything from house to rock to indie to garage music. I honestly wasn't a huge fan, but Kaitlyn was having such a blast that I let her do her thing. On the way home, we kept getting berated by gypsies trying to sell us these red cans filled with an unknown substance - I was convinced that it was Coke, but Kaitlyn thought it was beer. Regardless of what these cans contained, it was super annoying. Every 10 steps another gypsy would approach us trying to sell us beverages. I finally just told them to bugger off.

On Tuesday, Kaitlyn decided that she wanted to go to a nude beach. So, we hoped on the subway and headed north of the city. When we got there we were greeted by a sea of really old, droopy men. Needless to say, we booked it out of there asap and headed to the beach just to its south. Both of us were somewhat disappointed with the beach. It was kind of dirty, and the sand was really uncomfortable. It wasn't the soft, silky sand that you might expect. Rather, it was more of a mixture between sand and rock. Either way, we sat on the beach basking in the sun for a few hours before going on a hunt for more seafood. One positive thing that came out of our beach day was I finally got to put my toes in the Mediterranean Sea. Even though the water instantly numbed my feet and legs, I can check "wading in the Mediterranean" off my bucket list.

A beach just to the north of downtown Barcelona

On Tuesday night, Kaitlyn and I met up with some friends from Hamburg who were also visiting Barcelona. We went out to eat, visited the Magic Fountain, and then finished the night at our our favorite frozen cocktail bar. Funny story about Tuesday night: we were sitting on the steps behind the Magic Fountain when this gypsy (carrying the mysterious red cans) came up to us and started saying things in Catalan. After about a minute of confusion we realized that he was trying to tell Kaitlyn to keep her clutch in her lap. Apparently, pickpocketing is a huge problem in Barcelona, and he was warning her that she was an easy target. How nice of him! He started to walk away, but about 2 minutes later, we saw him bolt back up the stairs with the red cans hidden under his coat. Behind him were two cops on motorcycles. The cops passed him but stopped his fellow gypsy friends. He then hid the red cans in the bushes and took off. Apparently, it's illegal for gypsies to sell things, so he was basically running from the cops. After the cops left, he came back and started looking for his red cans. Ironically, he couldn't remember which bush he put them under! So, being the kind folk that we are, we directed him to his cans.

The Magic Fountain in the foreground with the National
Museum of Art of Catalunya in the background. The Magic
Fountain combines color, light, and music in a water show.
I'm guessing it's similar to the fountain at The Mirage.

Our friends from Hamburg

Kaitlyn and me in front of the Magic Fountain

Wednesday was a complete bust - 100% fail on our part. We decided that for our last day in Spain we would go to Montjuïc, a large hill just outside Barcelona that is home to Anella Olímpica (the Olympic Ring from the 1992 Olympics), large botanical gardens, and Castell de Montijuïc. We took a cable car up to the Olympic Ring, and when we got inside we found ourselves staring at a large, boring stadium. I think I was more impressed the first time I walked into OU's football stadium then I was seing the Anella Olímpica. We then tried to walk around the gardens and up to the top of the hill, but we couldn't find the entrance. We seriously walked around the perimeter for at least 30 minutes, but it was completely blocked off on our side. We finally found a cable car that would take us directly to the Castell de Montijuïc, so we decided to take the easy way out and ride to the top. Well, we finally got there and I could not figure out how to get into the damn Castle. After about 30 minutes of failed attempts I was hot, frustrated, and ridiculously annoyed with yet another group of screaming school children. So, completely discouraged and about to pull my hair out, Kaitlyn decided that it was time to get me away from Montjuïc...probably a good idea in hindsight. It was a dismal end to our time in Barcelona, but at least we can look back fondly on Monday and Tuesday. Tschüss!