That's What She Said

Ouch, sorry once again folks. Life is surprisingly quite busy, and I am unsurprisingly lazy. So Barcelona, and some other fun things that have happened. We'll start with the flight. It was fine. Valladolid airport is SUPER tiny. I mean, there's like nothing there. So that's where we flew out. It was a good predictor of how the weekend would go. We were silly and started making way too many "That's what she said" jokes that continued on for the rest of our trip. It was short, too. I guess that's because Barcelona's really not that far, but then we needed a bus to get to Plaza Catalunya before walking to our hostel. It was late and dark and we didn't really have a good handle of the city, but we're just very unprepared travelers. Luckily it has always worked out for us. Anyway, we DID get to the hostel safe and sound. The place was amazing. With a name like Hip Karma, we were thinking it'd be totally sketchy, but it was really nice. The bed were bunked and curtained, which I enjoyed a lot. We had free wifi, a kitchen (with everything needed to cook), and the bathrooms were super nice too for being community style. Basically, our  hostel was wonderful. I really kind of miss it.

Saturday brought us delicious french toast courtesy of Steven, our great chef of the weekend, and a trip back to Catalunya to purchase some tour bus tickets! Yes, we are dorks, but it was actually really nice. We rode on the second level so we got to see everything and it brought us directly to the places we wanted to hit up. Tourist buses are cool, man. Anyway, that day we got to Montjuic, which is this old gypsy village up near the mountains. It was also this village that the Spanish government cleared out in order to host the Olympic games in Barcelona. Kind of douchey if you ask me, but the stadium was flipping awesome. We got to go inside and look around a bit. Most of it was closed off, but it was so weird thinking that not even 20 years ago, some of the best athletes in the world were competing here for the honor of their countries. There was also a cool fountain and other great things to take pictures of. Of course, they are on Facebook. We also met up with Andrea's friend that was studying in Spain around this time, too.

After our Montjuic adventure, we walked around looking for some food and found this little tapas place. The food was pretty good, and the owner was super nice. A couple of us also got a drink, and dang! was it strong. Not even joking. I was buzzing hardcore after one sangria. It was ridiculous. But then after we made it down the port and coast. It was right at sunset, and although we wanted to make it all the way to Barceloneta, the beach, I think we got some wonderful pictures anyway. Also, some crepes, YUM! Later that night, Emily and Lisa went to the Barcelona game, so we headed back to the hostel for some more of Steve's cooking and some ridiculous dancing. It was a great time. After being outside all day, it was nice to just chill a little in the hostel and have fun.

Next day was our Gaudi day. Gaudi, for those of you who don't know, was an architect during the Modernism art period. He was pretty much a forerunner of the movement and was a a complete genius. Basically, I have a crush on him. Anyway, we hit up La Sagrada Familia, which is Gaudi's masterpiece. It's uncomplete and has been worked on for over 100 years now. Although Gaudi died some time ago, all of his scale models and plans have remained. Even unfinished this place is absolutely stunning. I walked in and my mouth literally dropped open. There is no way to describe exactly how it makes you feel but I could spend forever in there looking at things. The facades on the outside are Biblical stories and the artwork is just stunning. Then you get inside and everything is colorful with the stained glass and precise. The details blew my mind. Everything is contoured as well. There's not a straight line in the place. I would love to go back to see it once it's been completed.

Later we made it down to Park Guell, which is where Gaudi lived and has been turned into a huge park. This place is also gorgeous. Near the entrance there's a lot of Gaudi's work, and as you move away it turns more into manipulation of nature to accent the beauty and make pathways and such. Emily and I explored quite a bit of it and got to see the entire city from one of the hills at the top. We were also little rebel children and jumped a fence to get back over to the main area. There were also some guys playing music in this little alcove in the front. They sounded unbelievable. The echoes just made my mind go blank and listen to how beautiful the sound was. We caved and bought CDs, but I say it was quite a good investment.

That night was pasta night. Steve was basically our live saver when it came to food. It was so good, even if he said it wasn't, but whatever. We enjoyed it and then it was time to cruise on over to the bar for some FOOOOOTBAAAAAAAALLL! Yes, I did indeed watch the game in Barcelona. I wish I could have been home for it, but here I got to drink in a public place and swear at the top of my lungs without getting yelled at by my parents. Before the game started, we also sang some Karaoke, crazy right? It was "Hey Jude," and it was actually a lot of fun. However, I don't think I'd like to sing in  front of a group of people in a country where people actually know me. Also, there were some guys that we met from Spain in Packer jerseys. They admitted they were fans and when we asked them why, they asked us if we knew about "That 70's Show!" Yes, they are Packer fans because of a TV program. Love it! But the game was so exciting. I pretty much was one of the loudest people there. Staying up that late was totally worth it. I also lost my voice for a few days afterward, and now I'm sick... so I'm not sure if my voice is a little off from the game or being sick.

Monday was our last day and we were going to go to Las Ramblas, a big outdoor shopping street, and the beach. It was a lot of fun. Emily met up with her friend that lives in Barcelona while we wandered a bit. Most of the stands were very touristy, but we did find a big market where Andrea and I tried cactus flower and coconut juice. Surprisingly delicious. I also got some music by a Spanish composer at this little Beethoven music shop. We wandered around until we met back up with Emily, right after getting some good ole-fashioned KFC and McDonalds. So we continued on our quest for the beach, but not before stopping in a sex shop for all of 2 min. It was a little awkward being in there during broad daylight with other people in there. It was back on the road again, and we finally reached the sea to make our way down to Barceloneta when the other Emily realized her wallet was missing. It turned into a frantic search to find it; however, our attempts were fruitless and we instead had to go to the police station to file a report. Hopefully all will go well. Emily got her cards canceled right away and still had her debit card and passport, so it really was the best scenario for a bad situation. By this time we had to head on back to our hostel and get all of our stuff to get back on the plane to Valladolid. Again, another good flight. We got there on time, so this silly little fanfare played, but then we had to wait for over an hour for the bus to get us back into the city. That part was rather unfortunate.

And that was pretty much our Barcelona trip. I'll be updating soon on the rest of our adventures over the past week or so.