This past weekend we were granted a 5 day weekend!! Originally we were going to go to the Rhone for a field trip but that was canceled. With 5 days at hand what did 12 of us decide to do? BARCELONA!!!
I got a round trip bus ticket for 68 euros. The ride was 6 hours to get to Barcelona. I was lucky enough to be accompanied by some friends, Molly and Tobias just incase I got super bored. Our bus ride was not that bad. Our bus driver was a biotch, but she got to Barcelona 30 minutes early, so I couldn't be that bad.
Once in Barcelona I realized that none of us could speak Spanish. All I have is some Cali Spanglish, and that doesn't work with people from Spain (as I have learned from the two Spaniards in my class Javier and Jordi). So the first obstacle was finding a taxi to take us to our apartment 10 of us were staying at. I was worried that the driver would notice we were not very knowledgable about the area and try to rip us off. He did the exact opposite…he drove us as far as he could go (we were in a no car area) and even gave us really good directions to our square. I don't think you tip in Europe but we sure tipped him!
Finally arriving to our apartment we had to call the people already in Barcelona to let us in. Monica (the girl who organized all of this) came to let us in so we could put down our stuff. Surprise, surprise, the door does not unlock. The key would go in but would not move. We stood in this tiny stairway trying to open the door and trying to get a hold of the apartment owner for over an hour. I was not even able to think of what was going to happen. We were so close but so far away. Once we got a hold of the owner (FINALLY) he came and decided he had to get a locksmith. Luckily he owned more apartments in the building so he said "You guys can just put your stuff in the attic until we get this sorted." By The Way, that attic had a beautiful terrace which overlooked the Barcelona skyline AND we got up there right at sunset. The damn door breaking opened a whole other possibility, wine and cheese on the roof! It was so cute and so perfect we could not believe our luck (and unlock with the door). It all worked out for the better.
Now this was just the start of our night. As the Spanish do, we got ready and headed for the bars at midnight. The 10 of us mindlessly walked around and stumbled across this rastafarian looking bar. The bar tenders spoke english to us and we met other english speaking people, including Australians. What became dangerously popular at this bar was Tequila shots chased with a tomato sauce/lemon juice/pepper/tobasco shot. I only tried one but it somehow became the drink of the rest of the weekend. And, I don't now if it is common but when the bar had to close the bar tender poured a shot for everyone (for free) and said "your welcome, now leave." It was a good idea and pretty funny. 
The bar closing did not mean the end of our night. We had now picked up 2 Aussie guys to our pack and found a club. I don't know how we found it or where it was (I was so lost) but it was a lot of fun. I love dancing and that is all I did there. It was not the best thing for my strained quad but I just couldn't stop dancing!!! I had so much fun there, and so did everyone else. I thing we left the club around 4:30ish and began to head home, which no one knew where it was. It took a half hour to walk home and later we found that we were only 5 minutes away. Whoops.
As I mentioned before, we had access to the terrace for the night so we decided to go watch the sunrise on the roof. I fell asleep instantly and apparently slept walked down to the room when everyone gave up on the idea of seeing the sunrise. I probably went to bed around 5:30 am and was woken up at about 10 am by screaming children in the square we were at. I did not get that much sleep, and that was only just the start of the weekend.
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| Photo Credit to Monica Lewis |
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