So, as many of you know I am studying abroad in Barcelona this semester. I wanted to give my family and friends a glimpse of what I am experiencing, so I decided to make this blog.
I've been here less than two days and I can already say this city is the most beautiful one I've ever been to and possibly the most amazing in the world... Completely in love with it already.
My favorite parts so far (aside from the ridiculously cheap alcohol) is the combination of the much more laid back culture and the amazingggg food: Siesta. The culture allows you to ENJOY yourself instead of eating lunch at your desk or stressed out at work all day. It's quite a concept and I think American culture can take something from it. We had lunch today at the restaurant Tapa Tapa anad we all shared a bunch of delicious mini plates. (Another beautiful thing about eating here is you don't stuff your face you just have a taste of everything until you're kind of satisfied.)
Okay, enough with this insightful BS, onto Day 1 of my trip in Barcelona.
Day 1: So... flight sucked naturally. I took a sleeping pill and instead of getting knocked out I was semi- delirious for the duration of the flight. We transferred in Berlin; after landing there an hour late we almost missed last call for the flight to Barcelona... thanks to the customs guy who claimed he saw scissors in the bottom of my bag. After searching every crack, crevice, zipper, wallet, etc, (and somehow picking up my mace spray and not saying anything) he discovered a small pair of scissors in my sewing kit (that I didn't know I had). Anyway, thank God for the Irish guy in Customs. He saved us all and confiscated them.
After we landed, we took a bus to our absolutely AMAZING apartment. We live 5 seconds from our school in a cute little area in mid-Barcelona and two Metro stops away from the Sagrada Familia ( the most amazingly gorgeous church in the world.) After lugging my 90 pound suitcases into the elevator, we uncovered our wonderful bachelorette pad (just kidding TJ.) I live with four other very cool (thankfully) girls. The apartment has one single bedroom right when you walk in (my room) and then you walk down the hall and on the right side is a bathroom, Jordan's room, our kitchen and patio, and then our living room with a balcony overlooking the road. Attached to the living room is Barbara's room, and Tammy and Lauren's room. I'll take pictures of it later for a more detailed description, but here are some stolen from Barbara.
The worst part about this place is the fact that there's a cleaning lady that comes once a week. We all know how much I love cleaning, so I'm really upset I have to skip that part of my day :(
After unwinding for about five minutes, we were all STARVING so went outside approximately 20 feet to our new favorite hole in the wall restaurant. Sangria pitchers are ...... (drumroll) $7.50. And after three shot sized glasses of the wonderful sangria I was on the drunker side (superb might I add.) The cheapness of the booze here might be one of the most fascinating things I've ever seen.
After showering and whatnot we had a 7 PM walking tour. We explored Las Ramblas and the very chic and trendy road that I can't remember the name of at the moment. (My roommate just informed me that it's called Passevig de Gracia). The main thing I gathered from that street is that I will not be able to afford to shop there.
Only kidding, the city is seriously SO beautiful. The architecture of EVERY single building is unique and as a whole the city charming and beautiful and everything good in the world.
Apologies for my lack of good photography. The first two buildings are work the work of the amazing artist Gaudi. The third is an absolutely beautiful building in the middle of the city... and I was surprised to learn that it's actually the Argentinean Consulate. I have a feeling I am really going to learn to appreciate art during these next four months.
Anyway, I really need to shower so the rest of this post is going to be a little more summarized. After we were done with our walking tour and went for Tapas with the group (I love Tapas) we decided we were going to go home because we were all jet-lagged and running on 2 hours of sleep. Naturally that ended up with us going to pizza and beer (mugs for 2.50$, yes please) and ended up at Happy Hour with free shots promos at the Lir of Barcelona. We cannot escape Lir.
(Benio and Denio at Lir)
Finally made it back to the Metro at around midnight, got lost on the metro for a while, and ended up getting off at Gaudi's absolutely, breathtakingly beautiful masterpiece the Sagrada Familia. We meandered around the neighborhood lost for a while and ended up at a bar until it closed. Drunk, lost, we finally made it home. Jordan was awake so we decided to get more wine. The wine store was closed. Everything was closed. We found a mexican looking man on a bike and asking him if he knew where the grocery store was. It was too far. We decided to end our quest.
That is all for day one. Day two coming soon.
Preview for Day two:
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