Sangria Por Favor!

I have just returned from my amazing trip to Barcelona and I thought I'd share some things I learned while I was there.


1. If you have been walking around the city in circles with your backpack for 2+ hours lost it's okay to give up and take a taxi.

2. Under no circumstances should you do anything that will make you look like a tourist. Walk with confidence, don't pull out a giant map (if you have to, go into a bathroom or somewhere semiprivate), and don't wear any clothing that doesn't look like something you could buy in Europe

3. ALWAYS be aware of your surroundings. Don't pull out any cash until you're ready to pay for something (don't hold it in your hand, set it on the bar/table etc), keep one hand on your bag/purse/whatever at all times, and pay attention to who is watching you



and most importantly:

4. Spanish cough syrup tastes like banana laffy taffy



The group:
Me, Nikki, Lacey, Daniel, Nick, Orhan, Jess, Sally


Departure:
Taxi from Vilhelm Kiers to Aarhus Airport then flight to Girona. ETA 12:15pm. Bus from Girona to Barcelona.



Weather in Barcelona: 90 degrees F and sunny



Once we arrived in Barcelona we set off in search of our hostels. We were in three different ones so Jess, Sally, and Orhan left to go find theirs and I went with everybody else. We ended up doing a lot of walking in the wrong direction, backtracking, and walking in circles. After finally finding their hostel I decided to try to find mine. Terrible idea. I ended up doing more walking and finally gave up and took a taxi. Good thing I did because I probably wouldn't have found it otherwise.

The first night was rediculously fun. In Barcelona apparently each neighborhood organizes a festival and decorates the streets and there's live music and lots of dancing and drinking and craziness. We went down to a neighborhood where there was a festival and this great Australian guy, Shannon, who had met some of the others earlier, came with. The 9 of us took over this small restaurant and had a great first meal in Spain. Then we took to the streets and Barcelona certainly did not disappoint! Pictures are on Flickr. The decorations ranged from giant spiders to aliens to flying saucers... it was strange but it all seemed to fit together. After the festival Shannon and I decided to hunt down a bar or club and ended up way down on La Rambla (the famous pedestrian street) at Boulevard Culture Club. It made for a great night!


Thursday was even better.
We met up at the Sagrada Familia Temple and I think we would've all liked to go inside but the line was honestly at least 1000 people long. We would've been there all day. The Sagrada Familia Temple was Gaudi's dream and he started working on it in 1883. It is still not completed and will probably finally be finished sometime around 2020. It will eventually have 18 spires, one for each apostle, the 4 evangelists, one for the virgin mary and one for jesus. It will have 3 facades, the Nativity, the Glory, and the Passion. The entire thing is funded by private donations. I suggest you look it up online; the symbolism is insane and it truly is a masterpiece.
Next, I decided to do the most touristy thing possible. I took one of those double decker tour the city bus trips. And it was totally worth it! I got to see almost the entire city and I didn't have to walk anywhere (by then I needed to just sit for a couple hours) and I got to listen to the guided audio thing. It was perfect. Lots of pictures on Flickr

Thursday night we did a pub crawl, which is not the same thing as what we consider a pub crawl to be in the ville. This one was guided and we paid 15 euro for 3 drinks at the hostel and that also included entrance into Shoko (exclusive club on the beach). There were about 30 of us and it was a blast. It was POURING rain the entire walk to the first bar so we were all soaked by the time we got there. Espit Chupitos is a shots bar that has a menu of almost 600 shots and really really smart bartenders who remember them all. It was absolutely rediculous and the shots include such things as Animal Balls, Harry Potter, Halloween, Coco Loco, Bin Laden, La Cucaracha, King Kong, Kangaroo... I could go on forever. It was cheap and an absolute blast. A lot of the shots involve fire, straws and things like that (they aren't just straight alcohol shots) so it's fun to just watch too. Then it was on to Shoko, this awesome club located right on the beach. The atmosphere was really cool with giant round LCD screens hanging from the ceiling playing 50s dance clips and gigantic bamboo sticks going from floor to ceiling. The house music was awesome as well.

Friday we went up to Camp Nou to pick up our tickets for the FC Barcelona vs Sevilla Spanish Super Cup game which was on Saturday. Then I hit the beach for the afternoon with Shannon and some random people he met on his way down there. He's an expert at that. It was really hot out that day so it was awesome to just lay on the beach, drink sangria and have awesome conversation. The Mediterranean Sea is REALLY salty and it wasn't exactly clean there so I just got in for a few minutes just to say that I swam there. Friday night a couple of us went to a small bar and sat outside with some sangria for a while. It was really chill and a perfect way to balance out Thursday night.

Saturday through Tuesday will be described tomorrow. :)