Harbor on the Mediteranean

The next morning, we woke up and decided to walk down to the harbor, which is about a mile and a half away from our hostel. The weather was perfect, and the sea was so beautiful! We spent the afternoon roaming around along the shore, took a siesta on the beach, stumbled upon a Gaudi fountain in a gorgeous park, and made our way back towards the center of town. Some highlights of the afternoon was Summer getting her lip pierced and going to the market a couple blocks away from where we were staying. Apparently Rachel Ray has been to el mercado, and it is amazing and huge...we got any type of fresh squeezed juice we could think of, there were huge stands of fresh fruit, fish, and vegetables, and amazing looking candy and chocolate booths as well. It is seriously a paradise for people who love to cook. That night, Camile (who had just arrived that day), Summer, Natasha, and I got ready and headed out for a night on the town. We ended up trying to follow this club promoter to her club, which ended up being about four miles away from where we lived and eventually gave up the search and headed back into town. We tried going to this club, City Hall, around 2am and met a promoter named Jordy, who was super goofy and we all were immediate friends. Deciding that the club wasn't worth the cover charge, we made our way back to our hostel, and ended up meeting a Swede, and a Turk who were sailing from Sweden to Turkey, and invited us to their boat for coffee the next day. Unfortunately we never found them again because all the information we received was that their boat was "the second from the left"...little did we know then, that with hundreds of boats sitting in several different harbors, there are many "second from the left" boats to choose from! Anyway, we ended the night at about 4 or 5am after making a stop at Pepe's for hot dogs and french fries.

Fresh Vegetables at the Market

The next day we woke up, grabbed some fresh fruit and juice from the market, and decided to explore for the rest of the day. Camile had heard about a fashion event called the Brandery going on during the weekend, so we took the metro over there. We ended up not going in, but the building and location of the show was beautiful, and the people watching was great! Later that evening as we were walking home, we ran into Jordy again and he told us about a party he was hosting at a club nearby that evening. Because time is so different in Spain, we didn't end up leaving our hostel until 12:30am..when parties and clubs really start to get busy. The club was pretty fun and very trendy, and we ended up leaving about 2am. We walked back to our hostel, and as we were about to walk in the door, a guy grabbed my wristlet bag that I was holding, ripped the bag clear off, and ran away. Natasha and I ran after him, but this guy should of been in the Olympics, because we lost him a couple blocks down the street. Unfortunately for the guy, I only had: one check card (which I canceled right away), a half pack of gum, a student ID, some club fliers, and a hair binder in my purse...I was flat broke that night and didn't even have spare change laying in the bottom. Nevertheless, it was a surreal experience..and one that I hopefully will never have to relive! I heard that in the off-season in Barcelona, particularly during tough economic times, 80% of people are robbed..and we knew two other people from Bilbao who were pick pocketed over the weekend there. This is especially bad for tourists, because here, the Spanish police are essentially useless...they don't really do or care about anything, and I am told that you NEVER stop a police officer and ask them a question..they are notoriously disliked among the Spanish people.

Fashion Event

On Saturday morning, we woke up early in order to make it to the free Gothic walking tour that the hostel and a local travel bar offer to hostel stayers. The thing I love about Barcelona is the incredible amount of foreigners that visit..and during our trip we met so many interesting people from all over the world. In our tour group, the guide made us meet one other stranger and introduce ourselves...I met James from Liverpool who is a plumber by trade and an avid futbol fan like myself. Other tour group members included people from Australia, the States, England, and South Korea. Our guide was great and showed us all the interesting places around the city: the building that Picasso drew when he was drunk on Absinthe, the art school that Picasso attended and also the place where he lost his virginity, the Real Plaza that was funded by the Bacardi Rum family...etc. etc. The tour was fun, interesting, and ended with a pint of beer at the bar, so if you ever go to Barcelona and aren't a real fan of boring, historical tours...go to this one! After a paella lunch and siesta at the hostel, we headed out again to see some of Gaudi's famous architectural works: La Casa Mila and La Sangrada Familia..both were awesome to see and though I don't know much about him, Gaudi seems likes a very interesting guy, and his work is one of a kind. For dinner, we went to a travel bar, where we grabbed a cheap dinner and met a very fabulous and flamboyant hairdresser by day, waiter by night named Allan. After dinner finished at about 10:30pm, we went back and got ready for the night. There were some other groups of students in our Bilbao program staying in our hostel, so for our last night we planned to go out with some of them. We left for a club with the ridiculous name of Razzmatazz, where I was barely allowed to go into the club, because apparently I don't look like I'm older than 16. Anyway, the club was huge and amazing, with different levels and rooms that play different types of music...a room of every type of person. It was so much fun, we didn't end up leaving until about 5am, and weren't in bed until 6am...a bad idea considering the fact that we needed to leave for our flight by 10 this morning.

La Sagrada Familia

Our flight was extremely long today, it took us 1 hour to fly to Barcelona, and 7 1/2 to fly back...when we first booked the tickets, we knew that we had a layover, we just didn't know where. Turns out, our layover was in the Canary Islands...meaning the islands off the coast of Africa. Yep, we flew down 2 hours in order to be able to spend an hour in 80 degree weather, looking at the ocean, just to get on the plane and fly 2 1/2 hours back to Bilbao. It was great spending so much time in Barcelona, and it is interesting being in a new place, because after a while you really do start to think of that place as your place. The people were so friendly there, and we met a ton of great people both Spanish and foreign. I would have to say that my favorite person during the trip is a middle eastern man who worked at a sandwich shop down the street from where we lived, every time we passed by whether it be 10am or 11pm he would shout out across the street "Good Morning! Are you hungry?" and energetically smile and wave...and by the end of the trip we were returning the greeting. I will miss eating amazing gelato, or going to the market for juice, or seeing what random person will show up in our hostel room each day. It's nice being back in Bilbao, and we start classes with the Spaniards tomorrow, but Barcelona is truly an amazing place to visit.

Picasso's Art School