Barcelona!

- Trying to find our hostel, we walked the wrong direction on La Rambla...twice. We called the hostel girl at least 3 or 4 times and eventually she gave up and came and got us.
- Barcelona hostel #1 was awesome! Super cute, and the lady/host was very helpful.
- After checking in, we headed to the beach! (Where else?) Like everywhere else we've been, it was gorgeous.
- I (Andrea) still had a huge hole in my foot, however (from dancing barefoot in the street in Madrid), which the beach sand was not helping. As luck would have it, there was a big Red Cross truck right on the beach! Jake gave me a piggyback ride to them, and they did a great job bandaging my foot, with a few mutters of disapproval.
- While I stayed on the beach to watch our stuff and worked on my tan, everyone else jumped into the water and played like little kids in the waves. Marianne ended up giving a constant "up yours" to everyone, though, since she had cut off the tip of her middle finger in Barcelona and was trying to keep it out of the water.
- After that, we got lost on the way back to the hostel but eventually made it.
- Back at the hostel, we took FOREVER to shower and get ready, as all 5 girls each had to clean up and wash their hair in the ONE SHOWER. Jake took a nap.
- Next, we headed to Port Olympico to party! In our search for some dinner, we ran into a pretty mean kebab guy, who refused to put our kebab meat on a plate instead of a tortilla. Eventually we had some fast food at Pans & Co.
- On to the clubs! We strolled up and down the boardwalk, in search of free drinks (which we received :) On the way, Marianne was grabbed and put on a stretcher, and wheeled into a hospital-themed club, where a eurotrash bartender in a nurse/doctor outfit proceeded to dance with her on the bar. He even tried to get her to take a shot from his crotch. (Needless to say, we left pretty quickly after that).
- A good buzz of alcohol running through our systems, we headed to the one Salsa club in the area to dance! The music was good, but the "dance" scene is definitely not like the US -- guys don't really ask girls to dance. So poor Jake (or lucky Jake?) had to do his manly duty and dance with all of us.
- Overall, the night was a success!

- Day 2 in Barcelona got off to a late start as we had to run around switching to a new hostel. This was like the Walmart of hostels -- it was definitely huge and maximized efficiency. There were tons of people there, but our room was fairly nice and we were comfortable enough. The downside -- we had to pay to use the internet.
- Eventually, we headed off to take a cable car up to the Castle Montjuic. The view was fabulous, but Jake kept shaking the cable car.
- The castle was gorgeous. The smell of the castle was not.\
- Next up, we headed to the Olympic Stadium (of the Barcelona Olympics '92), where we took our traditional jumping picture!
- Next stop was Park Guell, of the famous Gaudi-esque tiled mosaics and swirly architecture. We had fun running around and taking lots of pictures.
- In the mood for some more Gaudi, we headed to La Sagrada Familia, a gorgeous and very unusual church. Unfortunately, the line was super long to get in, so we decided to wait until the next day to see the inside. Nonetheless, we sat outside for a while just staring up at it.
- At this point, some of us were pretty tired. We headed to the metro and took it to some more buildings designed by Gaudi -- Casa Mila and Casa Batllo. We proceeded to walk down La Rambla and look at some more of the cool architecture and the protestors in Plaza Catalunya.
- Next, we headed to dinner. When you're in Spain, you eat tapas, and these were the best tapas yet. Jake had......a hot dog. Yeah. Seriously.
- We also had some delicious Sangria de Cava (Champagne Sangria) and regular Sangria. Yum!
- In the mood for a pretty chill night, we headed down to the bars in the Baroque Quarter, instead of the clubs. We were determined to get Jake drunk, since he has the highest tolerance of the group. Mission accomplished!
- On the way back to the hostel, we ran into a random concert in the street with some Ska Band. Yay for drunk dancing in the super crowded plaza :)
- We headed back to the hostel for....more drinks! The hostel bartender drank with us and we had an impromptu dance party in the hostel lounge, where they had a random disco ball (?) Some Indian guys hung around and watched us, which was a little strange but, let's face it, we weren't terribly concerned at this point.

- Next day, we decided to hit up La Sagrada Familia first thing in the morning (except for Neha, who stayed behind). In a word -- GORGEOUS. We were all super impressed. It definitely has to be seen to be believed, but for the next best thing, check out the Jake's pictures on facebook.
- Then, we decided to walk around La Rambla and shop before our train. We had a good time haggling (except for Jake, who had to pay full price to repurchase the shirt he had lost the night before). Neha got us both a "sexy discount" and an "indian discount." All of the souvenir shops were run by Indians and they were very taken with her!
- Finally, we headed to the train station. Check out Jake's next post for info on that!


Some random notes:

- Tourist cliches that we perfected:
      Walking around with HUGE maps looking confused.
      The "jumping picture" at every major landmark.
      Buying and using the fancy Spanish fans.
      Mei with her super Asian touristy hat.

- Silly us -- we have managed to leave water bottles EVERYWHERE. Water fountains are a rarity in Spain, and water is not usually free in restaurants, so we decided to carry water bottles. Unfortunately, we managed to lose them all over the place :(

- Shivani slept her way through Europe. Seriously, that girl is amazing. She has this miraculous ability to sleep anywhere, anytime. If we were motionless for more than 30 seconds, she was OUT. The metro, the train station, the cafes, everywhere! We are all a little jealous.

I'll leave it at that. Viva Barcelona!

-Andrea