Last weekend I had the chance to visit the beautiful city of Barcelona. Angela, Ariel, Nic, Nikki, Nery, and I (wow I just noticed all the alliteration in there...) traveled with Erasmus - the exchange program here in Europe. They had this pretty good deal where we paid 95 euros for a 2-night, 3-day stay in Barcelona, which included transportation to and from Barcelona as well as accommodations in the hostel (which included breakfast). All we had to pay for was lunch and dinner, which our host parents are supposed to take care of anyway. Some of my friends had their moms pack sandwiches for them. My mom gave me 35 euro for the weekend for food - not bad!

So we were supposed to meet at a hotel off of the Atocha Metro at 11 on Thursday night. When we were getting on the bus, for some reason my name wasn't on the list. I paid with my friends, and their names were all on the list. I was number 48 to sign up out of the 51 available spots, but my name disappeared somehow. They were making phone calls to people to check my name, but no one was answering because it was midnight. I was getting really upset because I paid 95 euro for the trip, and I was going to be extremely sad if I couldn't go. After like 20 minutes, they let me on the bus and just had me sign my name on the bottom. Thank goodness.

The bus was an interesting mixture of students from the United States, Russia, Germany, Canada, Italy, Mexico, and other Spanish students. It was cool meeting people from other countries. The only bad thing was that we had to spend 9 hours on the bus and would arrive in Barcelona the next morning. It was a LONG bus ride because I couldn't sleep, my legs were cramped, and it was stuffy. Also we had to make 2 stops for 45 minutes to let the bus driver rest, which made it seem even longer. But we finally made it!

Barcelona is absolutely gorgeous. It reminds me of Madrid, and the buildings are very similar, except the ones in Barcelona are a little whiter and cleaner. The air is cleaner, and the streets are SUPER clean. Even the small alleyways are absolutely litter-free, which surprised me. The only weird thing is that most of the signs are in Catalan, so it's a bit hard to understand what they're saying. We dropped our stuff off at the hostel (which was surprisingly clean) and took a mini tour around our area in Barcelona. We walked by the Cathedral, and we walked to the pier and the beach...which looks a little like Long Beach, as you can see from the picture to the right.

After that we had some free time until the official tour later in the afternoon. We walked around and ended up having lunch at this small place where there were only locals (a very good sign). We got 3 courses plus water, wine, and bread for 10 euros, which isn't bad. It filled us up so much that we were stuffed. I don't think we even ate dinner, we were so stuffed. At like 3 or 4 half of the people on the us showed up for the tour, which was just going to take us around the area. The tour guide was a person from Erasmus (who are all students too, or recently graduated students), and we waited for 15-20 minutes in the cold for this person to show up. After that, we were just like forget it and decided to give ourselves a tour. Nic has been to Barcelona before, so he was kind of showing us around. We walked through some alleys with stores and restaurants/bars and ended up at the Cathedral.

HANDS DOWN this cathedral is my favorite so far. Outside it is really detailed and looks kind of like every other cathedral in Europe. Inside it is absolutely gorgeous. I couldn't stop taking pictures. The problem was that for some reason I suddenly felt homesick. I think it reminded me of the cathedral in Mexico, which reminded me of Shayne and Haley, which reminded me of my other friends in SB, which reminded me of my parents, which reminded me of my church, which reminded me of my friends at church...it was a long process. I know you'll probably think I'm really sappy but I suddenly wanted to cry. I kind of separated myself from the others and sat down on one of the benches and just took in my surroundings for a while, thinking. (By the way, my pictures do not do the church justice at all. You have to physically be there.)

After a while, we left and Angela asked if I was okay. I told her about my sudden onset of homesickness and talking with her made me feel better. We then went through the various stores and shops, and hanging out with them made me realize that yeah I do miss things back home, but I have this awesome group of friends here in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The homesickness can wait.

You know the 95 euro we paid for the trip? Well it included free entrance into a couple discotecas as well. The one we went to was pretty cool. It was underground, and it had several couches, pretty purple lighting, and it opened onto a terrace that faced the beach. I had fun dancing with my friends and making memories...except for the fact that my phone got stolen. I think it happened while I was dancing. Seriously though, my phone cost 5 euro, who would steal a cheap phone like that? I did not mind too much because the phones are easily replaceable, but I was just upset because I had just put 10 euro on the phone. I have a new phone now, but I had to call and deactivate my old one.

I think I'll talk a little about the hostel. It was my first time staying in one, and to my surprise it wasn't as shabby as I thought it would be. I thought that hostels were supposed to be gross and smelly and horrible, but this one wasn't that bad (in my opinion). The bed you see to your right is with the suitcase it mine - I know you're jealous. It actually wasn't uncomfortable, the only thing was that we had to bring our own towels and blankets. The hostel was interesting because they have rooms with different occupancies. Some can accommodate 6, 7, up to 18 people. Our room was for 14 people. It's made up of little "cubicles" with a bed, a small safe/cabinet thing, and a curtain to close at night. There's a wooden wall separating each cubicle. Above each cubicle is another that can be reached by a metal ladder. What surprised me was that the cubicles on top were HIGH. The picture you see above? It's on the second floor, and my room was for 2 people. Seriously, I was just waiting for the moment that I would slip on the ladder and fall to my death...okay not to my death, but maybe a broken bone. It was pretty clean though. The community bathrooms on each floor were clean as well. The only thing was that after 2 days sharing a room with 13 other people...it can get a bit smelly. Let's just say when we got back to Madrid on Sunday, we were glad to have our own beds and our own rooms.

The next day after breakfast, we headed to the Casa Milà, which is known for its architecture and was designed by Antoni Gaudi. It was insane, especially the roof. You can just Google it, I don't feel like explaining it all. In short, it used to be a house and has several rooms with pretty antique furniture. As you can see from the picture to the left, the architecture is pretty random, but it was beautiful. After making a quick stop at Starbucks (SO expensive here. Well then again it was beside a Jimmy Choo store...), we went to el Parque Güell, which is kind of a giant garden/park with a lot beautiful and Gaudi architecture. It's huge. We had a couple hours, so we walked around and explored. Because it is on the top of a hill, the view is AMAZING. Every time we'd turn a corner and see a new angle of the view, we'd draw in our breath and ooh and ahh. You can see a panoramic view of the city with the Mediterranean sparkling in the distance.

By that time it was early afternoon, so we headed back to the hostel on our bus. One thing about Spain that we all love is their siestas. We had started the day with breakfast at 8 or 9 after a night of dancing, so by this time we were pretty tired. We got to take a nap for an hour or two before getting lunch and continuing on our next tour. We were supposed to go to La Sagrada Familia, but I guess it was closed or something? I don't really know, but they decided to postpone it until the next day, and we ended up just walking around Barcelona. We went on the main avenue where the Casa Milà was and walked by all of the expensive high-end stores and ended up at la Casa Batlló, which is famous for its Gaudi architecture also. The name escapes me at the moment...Well, then we walked to Las Ramblas, which is an outdoor flea market-type thing. It's kind of similar to El Rastro in Madrid, except it's a bit fancier. You do have to be extra careful about pickpockets though.

The next morning, we visited La Sagrada Familia. The architecture is CRAZY, and what I thought was interesting was that it is still being built. It has been around for hundreds of years, and it has never been finished. Interesting. I was extremely sad though because we didn't have time to go inside. Still, it was amazing being there.

Then we headed back to Madrid. It was a long bus ride back, but because it was in the daytime it wasn't as bad. I ended up sitting next to this guy that is from San Francisco. I guess he had gone on his own to see La Sagrada Familia, and I got to see his pictures and be jealous and everything.

All in all, it was a fun trip. I love Barcelona, it's a beautiful city...but I love Madrid more. To be fare, I only spent 3 days in Barcelona, but to me I like the hustle and bustle of Madrid and the "realness" of the people here, if that makes any sense at all. I definitely want to come back to Barcelona in the future!

*Okay, so I took a lot of pictures in Barcelona and I can't show them all. Still, I will post a significant amount. Also, to make the "slide-show" more enjoyable, I shall post a song that is stuck in my head because it's played everywhere so you can listen to it while you view the pictures. Enjoy :)