Barcelona, Spain

Wow! I've been doing a lot of traveling. I promise that the next update will be about Salamanca, but I simply have to talk about my weekend in Barcelona.

So five friends (Gokul, Nadia, Rose, Kathryn, Raieah) and I got on a bus in the afternoon to head to Madrid, where we could connect to Barcelona. We arrived in time to find a restaurant and watch the Euro Cup between Barcelona and Manchester United. Fortunately, Barcelona won, setting the stage for an amazing weekend there. At 1 a.m. we got on the bus to Barcelona, and arrived that morning around 9.

We were all exhausted since we didn't sleep very well on the bus, even though I did bring my blanket. Therefore, we were eager to get to the hotel: Hotel Abragio, or something. Six of us in one room the size of a cardboard box. A single bed. I took a nap on the floor.

When we all woke up, we threw on our bathing suits and headed over to Playa Barceloneta. A definite tourist beach, but the closest to us in walking distance. Got a nice tan.
After the beach, headed back to the hotel to shower and clean off sand. When all of us reconvened, we went to check out the Picasso Museum near the hotel. I never knew that Picasso was such a versatile artist. Apparently, he made pottery. The museum was extensive and featured some famous pieces like "the embrace."

Upon leaving the museum, we came across a road where people were crowded together on the sidewalks blowing horns, playing music, and waving flags for FCB-the soccer team. We weren't exactly sure what we were waiting for, but we played along and took a bunch of pictures of people flooding the street. Finally, we realized why. The champion team returned by bus. It was a parade!

We returned inconspicuously to the hotel in order to avoid being caught as 6 people in one room. The staff began to catch on since we kept entering in waves of 2, and all claimed that we already had the key to our room (customary in European hotels to leave the key at the front desk.)

The next day, we woke up and went down at different times to take advantage of the free included breakfast. Luckily we weren't caught.

That morning we decided to go to the Gaudi (spanish architect) museum, but I waited outside with Raeiah because we didn't want to pay to enter. After that we all decided to check out La Sagrada Familia, a famous cathedral. To our dismay, tourists were everywhere and the line was unecessarily long. We decided to wait until the tours had dissipated later in the day. We instead decided to head to Parc Guell.

Meanwhile, my friend Alex (Goodman), called me and agreed to meet at a nearby metro stop. She met all of my API friends, who we then split away from to catch up and check out the Parc on our own. Parc Guell was also designed by Gaudi and it was a great place to see a panorama of Barcelona. She and I ate lunch closer to La Rambla--the main street--after taking the metro to that area.

Alex and I didn't want to separate, so I got the best of both worlds by abandoning the sketchy hotel situation and going to live in Alex's apartment for the night. We went back to the hotel to collect my belongings, and returned once more to Alex's apartment where we watched a little bit of Zoolander. I also met her two roommates, one who happens to go to UF.

That night we partied until the sun came up and finally went to bed at 7:30 a.m. I set my alarm for 11:30, since my friends were checking out of the hotel at noon. Inevitably, that plan failed. I slept until 3.

Alex and I ate breakfast at 5 p.m. the next day, and then proceeded to meet back up with the API group near Playa Barceloneta. It turned out that they got caught at the hotel and were fined 50 euros, and almost got arrested (but weren't). At the beach, we watched some street performers play reggae and classic spanish music. The sun was just hot enough to keep us the perfect temperature in the breeze. The sailboats in the background were pictoresque.

Since we had nowhere else to go, we went and got our feet in the sand a little bit before grabbing dinner at a Telepizza. Somehow my backpack got stolen while we were INSIDE the telepizza, NEXT TO the ordering counter, UNDER my feet. These pickpockets are pros. If you're ever in Barcelona, be extremely careful.

Luckily, the only contents of my backpack were clothes, a blanket, toiletries, a necklace, suntan lotion, and my cell phone charger. I was fortunate enough to not have been robbed of any money, my passport, nor any of my electronics.

I filed a police report, but cases of stolen backpacks like this are virtually never resolved. I've just come to terms that I'm going to have to survive the summer without my reversible GAP skirt. :/

In any case, I found a replacement backpack for 9 euros. Gotta love China. You can see pictures of the trip here.

The next post will be about classes :)
-Michelle