Viva Barca!

After some anxiety due to the stupid volcano, I was able to leave for Barcelona. I went to visit Naomi from school and I stayed with her in the residencia. I loved the concept of the residencia, which was 300 students from Spain and America living dorm style. Equipped with study rooms, party rooms, and a pool...what a life! Naomi took me town to Placa Catalunya and Las Ramblas to see the city and all of its activity at night. We stopped for tapas, sangria, and paella. Basically everything Barcelona is know for in terms of food. It was absolutely delicious and the mugs of sangria were HUGE. We took the always convenient Barcelona metro home and then got ready and hung out with some of her friends in the residencia.

Side note: Barcelona is of course famous for its night life. But the crazy part about it is the schedule. Dinner at 9, get ready at 12, leave the house at 1am, stay out until 430. It's downright exhausting! You sleep until noon, go out by 2 and lose track of time in the beautiful city.

We went to a fun club called Oshum, got home late late late and slept in the next day. We walked through Parc de la Ciutadella, saw the Arc de Triomph and got sandwhiches and smoothies. Walking through the city in the sunshine made me so happy (got to love that Vitamin D!). Next we walked along the water and watched the fish and boats. There isn't a "real" beach in Barcelona. Although its a port city on the water, the sand was brought into the beach for the 1992 Olympics.

We spent more time on Las Ramblas and perused the jewelry market. Everything was really unique and special there. One of the greatest sensory experiences though was La Boqueria. It was a large market with candy, fruit, vegetables, seafood, meat and tons of treats. The colors were brilliant, the smells were so fresh and the fresh squeezed fruit juices (strawberry guava for me) were out of this world. We went shopping at a mall on the port and I shopped in tons of cool shops. For dinner we went for Chinese food, which seemed to be never ending portions that refilled themselves.

We met up with some friends and by 12:45am we were out for the night First stop was L'Ovella Negra (Black sheep). It was basically a beer warehouse, table after table of college kids, pints, and pitchers. It was HUGE. The atmosphere was really fun and I think it would be something fun to be in America. Next and last stop was Razzmatazz. Razz is a 5 story room with tons of different rooms playing different music and TONS of people. We got into the club at 2 and when we left at 5 it was still packed. I love this crazy town! We stopped on our way home for patatas bravas and chocolate covered churros and then went home to sleep.

Barca was an amazing and unique city. It is one of the only cities I've experienced the night life but nothing could compare to it. I loved the clubs, the culture, the food it was all incredible and I cannot wait to go back...