Destination: Barcelona

Our flight took off from Munich, and we landed in Barcelona a few hours later. The flight there was beautiful as we coasted over the coast of Spain and the beaches in Barcelona. When we got to the apartment, we were surprised at how nice and big it was. The foyer was marble, and we had a balcony that overlooked the street. Jamie, the landlord, spent about an hour pointing out things on the map that we should see and do. This would've been more effective if we weren't starving, we kept staring at the McDonalds logo on the bottom of the map! He gave us additional cultural pointers, including the fact that in Barcelona, people don't go to lunch until 2 at the very earliest and 9 for dinner at the earliest. Most places that are decent wouldn't even be open until then! It was 7:30, so we wondered whether we could

Our Apartment

make it. There was a nice brick oven pizza restaurant down the street, and the girls had their minds set, so we went there for dinner. We headed back to the apartment after, and the girls bought wine and chocolate. Brian and I decided that there was way too much estrogen in the conversation, so we headed out for a walk around the city. We saw a couple of really cool architectural details that I'd seen in pictures of the city, which made me really excited. There was a fountain that was lit up purple, so we thought it was the Magic Fountain that Jamie had told us about. We were in the park and Brian bought a launcher with a light up rocket, that we had a good time with. As we walked in the crowded area, we had sketchy individuals approach us and make all sorts of offers seemingly every five feet that we walked. We were offered a variety of venues, including parties, clubs, single beers, marijuana, and sex parties. This isn't quite what we had pictured, and something that would never happen in Dublin. We checked out the map, but it wasn't too helpful as we didn't know the language. That's when we realized that the trip back could be interesting. We stopped by an Irish bar on the way back, which in fact, was not Irish at all. It was really funny, because they tried so hard, but it just wasn't. On the way back we knew we'd passed the "Magic Fountain", but after that we somehow got mixed up. Afraid to screw it up, we must've passed the fountain 15 more times before getting up the courage to go a little farther and find where we connected. It had gotten really late, and we knew we'd be screwed with the girls when we got back, so we braced ourselves. As promised, when we walked in we went to the kitchen table, and all 6 of them swarmed and we got quite the lecture. We were told that we were never to pair up again, and we were both on probation. That lecture went on for at least 15 minutes before they finally gave it up and we went to bed.

The next morning we woke up early and headed to the beach for the day. It was around 80 degrees out and sunny, so it was the perfect time. We stopped at Spar and I grabbed two huge baguettes for 1 euro, what a steal! The beach was beautiful, the water was crystal clear to the point that I was standing up and could see my feet. As we laid out on the beach, every couple of minutes we would here a Spanish man walking around yelling "Mojito, Mojito, Margarita, Sangria!", and in the gaps between that, we had asian women approaching us offering massages. Krista was asleep when an asian lady started massaging her leg, which she was significantly less than comfortable with, but we thought it was really funny. As a

joke, Brian decided to get a corn row by a lady on the beach, but he didn't want to pay for it so it ended up being a weird string that cost him ten euro. Morgan had a bracelet made, and the guy while doing it began to mock the asian women offering massages, with a "chingy chingy mingey mingey" chant. We were swimming, when we just stopped and started laughing. Yesterday morning we had woken up freezing in a tent camping out in Germany, and this morning we were so warm that we were swimming in the Mediterranean Sea after laying out on the beach in Spain. This really is the life. In addition, today

was reading day back at school, which means that everyone else was in the library studying while we were swimming in the Mediterranean, not too bad. On the beach we met a cool couple, who suggested that we join them on a bar crawl that night. We planned on going out one night, so this seemed like a good way to do it since we didn't really know the area. On one of our final laps down the beach, we ran into a guy, who was clearly lost and thought it was a nude beach. That was disturbing, but even more confusing was the fact that when he returned to his spot on the beach he changed into a suit to leave. What?? Morgan had a bracelet made by a huge guy on the beach We left the beach after we realized that we were getting pretty burned, and had lunch a block from the beach, where I got a "Nacho Burger" with

Guacamole and nacho chips and cheese on it. It was so good! Brian had to sit in the shade, because when we were on the beach he was "too cool for sunscreen". Now he had a towel wrapped over his head to avoid the sun, talk about cool! We stopped at the store, and before we left the cashier liked the girls so he gave us a free bottle of wine. It was slightly creepy, but did I say free? If not, free. We went to the bar crawl and we were so burnt that dancing was just too painful. We went though the areas that weren't touristy, which led to some interesting areas and experiences, but we made it out. When we finally got back to the apartment after a stop at McDonalds, we laid on the floor of the foyer and applied aloe everywhere, all of us laughing and in agony from our burns. We looked like penguins waddling around out there. We crashed after that, we couldn't make the traditional Spanish night out. (In Spain most places don't open up until around 2-2:30 and people don't go home until 7 or 8 am... not my style!).

The next morning we all woke up for croughnuts, which was a combination of croissants and doughnuts, which sounded great. They were delicious with cinnamon and a flakey center. Gillian and I finished ours, which was supposed to hold us over as breakfast. We joked about finding a McDonalds once we finished it. They were too expensive to buy multiple of, which both of us agreed upon. We left from there to Park Guell. That is the famous tiled park that everyone always posted about. We were still in rough shape from the sunburns, but we committed to it. We spent most of the day there, it was so beautiful. One of the things we admired were the escalators built into the mountains next to the stairs. How did it stay dry? Were there that many Americans that visited this park? There were so many questions that we

had. It was beautiful, we ended up hiking up a mountain which provided us with a comprehensive view of the city. I really did appreciate those moments atop the mountain, admiring all of the noise and action that I knew was occurring below. We ran into a man dressed in a full cheetah suit, and who was certainly tripping out on something. He was staring at one girl with a mickey mouse sweatshirt on, and we're pretty sure he thought Mickey was real. He was talking to her shirt, including things like, "you're an animal, I'm a doctor" among other statements. Wow, I really hope he wasn't a doctor! We spent a while trying to figure him out, or at least what he was on, but quickly gave up hope. On the descent, we came across people playing on a garbage can and with chimes, in a melody that was incredibly relaxing and calming. We headed from there to the actual Magic Fountain, which was incredible. We were all covered up (as shown by the picture below) because we were hiding from the sun. The girls asked us to take a picture, so naturally we took a picture of ourselves. After wandering around that area of Barcelona further, we headed back to the apartment. Brain claimed that there was a Burger King near the apartment, so Gill, Morgan, Krista and I were set on him leading us there. After an excess of 20 minutes walking, the girls began to update Brian in their dwindling confidence in him after every block we passed. Eventually we made it and feasted. We

ended the night with Tapas for dinner, including fried fish, which instead looked like a minnow holocaust, all of them dead and fully intact on the plate. It was so unattractive. We laughed and took pictures with them. To my credit, I did eat a couple of them in entirety, which included the eyeballs. Although, that was after Sangria, so it's probably not something I'd do again! The other Tapas were great though, I even tried mussels and loved them, not something I would've done at home! We stopped at the place across from our apartment to get Gelato, before getting yelled at by the neighbor and turning in for bed. My flight was early the next day, so I woke up even earlier walked to La Segrada Familla, which is arguably one of the most famous buildings in Spain. It is an old cathedral that has been under construction since

1882. The detail on that building was incredible, I was in awe. Unfortunately I was nervous about catching the bus to make sure I didn't miss my flight, so I moved out quickly and didn't get a chance to go inside. I got to the bus station and bought my ticket and walked around for a little while. I decided to head over to the bus a half hour before it was due to leave, and it's a good thing I did. I boarded the bus, and we left 20 minutes earlier than we were supposed to, because it was "full enough". I really hope they sent another one back for the people who weren't banking on that, because it easily could've been me. I had a while in the airport, so I went and sat outside in the sun and got McDonalds while talking to my parents. I was exhausted after traveling so much, and was ready to be back in Dublin! It was an amazing run though, that's for sure.

Lessons from Barcelona:

1. I'm not Spanish, not even slightly. I need to go to bed before 5am!

2. Sunscreen is a beautiful thing. More importantly, applying thoroughly and not going swimming immediately after is crucial. As I type this at the end of May, I'm still burned on my stomach.

3. Be early to busses, you never know when it'll be "full enough" and leave!

4. I like mussels, and as much as I hate to admit it, I don't mind the tiny fish either.