Barcelona - Heaven's Having a Party

Wow.

I knew about two hours into our Barcelona trip that this blog update was going to be epic, but now that I'm sitting down to do it, I honestly don't even know where to begin. I guess I should preface all of this by saying hands down, the most incredible weekend of my life. I know it's fresh in my memory and that we're all still coming down from vacation high, laughing and looking through all the pictures, but sometimes you are just able to recognize an immediate significance, that kind of feeling that in a month, a year, ten years, the rest of your life, you are going to look back on this trip and see it as one of the most incredible, undeniably perfect times of your life. I know, I know, you're probably thinking "Stop with the sentimental Hallmark BS and show us pictures of you drinking sangria through a massive straw!" But I wanted to preface the stories, inside jokes, and photos by letting you know how much this weekend meant to me. Also, apologies if I can't fully convey this emotion through my blog.

SO! On with the show. Our adventure began with the EasyBus from Gloucester Place to London-Stansted Airport. After my class (ugh, class) I hurried over to meet up with Kelly, Morgan, Athena, and Zach, grab a quick bite of McDonald's to secure my status as a lame American who relies too heavily on fried, unhealthy deliciousness, and hop on the bus. They should really rename the service EasyChurchVan, because that's what it was - an orange church van that happened to play some PHENOMENAL pre-vacation karaoke music. "Whatever I said, whatever I did - I didn't mean it! I just want you back for good!" Kelly and I had quite a nice little jam session. The bus took about an hour through London suburbs and the countryside, and the weather was cold and sunny as we arrived at the airport to check in for our flight. At which point we found... O'NEILLs! The perfect place for a pre-flight basket of chips and pint of cider. We hadn't even left London yet, and Athena already had guys buying her a drink. We looked through the guidebook making plans for sights to see, bars to hit, and how to best approach Barcelona - the best part of this is that none of our plans actually seemed to take place, and for that I couldn't be happier.



EasyChurchVan



Hells yes - O'Neill's at the airport!

Turns out we stayed a bit long at O'Neill's and didn't anticipate much security - cut to us sprinting through the airport trying to find our gate, which ended up being MUCH farther away than anticipated. How very Amazing Race of us. We made it in time though, thank god, and soon boarded the notoriously ghetto European airline known as RyanAir. Sure, flights are cheap, but you certainly get what you pay for. The plane itself was pretty nice, but during the 2-hour flight, they tried to sell us overpriced candy, snacks, and alcohol, refused to turn off the cabin lights, and played some ridiculous 2-euro lottery game that we chose not to partake in. Our landing was terrifying. I think the same woman who had to teach the new flight attendant how to use the credit card machine went down to the cockpit to teach the pilot how to land. We were weaving, bobbing, and I half-expected the back half of the plane to fall off, Lost style (PS - finished Season One, SO GOOD!) When we landed, they played a nice little fanfare to announce that the plane had arrived on time - I think it was more just a personal celebration that we made it down to the ground without exploding or killing anybody.

Our next destination, after Customs and the ATM, was the Barcelona Bus, our transport from Girona, Spain to our final destination. This was a pretty standard coach bus that took about an hour to drive through Spanish countryside and play some more great karaoke jams - "All Star", by Smash Mouth, may deserve its comeback. We imagine the views were gorgeous, but alas, it was too dark to see much. We arrived in Barcelona around 10:30, and headed to the metro to find our hostel, which was situated on one of Barcelona's main streets, Las Ramblas. We actually bought the wrong type of metro ticket (oopsies), so we hopped the turnstiles and pretended we knew what we were doing. This would not be the last time we "bent the rules" of the Barcelona metro ("break the law" just seems like such an accusation - I'm no criminal).

We walk out of the metro station onto Las Ramblas, and what do I immediately see:



This was when I realized the true magic of Barcelona, or at least began to. As a hopeless American with severe brand loyalty as far as restaurants go, I have been missing my Chili's, my Chipotle, my Spice, and, perhaps most of all, my Dunkin. Gracias a Dios for this wonderful slice of heaven. We walked down Las Ramblas to La Plaza Real, the square on which our hostel was situated. This street is truly beautiful - lined with trees and streelights, surrounded by gorgeous architecture, with restaurants offering sangria and tapas at every step. We took a left onto the Plaza, and our jaws continued to drop. A huge plaza, filled with palm trees, clubs, and people. I honestly thought our hostel was a club when we first saw it, and, well, heard it.



Kabul Backpacker's Hostel



La Plaza Real



Another shot of La Plaza Real, which was basically home base for the weekend

We went inside the hostel, and I was immediately anxious and excited. In Paris, as you faithful blogreaders know, we stayed with Taylor in his apartment, so it was still like having our own space. This was our first hostel experience - massive rooms, tons of worldwide travelers, public bathrooms (ew) - and it did NOT disappoint. We were all a bit split up amongst the rooms, but luckily I landed in the same room as Morgan and Athena. We checked in, dropped off our bags in our room, and noticed how unexpectedly quiet the 24-person suite was. We went to find Kelly, who was next door and would later share her room with Taylor and Liz. She meets us at the door, and informs us that one of her roommates is a drug dealer who thinks he's Jesus. Thus set up the quick dynamic between her room - the crazy ass party room - and our room - the sleepy room. I was glad, for one, to be in the sleepy room. More to come on Jesus later, but let me just tease you all with this picture of Jesus' balloon sculpture, inspired by a "love message" from "his Father".



The significance of that has yet to be determined. More on that later. Anyways, after lots of travel we were hungry for tapas, so we met up with Laura, who had arrived earlier that day from Florence, and headed to a restaurant down Las Ramblas, El Chocquito. The place was empty except for The Real Housewives of Barcelona (easy on the hair dye and curling irons, you Spanish lady-cougars! and stop smoking, it's bad for you!), but we decided it looked good enough to stay. The sangria was delicious - served in pitchers with long straws, we made quick work of it as we waited for our authentic Spanish cuisine. Morgan particularly enjoyed his, and proceeded to be a complete disaster. Well done, I'm proud to call you both my roommate, and my friend. The food was amazing though, as was the second round of sangria, and we decided to turn in early for the night as we knew we had MUCH to do the next day.



Long straw, delicious sangria, happy Alex ... these straws are really handy in stealing other people's sangria when they aren't looking, it's like a Mario Party minigame



Yup, that's Morgan



Still Morgan. Still a mess.

After a surprisingly decent night's sleep, we woke up and got ready to face Barcelona. Taylor and Liz were arriving around 11:30, so we planned to stay around and meet them. HOWEVER, as I said earlier, nothing goes as planned in Barcelona and that's how it should be. After breakfast, Morgan had noticed a flyer for a GoCar tour, which is a GPS-guided car that you drive around the city to major tourist destinations. The hostel had a 9 euro special, and Morgan asked me if I wanted to. Of course I jumped at the chance. FIDLAR all the way. I figured that Tay and Liz would be exhausted after traveling all morning, and I knew this was can't-miss opportunity, so cut to 30 minutes later, I'm in this tiny three-wheeled GoCar with Athena, helmet on, about to take over the streets of Barcelona. Morgan and Laura were behind us, but as we pulled onto the first main street of the tour, our car died and we thought we were going to as well.



GOCAR YOU COMPLETE ME!



This is the greatest thing you can ever do

Athena and I freaked out, Morgan and Laura swerved around us (and were never seen again), and we pulled off onto the sidewalk. The car would NOT restart. We were laughing and frustrated at the same time, and we finally got it to work without having to return to the main office. We rejoined the flow of traffic and headed off on our epic GoCar adventure. This was just awesome. I love driving, the weather was perfect, and we saw SO much of Barcelona. There was definitely a learning curve to the driving. European roundabouts are NOT fun to go through - too many lanes, not enough signs telling me where to drive - and motorcyclists blow through the streets of Barcelona, ignoring lanes and regular traffic patterns. Also, one time, I drove down a one-way street for awhile. This was not Europe's fault, I will accept full responsibility. Hey, nobody died though!

The lovely British tour guide in our car - Susie - took us first past the Arc de Triomf and the Parc Ciutadella. She didn't give us much time to look, but luckily Athena was helping me out with some pictures.



That's the Arc de Triomf in red brick all the way down at the end. Susie next took us to Barcelona's very own Gherkin!! Known formally as the Torre Akbar, this is just another phallic building that Europe appears to be quite fond of. As Susie told us, the Gherkin has 4400 windows and it lights up beautifully at nighttime.



A seriously intense roundabout followed, thank god we survived that one, and then we headed towards La Sagrada Familia. This church has been under construction since 1909, and they hope to finish by 2032. Note to the builders: FINISH THE DAMN CHURCH! It's truly the most beautiful building I have ever seen though. Started by Antoni Gaudi, who died in 1926 after being hit by a tram (and we have our own theories on how mentally together he was as an individual), this church has faced financial issues ever since, and has also appeared in every Spanish textbook ever. It will eventually have 18 towers - 12 for the 12 apostles, 4 for the gospels, one for Mary, and the tallest, of course, for Jesus. These 18 make up the sacred family - "La Sagrada Familia". The architecture is breathtaking - the building looks like it's made of honeycomb, melting wax, and cave stalactites. It's impossibly tall, and covered in detail, alcoves, statues, and odd design features that are inspired by curves seen in nature, according to Gaudi. Athena and I took pictures for 5 minutes just to fully appreciate this amazing structure.



La Sagrada Familia



Another shot of the amazing detail



Under construction until forever

After this, we hopped back in the GoCar and drove towards Parc Guell, which is located in the hills to the north of the city. This is another work of Gaudi's, a massive park that features his atypical architectural style. We drove down a beautiful avenue to the hills, at which point the GoCar ran out of Go, and the beautiful and lovely Athena pushed it up the hill while I steered. What a doll, that Athena. It was worth it though - Parc Guell is basically what would happen if Versailles had been designed by Dr. Seuss and the entire set crew of any Indiana Jones movie. The buildings are all twisted, asymmetrical, and ridiculous, and as we moved deeper into the park, we encountered more massive coliseum-type structures, palm trees, secret caves and alcoves, and twisted paths. The views from up here were beautiful as well - all the way down across the city to the Mediterranean. The fact that the sun was out made everything even more incredible - we were in our own tropical paradise.



The entrance plaza to Parc Guell



Athena and I by one of the amazing fountains



The Invisible Man



The main plaza - this had some of the best views of the entire trip, and was gorgeous and sunny



Me roosting in one of many caves



The view from Parc Guell - first view of the Mediterranean Sea, and it was a good one

Though Athena and I hoped to explore more, we also knew that there was more in the city to see (and that Tay and Liz were probably wondering where the hell we were). We headed down the hill (look ma, no hands, just gravity!) and into a cute shopping district known as Gracia. We then ... got lost. See, when you make a wrong turn or miss your exit, Susie just stops. She has no idea where you are, and has no desire to help you. Thus, Athena and I drove around pointlessly for a good 20 minutes, trying to find anything that Susie recognized. She finally did - and started us on a completely new tour of Barcelona. This took us down La Passeig de Gracia, which "may be one of Barcelona's most architecturally important blocks!" At least, so says Susie. From there, we went across La Plaza Catalunya to Las Ramblas, which we drove down to head to Montjuic. I guess I am a stupid American and had no idea that Barcelona hosted the 1992 Summer Olympics, but on top of Montjuic (literally, Jew Mountain), they have the entire Olympic Park, and Susie was ECSTATIC to take us up there. The hill was thankfully not as steep as Parc Guell, so no pushing for Athena, but it was steep enough that we created quite the impressive line of traffic behind us (sorry, Barcelonians in a hurry). At the top, we stopped by the National Museum of Catalonian Art, and then drove by the Olympic Stadium and the Olympic Park (both of which were beautiful, and play a very important role later) before driving down the mountain to the beach. The road we were on used to be a Formula 1 racetrack until a fatal accident, and damn did my GoCar want to go a bit faster than the recommended 50 km/h. I was loving it. Driving around the beach was incredible too. Views of the beach, the water, and the sun were exactly what the doctor ordered after a month in soggy gray London. We wanted to stick around, but felt like we needed to head back and rejoin the group. We finally, after about 3 hours of driving, made it back to the GoCar station where we found Morgan and Laura. A quick pit stop at the hostel, and we headed out to lunch to meet the rest of the group. Tay and Liz were here!

Lunch was a pretty casual affair on the beach (if you don't count the exorbitant amount of white umbrellas that existed), and we all caught up and shared our adventures. Tay and Liz were so interested in the GoCar adventure that they ended up doing it on Sunday. Post lunch, we walked down by the harbor to the beach to soak in some sunshine and touch the Mediterranean! This was a bit difficult, as the waves were pretty intense and none of us were wearing the proper clothes to get very wet. We mostly ended up touching wet sand and some leftover foam from the waves. But no worries, we took lots of pictures!



I love this picture of Laura taking pictures at the harbor



A shot down the beach to the W Hotel, which is where I will stay once I have lots and lots of money



This was the coolest sandcastle ever - it had central plumbing



Cool statue on the beach

From the beach, we paid 9 euros to take an elevator up to a fernicular, which was this cable car that took us back to the top of Montjuic. Tay, Liz, and I seemed to have no issues with it, as our travels to Cabo San Lucas had us bungee jumping out of a similar contraption into a desert canyon. However, the rest of the group seemed pretty terrified - it definitely gave us some great pictures though. Once back on land, we decided to race up to the top to see the sunset, highly doubting we'd make it there in time. Not only did we make it on time, but we were rewarded for possibly the greatest moment of the trip. We found the Olympic stadium, park, and communications tower about 10 minutes before the sun set behind the mountains. It was a beautiful sunset, and we kind of stopped talking to each other and just soaked in the moment. It was otherworldly, and at one point I was on the verge of tears only because of how beautiful it all was. It was one of those mental snapshots you took and kept as a lifelong souvenir.



Up the beach from the cable car



The amazing town of Barcelona



The view from where we originated on the cable car



The old Olympic swimming pool (as the sun begins to set)



The inside of the old Olympic stadium (sun still setting - must see it!!!)



The exterior of the main stadium



This is up there in Unforgettable Life Moments...



...and without question the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen

Hard to put it in words I guess. Maybe that's for the better - maybe it's one of those rare feelings that can't be externalized because that would lessen its significance. Not gonna lie, I'm even getting a bit choked up just thinking about it right now - I wish every one of you could have been there to see it.

Anyways, sappy moment over (sorry if this has seemed like the last 5 minutes of a Lifetime movie). We decided to walk down Montjuic, passing by plenty more historic buildings, epic staircases, and stupid Spanish teenagers running on fountain ledges with their cell phones stuck in their motorcycle helmets. We got to the ground and went to a grocery store to pick up some tequila (me, Tay, and Liz's favorite), as well as Taylor's amazing 8 liters of water. Kudos to Tay for drinking that much in less than 2 days, he quickly became the High Magistrate of Aquatic Beverages. We walked back to the hostel along a rather sketchy alley at which one could find, even as early as 7pm, a plethora of "ladies of the night", as I will refer to them on this family friendly blog (kids, stay in school). Emerging from that situation, we made it to the hostel in time to nap (yes, we quickly learned why the Spanish tradition of the siesta is so important), grab a less than delicious yet still totally free dinner at the hostel, and make plans for the night.

We enjoyed some tequila in the party suite and took some scandalous CW-drama pictures. We planned a pretty epic night out, and it ended up being a little bit less than epic, which is okay (especially once you consider the following night). Our first stop was the FAIRY FOREST BAR. This is the literal translation of the bar we went to, and it was, indeed, a Fairy Forest Bar. We didn't stay for too long since it was more of a calm, restaurant vibe (imagine Rainforest Cafe, but magical!), but it was well worth stopping inside. From there, we took the metro to the beach, where we were hoping to hit up Baja Beach, which is like a crazy Cabo type of bar with games and loud music and tons of tourists. Unfortunately, we got there and ... it didn't exist. Nor did any form of nightlife at the beach whatsoever. Granted, it was 11pm, which is late for Britain, normal for USA, and WAY WAY early for Barcelona. We thought about partying on the beach, but it was a bit cold and we had nothing to imbibe, so we hopped back on the metro to head back to Las Ramblas. By the way, that night was the night that we completely violated the Barcelona metro. Our first trip, to the beach, involved all of us going in on one ticket, as Laura's nine-ride pass didn't work. Whoops! Then, on the way back, we followed normal Barcelona citizens as they walked through the gates. This was our solution, and though it may not have been legal, we stand by it.



Love these people, love this night

Saturday we woke up and basically did it all over again. After some free breakfast, some Dunkin Coffee (WAHOO!), and a metro ride, we were back at Sagrada Familia. It was nice to spend a bit more time here, and Tay, Liz, and Kelly really enjoyed getting to see it for the first time. We were spouting of all our facts that Susie taught us, and we got to see the backside of the church which had some amazing modernist sculptures. We also walked past a street vendor that sold matching earrings, which, thank God, because Liz loves it when her earrings match. Then, it was back off to Parc Guell - thank god Athena and I remembered the way. Walking the same streets was fun, giving us time to really look around and enjoy the sites. We stopped at an AMAZING churreria to get chocolate-dipped churros that were PHENOMZ. Walking up the hill to Parc Guell was not as easy as that time Athena pushed me in my car, but it was still worth the trip. We weren't even into the Parc before Liz and I had an epic palm tree fight. I won. Duh.



Look, Liz, matching earrings!



The crazy statues at the back of La Sagrada Familia



I am such a badass



I solemnly swear that I am up to no good



Homegirl retaliates. Not amazeballs.

Parc Guell was even more fun the second time, we got to spend more time exploring all of its amazing passages and hidden tunnels. Kelly decided that a Top Model walk off would have been awesome, which made sense, because Top Model already DID a shoot there. But lots of photos were taken, stairs were climbed, and we took some awesome totem pole pictures at the highest point of Parc Guell.



I am still a badass. Sly Stallone in Cliffhanger, eat yo HEART OUT



Yes, the views of this place are absolutely incredible



Normal totem pole



Crazy totem pole




Pointing totem pole

From Parc Guell, we ran down the hill, stopped to buy some souvenirs (Christmas ornament, mom and dad, get exciteddddddd), and then grabbed some much-needed lunch. We had a bit of a snafu with Athena's camera, but Barcelona magic smiled on us once again, and we got it back and headed to Las Ramblas. We toured this amazing outdoor market filled with candy stores, fruit carts, seafood and meat stations, and tons of vendors, it was really cool to see. After that, we meant to siesta, but instead... we hung out with Jesus.

So as I said, Jesus is the drug dealer who actually thinks he is Jesus Christ. The son of God. As we hung out in his room before the siesta that never happened, he told us ... ALOT. First of all, he has met the Devil. He is an individual named "The Monster", and his Father sent him a love message that he needed to meet "The Monster". The Monster was friends with an Art Dealer, who was rich and glamorous with all the fashions. The Monster was also gay, and asked Jesus 12 hours after meeting him "Will you marry me?". Jesus, of course, says no, to which The Monster replies "Well all my friends will say I'm wonderful." But of course he was the Devil, so Jesus had to apprehend him and so The Monster is no longer the Devil anymore. Also, one time he went to an outdoor music festival in the South of Spain with 3 kilos of marijuana, because his Father sent him a love message: "Heaven's having a party, so go out and give the people what they love." Unfortunately, he ran out of marijuana, so he prayed: "Father, I am out of drugs. Please provide me with more drugs." Miraculously, he was provided with such drugs, including some I had never heard of it (what are gophers? why was there ever a drug called gophers?) Also, the balloon statue is related to angels, and marijuana and cocaine are the new bread and fish. If ANY of this makes sense to you, please let me know, because we are still working out the details.

This conversation needed to be immediately followed by alcohol, so we headed downstairs for happy hour and to plan the night. We met this incredible Australian guy named Michael who was studying in Scotland (and also didn't fancy himself the reincarnation of any religious prophets). He was traveling alone and we invited him to hang out with us, it was really cool to meet new people from completely different backgrounds. We taught him beer pong, he taught us a new game called "Goon of Fortune" that involves a clothesline and boxed wine. I think this is what the early explorers called "cultural exchange". We enjoyed some free dinner, then headed out into a sudden downpour to grab some boxed wine and sangria (yeah, we reeeeal classy).

As we weren't heading out to the club until 2am, we had LOTS of time to pregame, perhaps too much. A box of wine and several Ke$ha songs later, we were off for Mexican food, where we were horribly mistreated by an awfully cruel waiter - thank god those mole enchiladas were delicious. After Dinner #2, we went BACK to the hostel for more hanging out and pregaming, then finally, at a time when most people start winding down, we headed out to Razzmatazz. This club was insane. Five rooms, absolutely massive, over 5000 people there, and at least an hour long line for the coatroom. It was epic - we danced til 5am amidst panda bears, terrible music, and wayyyyy too much cigarette smoke. We weren't home until almost 6:30, and people on the metro were STILL on their way out to the clubs, including the girl in the "Special KKK" white robe. Sleep was a precious commodity this weekend, and we got very little of it, but I think that I'm okay with that.

We had to wake up early to check out, and we managed to turn ourselves into real people to go do some final sight-seeing. As it is late, and I am tired, and all the pictures will soon be on facebook, I will try to wrap this post up (kudos if you're still reading), but know that we saw the Arc de Triomf, found Nemo, and enjoyed some quality time on the beach before finally taking a metro, a bus, a plane, a bus, and a taxi back to London. Thanks to everyone for an amazing weekend, one that I will always remember and cherish. To wrap this up, I will post some quotes that make no sense to anyone but us, but are worth writing down to remember. Barcelona - heaven's having a party.

"BAR!" - Athena

"Give Jesus back his bong." - Morgan

"I think this is a quote." - Liz
"Oh, look, something someone said!" - Me
"Look a wall!" - Taylor
"Hey, a brick." - Me
"Elbows!" - Taylor

"I hope you don't mind me saying this but, I would like to lay with you."

"ENERGY! I HAVE IT!" - Kelly

"Guys, tomorrow I'm going to shit my brains out." - Athena

"That's really easy to make." - Kelly

"Guys, it's like a bumblebee hopping from one flower to the next..." - Morgan

"Soooooo.... water?" - Taylor

"Guys, I just found God in picture form." - Kelly



"Don't step on the French Fries." - Morgan