the world as i know it.

I don’t even know where to begin..I feel like I’ve been here for forever because I feel like I know the city like the back of my hand, but at the same time it’s gone by so fast and I don’t want to leave! It’s most definitely an incredible city and nothing like I expected…so clean and modernized. And this city definitely does not sleep. Nightlife starts at like 2am and ends at 8am but then there’s so much to do during the day that there’s no time for sleep. My body hates me after these past few days and I think I’ll probably go to bed at like 7 tonight haha. I got to speak a lot of Spanish, which was nice but I was really rusty. At one point, I’m pretty sure I even started thinking in Spanish. One of the weirdest things was that the cab drivers didn’t know the city very well, like not even the main tourist attractions so I had to keep giving directions of how to get places..in Spanish, so mentally exhausting. So I’m just going to start rambling word vomit and try to remember everything I did so hopefully it all makes sense!

Day one: We were all super anxious to get off the ship because it had been foreverrrr since we had been on land, but before every port the US ambassador from the US consulate of that country comes onboard and talks to everyone about the country’s standing with the US and just gives us tips on how to travel/what to see/what to look out for/etc. When we finally got off we took a shuttle to the beginning of the main street in Barcelona, La Rambla, which is basically tourist heaven. It just has a ton of little shops and stands, restaurants and entertainment. There were a lot of those people that dress up and pretend to be statues and I took a lot of pictures of them (I’ll try to post them at some point in time) because I find them soooo interesting..I could watch them for hours. This day was some random Spanish holiday so everyyything else was closed. It took us forever to find an open restaurant to get tapas and sangria..which was of course the first thing on our list of things to do. We finally found somewhere and it was…an experience. I got potatoes covered in mayo and garlic and some sort of unidentified meat object…definitely NOT chicken. I don’t know how I feel about that, but I do know that the sangria was bomb. It’s weird to see 7-year-old kids out at dinner with their families drinking sangria. After we finished we just wandered around without a plan and ran into the main touristy buildings that are famous and checked them out. It was mostly Gaudi’s work like La Sagrada Familia, Casa de Batllo, and other ones that I don’t remember…oops. Oh and we drank out of the public water fountains that are super cool looking. After that we had a SAS trip to dinner and a Flamenco show and ate a huge meal of paella (the shrimp still had their eyes and were looking at me on the plate, ew ew ew) and chocolate mousse and watched the show. It was good, very traditional. After thaaat we went to an Irish pub (of course) called George Payne’s and just hung out because the city was still pretty dead from the party the night before.

Day two: shoppingggggg! There wasn’t anything too exciting to buy but it was neat to see all the designer shops along Passeig de Gracia…kinda like Spain’s version of Rodeo Drive. The only thing I got was a fedora that I had been looking for all over California forever and then of course it was in every shop in Barcelona…score. After that we went to the park Gaudi designed, Parc Guell, which was sooooo awesome. I think it was my favorite part of Gaudi’s work. It was just a bunch of cool looking buildings and bridges and had amazing views of the entire city. It was extremely hot though. But we got to see the tunnel that was in the runway finale of America’s Next Top Model…so worth it. Then we went to find more tapas and I ended up getting something that I actually knew what it was…pizza with spaghetti in the middle of it. Delicious…I’ve been deprived of good food for way too long. When we finally finished, the Spain vs. Chile World Cup game had already started and every single bar was packed. We finally found one that would let us in and watched the game…I’m so glad Spain won…I was literally afraid riots were going to break out if they didn’t ahhhh. The table next to us was a bunch of Brits cheering for Chile and I’m not really sure if they ever made it out of there alive hahah. Since no one goes out til super late we had a lot of time to kill and walked along Port Olimpica, which is where all the beaches and clubs are. We got gelato just so we could use their bathroom, made some friends with random guys from Wales, got serenaded by mariachi men, and drank red wine on the beach (keepin’ it classy) until about 2am when we finally went to Shoko. It was cool…not too different than any other LA/SD club, just an excessive amount of Spanish-speaking creepers. It was still a good time though.

Day tres: probably my favorite thing of this entire time in Spain was at la Mercat de Boqueria. It’s just a HUGE Spanish market where all the locals come to sell their produce and other foods. It was probably the coolest, most delicious thing I’ve every experienced in my life…not to mention it was the most “Spanish” experience we had…there weren’t too many tourists and there were a lot of locals so it made you really feel like you were actually IN Spain and not just a melting pot of tourists. There was everything from chocolate and candy to live seafood to chickens being cut up right in front of you to the absolute freshest, yummiest fruit I’ve ever had. Then we got super Spanish and had more unidentified Spanish food and falafels and I have no idea what else was in it, but it was good so that’s all that matters. After that we accidentally got lost and took a spontaneous hike up Montjuic (I was wearing sandals…not fun) and then took a gondola to the top, which is where all the stadiums from the ’92 Olympics are and the Castell de Montjuic. Then they went to the Picasso Museum and I didn’t want to go (partly because my feet were dying and partly because I just wanted to find wifi) so I made the stupidest decision of my life and took the Spanish metro alone. My heart hasn’t beaten that fast in a realllly long time, but I made it and I’m alive. Walking around the city alone makes you take it all in so much more. You notice things that you would never normally notice if you were in a group and distracted..it was kind of refreshing. Laterrrr Ky and I wanted to watch the US vs Ghana game and went back to George Payne’s and it was probably the most insane thing I have ever witnessed. I’m pretty sure every American in the country of Spain was in that bar and people had their faces painted with American flags and were wrapped in flags and everyone was just so excited and chanting and singing. It made me proud to be an American :) …and then we lost. :(

Day 4: our last day :( Jess, Kylie, Talley and I just walked around La Rambla and took in the city for one last time and then I had to be back on the ship for a seminar for my infectious disease class…basically a presentation from one of Spain’s public health authorities. It was actually really interesting. And now I have to write a paper on it…no bueno.

Sorry this is so long and probably extremely boring because talking about these things and seeing pictures of these things don’t really do any of it justice…it was all one of those “you had to be there” kind of things. So I suppose the memories will just have to do. Plus, I mostly did this just so I could remember because a week from now when I’m in another country Spain will all be just a blur. I want to come back here some time in the near future because it was nothing short of amazing and juuuust when I started to get to know the metro real well, it was time to leave…disappointing! Oh well, I can’t be toooo sad..I’ll be in Rome day after tomorrow with my best friend! :)

Overall best experience: the huuuuge amazing Spanish market and US World Cup game… and pretty much everything else haha

Worst experience: taking the metro alone…but I guess it wasn’t all that bad because I learned my lesson. Being alone also makes you so much more of an independent and alert person because you don’t really have much of a choice but to be.

Oh, andddd a ton of people got pickpocketed (91 so far to be exact) by either mo-ped purse-snatchers or bag slashers (where they just cut the bottom and all your stuff falls out) and I was not one of them…woohoo! And I didn’t get roofied, but some other GUYS did, not even girls. One guy on SAS woke up at a bus stop 40 miles from Barcelona with all of his stuff gone (phone, watch, wallet, hat, shoes, everything) and wearing different clothes with no memory of anything. Soooo terrifying. But on a happy note, he’s fine and I’m en route to Italy..I need to learn some Italian asap..Ciao!

PS. It takes way too long to post pictures on here, but I’ll post a medley of some whenever I get some good Internet. For now…just check them out on Facebook :)