No One Remembers Nights They Got Plenty of Sleep.

Wow, what can I say about Barcelona? There are just some things that can’t be summed up in words, and I feel my weekend in Barcelona is one of those times. There were amazing memories, spontaneous adventures, and a touch of disaster. We knew it was going to be an interesting weekend when we got to the airport at 6:00 a.m. and Andrea realized she had booked the wrong flight. Heather, Nicole and I were set to fly out at 8:00 a.m. and Andrea’s flight didn’t leave until about 9:00 that night. So she spent a nice 14 hours sitting in the airport. We left her there, promising to meet her at our hostel later that night and loaded the plane.  We felt like true European travelers with nothing but our passports and backpacks. When we got to Barcelona, we caught a cab to our “hotel” (or so we thought). The thing about booking online, in Spanish, is you never know exactly what you’re getting yourself into. So we told the cab driver the address and he dropped us off on a little street next to a pizza shop and a flower shop. We looked at each other, paid the cab driver, and stepped into the street. There was NO WAY this was our hotel. So we walked to the irongate door and buzzed for someone to let us in. We started making our way up an antique, narrow staircase. It looked exactly like our five floor walk-up apartments. We never saw a sign for a hotel, but the address said second floor, so we knocked. An adorable Australian lady opened the door and asked if we were staying in the hostel. Turns out, our “hotel” was a teeny tiny hostel occupying one floor of the apartment building. It was absolutely beautiful. We had a room all to ourselves and the hostel had an open living and dining room, a kitchen, and a patio.

After we got somewhat settled in and bought some groceries for the weekend, we headed to the beach. We’ve gotten realllllly good at figuring out the underground systems in Europe, so we bought a metro ticket to take us to the coast. The beach was absolutely amazing. It was packed, full of surfers, locals, tourists, and a whole lot of topless-ness. We spent the afternoon watching the surfers and taking in some Spanish sun. A bunch of our friends studying in Oviedo were also in Barcelona, so we met up with them at a local hangout that night. After hanging out for a bit and chatting with the locals, we headed back to the coast for the ritzy night clubs. They are extremely difficult to get into, but because we had so many American girls, they let us all in for free. Spanish night life is absolutely crazy. We got to the nightclub and it was nuts. Inside, it was really dark and the music was bumping. We were all enjoying ourselves, dancing in the way only Americans can. Our boys were watching out for us like all the professors had advised them to do. Spaniards can be very upfront so our boys were supposed to step in and be the “boyfriend” if they needed to. Well, us girls kept getting pursued so our boys stepped in. When you have drunk Spaniards and testosterone-loaded boys, something is bound to happen. There was a mini brawl but luckily, only one of our boys got hurt. He had a black eye and some cuts on his face, but other than that, we got out unscathed. We spent the night walking along the beach and calming down before catching a cab home. What’s Spanish nightlife without a little excitement and a bar fight?

We spent Saturday as tourists. We took a double decker tour bus all over Barcelona and saw the Sagrada Familia, the FCBarcelona Stadium, and more. Barcelona is absolutely beautiful. We went to local markets and headed back to the beach. That night, we were going to go out again, but after the night we had before, the boys just wanted to relax so we had them come over and hang out on our patio for a bit. Andrea had booked the wrong flight home as well so she had to catch a cab at 4:00 a.m. We relaxed, walked around, got tapas, and talked on the patio before sending her back to the airport. After she got her cab, we all caught one to the beach for a swim in the ocean under the moon. We swam and hung out on the beach before watching the sunrise. It was PERFECT.

…our other group of friends however wasn’t so lucky. They were supposed to hang out with all of us on Saturday night, but earlier that day, their apartment had been broken into and all their passports, wallets, and money were stolen. They spent their vacation at the police office.

After a weekend full of no sleep, hospital visits, pickpockets, robbers, and wrong flights, all we wanted to do Sunday was sleep on the beach. So we did. We hung out and swam before meeting up with everyone at the airport. 3 days, 2 nights, and too many American adventurers for Barcelona to handle.