Well, the month of European exploration has come to an end, and I think we saved the best for last. I’m not really sure where to even start. Barcelona is obviously where the party’s at, and I was happy to attend it for a couple days.
After our flight was delayed Thursday afternoon for about two hours due to unknown reasons, we finally arrived in Spain. First order of business: check into the hostel. Next: tapas! My first Spanish meal consisted of two tapas (appetizers), potatoes with a delicious “spicy” sauce, artichokes in vinegar, and then the main dish: chicken paella (a dish made with chicken, vegetables, rice and heaven). That night we went out to a club called “Catwalk” with our hostel, Kabul, which, by the way, had a bar inside the hostel. We didn’t leave to go to the club until 1:45 in the a.m., which is perfectly normal for Barcelona. Needless to say, it was a good night.
The next morning we had to check out of Kabul, and head over to our residence for the next couple nights, Barcelona Mar. It didn’t have quite the same atmosphere as our first hostel, but honestly we weren’t sitting around there long enough for it to really matter. Then we walked up and down the Rambla, a main street full of markets, stores, living statues, and restaurants. Got some more tapas for lunch, then headed to a HUGE farmer’s market (it was under a tent, and went on for a couple blocks, then looped back around). We then headed to a park, grabbed some dinner, and went out to watch the Magic Fountain. With jets of water synched with music (all classical, with a cameo from “Apologize” by OneRepublic) it put the Seattle Center Fountain to shame.

Magic Fountain before the show began.
Day 2 (I don’t really count Thursday as a full day because of the freakin plane delay) was full of surprises. We started at the Sagrada Familia church, which construction began on in 1882. It’s slate to be done in 2026. That is one heck of a project! I thought they were slow constructing stuff in Seattle. It’s gone through numerous design changes, and really is pretty spectacular. It’s going to open for worship in September, so it’s on its way. Then we met up with Jasmine’s older sister and her husband who was in Barcelona too. We went out to lunch for some seafood paella (fish, mussels, shrimp, rice, vegetables, more heaven) before strolling down the beach. That’s when the day got started. [Quick congrats to Ian and Rose, who we learned at lunch were pregnant. Rose, not Ian. That’d be pretty impressive. But it’s kind of a couple thing. Anyway, congrats!]

Under Construction...but still beautiful.
My dip in the Mediterranean had to wait one more day, but as we were walking down the beach guess what (or who) we saw running toward us? Richard Branson, the bajillionaire owner of Virgin Mobile. I know it’s a pretty weak “celebrity” sighting, but it was still kind of cool. On his way back I was able to snag a pic with him and Semir.

Semir and his new buddy.
After a Magners on the beach (nothing like sitting around, secretly drinking a hard cider on a bench on the beach-suck it open container law!) we headed to Catalunya square to: a.) go to the bathroom, and b.) waste some time shopping and walking around. The first experience was not good (it cost 20 Euro cents to go to the bathroom; most expensive number one of my life; I was not pleased), the second was better (got a cool shirt for 3.95 Euros, 4.15 if you factor in the pee tax), and then it was off to Camp Nou for a FC Barcelona soccer game. Yeah, that’s right! Let the party begin!
It was a blast and a much different experience from Roma soccer games (there will be a much more in-depth blog on this before I’m done) some good, some bad, some just different. The good: the game (was very exciting), the passion of the fans, the popcorn, the seats, the cute girls in the section next to us. The bad: EVERYBODY smokes (you could see all the smoke by the stadium lights), the gentlemen down the row from us who loved to smoke and blow it our way, and the fact that the only beer I could order at a FC Barcelona game was a non-alcoholic one. Oh well, it was pretty easy to get over that last one, and at least when I went to the bathroom at halftime it was free.

Barca baby!
The game was different than a Roma one. It was more calm, despite the fact there were 80,000 people there. It was much more family friendly than Rome. There was yelling sure, but people actually sat down during the game and no one was shoved around when the team scored. They just jumped for joy and high fived. I was also impressed with the soccer IQ of the fans. They cheered and applauded for good passes, controlling possessions and some pretty impressive footwork. [Stay tuned, because later in the blog there’s one more important, exciting soccer note.]
After the game the night was just beginning. We grabbed some quick food with Ian and Rose who were at the game across the stadium from us, then ran to our hostel to change, then ran to Kabul to meet back up with the girls and go to Razzmatazz, one of the largest nightclubs in Europe. It has five rooms in a warehouse style building. It was insane! I can’t even try to describe it. It won’t do it justice. But we got there around 2, didn’t get home till about 5:30, and had 3 1/2 wild, crazy, awesome, amazing hours in between.
The next morning the girls headed home right after our 11 a.m. checkout, which came way too early in the morning. Semir and I had a plane at 8, so we still had the day to explore. And explore we did. We loaded up on energy at the Hard Rock Café at noon and took off for the beach. On the way we stopped by a monument in honor of Christopher Columbus, a person who we, as Americans, really owe a lot to. Then we took a stroll through the Olympic Village from 1992 and headed back down to the beach, where I finally got to step into the Mediterranean Sea! After a few pictures we subwayed it back to our hostel, grabbed our stuff, and took one last walk down the Rambla to Catalunya square, for the return trip home.

I know what you're thinking, the resemblance is uncanny!

Olympic Villiage: Go USA!

This is as deep as I could go...I'm not a strong swimmer.
It was an amazing weekend, and I can’t even begin to try to rank the trips in order of awesomeness because they were all so unbelievable (although I feel a reflective blog on all of them coming out pretty soon). We definitely went out with a bang. I loved absolutely everything about Barcelona (minus the pee tax, although it’s so much fun to type “pee tax” and I suppose you have to combat the poor economy somehow…), especially that I got to utilize my high school Spanish, and actually have a small idea of what was going on for the first time in a couple months. It will definitely warrant a return visit when I come back to Europe in the future.
My last weekend of the program will be spent in Italy. It seemed fitting. Tomorrow is a day trip to Pompeii, followed by the AS Roma v. AC Milan soccer game Saturday. You know what that means! Crazy soccer fans and David Beckham (OMG DAVID BECKHAM!). I can’t wait. Sunday I’m going to get some souvenirs at the flea market, then head to the Vatican to see the Pope. See, Roma knows how to party too.

Kicking it on the beach.

Some impressive sand art.

The national museum, looking pretty cool at night. And this was before the Magic Fountain (in front of it) started going off.

My own sand art.

Adios palm trees!