Hola chicos!
So I'm knee-deep into Day Three of Barcelona and it sure is zaniness!
This is kind of going to be more adventure journal and less bloggy until I get back.
Soo... I came home around 6 o'clock on Friday and went out to dinner with my family. I just got done telling them how much I was kind of over burritos because that's all I ate at school. So naturally we went out to a mexican restaurant where I got a burrito. After dinner I drove all over to buy last minute things including a Dior sweater from the 80's at Goodwill. A definite necessity for my trip to Spain. I came home and went to bed in the basement because my mom threw away my mattress while I was at college. Boo.
On Saturday, I woke up at 5 a.m. and we jetted off to pick up Jen and Yasmin. My mom gave us some parting advice such as "be safe" and "maybe you (we) could buy some sparkly sandals at the flea market". Our two hour flight to Atlanta was fairly short and it was snowing and way colder in HOTlanta than A-Town (Allentown). When we arrived, our eight hour layover began. Time passed quickly with some sorbet, avocados, and camping out in the terminal. Eventually our flight to Barcelona arrived.
The plane ride was pretty terrible. Eight hours or so and none of us slept. Also, they played some awful movie with John Cusack called "Martian Boy". I believe Joan Cusack was in it, but I was slipping into various periods of insanity and pictochat with Jen and Yasmin. The meals were fantastic though! Best plane food ever.
Eventually we made it to Barcelona. Major setback was waiting in line for an hour or so to claim that Yasmin's luggage was lost. We rode the metro for a long time and we arrived at the apartment. The apartment is really crazy and totally not what I expected. There are four tiny bedrooms, one bathroom, a tiny kitchen, and a decent sized living room / dining room.
Living in these four bedrooms are the following:
Bedroom 1:
--Miguel (the owner of the apartment)
--His wife
--His three year old daughter Genesis
Bedroom 2:
--"Kramer" (a crazy guy who is the Kramer of Spain)
--His large girlfriend who leaves bloody meat juice all over the counter and kitchen towels
Bedroom 3:
--Ans
--Pat
--Jimmy
--Tina
--Mike
Bedroom 4:
--Me
--Jen
--Max
--Brendan
--Yasmin
Soon Commeh will return from Italy and join us in Bedroom 4. Jimmy is Amsterdam so Yasmin moved into Bedroom 3. Tina has left leaving one more space open. I don't know where I'm sleeping after tomorrow night. Aye aye aye!
In conclusion, the first night there were 15 people living in this four bedroom apartment which is absolutely ridiculous if you are aware of typical European living spaces.
We just kind of got settled in and tried to get over the shock of the living situation. We're all into it right now. Later we got some 'pan'. I thought Yasmin was joking about how much bread we would eat, but seriously, each one of us goes through a baguette a day because it's so good and so cheap.
Later in the night, we walked around the touristy area but there were some neat stuff. We also bought alcohol legally and walked around with it. Oh this European living. Liberating.
Then we came home and crashed!
Day 2 involved waking up and walking to the bakery and bought croissants. Worst / best part of the whole trip is the fact that I cannot get coffee anywhere. But it's helping me get rid of the addiction and it's a really weird feeling. Grocery shopping is amazing though. Rather cheap and you can make really good food.
In the morning we went to the flea market and there were crazy things there. Oh and a lot of porn. Like every stall. Cheap fabric and porn.
We came home, lunched and then siesta-ed the rest of the day practically. I can't really remember what we did at night besides go grocery shopping, cook dinner, listen to Ans play the harmonica at midnight and then go to sleep.
Day 3 was an adventure as well! Jen and I went to the bakery down the road and ran into the middle schoolers wearing weird gingham smocks. Blue for the boys and pink for the girls. For breakfast we enjoyed a fresh fruit salad, cereal, and croissants. Tofu is so expensive. Soy milk three for 1,80! You can't beat it. Also, I bought this super weird vegan caramel pudding things that were 3 for 2,20. Nice!
After breakfast, we headed to the craziest zoo ever. You could get up so close to the animals, even the lions and cheetahs! Kids were dangling in the sea lion pit and nobody even cared. It was nuts! Alligators right to the dome.
We were there for a LONG time. Eventually we finished and bought some bread, olives, and other snacks and picnicked on the beach. I attempted to use my polaroid camera but it freaked out and took seven photos of nothing. NICE. Some weird Eurotrash man asked us if he could finish Max's Fanta, which he did, and then threw on the beach. It was weird.
Later we discovered a really cool park and the site of a mammoth excavation.
We went to the Spanish version of a Wal-Mart so Yasmin could buy clean clothes (her bags have yet to arrive or even leave Atlanta) and I also succumbed and bought a coffee from Starbucks. The barista was impressed with my Spanish (which is good considering I've spent six years trying to learn it and mad $$$ at college for it).
But other than that faux pas, we're trying to avoid American franchises in general aka KFC, McDonalds, Starbies, etc. etc.
We've been home since ten (it is currently midnight here and like... seven o'clock back home). I made some home-made humus for dinner and finished it with some pineapple rings.
Tomorrow we are going to a labyrinth. Should be crazy / Jen is worried monsters will kill us if we make a wrong turn.
Other interesting things:
--Spanish is basically a second language here while Catalan reigns over all.
--People eat lots and lots and lots of bread
--People sell one euro beers that are hidden in the sewers
--My friends bought hashish that turned out to be wood chips
--Vintage stores are crazy expensive
--Basil is not Spanish for basil
--Clothing is weird here
--Vassar
--I don't want to come back to Philly
--There are three Maoz here though
--But you can get cheaper falafel elsewhere
And finally, FELIZ CUMPLEANOS HANNAH!
Your birthday has officially been over for seven minutes here, but I guess you've still got five or so hours left.
Ciao!
