This past week has been crazy. School has been really fun; basically I love my “practice” teacher Raquel. She teaches us colloquial Spanish, which is really useful when talking to locals. My goal is to speak fluently, but at the same time I’d like to speak like a native Spanish speaker, not an American girl fluent in textbook Spanish. I think I’m doing a good so far, since most of the people I meet at bars, on the streets and even our random cab drivers have commented on how well Kendy and I speak Spanish, although they could just be saying that to pick up on us or they could actually be telling the truth, either way it’s still nice to hear.

Anyway, exams are soon approaching, which means my time here in Barcelona is quickly coming to its end. I’m pretty sad about it. The other day while walking along Las Ramblas, I got really sad thinking about how I’m going to have to leave in a short period of time. The last three months have whizzed by so fast!! I really didn’t notice until recently. For example, today while I was walking to school I looked up and in the distance I saw the National Catalan Art Museum. It literally looked like a movie set with a backdrop of the museum in the distance and in the foreground was the fountain of Plaza Espana and the two watchtowers in front of the Fira Barcelona. In that moment I thought to myself, when am I ever going to see anything so beautiful walking to school ever again?

I don’t know, I’m just rambling, but I LOVE BARCELONA. It’s going to sound so cliché when I say this, but it’s so true, after studying abroad you really open your eyes to a whole new world. It really is a life changing experience. After being here for a little over three months, my world has expanded a hundred fold. I’m no longer stuck in my LA/Irvine bubble, thinking that petty things are life’s biggest problems, instead I have a whole new perspective on life, my career, and where I want to be in a few years from now, and to be honest I see myself back here in lovely Barcelona. Me encanta la vida!! Bien Aproveche!

Considering the fact that I’d like to someday settle down here in Barcelona, I figured it would be a smart and helpful idea to make friends with locals. Basically build my international network.

On Sunday night after leaving one of my favorite bars, Kendy and I stumbled upon a 24-hour kebob place. Basically this place was Mecca considering the fact that there are ABSOLUTELY NO FOOD PLACES OPEN AFTER 12 am anywhere in Barcelona, with the exception of a few churerias here and there. The guys at the Kebob restaurant were very friendly and we ended up hanging out with them for a little bit. We got in good with the main boss, and he told us to come back any time we want.  Our friendly conversation proved to be award winning, since tonight we were able to score ourselves some free kebobs…pretty amazing I’d say.

But speaking of international connections, the friend we made tonight by far surpasses Kebob Kings of Barcelona, and actually would be beneficial to my potential career.

Tonight, Kendy and I went back to one of our favorite bars, La Ovella Negra, and met a television editor for our favorite TV channel in Barcelona, the one and only, TELE TAXI TELEVISION aka Television Espanol. How amazing?! Yea I know I couldn’t believe it.

Basically I had a two- hour conversation with him solely about Tele Taxi. He couldn’t believe what avid fans Kendy and I are of his channel. What floored me is that he wrote the music video scripts for two of my favorite Spanish artist. It really is a small world. Seriously though, how amazing is it that I meet a TV editor in Spain, this guy was right up my alley. It was fate. Hahaha, I might still just be a bit disillusioned and on a high from meeting a mini celebrity, but putting the star struck Clarissa aside, my new friend was definitely a find.

But anyway, my eyelids are growing heavy and I’m deprived of sleep, so I will end on this happy note…I LOVE BARCELONA!

On Sunday we were still sprung over our newly discovered futbol crushes that we decided to take it a step further and go to a soccer game. Unfortunately we were in Barcelona and our beloved Huelva team was playing in Bilbao that night; however, El Barca is definitely a team worthy of support.

That afternoon I went on the FC Barcelona official page to inquire about ticket prices and if they were still available. We called the ticket office and secured our Category 2 tickets for that night. Category 2 sets usually range from 40-50 Euro, they’re not the most expensive, but at the same time they aren’t the least expensive. I would describe them as “working class seats”, although, they were more than perfect.

For my birthday Kendy made me an “I love Barcelona” gift basket that included Barca garb, so I was set to go to the game as the ultimate fan; however, Kendy didn’t have any Barca pride, so we had to go pick something up for her.

On the way to the stadium we stopped by Jaume I to buy her a jersey at one of the many gift shops crowded on the narrow street. She went through a couple before deciding on getting number 19, Lionel Messi. While we were there we also picked up some scarves to wear to the game as well.

Finally we were well on our way toward the stadium. We arrived at Les Corts and followed the huge crowd down the street toward the stadium. As we were walking we heard people chanting and blowing air horns. At first we thought they were loyal Barca fans, until we realized the people singing were wrapped in green and white stripped flags, the colors of the opponents! As they were walking down the street in the midst of a good amount of Barca fans, they continued to sing at the top of their lungs their beloved Betis fight song.

The walk from the metro stop to the stadium is a bit of a distance away. It was pretty funny because when we got out of the metro the crowd that we were walking behind was probably composed of 20-25 people. As we hit block after block the group slowly but surely transformed into a legion of Barca fans.

The game began a little bit after 7pm. It started off a little bit slow but picked up toward the end of the game. Barcelona dominated the field and finished with a victory of 3-0.

European soccer experiences are unbelievable. For example, after the game the fans filed out of the stadium and into the streets disregarding all rules. Traffic came to a complete stop because massive groups of people were walking down the street. No matter where you turned you were shoulder to shoulder with someone else. The buses were packed full of people and there was a line from the metro doors to the end of the same block.

I would have hated myself if I were to have gotten caught in all that traffic. The looks on the drivers faces were so sad yet funny. Everyone was getting so frustrated waiting for the crowd to disperse, but the crowd could careless because they were all jubilantly enjoying their victory.

Sunday morning we met up with Kendy’s aunt and began our day full of sight seeing.

We took the metro to Plaza Catalunya and walked down Las Ramblas before heading down the narrow streets of the Gothic Quarter.

We walked toward the direction of the Cathedral and found a pleasant surprise. In the plaza in front of the cathedral was a live band and large groups of older people dancing in circular formations. It was so cute to see all of these old people happily dancing in unison.

Once there was a break in the music we asked one of the older women why they were gathered in front of the cathedral dancing and she told us that it was just to celebrate Catalunya and that they were dancing the Sardana, a traditional Catalonian dance.

We continued watching for a couple of minutes until we decided to head toward Plaza Real. As we were walking toward the plaza we saw a group of younger people dressed as clowns, we stopped and tried to figure out what they were doing. Finally after a few minutes they got into formation and began to call and wave to the public to participate in their act.

At first we didn’t realize what they were doing, but as soon as they started to perform we got the idea that they were mocking the celebration that was taking place only a few feet away from them.

The group formed two lines facing each other and began to sing. I couldn’t make out all the words they were saying, but basically they were singing about penises and vaginas while mocking the Sardana.

It was entertaining at first, but slowly grew to become vulgar. The young people in Barcelona seem to be more politically active than the young people in the US. That is solely my opinion, but since I’ve been here I’ve witnessed countless political protests and demonstrations all organized by young adults.

After watching the demonstration for a while, we headed toward Plaza Real to check out the flea market. Sadly, we got there too late so we ended up eating at one of the many restaurants that line the square.

We ate at Ambos Mundos. We ordered a platter of vegetable paella, which was absolutely incredible. After our paella we got churros con chocolate. I must say that these churros were the best churros and chocolate I have had in Spain so far. The chocolate was just the right temperature, consistency and sweetness and the churros were made to order, so they were hot and crunchy.

We parted ways with Kendy’s aunt and headed back to Vilamari to rest up before going out that night.

Friday night we took Kylie to one of our favorite hip-hop clubs in Barcelona, Up & Down. We danced until the club closed down and tried to find an after hours club because we weren’t ready to end the night just yet. We made our way down to Marina because we thought we would be able to find an after hours, but we were let down and had to make our way back to our apartment.

Basically Friday night blended into Saturday evening, since the three of us didn’t wake up until 4pm on Saturday. That same day Kendy’s aunt happened to fly into Barcelona for business. He flight landed at 6pm so we had to go pick her up from the airport.

Kendy and I thought that we had the airport bus situation figured out, but yet again, we didn’t arrive at the airport on time, but this time it worked out since her aunt’s flight was delayed due to the airport strike in Italy.

We took her aunt back to her hotel and we all went out to dinner. We went to another favorite restaurant of ours, La Rosa Negra. La Rosa Negra is on Via Laitana. It is very similar to Margarita Blue in terms of the decoration and design. It’s brightly painted with odd wall fixtures and paintings.

After dinner we took her aunt back to her hotel and we came back home. We should have just stayed out, but instead we got comfortable and didn’t end up leaving our apartment until close to 3:30am. We wanted to try out a new disco on the harbor called Sunset Disco, but we didn’t know exactly where it was. We ended up walking for a while, and then agreed on calling it a night, hailing a cab and coming back home.

The previous couple of nights had been catching up with our bodies, and Kendy’s aunt wanted to go sight seeing the next morning, so it was a good idea that we ended early and slept.

Kendy’s sister, Kylie, arrived in Barcelona on Thursday night. She was in town for a week, so it was our turn to play tour guide yet again.

We had to pick her up at the airport at 7pm, but as usual Kendy and I started off on a late start. We left our apartment at 6:30pm thinking we would be able to make it there on time or just a couple minutes late.

We made our way to Sants Estacio because we knew we could take the train right to the airport, since that is exactly what we did when we first arrived in Barcelona. We got to the airport and we asked an information lady where the train to the airport was located, and she told us that the last train had already passed so we would have to go to Plaza Espanya and catch a bus to the airport.

Once we got to Plaza Espanya we asked another information lady which bus stop we needed in order to get to the airport and she told us that we needed to walk to the end of the block and there was a free bus that took us to the airport.

We walked to the end of the block and saw the bus she was talking about. Before we boarded the bus we asked the driver if he was going to the airport. He said yes, and then no and then yes again. We thought he was just joking around with us, so we boarded anyway.

We were on the road for a while and I turned to Kendy and said that I didn’t think we were going the right way, but she insisted that we were. As we kept on driving I knew we were for sure going the wrong direction and it was only confirmed when everyone got off the bus and the airport was nowhere in sight.

We asked the bus driver where we were and he laughed and said, “I told you I wasn’t going to the airport”. He was nice enough to turn around and offer to take us to the airport, but then all of a sudden he stopped to pick up more people, got out and asked these information guys if they knew how to get to the airport, of course they did, so he told us to get off here and follow their instructions.

The guys told us to walk straight and turn right at the end of the block and we would find the train station that takes you directly to the airport. At this point it was already waaaay past 7pm and Kendy started to get on edge because she was worried about her sister.

We finally got to the airport an hour and some minutes after we had originally left our apartment, but we easily found Kylie and headed back home.

We got Kylie settled and then headed over to one of our favorite bars/restaurants, Margarita Blue. Margarita Blue is soooo CUTE!! It’s a Mexican restaurant with coral and blue walls, brightly decorated with large childlike colorful Latin American influenced paintings, mirrors, and a zebra print bar. The ambiance is young and hip. When you walk into the bar you think, or at least I think and feel, classy fun!

We ordered dinner and a couple of drinks…I’m being quite modest here, really we were VERY FLOSSY. Our waiter was really funny as well. Every time he brought us drinks he would joke around with us, but every time he said something Kendy could never hear him, so he started to think Kendy was just out of her mind. He would come by and ask if she wanted a shot..of water. Not to mention he was quite beautiful: tall, tan, Brazilian man J.

After Margarita Blue we headed over to Otto Zutts and danced the rest of the night away.

Kylie’s first night in Barcelona was quite the success.

Saturday was our last day in Seville. Kendy and I accidentally slept in until 1 pm that afternoon. Basically we only had time to shower, pack our bags and grab something quick to eat before we had to meet back in the lobby of the hotel to board the bus back to the airport.

We really wanted to go back to one of the first tapas bars we ate at on our very first night in Seville, but we couldn’t remember where exactly it was located. After wandering around for a couple of minutes, we realized we didn’t have that much time to spare so we ended up eating at the next place we saw.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel to meet up with the rest of our group. We made our way to the airport to begin our journey back to Barcelona. Our flight was scheduled to leave until 8:30 but we were at the airport by 4:30. We all just sat around until we were able to check in, and then after checking in we sat around some more until it was time to board our plane.

Kendy and I made our way to the terminal and sat and talked trying to kill time before we could board our plane. As we were sitting down in the terminal a really cute airport employee walked into the room. Kendy and I of course took notice of him and I soon realized that he was the same employee that issued me my ticket earlier. Basically Kendy and I passed the time secretly staring at him and making up stories about him.

As we were chatting I remember reaching over to grab something from a bag that was next to Kendy. As I lifted my head up I made eye contact with an EXTREMELY gorgeous tan Spanish man walking into our terminal. I can only imagine how retarded I looked because I remember my jaw being dropped and my eyes just following his until they lost contact when he walked past the dividing wall. As soon as my eyes left his I asked Kendy if she had seen the guy and she had. OMG! Is all I have to say!!

The guy and his friend eventually walked into our terminal and the whole time Kendy and I were starring at them and they were staring back at us.

Both of the guys were so hot, but the one that I particularly liked mouthed “Que guapa estas” to me. I’m sure he says that to every girl he sees, but in that moment I could’ve died! I know I sound like a crazy hormonal boy crazy teenage girl, but seriously I AM when it comes to Spanish men. Anyway, shortly after the guys walked in, more gorgeous guys followed all dressed in the same blue warm up suits. We shortly figured out that the men made up the FC Recreativo Huelva team, Andalucía’s soccer team.

The terminal was set up in an L shape, in order to board the plane you had to walk through a glass hallway that wrapped around the terminal. As the two guys were walking through the glass hallway, they yelled out to us to come with them. Kendy and I asked where they were headed and they told us that they were going to Bilbao and that we should follow them. If we could have, we would have changed our tickets and headed to Bilbao in that second.

Sadly, we sat and watched all the gorgeous men parade in front of us and in a matter of minutes they were gone for good.  I remember turning to Kendy and asking her is she felt hot. Both of our faces were flushed red and our skin was hot to the touch. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many hot guys in the same room at one time.

It was pretty funny because the week before at the Real Madrid game I told Kendy that it would be one of my life’s goals to date a professional athlete. Soon after we started talking about what the probability of one of the players on the team would be in finding us attractive. We soon found out that it is HIGHLY probable that professional athletes find us unimportant college girls very attractive. Hahaha I must say it was quite the ego booster.

Finally it was time to board the plane and we headed back to home sweet home Barcelona.

Basically since my airport incident I’ve grown obsessed with Iago Bouzon, my airport crush. Yes you can call me a stalker since one of the first things I did when I got home was to track him down on Google. Of course I was successful and soon found myself reading every article I could find about him. A little obsessed? Yes, just a LITTLE.

Here are some pictures of him and the rest of the Huelva team…

Day 2 in Seville

Our second day in Seville was pretty jammed packed with sight seeing. Our tour guide, Joaquin took us on a walking tour of the city. The first place he took us was to the Cathedral of Seville.

The Cathedral in Seville is the world’s biggest gothic temple and the third largest Christian cathedral after Saint Peter in Vatican City and St. Paul’s in London. The entire cathedral took about 80 years to construct. During the hours of 8-10am the cathedral functions as a church, however after 11am until 5pm the cathedral is open to the public as a museum.

Inside the church you are bombarded with overwhelming design and decorations. The cathedral looks a bit modest on the outside, but once you step inside the austerity of the stone façade is transformed into luminous gold and silver designs complemented by iron and wood furnishings.

The gold used in the cathedral is all Spanish gold, but all of the silver used is “American” silver, meaning that it was supplied by regions in the “Americas” and were then later shipped back to Spain.

Another attraction that brings many tourists to the Seville Cathedral is the tomb of Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus is a HUGE deal in Spain. He is credited to have founded the “Americas”, although we know he mistakenly found San Salvador Island. The Spanish people are very proud to be the keepers of his remains. He was first buried in Valladolid, Spain and then moved to a nearby monastery in Seville. It is said that Columbus wanted to travel even after death. His wish came true, considering people had to transport his body from one burial ground to another.

Columbus expressed in his will that he wanted to be buried in the “Americas”, so, the wife of his brother, Diego, petitioned the government to send Columbus and Diego’s remains to a Cathedral in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. The remains of the brothers laid in rest in Santo Domingo for a little over two centuries, however once Spain seceded Hispaniola to France the government moved the remains to Havana, Cuba in order to protect the remains from foreign enemies. After moving the remains to Cuba, the Spanish government had to move them once more during the Spanish-American war. The Spanish agreed to secede ownership of Cuba, but they had a condition before they would hand America the land. They needed to move the remains of Columbus back to Spain. This last move brought Columbus back to Seville and into the cathedral.

Over the years there has been some controversy over where the remains of Columbus actually lie. The Dominican Republic and Spain both claimed to hold the remains of the great explorer but for a while no one really knew who did and who didn’t. In 2002 a group of scientist decided to match the DNA of the remains of Columbus’ brother, whom we know is buried inside the cathedral, with the remains of the supposed Columbus. The results came back positive. Seville is the keeper of Columbus, however Santo Domingo may have some of his remains as well, considering pieces of his skeleton may have been left behind in the many excavations. The team of scientist offered to compare the remains in Santo Domingo with the remains of his brother in Spain, but the government has yet to release samples. People believe that the Dominican Republic is afraid to be publicly proven wrong and this is the reason why they won’t send samples.

The tomb inside the cathedral is quite big. It I situated on top of a black marble platform with four giant statues of soldiers carrying the coffin of Columbus on their shoulders. The coffin is not a standard sized coffin, rather it is a small rectangular box that holds an even smaller box with the actual remains.

A few feet away from Columbus’ tomb is the tomb of his brother.

After the Cathedral tour we made our way to the Giralda Tower. The Giralda is the most emblematic monument of Seville. The Minaret was constructed by the Moors between 1184 and 1197 and reaches a height of 76 meters. After the re-conquest the Christians added a bell tower to the minaret in 1568.

The tower is actually located inside the Cathedral and it doesn’t have any steps, rather it is one long ramp all the way to the top. The reason why there are no steps is because the king wanted to be able to ride his horse all the way to the top.

The tower is composed of 34 winding floors that spiral their way all the way to the top. Once you reach the top of the tower there is a short flight of steps that leads you out into the bell tower. The bells are gigantic!! The view from above is absolutely breathtaking.

We stood behind the bars of the tower and looked out onto Seville. The view was gorgeous; the white and yellow houses gleamed brightly with the shining sun. Seville looked so cute and pristine.

After the Giralda tower we made our way to the Royal Palace of Seville also known as Alcázar palace or Los Reales Alcázares. Abd Al Ramn III ordered the construction of the Alcazar in 913. It was a fortified palace, which later became the residence of various monarchs.

Once you enter the palace you are greeted by a tall wall with the only options of walking to your right or your left. The Moors were fond of their privacy and at the same time they were quite smart in the construction of their buildings. One theory of this odd design is that it offered a great amount of protection. If a foreign invader were to attack the palace they would not be granted an easy entrance. Instead they would have to turn a blind corner without knowing who or what lay in front of them.

Another thing that you notice once you enter the palace is the Moors attention to detail. The palace walls are decorated from ceiling to floor with their signature designs and materials. They were very fond of stucco designs, tile work and tapestries.

We walked through the Palace and found ourselves in a magnificent garden. There are many different gardens on the Palace grounds. One of the most famous gardens is the garden in which the Princess of Spain held her wedding reception. The garden is set up in a rare fashion. The garden itself is a few feet below the terrace. This was done so that the royalty wouldn’t have to “work hard” to pick fruit off of their trees. They would just simply have to reach over and pluck the fruit off the branch. The courtyard is also decorated with arches and pools.

Another garden on the compound houses many trees and benches; it resembles a park more than a royal garden. In this garden there were mini ponds, pools and fountains.

Also inside this garden was the bathhouse for Queen Maria. It is located inside a cave-like structure that is only lit by the sunlight coming in through the entrance and a few lamps inside. The bath is more like a long shallow lagoon. It is said that she would enjoy her baths in the summertime, but they devised a heating system in the bath so that she could also enjoy it during the wintertime.

An interesting fact about the queen is that she was actually killed in her bath. It is said that the king drowned her because she was having an affair with his brother.

Another interesting room in the palace is known as the Doll Room. It is a room with magnificent stucco designs and arches. It is called the Doll Room because on one of the arches there are two little faces, that look like doll faces, carved into the stucco.

The Royal Palace wrapped up our day tour of Seville. We were given a couple of hours on our own to explore, eat or rest before we had to meet up again for dinner and a flamenco show.

Later that night we met back up with our group to go see a traditional flamenco show and eat dinner.

We walked down the street to where the show would be taking place, filed in and took our seats. The room where the show was held looked like a garden patio. It was dimly lit and the walls were covered with green vines and little pink flowers. The room itself had three tall arches with chairs placed around the dance platform.

Two men and a woman dressed in black walked into the room and took their seats in front of the audience. One of the men began to sing a love song while the other man accompanied him on the guitar and the woman kept beat by softly clapping her hands and stomping her feet. As soon as his song ended, the guitarist continued playing and in walked a beautiful woman dressed in traditional flamenco garb. She danced and danced and danced as the men and women called out to her and sang her songs.

This was my first experience seeing a live flamenco show; I must admit I was quite impressed. I just remember having my eyes glued onto the dancer and being amazed at how fast and smoothly she moved her body. The show was great. We later found out that night that the flamenco dancer was actually the girlfriend of our tour guide Joaquin.

After the show we made our way to a restaurant to eat a traditional meal of Seville. As we navigated our way through the narrow streets of Seville we passed by the house of the famous writer Washington Irving inhabited while he lived in Spain. The house is now privately owned, so we weren’t able to go inside, but we were able to take pictures of the outside patio.

We arrived at the restaurant and took our seats. Kendy and I were the last to walk into the restaurant and noticed that there weren’t any more seats available in the “student section” so we had to sit with the directors. It was kind of weird at first because we didn’t want people to think that we thought we were better than them and that we purposely chose to sit with them, rather it was out of inconvenience. Although truthfully, I didn’t mind sitting at the table with them at all because Kendy and I get along very well with our directors.

Anyway, the waiters began to bring out the courses. We began with little slices of bread topped with Iberian ham and cheese, followed by fried fish balls, a rice dish, a beef plate and finally ended with a custard-like dessert.

After dinner we were all suppose to meet back at the hotel because we decided that we would all go out to Buddah Bar, a disco/lounge/bar, together. On our way back to the hotel somehow Kendy, Paola (another director), and I got separated from the group. None of us brought our mobiles with us so we decided to go off on our own and explore.

The night before Paola found a quaint bar in a plaza near the tapas bars we had visited. She wanted to take us back there but didn’t remember her way. We stopped a few people along the way and ended up finding our destination.

The bar was full of people, mostly tourists and a few locals. It had a very homely vibe. We ordered a bottle of wine and took a seat at one of the many wooden tables. At our table we met two musicians from France who were traveling throughout Spain. Halfway through our conversation we heard a guitar playing and a man singing, we soon realized that the bar was putting on their very own flamenco show. It wasn’t “traditional”, but it still was very entertaining.

We stayed at the bar until closing and then made our way back to the hotel to happily pass out in our beds. This was the end of our journey in Seville. My overall thoughts on Seville are that it is definitely a place full of history and beautiful monuments. The people were very friendly and the city is beautiful. It is definitely a different lifestyle than what I’ve been accustomed to in Barcelona. It is very tranquil and quaint

On Thursday our study abroad program began our weekend excursion to Seville. This trip was particularly special for GSE because instead of taking a charter bus to Seville we flew. How exciting right?!

We all met at Plaza Catalunya at 12:30pm and boarded a bus to the El Prat Airport. Our flight wasn’t until 4:30pm so we all hung out in the airport killing time before we could board our flight.

The flight took about an hour and a few minutes, it wasn’t a bad flight at all. Although everyone should be aware that drinks are not complimentary while flying. Being somewhat naïve I ordered a bottle of water and was charged a euro fifty. The flight attendants are pretty slick though, because they come around with their cart offering people drinks and then after they hand it to you they ask you to pay. Little did I know! So now everyone consider yourselves warned about the sly ways of European flight attendants!

Once we got to Seville we boarded another bus and took a panoramic tour of the city.

Here are a few shots I took while riding in the bus.

At the end of the tour we stopped at Plaza Espana, which was built for the World’s Fair. I forget the exact historical information our tour guide told us about this specific, but just know that is huge and full of horse drawn carriages and gypsy women selling rosemary.

After leaving Plaza Espana, we headed to our hotel Don Paco. At the hotel we were given time to check in and change for dinner. Our program directors took our group out for traditional tapas of Seville. Since our group was so large we were split into two groups. While one group ate at one place the other group ate at the other and then about 30-40 minutes later the groups swapped tapas bars.

The first bar we went to served us bocatas which are little bocadillos or sandwiches. The bocadillos were filled with a cheesy sauce and Iberian ham, which looks like beef jerky. We were also served tortilla de patatas, which is a potato omelet. At the second bar we were served cheese and crackers and bocatas de gambas, which were little shrimp sandwiches.

At the second bar we sat in a back room full of religious art. It was kind of weird just because in all of the pictures hanging on the walls, the portraits were of Jesus and Mary crying.

After our dinner the majority of us headed back to the hotel and passed out from our long day of traveling.

On Tuesday I went into Citibank to straighten out my money situation. Apparently Citibank offers their clients “Emergency Cash” which basically is just that, cash in case of emergencies. This is a great concept, although it takes friggen FOREVER!!!!

I walked into the bank at 9am and asked to get Emergency Cash, why is it that I wasn’t able to walk out of there with my money until close to 1pm?? It took soooooooo long!

Basically Citibank in Spain isn’t affiliated with Citibank in the states, so I couldn’t just go to a teller and request for money, instead I had to meet with a banker who then had to call my bank in the states to verify that I was eligible to receive Emergency Cash, yaddah yaddah yaddah. The point of the story is that it took a really long time to run an errand that should have only taken a couple of minutes.

Later that day we met up with my parents to have dinner with them. It was their last night in Barcelona so I wanted to take them to a really nice restaurant. We went to Café l’Academia. The restaurant is tucked away in a little corner on Calle Jaume I. It’s a decent sized restaurant, dimly lit, decorated with wood and stone. It has a very sophisticated look to itself, but the crazy artwork on the wall contrasts the sophisticated vibe.

When we arrived at the restaurant it was still closed so we waited outside until it opened for dinner. It’s a good thing we were one of the first groups to enter the restaurant since it seemed that they were only taking groups with reservations.

I definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone who is in Barcelona. Everything on the menu is fantastic.

Wednesday was HAAAALLLOOOOOWEEEEEEEN!! I was pretty sad that we weren’t in the states celebrating, but we did our own version of celebrating…we slept.