BARCA!

I'M OBSESSED WITH BARCELONA.

This place is honestly awesome. Ok, not sure I could study there because it is so out of control, but it was fantastic for a weekend.

Friday morning I did the dreaded 3:15 am bus to Dublin because my flight was at 7:40. I survived and made it to my flight to London Gatwick which landed at 9:10. I sat in departures for a while "studying" but really walking around the tax free shopping. I was STARVING around 11:30, so I went to this place which was 100% American and was bumpin Motown music. I went to the hostess stand and the guy was like "For lunch?" And I said "Yeah, just one." And he goes "Just one? Or are you waiting, so two?" and I said "No, just one" and he literally goes "Really? Ok." TOTALLY a Forgetting Sarah Marshall moment, I half expected him to offer me a magazine, so I explained that I was waiting for friends. Then around 12:30 Meg, Em and Tara showed up and I'd like to say that I brought them back the same place solely because it was delicious, but sadly it was also so I could prove to a perfect stranger that I did indeed have friends. I'm pathetic. Then we got on our flight and landed in Girona, Spain around 6 pm. Girona is about an hour outside of Barcelona, so we took a bus into the city and then took the Metro to our hotel. The hotel was GORGEOUS. It was like, 66 euro for two nights, and honestly looked like a place I would go with my family. Go Em for finding it. Ok, so you know how they say Barcelona is the pickpocketing city of the world? Yeah. Emily got pick pocketed not even 15 minutes after we arrived in the city. We had our map out and were being tourists and this guy happened to be standing behind her, and then just like that he was gone... with her walet. It would have happened to any of us, the guy just happened to be standing behind Em. So for those of you who are going to Barca, it's all too real, so hold on to your bag like it's your child.

After we straightened out Emily's situation, we headed to dinner... at MIDNIGHT. The food was pretty good, but I was exhausted so we headed back to the hotel around 2:30 and I passed out hard. Saturday morning we woke up around 10, had DUNKIN DONUTS. Yes, that's right. It was freakin' delicious. We headed out to Parc Guell on a GORGEOUS 70 degree day, which is so pretty and offers a great view of the city. I posted a ton of awesome pictures from it on facebook so check it out! Well see, the park was great until... this is so embarrassing it's just not right. Ok, we're walking down the stairs to leave, and mind you these stairs are UNEVEN, so SLIPPERY, and OLD... that mixed with the traction-less sandals I was wearing... yeah ok, I ate shit. Even as I was falling, I go "OH NO, THIS IS SO EMBARRASSING". It wasn't just that I fell, it was that the dirty, sandy ledge of the stair scrapped down the entirety of both of my shins. Ugly doesn't even begin to describe it. It hurt SO bad. Interestingly enough I discovered that English obscenities must be easily recognizable to the Spanish, because I got a few horrified looks. I thought I might have been able to get away with it, but you can chalk it up as just another fail in those few seconds. I was literally mortified, but right after we left we found a "farmacia". The woman was a SAINT. She took me to the back room, put hydrogen peroxide, iodine AND ice on my shins... all free of charge. I was so inept I could not think of anything other than
"muchas gracias!" to say. Tara helped me out and gave me "muchas gracias para su ayuda" which means "thank you very much for your help". I could only think of how to say that phrase in Latin... sweet. After that I walked out, heavily bandaged and mortified, to lunch. We went to the center of the city, which is where the beach and all the touristy shopping is. This is where I found the new love of my life - SANGRIA. We had sangria and paella for lunch. Thinking about the paella too makes my mouth literally water. It was so so yummy and for a while made me forget about the monstrosity that were my legs. After that we walked to the docks and then to the beach. It was beautiful, but starting to get a little chilly.

So we went to our hotel to have a little siesta of our own. Meg and I watched Glee and the news and then got showers and got ready to go out. We were ready around 9:30 and we headed back to the beach metro-stop because thats where all the fun happens. We had an AMAZING dinner. We ordered a 2 liter thing of sangria for the 6 of us, and the waiter comes out with a 2 liter TOWER of it. Theres a picture on facebook of it. I was literally sad when I wasn't drinking it it was so delicious. We ate more paella and had a yummy dessert just talking and laughing the whole time. After that we headed out to meet up with some of the girls friend from SJU who was studying in Barcelona at a bar. Guess what kind of bar it was? Oh none other than an Irish pub, the George Payne. I was SO excited. We watched the UConn game surrounded by UConn and U of A kids, it was awesome. I actually even met a guy from Galway  who went to NUIG and followed his girlfriend back to Spain! It's funny how much I identified with Galway once I was out of it. I felt so at home at the pub it made me realize how much I love it here. After that, at 2 am, we went to the club, Catwalk. We got bottle service which was SICK. They brought out 4 700 ml bottles of Absolute and a bunch of mixers. We had our own little section of the club and were just livin the VIP life. We danced until 6:30 am lol which at that point I could have fallen asleep in the club, so Meg and I headed back via cab. I was asleep like 5 seconds after getting home.

Sunday morning we woke up late, of course. There wasn't much time to do anything, so we took the Metro to the center circle where the airport busses were. The London girls stayed another day, so I had to get back to Galway solo. It was honestly a little nerve wracking, but I'm proud of myself for doing it. I figured out what bus to get on, what terminal to get off at, and where to check in and what not, all on my own! It might not seem like much, but I was terrified lol. I got back to Galway about 9:30, completely exhausted. It was SUCH an amazing weekend and I'm so glad I went.

4 days until the greatest day of the year. GO PHILS ;)

Kel