Some of the boys got loaded drunk and they ain't got sober yet..

Whoever said "life is a party" would have done well to have been describing Barcelona. What a place.

Last Wednesday, March 14th, myself, Katerina, Heather, Jordan, Anthony, and Nick left good ol Rouen, France for the sunnier and warmer confines of Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona is located on the center-East coast of Spain, right on the Mediterranean. It is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the main language spoken is Catalan (kinda like a mix between French and Spanish, with some Italian bits tossed in for good measure) rather than Spanish, though both are very prevalent.

So that afternoon, we took a train down to the airport in Beauvais (outside of Paris), stopping in the city for a Chinese buffet dinner (a real rarity here in France; the people were scared of us I think, and gave us dirty look for being 7 typical North Americans at a buffet). We got on our plane and arrived in Barcelona Girona airport a little after midnight. Girona to Barcelona is like Beauvais to Paris so we next had to take a shuttle bus over an hour to get into the city, and it dropped us off at the bus terminal. Problem was, the directions to our hostel involvfed taking the metro, and the metro was not operating at 1.30 AM. So after trying to get directions in a police station, we decided a taxi was the best choice, and that did the trick for the night.


The next morning, we got up ready to explore, and that we did, seeing a cathedral and some other nice architecture, as well as walking up La Rambla, one of Europe's nicer streets. We stopped on that street for 1 litre pints of beer (set us back 12 euro a pop), and then the other guys returned to the hostel for a nap while myself and the ladies went to check out La Sagrada Familia, a huge cathedral that has been under construction in Barcelona for 100 years, and still is today.

That night, after enjoying some paella for dinner, and at the suggestion of our hostel reception dude (a half-Israeli Australian!), we predrank then headed to Jamboree nightclub which was a pretty solid 2-story place with slightly expensive drinks and pretty good dance floors. We arrived at 12:30, but the place really only started to fill up at 1:30 or 2, but at that time it did, and we had a good night, going back to the hostel around 4:30.


The next morning, Heather, Kat, Jordan, and I managed to get up fairly early and head out to meet a couple of Kat's and one of Heather's friends from back home. We rendez-voused with them, and walked down to the beaches to see what they were like. They were, well, under a lot of constructions, and the water is cold, but I still got to walk in the sand, and took a quick dip up to my knees.

We continued walking a long the boardwalk, and then opted to go pick the other 2 sleepy boys up from the hostel before going for lunch (shwarma) and doing a bit of shopping. We finally decided on picking up some food at the Carrefour on La Rambla and making ourselves some sandwhiches for dinner, which was then followed up by a trip to the Palais de Congres of Barcelona. The Palais's grounds are covered in BEAUTIFUL amazing fountains, and at nights on the weekends, there is a show with music, lights, and water in the main fountain. It is really something to see. I have a 6-minute partial video of it that I'll post in the near future.


We then moved on to a really chill, very busy bar called the Black Sheep for some drinks. After predrinking and all first, we downed a couple of pitchers really quickly, and my memory of the night kinda stops there. Yep, second time in 2 weeks that large parts of my night are blacked out. I think this one was even worse than the last one, as I don't remember at all arriving at the club we went to, called Danceatorium. But apparently we were on the guest list thanks to Kat's friends who study in Barcelona, and from the end of the night I remember it being a crazzzzyyy place. It was basically a beautiful mansion turned into a club with a huge pattio, many different rooms with bars and dance floors, and the like. A good night of very very drunken fun with a couple of people getting sick (but that's ok).

Despite the crazy night, we were up at a decent hour the next day again. It was Saint Patty's, so after grabbing some lunch at good ol Subway, myself, Nick, and Anthony headed over to an Irish pub to down a couple of Guiness and in the process earn a free hat. The pub was full to the brim with Irish and Brits, and we watched a rugby match between Ireland and Italy in its entirety. We then returned to the hostel for a nap and to meet up with the others, before going back to Black Sheep for some Sangria pitchers. Oh, this was also my introduction to Patatas Bravas. Now poutine may be the greatest thing ever invented, but these things gave it a run for its money. Basically it's some potatoes with some semi-spicy sauce, and sometimes some mayo as well. Wow are they good. Here is a picture you can drool over:
Sunday morning, the girls got up early as they were headed back to Rouen already! The rest of us lounged around a bit, and then decided on another day of exploration. We walked down by the beaches, through a flee market with row upon row of books, video games, coins, and DVDs, through a couple of parks, and then finally through a park down by the zoo which featured an amazing huge fountain, a lake with boats, giant statues, and much more. We also went to a sandwhich place for lunch, where I got to enjoy another plate of Patatas Bravas on the side. Mmm.
At night, we again met up with Kat's friends and they took us to a Tappas bar for appetizers. A Tappas bar means there is basically a buffet of various appetizers that you have no idea what are on toothpicks. You take whatever you want, and then on your way out, you pay 1.60 euro for each toothpick. It was interesting, but I wasn't feeling to daring to try things blindly. We then proceeded to a strange pizza place for the next course, which worked kinda like the Tappas bar. There were all kinds of strange pizza slices in a display case, and there was a set price per slice no matter the kind. You tell him what kind of slices you want and he makes a pizza out of those, putting it in the oven. One of my slices had some corn and bacon on it, while the other had some meatball-ish type things. It may sound gross, but corn is really really good on pizza. North America should get on that one.
The final course was some gelatto from a corner store, and then we were off to try this little underground bar that is somehow related to Frodo from the Lord of the Rings. Its decor was incredible, almost like a Disney park mixed with a rainforest cafe. Trees with faces, fountains, castles... and cheap beer to boot. At this point it was time for bed, as the next morning would be our turn to leave and thus end an amazing trip of good times with good people and crazy partying.

So umm that was basically the cliff notes version of what we did. I could have included all the other stories of what happened, so in condensed version for the fact that this blog is serving primarily as my own journal...
- shaking a bum's hand
- prostitutes trying to pick us up
- shwarmy
- the cab driver's vomit bag
- chicken balls. don't think of meat balls.
- souvernir shops don't like tourists
- the countless sketchy people in barcelona. creepers.
- and of course, the beautiful, sunny, 16-20 degree weather.

As I'm sure it's becoming obvious, I don't have too too much time to write or put thought into this right now, but enjoy the pics, and know that I'm having an amazing time out here.

Viva Europa.

Dan