Barcelona, Spain

WOW...WOW...WOW...WOW

Are the first words that come to mind after what is probably one of the best weekends of my entire existence. Where do I even begin about Barcelona, Spain? There is so much to tell and I'd love to be able to recap the entire weekend, but would fail to do it any justice. I'll start from the beginning.


Departing from London we take a quick train to Luton Airport where we check in and start our sun-filled trip to Barcelona. It was me, Jess, Shane, Crystal, Pete, Jenna and Achmed a.k.a. Egypt. The group is a quality group of people. You have Jenna from South Kensington who never lets a moment go by without a sarcastic remark coming from her mouth, but perhaps the funniest girl I've been around. Then there is Jess who, like Jenna, is sarcastic and just knows how to have a good time without letting little hurdles get in the way. Shane is a good friend and a laid back kid who just has a good vibe to hang around. Pete and Crystal are the Byng couple who pretty much know how to have a good time without making people feel like the 3rd wheel. Then there's Egypt who is new to the world of socializing (we'll leave it at that). For the most part we all hang out together and generally ALWAYS have a good time (see pictures below if you have any doubt). There was no doubt in my mind that I'd have a fantastic time with this group of people in beautiful Barcelona. Especially because 6 of the 7 of us are all about having a good time no matter what the circumstances.

We arrive in Reus at about 5 p.m. and took an hour and half bus ride to the city center. We quickly oriented ourselves with the metro system upon which I started my weekend long use of Spanish speaking in order to survive. Of which I'd never had to do prior mainly because I spoke Spanish simply for conversational purposes. We did it up in true spring break style on the plane by ordering some Heinken's and celebrating our departure to Barcelona!!!

Upon our arrival we come to our hostel which is located literally two steps from the beach. It was dark by the time we got there and the weather didn't look too promising. It was a bit cold, but much warmer then London has been since January. The hostel was crazy nice. I've lucked out like you wouldn't imagine staying in these hostels because they are located in great places, they're clean and not at all shady. Of course we went through STA to book this particular one because we were having some trouble locating one on our own-- everything seemed to be booked. We quickly put our bags down and immediately hit the strip of restaurants. Mind you it's about 9:30 almost 10 p.m. By the time we chose a restaurant I'd say we sat down to order at 11:30 or so. We chose to eat at El Rey de la Gamba (translation: The King of Shrimp).

When in Spain it is imperative that you eat three things traditional to the country:
1. Paella
2. Churros y Chocolate
3. Sangria

With that in mind we chose this seafood restaurant because Paella is a yellow rice dish with mixed in seafood including shrimp, muscles, squid, octopus and assort vegetables. It needs to be done properly in order to get the true Paella experience because as I've discovered on my journey's many restaurants in touristy areas are inclined to microwave their food and pass them off as fresh. Again- Don't eat at restaurants with pictures on the menu.

Without question the Paella was delicious. It went down smoothly when chased by a cold glass of Sangria, which is simply red wine mixed with fresh fruit and taste sweeter than wine. None of that bitter taste that lingers in your mouth. It's delicious and I'm not much of a wine person (with the exception of getting a buzz fast).

Of course there was no way that we were willing to allow our short trip to Barcelona to go out with nights of partying and drinking. Lucky for us the Spaniards are nocturnal and clubs don't really start hopping till about 2 a.m. Imagine that. The time that I'd normally be coming home from a Gainesville club, I am just hitting up in Barcelona. Crazy. We found this strip along the beach that had a handful of clubs side by side and decided to do a miniature bar crawl of our own. We hit up a more mature and nicer martini bar first and order some delicious drinks, which we chased with a pint from the irish bar next door featuring live music that reminded me of camping in key west because of the reggae feel to it. We made our way in and out of a few of the clubs, which were all free admission and took some free shots the promoters would offer us. I'm never one to turn down a free shot or drink.

Friday morning I called up Grandma-dukes who took a train from Madrid to Barcelona early Thursday afternoon and was staying 2 miles north of where my hostel was. I met up with her to have some breakfast and it was so nice to see her again. It was a little piece of home in Barcelona. We enjoyed a nice breakfast at this cafe just around the corner from her ridiculously lavish hotel she stayed in...of course it's always only the best with Grandma-dukes. Since she had never been to Barcelona she wanted to take the bus tour. Now, normally I'd object to the notion, but my friends had mentioned wanting to possibly do one also and quite frankly aside from having beaches I didn't know what Barcelona had to offer. So, it was really nice to be able to balance both my friends and family on this trip without having to juggle the two and get stretched thin.

The bus tour wasn't as bad as I had imagined simply because we were able to get on and off the bus as we wished, so we weren't subject to the bus the entire time. It took us all around the city stopping at the real toursit areas like the Sagrada Family Cathedral, the Park de Gaulle and others. For the most part Barcelona is reknowned for its architecture by Antoni Gaudi. I'd never heard of him until I got to Barcelona, but his stuff is really creative and different. I think a lot of it is mosaic inspired and pretty unique. He has buildings and parks throughout the city all with similar styles and touches that it is easy to pick them out amidst the modern buildings.

That night I promised my Grandma that we'd go out to eat so everyone put on their best and we went to this nice restaurant just next to my grandma's hotel. The dinner was fantastic. Not only was the food amazing, but the entire atmosphere and feel at the table was great. There was good conversation, we were shooting the shit, laughing, making jokes, just enjoying eachother's company. There was no separation of from my friends and my grandma. She was getting along great with everyone. We ended up ordering Sangria, wine and beers and got a great buzz going. Even my grandma got a little tipsy at the table. I ordered a delicious cut of veal and some spanish ham and cheese rolls as my appetizer. It was a filling meal. The waiters and all of us ended up getting along without a hitch. We didn't leave the restaurant til about 1:30 a.m. to head back to the hostel and continuing the partying. However, we didn't leave the restaurant without first getting some pictures with the waiters and even the cook. They then gave us three bottles of schnapps as an after dinner shot, but since we were having such a good time we ended up killing two of the bottles amongst the 8 of us at the table. It was crazy getting drunk with Grandma-dukes, but definitely a night to remember. She got so comfortable with everyone she busted out here sandals that she carries in her purse for when she's tired and started pretending to talk on the phone to the girls at the other end of the table. The girls joined in the mayham and all took off their sandals and pretended to talk on the phone back to her. Sounds nutty, but you had to be there to see how chaotic it got.

After dropping Grandma back off at her hotel, upon which she decided to jump on Shane's back for a piggy back ride. We decided to take the metro back to hostel. I had thought the tube closed at 5 a.m., but we quickly realized that it shut down at 2a.m. Turns out we got on at the wrong entrance and the tube we needed as quite aways. I asked an attendant what time it closed and she said 2 a.m. and it was 1:55, so if we wanted to get home we had to book it. We took off running...actually it was more like sprinting down the metro tunnels and it was by no means a short run. It was hysterical because here we are in Barcelona hauling ass down the metro tunnels to make it to this one train. We end up getting to the platform at the exact second the train pulls up. No kidding had we stopped for a breather we would have missed and had to walk our happy asses 2 miles to the hostel.

Since we were already feeling the buzz from dinner we decided to take it easy Friday night and just buy a bottle of Bacardi rum, take a sheet and sit on the beach. It was so awesome to sit on the beach with my friends and just shoot the shit, listen to the waves crashing and taking crazy pictures. It was almost like back when you were in high school and you had the group of friends that you were just so close with that just sitting around doing nothing was fun. It's one of the moments I'll look back and always remember those 5 other people on the beach. Good times.

Saturday morning was perfect. Shane and I got up early while the rest of the crew ended up sleeping in. Boo! I wanted to hit the beach the first chance I got and considering the sun was out I didn't want to let any opportunity slip me by. The temperature turned out to be perfect. While it was still sunny there was a cool breeze that steadily swept through the air so it never got excessively hot to the point where I'd sweat profusely. It was nice. We then hit up the Barcelona Zoo. Alright I'm not much of a zoo person, actually they can be quite boring, but this zoo was different. It was actually really awesome how close you could get to the animals. You could touch some of them you were that close. I got some great pictures of a few of them too. It was a massive zoo, but it was just nice to walk around leisurely and check out the animals. I never though that I'd enjoy going to the zoo while I was vacationing in Barcelona, but the day was just so nice that it didn't even matter.

Saturday night we ended up going to this restaurant/club called Baja. Alright, seriously I have never been to a club like this. I felt like I was in Cancun, Mexico on spring break. I was waiting for the foam party to just start. It was seriously one of the best nights of my life. The entire club was just packed, and decorated in this beach, surfer style. They played only spanish techno/dance style music, with a few American songs here and there, but it was just awesome to hear different music instead of the usual Lil Jon and Beyonce shit. If you talk to me in person I still can't describe this club to you and the energy that was fluent throughout. Some of the best parts was that they have these songs in Spain that are designated line dances...but more like the Macarena than a country line dance. So, when they'd play the particular song the bartenders who were all bikini clad and shirtless would get on the bar and dance with the crowd all doing the same dance moves. It was so fun to watch and attempt to immitate. It was also one of the only clubs in the world where it would be cool to get TPed. Every once in a while in between the strobe light, green laser show and fog they'd shoot out cannons of toilet paper, confetti and shredded napkin into the crowd, but that just enhanced the entire experience cause you just busted out crazy. The best part is that the club closed at 6 a.m., but we had to check out of our hostel at 10 a.m., so I ended up dipping out at 3:30 while some of the girls stayed until 5:30 a.m. Crazy!

My weekend in Barcelona was unforgettable. I would go back to party in Barcelona in a heart beat and I can't imagine how insane it is during the summer. I actually only got a few days of good sun, but if you saw me now you'd think I'd laid out for a week. I'm so tan. It's funny because when I returned everyone thought that I had been tanning all weekend (at tanning beds) because I guess I was pale before and now that I'm back to my natural blackness people notice it. The group of us had so much fun in Barcelona we're actually planning another trip out before my visa and trip capabilities expire.

One of the biggest things about traveling is the company with which you find yourself. The crowd you decide to travel with may either make or break your trip-- in this case my trip was far beyond the entertainment, fun and once-in-a-lifetime experience I anticipated. I can't really say it was "once in a lifetime" actually because I see myself returning to Barcelona again, but of course not with the same group of individuals. I think what made it that much better was in fact those 6 of other people and my grandma. Everyone there was close to me, good friends and family. Needless to say, I feel lucky having the opportunity to just say "I just spent a weekend in Barcelona and it was fantastic!"

Honestly--- who says that???