Barcelonaaaa

What up my people. I am in currently in Barcelona, I arrived on Wednesday evening after leaving Madrid. The train was great, it's one of those bullet trains, goes 300 km per hour. The scenery on the train ride was incredible though in the open country. They were showing High School Musical 3, shockingly the one Ive never seen, but I resisted watching it and wouldnt have understood it in Spanish anyway. I listened to my ipod, tried to sleep a little and take in the atmosphere.

When I got to Barcelona I came straight to my hostel. It's a little far out from the main portions of Barcelona, but not terrible. Its definitely the worst of the hostels so far, but not even that bad, rooms are tiny and not great lockers to store stuff in, but what can you do. I immediately went and got some food after checking in because I was starved at that point. I went to this BraCafe (I thought it meant all the waitresses would be in bras, not that it was a Brazillian Cafe!). It was good, I ordered something random, turned out to be an omelet, with a side of some sort of ham, potatoes, and bruschetta. Not bad at all. Afterwards came back to the hostel and there were signs for a party that night where the hostel was taking everyone out to a club and bar. I figured I'd go because it'd be a good way to meet people.

I met my roommates who were all going to this club thing before we left. I wasnt a huge fan, they were nice, but typical college I want to get fucked up type kids, not my crowd as many of you know. They were all about "pregaming" and I knew at that point they just werent going to be my style. I showed up around 10:30, we all headed out around 11. I met a bunch of people from Belgium who were real nice, some guy from the UK, I think he was Malaysian, and one more guy who I had no idea what country he was from, maybe Russia/I had no idea what he was saying (and we talked for about 3 hours that night, high comedy for me). We went to this first bar called el Gato Negro (the black cat), it specializes in over 500 different types of shots, including many flaming ones. It was entertaining. I took 2 shots. First shot I took I looked randomly and picked one. I went with Casper, hes a friendly ghost and I figured shot wise itd be pretty easy. It was very easy, however, I think at that point it was determined I may be gay by the whip cream on top of the shot. It was easy though and thats all I cared about. I did have one other shot after with the dude who couldnt speak English. I had him order it (not the best idea) and when I went to pay for mine, the woman thought I had paid for both, so essentially I bought this dude a shot and I was stuck. I think he set me up! I have no idea what the shot was, mixed some kind of red and blue thing together. Then you swish it in your mouth for 10 seconds like mouth wash and suck it in, making you cough. Ouch. That shit burned and luckily at that point we were heading to the club.

We got to the club around 12:30, but everyone kept saying it was early. There were Spanisher rappers up on stage, one wearing a tshirt saying I'm the new black, pretty funny. They were whatever, nobody enjoyed them and when they left and the DJ started the place started "bumping." I had a drink when I got there cause we all got free drinks. Made the same mistake again, however, as I let the Belgium kids just get me a drink so I didnt have to cut through. They got me what they were drinking, vodka and pepsi. It was fucking sick, what kind of animals are they! Afterwards everyone wanted to dance, so I went to the floor, danced for a while, talked to the dude from the UK and the one I didnt understand a word he was saying. I thought to myself if I cant pick up a girl in the US, no chance could I pick up one where I dont speak their language. I was right, every time I'd even get remotely close to a girl as I danced she moved away and I wasn't even trying to dance with them, I'm not that outgoing yet! I always enjoyed that form of rejection though, it happens often. I was getting pretty tired, the dude from the UK was almost passed out, and the dude who couldnt speak English said he wanted to go at 3:30. So we planned on that. Around 3:30 I left with the UK guy, the non-English speaking dude was having fun again I guess. We got back around 3:45, I was exhausted. My roommates werent back yet and so I knew I'd be woken up at some point soon. I passed out and starting at about 5:30 a.m until 8 a.m they kept coming in and out of the room. Finally they went to sleep at 8, I slept for another hour, looked at my watch and thought it was 4 p.m. I freaked out, then I realized I'm an idiot and saw what I thought was 11, so a little better, but not much. I immediately got up to start my day and turns out it was only like 9:30, whoops.

I decided first to buy soap since I had left it at the last hostel and figured I should shower at some point here. I went to the drug places right next to here, bought a random soap and then figured Id walk to Las Ramblas. Its 5.3 kms away, if I knew this I probably would not have walked. It was sunny the whole time at least, I had to make it the train station to get my ticket for Paris. I did that and it was perfect because as soon as I got inside a huge hail/thunderstorm came crashing down. I waited it out for a little and then headed on my way to get lunch. I had read somewhere about a great Paella place, so I walked around Las Ramblas, took some photos and ended up at La Fonda. I had the special 3 course menu del dia with some paella, some pork and potato thing I ordered (I took a guess, was still good), and some chocolate pie. The Paella was great, lots of fresh seafood, good rice and good vegetables. It also came with a drink so I got a glass of red wine. Wasnt bad at all. I had a nice relaxing meal, went on my way and headed around the area. I stumbled to the picasso museum (I was slightly drunk), decided why not go in since it was still raining off and on and checked it out. About 10 minutes in though I started feeling sick. A cold was coming on strong. I started sneezing out of control, semi-rushed through the rest and tried to figure out the quickest way back. In the end, I walked about 6 kms back to the hostel, not the best idea for someone who is sick. I made it back and immediately tried to take a nap. That didnt last long with the roommates coming in and out constantly. I decided I'd do laundry for 5 euros, but turns out they do it for you, so that was a bonus. I pretty much laid in bed the rest of the day, got a quick dinner next to the hostel (a bacon bocadillo and a plate of manchego cheese). Got back to the hostel and laid around. Finally my rommates left around 12 to go out. I turned off the light and slept until they got back and did the in and out thing at around 6 again. Luckily they were checking out so they were gone by 8. I slept til 10, then the housecleaning woke me to clean up their beds for the next person, oh well.

I still have a cold this morning and dont feel the best, but I'm going to try to see a few more things to make Barcelona more worth it. I do like it better than madrid, lot more room on streets and overall a nice city. I'd rather rest and not be sick for the rest of the trip though than ruin it all on Barcelona. Hopefully one more good nights sleep and I'll be fine to explore on Saturday (I have all day until my train at 10 at night, so at least I should sneak a few things in without killing myself). I won't walk today though, try to take buses and metros.

Anyway, I will see you in Paris!

BK