Barcelona

Dont i look pretty this is right after the red eye bus from Madrid...i found the cutest Vespa in the city!
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¡Me encanta Barcelona!Or for all you non spanish speakers...I love Barcelona!What a weekend it was...set out for Barcelona on an overnight bus from Madrid Wednesday night with my friend Vadim. The bus ride actually wasnt as bad as I expected it to be, and it worked out because it was cheap, and we didn´t miss a day, instead we just got into Barcelona Thursday morning and hit the ground running. First order of business, was to find a hostel, since we wanted to be adventurous and not book one online before we left, we ended up spending a good part of the morning looking for a place to stay for the weekend. We finally walked into this one that was right off one of the main streets, Las Ramblas, and we thought it looked pretty decent, and it ended up being pretty cheap, not to mention our backs were killing us, so we decided to take it! Um yea, the upstairs were we were checking in was the ¨hotel¨part and he proceeded to lead us down to the ¨hostal¨part which looked like a basement...pretty funny. It actually wasnt too bad, and for 16 euro a night we couldn´t complain..complete with kitchen, storage lockers, a step away from the main street and non functioning showers!The first day we met up with one of Vadims friends from Davis, Hillary, who was studying in Barcelona, and she ended up telling us about this great park to see...Parc Guell, that also had a Gaudi museum. I guess it was designed by Guell and Guadi. What a trip this place was, very funky, whimsical architecture and amazing views of the city!Then we basically just walked around the city taking in the sights. Met up with Hillary and her friend again at night for dinner at this amazing tapas place. The next day we headed out for La Sagrada Familia, absolutley amazing!The architecture is just unlike anything I´ve ever seen, and the whole history behind it is so fasinating. We were really sneaky and jumped on to a small tour group, and so I flet like I got a good feel for the calossal cathedral. Its suppossed to be completed in 20 years...so I think I'll have to make a reunion trip when I'm 40! After that we explored the city by foot some more, and eventually made our way to the Picasso museum. Everyone had been saying...its not that good...and it doesnt have a lot of his famous stuff...but I absolutely loved it, and I think Picasso might now be one of my favorite artists. The museum houses a lot of his early work, and the coolest part was to see some of his sketches, that look like doodles from when he was bored in class one day. But the greatest part was this one giant section filled with his different interpretations of Valasquezs' "Las Meninas,"...very cool! That night Vadim's friends took us out again to this great little Sangria Bar, where we met up with a bunch of other kids from Davis who were studying in Barcelona...good times! And Hillary had a friend from Berkley who she was studying with whose family owns a 15th century farmhouse an hour outside the city. They were all going there for Saturday day and night, and they had been trying to get us to come along. At first we were reluctant because we knew our bus home left at 12 the next day, but they were all so much fun, and it sounded so cool, so they finally convinced us. So we saved a nights worth of money at the hostel, and went with this big crew to the Catalonian countryside. The house and are around it were soo beautiful. It really was a good time, we went on this hike to the top of a small mountain nearby to watch the sunset, and we had this big dinner, and just hung out all night....then the best part of all was that my dad calls me at 7 in the morning, and before I have time to even remember where I am, Im talking to the whole fam! It really did make my whole trip though, I loved getting to talk to everyone, even if i was crouched behind a couch trying not to wake anybody up! then the next morning i don't know how, but me and Vadim managed to make it back to the city, and catch our 12 noon, 7 hour bus ride back to Madrid...what a trip!