Barcelona

So like my last post said, I went to Barcelona this weekend. It was a longgg weekend of travel (left Thursday night at 11:30, got to Barcelona around 7:30 AM, then left Sunday night at midnight, got back to Toledo around 10 this morning. The hostel we stayed in was pretty nice and it really promoted partying and meeting new people. It was a bit interesting because we stayed in room with 10 bunk beds, and there were only 3 of us that went together! The guy on the bunk bed next to me on the first night was a giant CREEP. We kept trying to talk to him but he wouldn't say anything. There were people in our room from Australia, Holland, Norway, and France, definitely a cool experience. It was really sad on Friday when the terrorist attack happened and the group of Norwegians were all upset because they couldn't get a hold of their families.
We made friends with a 34 year old lady from Holland who was really nice. She taught us some key Dutch phrases when some stupid girl drama happened over the trip, very funny.
When we got there on Friday we couldn't check into the hostel until 2 so we wandered around to see Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell which were both designed by Gaudi. Sagrada Familia was the most interesting building I've ever seen. I'm going to post the link to my facebook album at the bottom of this so you can check it out. Everything was inspired by nature, which I thought was really neat. Once we went to the museum in the church and found that out, it seemed so much cooler.
Friday night we went on a barcrawl with our hostel and ended up at a salsa bar which was pretty sweet, we stayed for a little bit and then tried to find our way home but ended up taking a cab. The next day we went to the beach and stayed there pretty much all day, then went out that night. I loveeee the beach, it's definitely different in Europe with all of the topless women and naked children running around. I'm still creeped out by the idea of 10 yr old boys coming with their topless mothers- I feel like I'd personally be scarred for life! Also, the men are creepier in Barcelona than any other city I've been in- literally would grab your wrists and try to drag you away. I tried to combat this by dancing like I was insane, but it didn't really help. Sunday we walked down Las Ramblas (a giant shopping street) until we reached the water. There were a lot of cool stands along the street but I didn't end up buying anything. I was going to buy some seeds (veggies and flowers) for mi papa, but someone told me that I'm not allowed to bring that sort of thing back into the US in case they are carrying some sort of disease. I also was tempted to buy THE cutest rabbit I have EVER seen but figured my parents wouldn't appreciate me getting a puppy and a bunny in the same year. I feel like so many things are cuter here in Spain, like the kids (parents dress them to the T. everything about their outfits matches) and animals (except the dogs here in Toledo- they seem to have hunchbacks, maybe from the hills/cobblestone). I named him Thumpito in honor of Bambi :)
We were all pretty tired after walking so far so we got some gelato and sat on the water for a while. Definitely going to miss the water and also the lack of humidity! Midwest here I come...my flight leaves in less than 24 hours. Of course I haven't started packing.
Last night we went to our favorite bar with our favorite bartender and we got really sad that it was pretty much our last night all together. But it's good to know that I've made some friendships here that will continue into the future, and we are planning many roadtrips in the future- mine are all on the East coast!
Well, see you all very SOON! Can't wait. Also I saw some pictures from the wedding- looked like a great time and Sandra looked beautiful! (Jorge , you did too)

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