Donde Esta... umm, food?

The past few days have been a complete whirlwind. I’m sleep deprived, shower deprived, internet deprived, and text deprived, but you know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way. Barcelona has taken every concept of time and date I had so I am living in a world where people only exist for the moment they are in. It’s an amazing feeling.

We arrived at our hostel, Kabul, on Thursday night at around 12:30am. The hostel is located in Placia Reial on Las Ramblas which is THE place to be in Barcelona. The hostel was one huge pre-game party before everyone left to go to the bars and clubs at around 1:30am. I was not prepared to be nocturnal! Kimmy and I were exhausted from our journey, so we just got a good nights sleep before the city drained us of all our energy. On Friday morning the hostel provided a walking tour of the city and we decided to sign up for it. We made friends with some people on the tour with us who happened to be our roommates as well. These five people made Barcelona what it has been to me. They are each doing their masters at LSE in London and we all hit it off immediately. Each personality brought something to the group (I was dubbed as the cartoon character stuck in a real world with an abundance of energy and giggles… Sorry everyone from America, but this trip will never take the inner Disney kid out of me) and we ended up roaming through Barcelona attached to each other and having an amazing time touring the sites. We went to see many of the Gaudi buildings, my favorite being the Sagrada Familia which is a huge temple in the middle of the city. We went right up the inside of it and had a breathtaking view of all of Barcelona. Me and my stupid fear of heights made me the annoying Mama Jo (per usual) and I was flipping out on everyone who tried to sit the balcony a few hundred feet away from sure death had a crazed bird swooped down and pushed them with it’s beak (hey, it could happen!). Later that afternoon we went to Park Guell and climbed to the top of a hill to have yet another amazing view of the city. We all hung out at the top and had a siesta in the burning hot sun (I am TOTALLY bringing siestas back to the states with me… who said nap time had to end after kindergarten?!) Later that night we went out into the streets to get ourselves lost which was my idea of how to find the best local Spanish food. An hour later and my mouth was in cuisine heaven. After dinner we decided to check out the night life so at 2am we went out to a shot bar which had well over 100 different types of shots. I had one called a Willy Wonka, and another one which I have no idea what was in it, but they lit it on fire and handed me a marshmallow on a stick and I got to roast it on the flame before drinking it. Yeah, it was seriously cool and seriously tasty! Before I bore you with my hourly itinerary, the past few days consisted of a day trip to Sitges, a cable car ride over the water, a flamenco show, a long hike up Tibidabo, and a walk through the Barcelona ghetto (it’s okay mom, it was daylight.. kinda..).
I’m learning so much about so much. Not only cultural information and the history of the city, but a lot about myself. My newest thing which I learned I love is getting lost. I purposely take the wrong way so I can end up in a place that I didn’t expect to find. I’m also learning of a deeper inner-happiness within myself. Little things in live have always made me happy (like sippy-cups, and the cap of a Snapple bottle that clicks), but I’m realizing that the big things in life make me happy too. Meeting a group of the most amazing people and forming friendships that after 48 hours will last me a lifetime, is a huge happiness that I am now much more appreciative of.



Tonight is my last night in Barcelona and tomorrow afternoon we fly to Rome. I can only hope that the next stop on our journey is as amazing as the first two have been.

Bon Voyage Barcelona!