It's already March (April) and I haven't finished my Spring Break posts from the latter two days of our Spanish adventure. It continues in Barcelona, Catalunya, Espana... I had already visited Barcelona in May during our family cruise and my sister, Jaime, who had studied abroad there showed us around some so I had hit all of the touristy spots and seen a lot of the Gaudi architechture such as La Padera, La Sagrada Famiglia. I wanted to take this opportunity of being in Barcelona to see the nightlife and visit the castle on the hill. I have to say I did get to do both but unfortunately left my...mark..in Barcelona and had to red shirt a day.
We got into another super sweet hotel we found on Expedia which was close to a metro stop and a skate park; El Torre Hotel Catalunya. The first day we headed out towards the beach and walked along the boardwalk from Las Ramblas. We saw the food market and made it all the way to the cute clubs on the beach.
We headed home to have a rest before we could go out to eat. When we woke up and were ready to go, it was POURING cats and dogs, litterally the rain were golf ball size and flooding the streets-ridiculous!
Found a place near the university square--unfortunately didn't get to find a spectacular area because it was so horrid out. We did make it to El Gato Negro Espit Chupitos; a SHOTS bar with 100s of shots to choose from--most of them didn't have too much alcohol in it and they were all €2! Here are some pictures!
'I had the Hawaii, Bob Marley, Princess, Comic Book, and a complimentary Nipple shot from the bartenders! At this place we saw people from BU who were studying in London--of course--and also met people studying in Europe from UC Berkeley who knew Jen Chiu's roommates..SMALL WORLD. The place was a load of fun with the presentation being hilarious for some.
After a while, we headed to a place called RazzMaTazz after at around 2am where things were JUST getting started because Europeans party LATE. This was a large club and I met a guy studying in Barcelona from Portugal and we spoke through broken Spanish to communicate about surfing. It was really interesting and entertaining but apparently I had too much to drink as the next day I felt sick and had to stay in bed all day which was NOT pleasant :(
Actually I made it out to Monjuic with Gretchen for about 30 minutes then had to go back to the hotel. I learned about Coca-Cola's marketing failure on a TV program though! That night I felt better and went out to eat but was coming down with a cold I could feel it forming in my throat...also unpleasant. So I didn't push myself and stayed in that night. We did get to dinner on Las Ramblas and I had yummy Chicken Paella!!
Next morning (sunday), everyone was still sleeping but I wanted to go see the castle on the hill so I went by myself in the metro and on the tram and up the finicular (phew long journey!!) to finally see the castle and the small amusement park. It was a breathtaking view from the top and I was glad I checked that off my list!
All in all, the trip was good and I'm glad I had seen the major Barcelona sites before so I could sort of relax there-it was Spring Break after all!
PS: I remember how amazing the Gaudi tiles were on the street and snapped a pic: 
