Mas Barcelona!

Friday night we ended up going out, Spanish style. This means going out really, really late and staying out until the wee hours of the morning. It was definitely an original experience, since that is not the custom at all in London. Andrea and I lasted until about 6:30am and the other two girls who went out with us lasted all the way until 9 or 10am. I have no idea how they did it.

People on the street were handing out coupons galore to get into clubs free or at discounted rates. The club we ended up at was Fellini and we had discounted tickets that included a free drink. It turns out that the drink we got for free was almost 10 euro, which is 12-13 US dollars. (I love the euro-us dollar exchange rate.)

There was one thing missing in Barcelona. Girls. See? All boys.

The next morning we got up and went to a cafe for lunch. We then decided we were going to go exploring around a different part of the city so we walked and walked and saw so much on our way. Walking is such a great way to experience things.The Arc de Triumph (as they spell it in Spain.) The original in Paris was much cooler.

A memorial to Bartomeu Robert, complete with fountains.Churches have the best architecture.

We then decided to test our luck and skills by using the bus system to get back towards the water. We wanted to keep exploring that area a little more and wanted to do a boat tour. Sadly, the boat tour had ended by the time we got there, but we still found many things to do....

....like this next picture! Mary Kate and I wanted a picture inside this. It was right outside of the aquarium. I had just finished taking her picture and was switching places with her when this little child ran into it! I kept asking the child if she wanted to take the picture with me (in Spanish) and she just kind of curled up to the side of it! Her parents were watching and I told them I think I scared her (in Spanish again!) and after a while, the father asked me if I wanted HIM to be in the picture with me! So, of course I said "Si." and there you go. What odd situations I can get into. Notice a little bit of the kid's body in the right-hand side?
The water is so beautiful. There were TONS of sail boats all around this area. Veronica (who is the only one of us who knows how to sail and actually works at a camp during the summer sailing and life guarding) was in heaven. She wanted to go sailing SO bad!

We ended up walking back up through Las Ramblas, which was MUCH busier on Saturday than it was on Friday. Swarms of people checking out the markets! We then went around shopping and experiencing life in crazy Barcelona. We had split up during this time but we all met up again later that night for our last big meal in Spain! I think by the end of the trip we had all tried Paella, a traditional Spanish dish I learned more about during my summer Spanish class. I thought it was really delicious.And this was taken on our walk back to our hostel. I LOVE the grafitti everywhere. Each country has such a different style but they are all so wonderful. I think Rome had the absolute best grafitti, probably just because it had the most, which I don't think anyone really expects when they go to Rome. But this door was so colorful and intricate, I couldn't pass it up!

We had a very early morning flight back to London Sunday morning, so this was the end of Spain. It was a great trip because we took everything at a much more relaxed pace than we had been doing. It was a good break from the everyday but we still got to experience so much. I think we were all happy to be home earlier on Sunday so we could catch up on sleep, too!