Like all CIEE scheduled activities, this one began at the crack of freaking dawn. We had to be in a cab to a train station at 5 am in order to get to some airport in the middle of bumblefuck that I'm convinced is only used to fly cheapskates like students out of the country. Have you ever flown Ryanair? If you have not, DONT. If you have, please accept my sincerest apologies. We finally got on the plane after arguing with the lady who wouldn't let us on because we didn't have visas, and people were literally poppin bottles in the aisles, blasting music out of speakers, jumping on the seats, and refusing to sit in assigned areas. At 7:30 am this was a complete nightmare and the flight ended up being bumpy, swervy, and just overall terrible.
There is an indisputable difference between traveling and vacation in my opinion. I've been traveling for the past 7 weeks, trying to take in as much culture and as many calories as humanly possible, and as much as I LOVE it, it can get exhausting, especially when you have a professor treating your 3 week course like a full semester one. When I landed in Barcelona, I felt like I was on vacation. Stress fell off my shoulders as I pressed my face against the window in the coach bus, admiring mountains and palm trees. After ditching our bags at the hostel, tasting the best nachos of my life, and physically brawling with ATMs, we embarked on a 3 hour walking tour. This entire travel blog should probably be titled: "Walking Tours, Chaffing, and Boob Sweat: An Autobiography". TMI, my apologies. But seriously. I love seeing new cities, and I don't mind walking, but for 3 hours at a time while listening to some dude drone on and on and ON and melting in the sun? Nooooo thank you. But CIEE looooves walking tours and Barcelona is breathtaking so we made the best of it.
After eating dinner at a disgusting, cheap cafeteria comparable only to the Old Country Buffet, my friends and I headed back to get ready to ~hit the town~. First stop, Chupitos. This is the shot bar we LOVED in Amsterdam. We kept asking the bartender to give us the cool shots. He lit stuff on fire, fed us shots through straws, and had us inhale vodka vapor. And I'm just standing in this bar thinking, "Wow I will never do anything this cool ever again". He gave us a free round since we had already bought 5 shots each and suggested a hip hop club nearby. We wandered through the squares of Barcelona and some guy started yelling at us about free shots. We asked what the catch was and he said no catch, just that no one was at the bar yet. We went inside, got the free shots, danced in an empty bar for 25 minutes, got another free shot, and went to the hip hop club across the street.
It took us three tries in the line before we finally got in for free. The first time the bouncer told us it was 5 euro. The second time my friend drunkenly tried to bargain with him to get 4 of us in for 10 euro, and he wasn't having it. As we were contemplating whether or not is was worth paying 5 euro each, a group came out of the club. We ran over to them, asking if it was worth the money. They proceeded to tell us that if you said, "Las Matias" at the door, entry was free. We got in line for a 3rd time, gave the password, and the bouncers, feeling defeated reluctantly let us in. We danced like crazy until 3 am and made it back to the hostel.
The next day we spent the morning in the beautiful Park Guell, one of Gaudi's famous works. The mosaics and the design were just happy; there's no other way to put it. We went shopping by the cathedral and then I took a 6 hour nap I kid you not. When in Barcelona right? We ate at this really nice tapas place for dinner and sat with some boys from the Berlin program. They were super nice and one was from Alaska - it was nice to talk to and socialize with some new people after being surrounded by the same group for weeks.
Later that night we went to Opium, which is this INSANE club right on the beach. It's one of the top 10 clubs in the world, but there's a 20 euro cover. No way in hell were we paying that. I googled 'ways to get into opium for free' at the suggestion of my friends who had been to Barca a few weeks ago. I signed us up on some guest list and was emailed a paragraph in spanish that included a phone number I was instructed to whatsapp. I messaged this dude Isaac, who told me to say his name at the door. and BAM we were in for free. This place was unreal. So many bars, lounges and different dance areas all over the place. It was sooo crowded and not really my scene but it was fun to see.
And finally to my favorite part of the entire weekend: the beach!!! I have been having serious beach withdrawal considering I haven't been since last august (a straight up SIN), and I could not have been more ready to see some water. And some boobs. Here's the thing - people in Europe don't give a shit when it comes to what people think of them. Nudity is not a taboo like it is in the states, and why should it be? The human body, sex, and nudity are natural parts of life and biology. Why on earth do Americans demonize these things? Everyone has a body, and everyone's body is beautiful. So why not be comfortable with it? Women in Europe tan nude or topless all the time, and we witnessed this in full force in Barcelona, and guess what? We joined them. And it was so liberating. Not one person stared at me. NOT ONE PERSON! In the states, if I were wearing a V neck tee shirt, old men would leer at me. In Barcelona, my boobs were free falling all over the place and not one person looked at me like that. I had complete confidence in my body for once, and was able to peacefully lay topless on a beach in Spain. How many people can say that? So thank you, Barcelona, for giving me the weekend of a lifetime. Keep shining :)
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