A series of fortunate coincidences

Paris:

Was okay. Maybe it was the weather, not sure. Best part was probably meeting up with Salky hanging out with her crew. Although, climbing the Arc de Triumph was pretty legit... as was the cuisine. OH HOW COULD I FORGET. I went to the Jewish quarters and probably had THE BEST falafel I have ever had. The best!

Barcelona:

AMAZING.

Thursday - We arrived into Barcelona after a delayed flight (the French air traffic controllers conveniently had a strike that week and we were one of the lucky flights to get out just in time). Not gonna lie, the weather in Barca was fantastic. Sunny and warm with plenty a palm trees, it was great. Our hostel was in a prime location, right on one of the busiest streets in Barcelona. We had some tapas for dinner and then met up with one of Chelsea's friends. She was pretty legit and we met up at a bar with her and her friends from her program. It was basically a beer garden that sold pitchers of sangria (which was pretty much grape soda and alcohol). I wound up calling it purple drank all night. Turns out there was a party that was leaving as we got in - their dinner was left on the table. It was late anddd we.... thought it was a good idea to steal their untouched leftovers. Yea, i know, judge me all you want, but those were the best Spanish omelets I've ever had!

Friday - I'm going to preface this with the fact that the crew I rolled with to Barcelona was way more athletic than I am. That being said, I didn't find it surprising when I heard they wanted to do a bike tour of the city... for three hours. Although the last time I rode a bike was in middle school when I feel and got a pretty narsty scar on my knee, I figured, "what the hell." It was nice and sunny that day, the only sunglasses I had were my Rockledge miami beach glasses (talk about fratty, it's almost as bad as Muff's cap). Anyway, aside from the many avoided accidents that occurred, one including a head on collision with an 80 woman and an oxygen tank, the bike tour wasn't much of a fail as I thought it was going to be. Not to mention - the bike tour company put a photo of us on their website. The best part was probably having Sangria on the beach, oh man that was the best sangria I've ever head. Not gonna lie, I wore jeans for the bike tour - epic fail. Given my chaffing and everyones exhaustion, we decided to head back to the hostel for a bit. As I was walking to the hostel I heard someone call my name. I turned around and it was, MUFF! who woulda thunk, eh? His flight was cancelled and he decided to spend the weekend in Barcelona. I thought it was a pretty cool coincidence that he was staying in my hostel and he had no way of contacting me considering I didn't have my cell phone. (We would later encounter many of these coincidences within our group, thanks to the French). I'd like to add that he lost 70 euro on a street game that was a very obvious scam... even though he says otherwise. Everyone else was too tired, so Christina and I decided to go out with Muff and his friends from his program. Speaking of which - a drunk Steve, speaking Spanish, trying to get into someones private party in a club was quite the sight (as Christina informed me the next day). It didn't help that earlier when the lady asked Muff who's party it was, he responded "Maria" -.- Somehow, she said I slurred something in Spanish on our second try and we got in. It was probably incomprehensible... but it worked. That place was pretty much the epitome of a euro-club, full of seizure causing strobe lights, monster green lasers and backup dancers that grooved to the tunes of Michael Jackson. The picture shown was probably the best one of the night. When we got back to the hostel, we were informed that 6 Italian guys moved into our 12 person room. I was traveling with 5 other girls, so I told them I'd act all "alpha male" and protect them as I proceeded to stick out my chest... I passed out two minutes after. fail.

Saturday- Chelsea informed me that the last words to come out of my mouth the night before were, "what'd you have for dinner," hahaha, I had only been hanging out with Sam for a few hours! Anyway, the girls wanted to shop and my (unclear if that part of my body has a name) was still sore, so I went along. We split up for lunch. Christina, Sarah and I decided to go to the market for lunch. It's probably the coolest thing I've ever seen. There is so much fresh food, its great. Anyway, the best part is that some stands have freshly made fruit juices. We each ordered one (I got a kiwi-coconut). The lady was nice enough to give us a free coconut drink too. After a while, Sarah and Christina didn't want anymore of the free coconut, so I thought, 'why not make an epic kiwi coconut drink and add extra coconut juice?' Clearly, it was an epic idea. I found the closest table I could find (it was part of a butcher stand). I mixed my drink and could literally taste it as I stirred it with my straw. I guess I put too much pressure or something, but, when I put the cap on, the drink EXPLODED, on all sides. Well my first reaction was to laugh, but the butchers didn't find it so funny... After cleaning up the stand, I realized I had coconut-kiwi all over my pants and shoes. We walked a little ways to find a Starbucks. Turns out in Spain to you need to buy a product to get a code to put into the bathroom lock. Luckily, a Finnish exchange student gave me hers. Unluckily, my shoes were not salvageable. Luckily, we found some pretty awesome shoes to replace them. I'm still craving that kiwi-coconut concoction :( Later we went to the Gaudi park, which was so neat, he had quite the talent of making everything look like it was melting. While there, Chelsea took a picture of me that looked like it came straight out of The Ring. Luckily, my cell wasn't working... and I don't have voice mail. That night we went to an FC Barcelona game. I'll admit it, it was pretty awesome. One of the coolest hings I've ever experienced. Yea the game was iight, but it was being in the stands that was great. The fans are legit and the chants and noises are hilarious. As I was taking pictures as a ManU fan came up to me wanting to take a picture with a true Barcelona fan, hahaha. Messi made the winning goal that night, it was pretty legit to be wearing his jersey.

We ate breakfast at the hostel before we left (they had a Shakira CD on loop every day for breakfast). It was a nice topping to a pretty epic weekend. This weekend I'm going to Dublin with Grossbaum, I can only imagine what we're going to get ourselves into...