Barca!

I knew any location after Italy wouldn’t compare, but Spain was a close second to being a top country on my list.

It’s truly funny how small the world is. We boarded our plane from Naples, Italy to Barcelona, Spain and who is sitting next to us but fellow FIE and American students. Some were even from Lancaster! After listening in on the bonding of my friends and these girls (I was too tired to fully engage in the conversation slash was across the aisle), we were off to the country of paella and sangria.

We walked for about 10 minutes down the famous street of Las Ramblas until we reached our air bnb. When we reached our destination, no one knew what to do. The door looked like it couldn’t even be opened and it had writings and graffiti all over it. We walked in to a dark hallway with the smell of raisins and yeast filling the air. We were all scared and thought this was where we may experience Taken, it’s actually happening.

After struggling up the stairs with my two suitcases (never again, diva), we walked into the apartment and to our surprise it was actually very cool and authentic. The main wall in the living room was definitely painted by someone on acid and this place may have been a brothel years ago but hey, it is a completely different experience than what Italy was and that’s what we needed, a bit of a change for the second half of our trip (we didn’t even have Wi-Fi for god’s sake).

Like I said earlier, paella and sangria. That was our first meal in Barcelona. Oh! And tapas of course.

We ended up deciding to go to a club that was recommended to us by many, Razzmatazz. What was so different from Barcelona and London (even Italy…we didn’t even go out at night there) is that I could start getting ready for the night at 9pm in Barcelona where in London, we would already be pregaming. We wouldn’t even go out until 1am in Barcelona and get back at 5am. Definitely something different than what I have been experiencing in the past few months. It was wild.

The next night we actually ended up going to Razz again because that’s where Abroadfest was (we didn’t know) but none of us cared because we had a blast there the night before. At Abroadfest as soon as I got out of the cab I see two people I know. One from Temple, one from Penn State. AND THEN another person from Penn State I knew, I saw inside. Unreal. In Barcelona of all places. In what world does that happen so easily?

Sleepless nights and hungover days did not stop us from seeing the beautiful sights that Spain had to offer. We went in Sagrada Familia, trekked through Park Guell, and people watched on the beach. Truly a beautiful city. The sights of Sagrada Familia and Gaudi’s architecture were unbelievable and unlike anything I have ever seen before in my life. Aside from that, I am not going to lie when I say that Barcelona was actually scary sometimes.

Two people out of the 13 of us got their phone pick-pocketed and one even got her cards taken. I constantly felt like someone was going to grab me, which was not a comforting feeling. Even at 6am when we left for the airport, there was screaming on the streets like the night was just getting started. Our street was filled with people still in clothing from the night before, drunk and ready to keep on partying. Like a dork, I put my backpack in front of me and held onto my suitcase for the life of me.

Other than that though, Barcelona was beautiful and a wonderful time. Italy was definitely more of a “take it all in and appreciate” kind of trip while Barcelona was more of a “turn up” kind of trip. I really got the best of both worlds this spring break.