Adios Barcelona :(

On the ship for 1 day on the way to Italy.  Sad to leave Barcelona but so excited for the adventure we’re about to have in Italy.

Spain was definitely a party port…looking at my pictures I felt guilty that I didn’t bring my camera out as much when we went sightseeing. Here’s the recap of the last couple days…you might want to split up the reading for this because it’s going to be a ridiculously long post.

Woke up late on Day 2 because we had to refuel on sleep. Met with people for lunch on the ship (which wasn’t very good especially compared to the tapas we had the day before) I had to go shopping to get some shoes since the heels didn’t work out too well and I have the bruises to prove it :P Went to the same mall that we went to when I came here in high school. Forgot how awesome that mall was…took a lot of willpower not to buy a bunch of clothes.  We had a pretty cruise day. After shopping we went to get tapas. Found a deal of 5 euro for 3 tapas and a glass of sangria…really loving that sangria. We were in this really cute restaurant we found a block away from La Ramblas. (We figured eating ON La Ramblas would be expensive and not as good) We just kind of hung out there for an hour or two ran into some other people from America and Canada who had just gotten to Barcelona after being in Greece. They gave us some tips for Greece which will hopefully come in handy later. Went back to the ship for SIESTA (my new favorite time of day) when I went back to my room Rebecca (my roommate) was getting ready to go to Flamenco. She invited me and as much as I love my siesta, Flamenco sounded like fun so I changed and went with her. Flamenco was just as fun as I’d remembered, but I wish I would have just taken a nap and gone out with Laura and Danielle because Rebecca’s friends aren’t really my type of people. They’re all really girly and pretty insecure. They insisted on eating on La Ramblas I didn’t eat because what I had tasted of the tapas wasn’t good in comparison to what I had eaten earlier.  They said we were going to go straight out after Flamenco but instead we spent a good hour looking for a place to eat then settled on this place that wasn’t very good. One girl just started crying in the middle of the street because she hadn’t talked to her mom since she got on the ship.  I need to mention that these are all 20 year old people and there was ZERO alcohol in anyone’s system…trust me I’m as confused about it as you are.  I was literally praying that Danielle and Laura would pass so that I could ditch this group and go with them….which unfortunately never happened.

I feel like every night starts out in such a bad place and then comes around…I knew there was no way I would want to meet locals with these girls because they are embarrassing and really judgmental. They didn’t want to leave La Ramblas..but all the bars on La Ramblas are so American, and if I wanted to drink in America I would have just stayed in Pensacola or San Francisco.  There are a bunch of bar crawl promoters on La Ramblas and we kept turning them down, but one of them was very good at his job and offered us extras. We thought about it and decided to do it SAVED MY NIGHT…kind of. The girls were still lame, but I made really good friends with the promoter. His name was Chris and he was from England. We bonded and he talked about his girlfriend who took his baby to America and I talked a little about Kainoa. He watched out for us and upgraded our drinks to cocktails which was nice. I even made him some extra money by recruiting a good group of people to do the bar crawl.  First mistake was babying the girls I was with.  They already were looking down on me just for talking to people and making friends with the promoter...then they refused to drink their drinks and didn’t pay Chris’s commission. He brought the 15 euro cover down to 13 and forfeit his commission for us…I paid it anyway because he deserved it, but some of the girls didn’t want to which I thought was really rude and ungrateful.  ANYWAYS. Chris hooked it up and got us into the club earlier than the rest of the people in the pub crawl. We went into the VIP section and got champagne service. Coolest part was that when they brought out the champagne there were sparklers on them…yea we were in a VIP club with fireworks and champagne… FOR FREE. After our last drink the girls didn’t even want to dance and we left 5 minutes later. So lame. But it was a great night yet again.  Made friends with another “local” He’d lived in Spain for 2 years and basically told me his whole life story. He took his job very seriously and even dressed in a dress shirt and tie. Most promoters on La Ramblas were total douches but Chris saved my night from a group of really lame girls who complain way too much and cry about nothing.  I know it sounds like I had a bad night, but I had such a great time and considering the circumstances, that’s a good night to me =)

Day 3 was officially the best. Technically it was 3 and 4 because we just stayed up the whole night since it was the last day. Woke up very late and went shopping again. Laura and I bought hammocks which is going to be soooo awesome in Italy! (to be continued on that one…) Went back and took a quick nap and got ready to go see Kaskade. Pretty much everyone on the ship was going to this Kaskade concert. We went to Port Olympic first (where we were the first night) with Laura, Danielle, Paige, Lisa, and Jake. Hung out around there until 1am (when Club Opium opened) I didn’t drink very much just because of how much I’d had the night before and since we were dancing and there was a good chance of getting separated, I wanted to be on alert.  The music was awesome we danced ALL NIGHT until the club closed at 5:30am. Found a bunch of people from the ship and having Jake with us was awesome. His strategy for getting creepers away was by far my favorite I’ve ever seen. We give “the signal” and he comes over and grinds up on the guy until he gets weirded out and leaves…definitely one of the more entertaining parts of the night.  Paige and Lisa were really tired so they went back when the club closed, but we planned on staying up all night, so we went to the beach and watched the sunrise. Barcelona at sunrise was fun.  We put our feet in the water and just feeling the sand between my toes was exactly what I needed.  There were a bunch of other people sitting in groups and talking about their night. There was a guy doing fire poi balls on the beach which was AWESOME to watch.  We sat there for a good couple hours and talked and then a guy walked up and we just talked story with him for a while. His name was Tarantino (like Quentin Tarantino) and he was from Brussels. We went over to his group and met Fredriko from Argentina, another guy from Belgium whose sister went to UH last year and a girl from Italy whose name was way too hard to remember.  We talked to them until around 9am and then we left together to get food. Went on the subway to Alphons X which was the neighborhood they lived in. They went up to their apartment while we got pastries and brought us jackets (we were still in our club clothes and it was pretty cold).  Tarantino loved to talk about politics and the Belgium guy really liked hip-hop and would randomly just start beatboxing. Laura was IN LOVE with Tarantino haha. She and Danielle were like 10 year old girls with a crush it was HILARIOUS to watch.  After getting the jackets we went to this park and just talked and got to know each other. It was so interesting talking to so many people from such different places. Hard to explain everything and why it was so amazing, but we really just had great conversation for hours and I feel like I learned so much about the culture. It got to be about 11am and they were obviously tired, so they went to sleep and we went to get some café con leche (delicious). Made our way back on the subway to the ship changed our clothes and left for Parc Guell.  First we went to get some food. Jake and I shared a huge thing of Paella and we had some Tapas and more water. We got lucky and the metro station was right next to the restaurant we were at and started our last (and best) adventure in Barcelona.  Getting on the subway we were definitely so sleep-deprived it turned loopy haha. A man with an accordion and his partner with a drum started walking through the subway car and it was so funny and awesome. We started dancing and pretending we were a carousel. So much fun. Gave them a few euro coins before they left the car.  Made it to the stop for Parc Guell and walked out….in case you didn’t know, Parc Guell is at the top of a HUGE hill. Reminded me of the time we walked to Coit Tower in San Francisco but was so much more tiring because we climbed this hill sleep deprived, dehydrated, and in the sun.  It was so worth it though. Even though I’d been to Parc Guell before,  I had forgotten more of the detail of it and the other people I was with really would have missed out if they didn’t go. Parc Guell is this park that Gaudi designed with all these really unique and crazy buildings and landscape.  Not to mention it give you an unforgettable view of the city.  We went the long way around apparently and made it up to the highest point with the cross.  There was a man with a guitar and crazy glasses gettin down on his guitar. It was a fun time dancing up there with the great breeze.  We made it over to the center where the Hansel & Gretel house is and took some pictures (will share when I have good internet and can upload pictures) We had to leave in kind of a hurry because Laura had an FDP at 4pm and on-ship time was at 6, so we caught a cab. All of us passed out on the cab and we got totally ripped off. I am 99% positive that when we fell asleep she drove in circles. It was like a 5 euro nap, but split between 4 people it wasn’t too bad. At one point she GOT OUT OF THE CAB at the stop sign…I was just so confused and I wasn’t sure if it was actually happening or if I was dreaming it and it wasn’t until we got to port that we got out and said “were we driving in circles?” and we all agreed we were. We laughed all the way to the ship… then passed out.

[talking about Kainoa now…stop reading if you’re allergic to cheese]

 I was surprised how much Parc Guell reminded me of Kainoa and when we went to Barcelona together. Like I would see a specific place and remember standing there and stealing a kiss or even just walking down a particular path holding hands…it’s kind of grossly romantic but refreshing to actually remember stuff like that.  I missed him so much, like getting back on the ship right after seeing all the Gaudi buildings and it’s been about a month since I first arrived in Pensacola. It really really hit me last night that I have no clue when we are going to see each other again. I bought the total rip off $20 on ship calling card for 13 minutes and waited until he got out of class (12:30am for me) and got to talk to him for 6 minutes then his phone cut out..so I just called back and left him a message. It was the saddest thing. Luckily it goes in phases and it happened on the ship instead of in Italy when I’d be wasting precious port time crying about Kainoa...for once the heartache has good timing. It’s taking all my willpower not to spend another $20 to hear his voice again and only because Laura and Danielle promised that they would help me find a calling card for Italy until I find one…and then the first hostel or hotel we sleep at I’ll probably spend a whole night on the phone in the lobby…I’ll let ya’ll know how that ends up going :P