welcome to barcelona

ok. so i didn't just arrive in barcelona. i've been here for almost three months now, long enough for me to call it home. it amazed me how quickly i became comfortable in bcn (people can't seem to figure out that bcn=barcelona, NOT BACON), especially because the big city is definitely a totally new environment for me. one of my first trips out of barcelona was to visit mi amiga catherine who is studying abroad in paris, france. paris, by the way, is an amazing city. lucky for me, cat is a history major and i got a fabulous tour, pretty much covered the whole city by foot. paris is a history book. everywhere you look, there is a story, a monument, a museum, artifacts. the parisians are...not my type (i have a good relationship with the spaniards) but either way, they dress in beautiful clothes and peacoats and boots and they have fabulous lives, with their fabulous wardrobes and precious little dogs....(dogs, everywhere). im not stereotyping nor hating on parisians, but...the snooty-ness kind of got to me and by the end of the trip... the combination of the cold, rainy winter weather and WOW paris is expensive, i was pretty eager to return to my home...which is the point of this story in the first place: i love barcelona.

i love barcelona for a lot of reasons....reason #1: the beach. one of the most important attractions that this city has to offer.. being close to a body of water (its not the pacific but the mediterranean satisfies me enough) was extremely important to me because leaving my happy spoiled life in orange county was not easy. i love the pacific..i love newport and corona del mar, down the coast to san diego and up the coast all the way to hella nor cal baby, san fran. so compared to the amazing beaches at home, the mediterranean is treating me good. directly in barcelona, the beach is ehhhhh so-so. sand is more like dirt and for the first two months (aug and sep) it was hard to find a spot to lay my towel. tourists everywhere. i did get the chance to see some other beaches just north and south of bcn. up north a few friends and i camped in a beach town called Tossa de Mar, muy muy bonita with crystal clear water. down the coast we took a day trip to a very small town called Sitges. this town is actually very well known, supposedly the "gayest" city in all of europe...to say the least, the streets were very colorful, as were the people and i do plan to head back down in february when spain celebrates 'festival.' another thing about beaches (not just in spain) and the beach go-ers is that they get naked. ya, it was weird at first. thats because i grew up in america, where we are afraid of nudity. its not uncommon to see a 65 yr old woman with her grandkids playing in the water, saggy breasts and all. gotta love it.

{{ barceloneta beach }}



i love barcelona, reason #2: nightlife. this probably should have been reason #1, so for the record, reason #2 is equally important (if not more) as reason #1. i'm of age here. i'd like to think i don't abuse that, but the past two and half months have pretty much been a loooong celebration of my 21st birthday...which isn't actually until may. i think i planned my study abroad experience in the most crucial year of an adolescents life. that year between 20 and 21 yrs old is like....well, i assume its pretty painful, just waiting for that first legal alcoholic drink. i'll have to ask my friends at home...so, the nightlife is...amazing. i did the whole disco-tech club scene for the first 2 months. but my body can no longer take the dancing until 6 in the morning routine. it really wears on you. although, every once in a while it is fun to go out and listen to bad techno music and if it's any night but saturday, its usually more worth it to stick it out until the sun comes up because then the metro re-opens and you don't have to take a cab (or stumble your way) back home. so if youre not into the disco scene, take your pick from a bazillion bars with different themes, atmospheres, music, drink selection, locations... pretty much anything you can think of, you can find. for example, near my house there is a bar called dow jones: inside the bar there are flat monitors above the bar with lists of all the drinks as if they were stocks on wallstreet... they are divided up into beers, wines, and different types of liquors. everytime you hear the 'ding' of the stock market, the prices on the drinks change, so the price you pay for a beer the first time can be more expensive or less the next time. another cool thing about barcelona is plaza catalunya. the big plaza at the top of well known street: la rambla. here, there are ALWAYS people out and about socializing, playing futbol, or just chillin... one of my favorite things to do is just walk down la rambla at night (with a friend of course) and just soak up the energy of the city. if you walk through the gothic area there are little plazas to the right and left and everywhere and you can always stumble upon a new bar or street performers or something to entertain you for the evening. cool thing about las ramblas: always pakistani's selling beer by the can for 1 euro, so if it's past 11 and you need something to drink, go to rambla...also, burger king sells beer (in two sizes!) and its cheaper then the food. que extrano.

{{ some friends and i from the dorms and some naked guys we found on the street }}


i love barcelona, reason #3: the fashion. i don't consider myself fashion savvy, i mean, i can dress myself in a matching outfit (or not cuz thats hip?) and i can definitely acknowledge what's cute and what's not, but here, there are such unique styles for girls and guys. let's start with the mullets. this is actually more entertaining than 'fashionable' to me. they are everywhere. i mean, i guess there are some cute ones, buuut i dont think i'll ever be completely down for the mullet. a few of my american friends have gotten their hair cuts here, and even after being totally clear about just getting an inch cut from the bottom only, they still end up with short short layers on the top of their head. whats up with that!! europeans cannot fathom a haircut with mullet-esque layers. que chistoso! the fashion in general is great here. i mean, i love the euro trash look but i can also appreciate the look of a beautiful leather jacket and boots to match. i like barcelona fashion because it is very diverse, and it is definitely more casual than other european cities... people dress in their own styles and don't get stared at for it either. a common look i've noticed is the uni-color outift. if you put orange pants on in the mornig, dont forget to wear your orange shirt, purse and shoes (different shades and all) too! i never knew they made so many orange colored things. dios mio!

{{ euro-mullet }}



i love barcelona, reason #4: festivals and puentes. puente: (1)bridge (2)to take a long weekend. definition number two...since i've been here we've had 3 and 4 days weekends too often i think, i really can't keep track. on top of bank holidays and festivals and saints days and all the other reasons barcelona tells us to not go to school or work, i already have a 3 day weekend every week. no school on friday. and its not that these holidays are just a day off. there's usually some kind of event or group of people or the whole city celebrating the holiday, so we're never lacking something to do. my favorite festival of all time: la merce. lasted 5 days i think (i can't remember exactly, it was a long weekend) and the ENTIRE city was involved in the festivities. live music everywhere. EVERYWHERE. stages and street corners and performers everywhere! one night, my group of american friends and i were wandering the lively streets of bcn on merce weekend and we overheard some spaniards saying they were going to the forum. so we followed. we didn't need to stalk these people for long before we realized that the line for the metro was so long and the metro was SO packed that we knew we were going in the right direction. people were screaming and singing in the packed metro cars and we just followed the crowd to this HUGE outdoor ampitheatre on the outskirts is of the main city. im going to say 100,000 people easily fit at the main stage of this place. we made our way to front row/standing area and rocked out to some pretty popular spanish bands everything from indie to hip-hop and other techno-ish stuff. that was just one of the events celebrating la merce weekend. there were also lots of parades throughout the weekend. one with giants. another with fire, where these dragon like figures walk down the street shooting fireworks and firesparklers at the crowd. also during the day, they have human tower competitions, and i learned that groups of people compete other groups from different neighborhoods (barrios). at the top of the tower or whatever configuration, a small child just climbs its way up. its crazy, and a big part of catalan culture. everything is so colorful and so alive, it's totally surreal that such a huge population can all come together for 5 straight days of celebration together. the best part about that weekend: it was all free. the shows, the music, the parades. the weekend ended on sunday night with the most amazing firework show i've ever seen. easily 45 min. long of straight explosions, with a musical soundtrack playing in the background. que buenisimo, indeed.

{{ corre-foc: in catalan means fire run. these are the dragons that shoot fire out at the crowd }}

{{ human towers }}




{{ a group of my amigos rockin' out at one of the concerts }}

{{ fireworks on the last night of the festival }}



i love barcelona, reason #5: travel. not so much barcelona specific, but because i am on the north mediterranean coast, i am so close to...everything! i hate to sound so spoiled, but really, i can just hop on a jet with a backpack and go anywhere in europe. travel is very convenient for two main reasons: europe is compact. there are so many diverse countries in such a small continent. also, travel within europe is fairly inexpensive. although, i'm still trying to adjust to the euro vs. the dollar, roundtrip plane tickets are comparable to a flight from northern to southern california...but even better i can go from barcelona to germany, or britain, or greece. cool life right? right now i have 4 friends studying abroad so i'm trying to get around this semester to paris, london, amsterdam and rome while i have a free place to stay. hostels are always fun too, and totally convenient for traveling students like myself. i've only been out of spain once, like i mentioned earlier, i visited my friend cat in paris, france. a couple weekends ago, two friends and i took a night bus to madrid (the capital of spain) and had a really lovely time there. we did the touristy things and we also just enjoyed the beautiful weather. the last day in madrid, we saw a bull fight at the plaza de toros. bull fights are very hard to watch at first...i did get desensitized as i watched one bull after another get stabbed about 20 times each. i don't think i'll ever go to see another fight, but i am glad i was able to take part in a very traditional part of spanish culture and history. my favorite part of visiting other cities is walking around all day and really taking in the people and places. its amazing that just 7 hours inland from barcelona, madrid is such a different kind of city with a totally different atmosphere. i enjoyed it thoroughly, as i did paris, but like i said from the beginning, its always refreshing and relieving to come home to barcelona.

{{ yes, i had to. my friend cat and i at eiffel tower }}

{{ le sacre-coeur : sacred heart :: paris, france }}

{{ notre dame :: paris, france }}


{{ tradicional bull-fight :: madrid, spain }}

i love barcelona. there are many more reasons. but since i got started on this blog so late into my trip, i don't think i can write anymore at the moment. i will keep an update on all my adventures in spain and around europe. until then... just know that barcelona is so guai.