Barcelona..

Happy 2009!!

Here we are in Barcelona, and it’s finally warm out! It has been in the 50s with some sunshine during the day. We arrived on Tuesday around 4pm and took the metro to our hostel. We were pleasantly surprised to find that our hostel is really nice. It is on the main shopping street in Barcelona and our room has a balcony that looks out onto it. We were told by some locals, and friends of Megan, that this is the best street in the city and we are really lucky to be here. We have a private room, but share a bathroom and kitchen. The shower is surprisingly really nice and really clean! Finally!

Yesterday we decided to go see Gaudi’s park. At the top there is a view of all of Barcelona. What an enormous city! We also walked around and saw the houses he designed. They are really unique and beautiful.

Last night was…. Interesting to say the least. We started the night with 4 bottles of champagne. Around 11 we all decided to head out to the Torre Agbar where we participated in Capanadas, which is a tradition when you eat 12 grapes in the last 12 seconds of 2008. It was really fun, until we discovered that our grapes had seeds in them… Hopefully we will still have good luck in 2009. After midnight we went to the Plaza Royale and it was insane!!! There was glass everywhere from people throwing champagne bottles at midnight, people selling alcohol and drugs on the streets, and madness everywhere. (here is a picture of me in the middle of all the glass, its kind of hard to tell)We decided we needed to get off the streets once a guy tried to grab Melanies purse out of her hand, and 20 euros from Megan. From there we went to a disco where people were dancing on the bar, on the tables, and celebrating 2009 in any way possible! Barcelona has had the craziest nightlife of any city we’ve been so far.
Today, since we got home at 6am, we woke up at 5pm. We went to dinner and just came back to our room. We all definitely needed the rest!

Upcoming events:

Tomorrow- visit Sagrada familia, which is the church designed by Gaudi. Saturday- Barcelona vs. Mallorca! Barcelona is currently #1 in the Spanish League. Sunday- the Picasso museum.