When I left off last time (seems like ages ago!) I mentioned that Katie was coming that night to Barcelona. I was more excited than ever to see her and hugged her forever when she got out of the cab. Her friend from Rome, Kat, came with her and that night we just made a bunch of appetizers and drinks and sat around and talked all night. We woke up early Friday morning and went to La Boqueria (which they were obsessed with of course) and then met up with Lisa who took us to Cafe Vermouth where Jordan took she and her mom on their Gothic Tour.
Cafe Vermouth is a tapas bar that makes their own vermouth (a type of alcohol) and the tapas were delicious. None of us were big fans of the vermouth, but the tapas were really good! We then took the girls to Caelum (our favorite cafe above the old Jewish bath houses... remember?) and had coffee and pastries. It had been raining earlier that day and I was so bummed that we wouldn't be able to do anything outside (which is like everything worth seeing!) but someone was on my side because as soon as we left Caelum, the sun came out and the rain stopped for the rest of the weekend.
The other girls went home after that and Katie, Kat and I walked around the Gothic Quarter and shopped for a little while. I took them to Sagrada Familia, Hospital de Sant Pau and then to my school and they were in awe at it all (duh... It's pretty much incredible!). We went home and rested up a bit and Noelle's friend Andrea came from Madrid. Lisa came over and all 8 of us went to Champagneria. It was such a blast having such a big group there, and of course, we had an amazing time as always!
That night, we had friends over from SDSU over that were visiting from Italy and we all pre-partied at our apartment. We attempted to make it out to Catwalk, but Katie and I weren't feeling good and ended up going home and going to bed (even though I vowed to go out EVERY night until I left Barca.... it was much needed). Saturday morning, we woke up and went to lunch at the picturesque Port Olimpico at Opium Bar. We loooovvee this place. It has all white couches with silver accents and is right on the beach. We had a lovely lunch and even got asked for my number by our waiter (who ended up taking us out later that week). We layed on the beach for a while, got another massage and then headed to Arc de Triumph.
Much to our surprise, there was a HUGE Earth Day festival going on in the park/walkway and it was so cool. There were hundreds of little stands selling all kinds of jewelry, artwork and food. They had all different kinds of food, drinks and pastries and we were all in heaven. We walked into the park where we found it was even more happening. There was a group of guys in matching uniforms playing the drums and dancing, while everyone around, in a gazebo and on the ground, danced and clapped to the music. We were loving it. We hung out in front of the fountain for a while and met some really cool people from California!
That night, we made a really big dinner for everyone and invited Julia over to meet our friends. We had such a fun and long dinner of laughing, eating and drinking. We had planned to go to Razzamataz that night since it was our last weekend all together and we had never been. Razzamataz is the biggest club in Barcelona, it is HUGE, and costs 15 euro to get in (hence why we don't go there, we are used to getting in for free). So we all went to the club and had a really good time. We danced on all the different floors and on the platforms in the middle of the dance floor.
Making it home at 5 a.m., we went to sleep and Katie and Kat left early that next morning. The rest of us didn't wake up until 2 p.m. and went back to the Earth Day festival (starving) and ate something from every stand... haha, literally! We went home that night and studied for finals that we had all week (okay, I'm lying... I watched movies all night instead... but I SHOULD HAVE been studying, so let's just say I did.)
I had my Spanish final on Monday so Noelle and I studied that morning and did AmAzInG of course! We were so sad saying goodbye to our amazing teacher and promised to call her next year when we return to Barcelona. Glad to be done with that final, Ashley and I quickly wrote our papers for our Spanish Civ & Culture class and went to meet up with Vlad (waiter from Opium Bar) and a bunch of his friends at a popular bar called L'oveja Negra. We met up with him and his 6 friends and also our friends from school, Paige and Kelly. We sat for a while and drank Sangria, before heading down La Rambla to a club called Felini's. I had heard about this club but never gone. It was nice going with Spanish people because we didn't have to pay or wait in line... (usually, if a club prmoter doesn't throw a party there you would have to wait in line and pay).
It was sooo much fun and I met a really guy from Venice
Ash and I went home kind of late and all in all had a really good night! After waking up super late on Tuesday, Noelle, Ash and I met Lisa at the beach for Wok. Wok is a recent discovery, made by us, that is take-away bomb Chinese food. It is so good, and we got it (and some coronas) and went and ate it on the beach and admired the beautiful day. I must say, during my last week in Barcelona we had the most beautiful and warm weather... perfect for the beach. We layed on the beach for a while, got another massage on the beach from some Asian woman and then studied and wrote a paper all night for Cross-Cultural Management final... my last one!!! After doing extremely well on that final Wednesday morning, Noelle and I (celebrating the end of finals and officially being on Summer vacation) headed straight from school to the beach. We met our to friends Maureen and Hilary at the beach and stopped for lunch at a restaurant right on the sand called Princessa 23and we had sandwiches and sangria with cava (delicious and so refreshing!)Then we got lounge chairs and layed on the beach for about 4 hours. It was so relaxing (especially our massages... yes again!) and we had a little stereo the whole time. The weather was gorgeous and we had such a nice day.
I went with Noelle to the airport to pick up her mom and step-dad and it made me even more anxious to see my parents the next day. I got home and hurried to get ready to go out with all our friends that night. We have been having to say goodbye to 'the boys downstairs' one by one as they left and it has been so hard for us. They have become all four of our best guy friends on this trip and having them right downstairs has been soo much fun! We met them at a bar right by our house and said goodbye to Drew. Then we went over to Maureen and Chloe's to meet up with everyone before going to a club called Apollo. This club was way cool because it is a club inside of an old theater which makes it very different than what we're used to. We danced all night and had so much fun being with everyone on one of our last nights all together.
Once Thursday came around, I was so anxious and excited for my parents to come, but at the same time I was dreading having to leave Barcelona and say goodbye to all of my favorite people. I am in an internet cafe in Cadaques, Spain right now and don't have time to write the rest... so until then...
