Waking up in Barcelona

Wow. What a day.
After struggling to wake up (my roommates and I slept 15 minutes into our alarm!) we were treated to a complimentary breakfast in the lobby! This is not usual for hostels...usually there are community bathrooms and you have to bring your own sheets, but this modern place has treated us very well.

After a yummy desayuno the group of us split into two? We were all going on a bike tour of Barcelona, however there weren't enough bikes for all of us at one time. My group was going first so we left the hostel with a counselor and walked across the town. We passed through La Plaza De Royal which is where we have been hanging out a lot. It is a beautiful square with a big fountain in the middle. We walked through some side streets, most of which have shops on the first floor and apartments on the top. We even felt  little drizzles from families shaking their sheets out and hanging them out to dry on their balconies above us.

Soon enough we reached our destination-then beginning of the bike tour! We all picked out a bike and after type necessary "don't-we-look-cute-on-our-bikes" pictures I got a little nervous about riding around in a busy city! 

Fortunately our tour guide named Midge (a cool Australian guy with a pierced chin) knew what he was doing. The bike tour was scenic and beautiful! Here is a highlight of some of the awesome things about the trip...
1) We drove down the beautiful beaches which are gorgeous! Unfortunately some of the people who chose to go topless on the beach are not so attractive...more like older larger ladies..yikes!
2) The statue of Christopher Columbus is a large statue of him pointing to the New World...but it wasn't until the statue (which is reaaaalllly high...u should google it) was fully mounted that they realized that he was actuallyvpointing towards Africa. The dude just can't seem to get himself strait! Did you k ow that syphilis was brought to the new world? If so I bet you didn't know Queen Isabella of Spain was the first to contract it (after d"discussing" plans with Christopher Columbus in the palace....sketchy, aye?)
2) We came to the edge of the dock overlooking the beach and could see the skyline of the city. The beaches were actually manmade for the Olympics years ago (the sand is imported from egypt) and when it storms really badly here the sand washes away to reveal bare rock.
3) When you turn around to see the city skyline the Torre Agbar is very prominent. Midge (our bike tour guide) called it the "worlds largest dildo". Google it and you will see why. At night it even lights up blue with red spots (this is suspected to be a reference from the architect of the spread of syphilis!)
4) I saw the last remaining bull fighting arena in Barcelona. We learned a lot about the treatment of the bulls and it is horrible! They have finallyvpast a law to close down this last arena in 2011 (it couldn't be shut down earlier because the spanish royalty forbid it until some recent stuff that would take too long for me to elaborate on!) Do you know those red capes they flash to make bulls run? Did you know that bulls are actually color blind? They only see black and white! They just chase after movement.
5) Marijuana is legal here and although I have NOT smoked it, now I can definitely identify the smell.
6) La Sagrada Familia is a beautiful cathedral designed by Gaudi. It was not completed before his death but is being worked on now and they are hoping to finish it I years to come. It is huge, detailed and truly a work of art. Google this for amazing pictures! I can't wait to tour the inside tomorrow!
6) oh there were soo many more funny and interesting things I could say, but I'm trying to keep it short!

After the bike tour (in which saw some beautiful things I did not mention) the group grabbed lunch then we split up to shop, go to the beach, or go to the Picasso Museum. I went to the museum and it was great! It was cool to see how he developed as an artist throughout the years. I do find it funny that all of his works from his teenage years Look very professional and mature while his adult works look like a kindergardeners notepad. I wonder if he would be so famous if the time periods were reversed?

For dinner we went to an authentic restraint where we were taught how to make Paella (a seafood and rice dish), Sangria (a sweet wine based drink) and Tapas (a traditional Spanish appetizer with bread and cheese, olive oil, tomato and meat). The paella was made from mussels, calimari, shrimp, clams, vegetables, spices, olive oil and rice on a huge skillet over a fire. I thought it was so good (although I did learn that I still do not care for mussels! ew) but I looked atound and noticed that everyone else only had a few bites! Few other people in my group liked the flavor of the paella, but I think it is definitely something you should try if you come to Barcelona. By the ay, Sangria is pretty great too :)

We eat dinner really late (the cooking class didn't start until about 9) so it was almost midnight  by the time we finished. People had the choice to stroll Las Ramblas (the shopping area which was still very busy with people), go to the hostel to sleep or go to a club. Wanting to make the most of my time here in Europa, I decided to try out the club. 

In most of Europe there is no age requirement for the clubs, but in Spain you must be 18. there were only 2 18 year olds teens on the trip and 2 teens with fake id's . A few 17 year olds like myself thought we could still get in and the counselors said we could go for it! We arrived in La Plaza de Real and stood a distance away from the club. The counselors told us that the club wouldn't really start to get busy and fun until about 1:30 and recommended that we send the younger looking people first to see if they could get in (if there were only 3 or 4 of us going it wouldn't be as much fun so if the younger people couldn't get in we would opt not to go). The group headed nervously over to the bouncers and my friend Tia handed them her ID. She is 17 but was born in 1993 so if they didn't look at the month she could still get in. We were disappointed when they all walked back to us and thught they were sent away for threir age. It turns out that the club doesn't even open until 12:30! Barcelona really is a late city...at this time there are still kids and families walking the streets.

We were going to stay and try at 12:30 but some of the girls were complaining and whining so we went back to the hostel. It's ok thouh because we will all be able to go clubbing in Florence, Italy at a club the counselors say is awesome.

I didn't end up getting to bed until 1:30ish because my roommates and some girls across the hall got together for some girl-talk. You know, boys and clothes and such. We are all so happy to be here and excited for the days to come!

XXX
Jess

P.S.  Sorry it took so long for me to publish this post... Wi-fi isn't always 100% great so I type up the blog and post it later. I hope thats not too confusing... I may be posting multiple days blogs in one day because internet is kind of unpredictable!