amigoyvino: BARCELONA

so... i've been to Barca before, but i must say.. this time we definitely did it right!!!

i spent most of my time with my common crew - Melissa, Jessica, Cristina, & Paige. before we left i planned which parts of the city to go to on each day and included the things i loved before and used the other free time to do the things i hadn't seen. we stuck to my schedule almost exactly, which made me feel very accomplished and i was lucky to be accompanied by such a beautiful group of women. we did the cathedral, Santa Maria del Mar, Plaza Cataluna and spanish pinchos on Friday, all the Gaudi sites by an extremely touristy double-decker bus on Saturday, and Parc Guell & the beach on Sunday. we also used our time away from Santander to indulge in some American stereotypes, Mcdonald's.. which you all know i can't live without.. and a LOT of english-speaking. the weather was about 60-70 degrees the whole time and without a cloud in the sky.. something we don't often experience in Santander. we laughed about 75% of the time there...and the other 15% we spent sleeping. all the others from our group of about 15 stayed at another hostel where we'd go visit and hang out there before going out because they had a very inclusive community.. and the owners of the hostel took the visitors out on the town.. so naturally we just all tagged along. we went to a discoteca called Razzmatazz on Friday night that was the biggest club i'd ever been to (with my friend from childhood, David, & his teammates from the Naval Academy's soccer team - big hit with the girls in my group). the club consisted of five different levels with different dance floors, music, and bars. it was awesome. we also went to Espit chupitos (shots) which i've been to before.. and it was some of the most fun i've had well... ever. they have shots on fire, with games, rules, and there are about 200 to pick from. we did some shopping as well.. of course - which seems to be the source of much of my bonding with these girls. we also did a great job of navigating the city.. which is not an easy task as it is one of the largest cities in Europe. as a group, we worked together and really got to see a large majority of the sites. we were exhausted from allll of the walking, bus/train traveling, dancing, and all the other fun we participated in.. so i'm taking this Monday off by resting, refreshing my Spanish with my host mom.. and adding all of these 200 photos from this weekend to Facebook. here are a few of my favorite pictures we took in Barcelona!: