HOLAt of fun in Barcelona (and Milan!)

I wrote out this post a while ago, but the first half of it was lost forever. Here’s my second attempt at explaining my fall break trip to Barcelona and Milan!

Barcelona

Things didn’t start out so well. I got to the airport fairly late, because I left my passport at home and had to go back for it after filling up on my snacks. Fortunately, I did not miss the flight and met up with Colleen and Lindsey (yes, another Lindsay, but she spells her name that lame way.) with plenty of time before the flight was boarding. I even grabbed a kava before having my own row on the flight! Apparently if you check in late, you get rewarded with your very own half of the 3^rd row. Colleen and Lindsey sat in a group of three, even though all the seats next to me were empty.

Coll and Lindsey cheers being en tiempo for the flight

 

We met up with Scott in Barcy (nickname courtesy of Lindsey Klein), after searching in vain for an ATM. We met up with our other gracious host (Jordan) and the final member of our party (Katyy).

 

Where's Colleen's arm?

We were craving Mexican, so we went out to a place called Margarita Blue, which had a really good vegetarian enchilada. After that we went out to this crazy place that had over 300 shots or something like that. Although I’m a grand drinker, I could not drink or afford all 300, so I settled with 3 or 4. My personal favorite was the boy scout shot, which involved a marshmallow lit on fire.

 

Everyone is amused.

Since there are not any pictures of the boy scout shot, I’ll talk about the one that is pictured (the condom shot). I have no idea how this was made, but it was pretty inventive and Colleen enjoyed taking pictures of Katyy and I attempting to drink this creation.

 

This guy's got the rig

Since Spaniards don’t go out until like 1 or 2 in the morning, the next day we were in no shape to go on any sort of tour of the city. So, we didn’t. 

It gets butter...

We got some baguetys and café, which turned out to be the strongest espresso ever. Katyy bought a block of butter, which was probably the best buy of the day. We went to the big market and got some smoothies. We paid one Euro for two different ones. My strawberry banana was the unanimous favorite, and I didn’t regret my decision to stick with the classic flavor combos.

We found this really pretty spot in the middle of the square with large beers and sangria. We ordered one of each and ended up staying there chatting with our waiter and people watching for most of the day. 

 

Double fisting...

 

Great conversation was had by all, and then when we went to pay, we received another round of beers with our bill, for free! After this beer and lack of food, we were all fairly hungry, but dinner places don’t open until like 8 in Spain. We had Mexican food again and tried the Spanish mojitos. Very good.

 

That night we had a low-key time out at the bars. It was raining at this point, so we couldn’t go anywhere too far. Oh, and then we went to this terrible club also, where we used our Czech to pretend that we could not speak English or Spanish. However, our Czech ended up consisting of nouns and tram stops, so that we could say things fast enough to seem fluent. I think Katyy said cucumber bridge about ten times.

Bill and Ted are twins!

The next day we went to the Sagrada Familia. I had already seen it, and so had Colleen, but it was cool to see again, especially because it is still under construction and will continue to be for a while. I want to see it when its finished!

Super touristy at the Sagrada

After that, we walked around and had a tour of the city. We saw some Goudi buildings and then Katyy and I decided it was time for a siesta, while Colleen and Lindsey went to the beach (bleh!) and got gelato (good choice, guys!)

So classy!

 

After that we made (well, I DJed and washed dishes) the best meal ever for BiScotti and Jordan. Jordan got a vegan version of the risotto, but we all had it with bleu cheese. So good. In addition to my DJing, HippoScottamus taught me how to wash mushrooms, since evidently putting them under some water just doesn’t cut it. You’ve been warned!

Too cas. for the club

Everyone decided to go out one last time and not sleep before our flight. This proved to be disastrous, because we were too casual to get into the club and then we took the incorrect train to the airport! Cab time! We barely made it.

Milan

Duomo!

It was then time to switch romance languages and have a classy time in Milan. We met up with David (Colleen’s brother)’s friends, and they gave us a grand tour of the duomo, castle, etc. We got great Italian food, and I had my first gelato of the trip. 

I was tired...

I thought this was called soccer...

 After a siesta (what do they call those in Italy?), we went to the Milan Futbol stadium, which was really cool. We won! Also, the crowd kept going wild, which was half the fun. 

Take 2 on the Duomo!

On Sunday we had free breakfast and checked out. Colleen can tell you about her Sunday, but I split off to meet up with my friend Giada! I had not seen her in four years, and it was great to meet her boyfriend and have two Italians show me the city. We went to sushi, which was awesome because I was Italian fooded out.
 

This luck is bull!

Giada took me to a huge mall decorated for Christmas and to this lucky bull. Apparently the bull failed me though, because finding the hostel did not go so well. I met Colleen and Lindsey at the metro.

 

Ciao to Milan! It was time for our flight back to Praha: Next up: Vienna & the UK