Staying the weekend in Barcelona

It was SOOOO nice to not travel this past weekend and stay in Barcelona. It wasnt as eventful as the past weekend but it was nice to relax and catch up on some sleep and just be in Barca. On Wednesday I went to broadbar with sam and grace, now named "abroadbar" because thats where all the americans go on wednesdays. I saw Aaron Krug, who is visiting his friends from Michigan. It was really nice to see him and catch up, and also funny. On thursday a famous Dj Afrojack was playing at Opium. Grace, Sam and I got these crazy leggings from H&M, but before we were leaving realized it was a club, and they have dress codes, so we changed into regular going out clothes. Sam had a friend from her highschool who is studying abroad in Rome come for the weekend. His name was Conrad and he is a football player from Bodin. His two friends were also all d3 football players and were huge, haha. Coley was in Venice for the weekend and Katie was in Sevilla, so we had room for the 3 boys to stay with us. Afrojack was really fun. The boys bought a table in VIP so we got to be in vip without paying for it. I hung out with maggie a lot, and saw aaron again. One of the boys, Doug, twisted his ankle and it blew up so i went home with him cause i was tired anyways. I made bomb quesadillas. I have become a decent cook. My specialties are shrimp stir-fry and a veggie egg scramble, and avocato toast. The next day I went with the 3 boys to get food, Grace and Sam were tired but I was hungry so I was like, might as well, and the guys were nice. We went to this place called Milk, that is an american breakfast place. It was really cute and the food was sooooo good. It was filled with Americans though, def not a local spot haha, but nice to have a good meal because spanish food isnt that good. After I walked around with them for a while, we walked along the water to the bottom on La Rambla with the statue of Christopher Colmbus pointing to America. We walked up La Rambla, and  I showed them La Boqueria and we got juice. Theres a random pet stand on La ramble that sells birds, hamsters, mice and cages and stuff, and they also had baby ducks "patos" in spanish, and they were soooo cute and I kinda wanted to get one for the apartment haha. Then we went to corte ingles, the huge department store. They tried on these funny tie die polo shirts and wanted me to take pictures. Kinda gay, but hilarious. Then went home to nap. Everyone went out to dinner but I didnt feel like going out and spending money so I just made dinner at home. That night we went to a club called Oshum, but i didnt really have fun and cabbed home bymyself, which now I am never going to do again! I am veryyyyy safe and responsible when Im out, but I realize i shouldnt even cab home alone, so not going to do that anymore. Plus I have so many visitors I wont ever be alone anymore haha. Saturday we went to Bo De B, the best sandwhiches in Barcelona, near the beach. The line was soooo long which sucked, we waited for like an hour ide say. But it is really good. We sat on the steps and ate. After the boys went to parc guell and me and the gals (grace and sam) walked around a little. We went to a costume store to look for costumes for carnival, but didnt get anything. Saturday night we we all went to dinner at this place near the beach called foc. The food was realllyyyy good. Grace and I split chicken chow mein and salmon, it was a random menu with all different kinds of food and so good. We got nachos as an appatizer and a bunch of sangria. After dinner, I wasnt in the mood to go out, and they were going to this one club called catwalk thats never fun. I wanted to go someplace new, but I didnt have anyone to go with. That was what was hard about the weekend, most people I knew were out of town, so I was stuck hanging out with this particular group, which was fun, but we dont always want to do the same things. They want to go to the american places a lot, and I want to try new places. So since they were going to that club I decided not to go out and just relax. I got to skype for a while with sam, then went to sleep. On Sunday we all woke up really late. Theres a bagel place in Gracia, the neighborhood above ours, that weve been wanting to try, but then they were all so hungover and wanted a real meal, so I decided to go there by myself. Gracia looks soo much different than our area, it reminded me of where my friend Lindsay lived in Sevilla, kind of a less nice area than ours. I found the bagel place but it was closed. There was this cool square there called placa del sol, and there were a lot of locals sitting at cafes and in the square and it was cool so I wanna go back there. I want to explore gracia more. Sundays in Barca are dead, almost everything is closed. There are random places open, i ended up getting this little sandwhich and a coffee and ate it as I walked. I met maggie and her friend from home at the costume store. I bought two masks and this flower-wing thing. We were not even sure if we were going on that night or just on tuesday to Sitges. Sitges is a little beach town about a half hour from barcelona, and is also the gay capital of spain. It is known for its Carnival celebration, and there are parades on sunday night and tuesday , "fat tuesday." We could have taken the train there, but the promoters, the Kikes, were setting up buses, so we did that because it is a lot safer and easier. We wore our checkard leggings and our costumes and everyone was drinking on the bus to sitges. It was sooo fun when we got there! It was me, maggie, her friend catherine who goes to miami of ohio and is HILARIOUS, and grace and sam. We walked around and went into some bars, people were everywhere partying in the street. They bough masks on the street. Then we got subway haha, and it was soo good cause I miss turkey haha. Then we went to get spots to see the parade. There were all these floats and people dressed up. It was like halloween, and also like kind of likfe lovefest in SF, but way not as cool haha. We all had to much fun, we had a champagne bottle and drank it in the street and watched the parade and talked to people standing near us. There also was a churro stand right there so I got churros which are amazing. Then went back to the bus and came home. Monday we didnt have school, but again we slept in. I wanted to go to the gym and got dressed and went, but it was closed. So i decided just to take a long walk around barca. I walked through El born area, and then to Barceloneta, and then walked to port vell, which I have never been to. Its part of the marina where all the boars are. There is an imax theater and a huge mall down there, and a lot of restaurants. It was cool discovering new parts of the city. Then I walked back through el born and back up my street through the arc de triumph. On tuesday sam and I realized our sports midterm paper was due wednesday and were going to sitges again that night so kind of panicked. I was writing mine on if the NBA will expand to Europe. When I told sam a while ago that was my topic but i didnt really know anything about it, he told me everything, and even surprised me by e-mailing me an outline of what i should write in my paper, with sources and everything. Hes so smart and also knows like everything about sports so he said it was easy....sooooooooooo amazing of him. And sooooooo helpful when I had one day to write the paper. Tuesday night we went back to sitges! it was pretty much the same, but more people. I hung out with the berkeley crew this time, like Kaite, Gaelin, Celine, Krysia, Katrina, and Annie, and we had a lot of fun. We also ate a lot of churros. We stayed pretty late and walked in the parade at the end. I took the bus with grace and sam and maggie through kike, but they all took a bus through Katrina's dorm and I went back with them and their bus gave out sandwhiches! They were sooo good I had a ham one. I beast mode finished my paper that was due that day, but my classes arent until 4:30 so i had all day. I went to the buffet thats under my school and just sat there by myself and worked on it more. The food was really good, all you can eat for 8 euros is a pretty good deal. I made a huge salad and there was veggie paella that was sooooo good. I didnt want to go out at all by Katie forced me to go to this free dinner thing at a one of the clubs, Shoko. A lot of the clubs are restaurants during the day and this one was supposedly a free sushi buffet. It wasnt sushi though it was like chinese food of fried rice and chicken, but pretty good. And we got 3 free drinks. It was cool because it was a different crowd, it was put on by one of the other promoters whos not as popular. They had people doing face painting there, and that was the best part! I got my face painted and it was all glitterly and cool. Katie and Celine got it too and Katies and mine were kinda weird looking but still cool. We came home early, and the roomies hadnt even left yet to go to abroadbar so we hung with them, then katie and I talked for a while. Thursday I made the best veggie scramble for breakfast then walk around the gothic area before class. After class I went to the gym then MET BRETT AT PLACA CATALUNYA!!!!!!!!!!! Its soooooo fun having him. Hes going to make a guest appearance on the blog!!! We went home to the apt then the two of us walked to dinner at a tapas place i heard was really good. It was an hour wait, but we snagged a spot at the bar. It is the best tapas restaurant in Barcelona. It was filled with locals. We got shrimp skewers, mini hambuguesas, patatas bravas, a cheese one, a ham and lettuce one, and a tortilla one. It was actually amazing. I want to go back and make a reservation and sit inside at a table. Maxine, from kappa, who is studying in Florence is here for the weekend with another girl from cal, Stacey. Coley also has all these friends visiting, and everyone is staying with us. It was kinda hectic, but fun. Sam and Grace left really early for belgium so we had enough beds, cause coley bought a double air mattress. We hung out at the apartment with Maxine, Stacy, Katie, Gaelin, Coley, her cousin Kelsy, and their friends from home. Then we went to this club called Sutton which was a new one! It was really fun. We danced a lot. Brett and I stayed out till 6am hahaha. Great first night.

Prague Pics!

The beautiful buildings surrounding Old Town Square

Middle of Old Town Square

The Astronomical Clock

Me!

Katie and Haley walking across the Charles Bridge 

Kolkovna. Pilsner and Goulash

Haley and I on the bridge before the Charles

View from Prague Castle 

The Lennon Wall

Wesceslas Square

The christmas in a jar. and wine in a box. 

Berkeley Girls

Karlovy Lazne top floor

Hostel Elf

Jewish Cemetery 

best thing ever. fried cheese

MADRID!

This past weekend we went with our program to Madrid!! It was me and my roommates, minus Katie because she went to Paris with her parents. It started off on a horrible note though. We were meeting the group at the train station, and took the metro to get there, and it was 7:30am, aka the metro was packedddd with people all going to work and what not. We were literally sardines on the metro, it was awful. We had to walk a while through the metro once we got there to get to the train, and as we were going up the final escalator I noticed that Grace's bag had ripped. When I told her and we looked at it, it was a huge straight slit down her Longchamp, and we immediately knew she had been pick-pocketed. She cried and fell to the floor, it was literally the scariest and worst moment of this entire trip. Her purse was inside the bag and was gone- it had her wallet, ipod, and passport. It was so insane, that she was so unlucky and how scarey it is that these people do this, coming that close to her with a knife to cut the bag and none of us or she didnt even notice. Luckily she called her parents right away to cancel the cards, and we were meeting the cea group so the staff helped us and told her to go to the main office. Sam stayed back with her which was sooo nice, and they went to the police station and cea campus to deal with the passport. I have always been sooo careful with my bags whenevr im walking or on the metro, but now I am even more paranoid about it, which kinda sucks I never feel completely safe when Im walking around. But this was a major wake up call for all of us to be really careful, and she handled it really well. Her and Sam got on a train later that day and met up with us in Madrid. After the initial disaster, we ended up having a great time in Madrid. The train was fun, we had a little table at our seats. When we got there we walked to our hotel and it was gorgeous weather out. After putting our bags down we walked, with a random other group of girls, to find somewhere to eat. We went to the Plaza Mayor, the big and famous square in the middle of the city. There were all these street performers there, and restaurants line the whole square. We ate at a place in the square, and I got a Spanish Tortilla which is an egg and potato thing on a sandwitch. Then we went back to check into the hotel, and our room was sooo nice. Huge bed and cute little sitting area with a great view of the beautiful buildings on the street. I roomed with Coley and it was soooo much fun. The main group of us was Me, Coley, Maggie-coleys friend from wisco who lives on our street and weve all become really close with her, Alyssa-another wisco girl whos nice and from chicago and same sorority as Ali Pollan, and her roommate Kristin, whos this ginger who goes to Cornell, and literally my new favorite person shes sooo funny. So the five of us went to this huge park. Katie had gone to madrid a couple weekends ago and told us to go to the park and rent boats and to BYOB and drink on the boat, so we did. We all got champagne, and sat in the park in the sun and drank and hung out. It was such beautiful weather. The park was hugeeeee, and it was really cool. So many people were out. Then we rented the boats that rent around a little lake thing in the park in front of a really cool monument. Me, Alyssa and Kristin were on one and Coley and Maggie on the other. We drank more on the boats, and Coley ended up beeing in a bag in the boat because she had to pee so bad. It was literally the funniest thing everr!! Cause she doesnt  go out that much, it was so fun to see her hammered hahahaha. Then I wanted to go to the Prado, because it was right there, but no one else wanted to and we ended up at McDonalds hahaha. I didnt eat though! for once. Then we walked around our area a little more then went back to nap. We went to dinner with the girls and Grace and Sam, and met up with Maggie and Coleys guy friend from wisco who is studying in Madrid. Out hotel was in a great location, we could walk to all the cool, tourist areas. We met him in the Placa del Sol which is the HUGEEE square/area, said to be the actual center off all of spain. We walked aroun the area called Sol, which was packed with bars and restaurants and sooooo many people. We ate at a random place that had italian, spanish and argentinian food. Everyone ordered pizza, and I got a caprese salad and a chicken empanada and everyone was really jealous cause mine was sooo good. After din half the group went home, but I stayed out with Maggie, Kristin, Coley, and their friend. We got beers at this bar/sandwitch chain of spain called Cien Montaditos that were really cheap. Then Coley and Kristin bailed so it was only me and Maggie left as the troopers who wanted to experience Madrid. So the 3 of us went to another random bar near Plaza Mayor. We made friends with the bar tenders and it was really fun. We were the only americans, definitely a local spot, which I love. Then he took us to a club, not any of the famous ones we have heard of, but it was also mostly locals and we danced and had a lot of fun. The next day we ate breakfast at the hotel which was SOO bomb. Literally such good eggs, fruit, everything, and best croissant ive ever had. Then we went on the tour that our program provided for us. WE got on buses and had tour guides tell us about sites and things we were passing. Not gunna lie I fell asleep for most of it, oops. We got off the bus at the Palace Real- the Royal Palace of Madrid. It was huge and all white and really immaculate. It had 1800 rooms inside. I actually remember some of the history of it that the tour guide told us but am too lazy to write it in my blog. After we walked through the old town, saw this really cool market that looked like it had a lot of good food, and then ended in Placa Del Sol. There was a protest going on, people are mad that the president of Madrid, who is a woman and the airlines companies are making them private instead of public, and were dresses in mostly red and had signs and whistles in the square. It was cool to see. There are soooo many people in Madrid, that wAs one thing I didnt like was how crowded it was. Then the girls went to lunch at a cute sandwhich shop with the mini sandwhiches. I got a ham one, chicken one and turkey one and the turkey was the best. Then we walked to the main shopping street called Gran Via. Off of the main street was a really cool little street that our tour guide said is the trendy area of the city, and a big gay population. The stores were soo cute, but mostly really expensive. Then Kristin and I wanted to go to the Prado when everyone wanted to go back and nap, so the two of us went. We got there at 7 and i thought it closed at 9 but closed at 8, so we got rushed out and didnt really get to see everything. But we did see a lot of the christian art, and a lot of spanish art. We saw the famous painting the Annunciation by Fra Angelico, that I had to write a paper about in my class at cal, so that was cool. Then we saw some Goya, and Velasquez just before getting kicked out. Went back to the hotel to shower and get ready and talk to the group. We were told to go this bar called El Tigre that gives you free tapas with the drinks, so we were going to eat there for dinner, but it was packeddd so we went to a trend chinese restaurant near by to eat. It was really good, I know not very Spanish, but were kind of sick of spanish food. After we went back to the bar and fought our way in to order drinks. We got these hugeeee mojitos. The free tapas were soo good! we got this good cheese, chicken wings, sausage, and patatas bravas. It was a cool local place and the bar tenders were really nice, they kept calling us Rubios, which means blonde. Walking home Grace sam and maggie bought these sparkly top hats from a vender and I go these huge star glasses, it was soo funny and the walk home through madrid at night was really fun because it was so lively around. We went back to the hotel to get ready and meet up with more people from our program. We hung out with Lucy and Colleen and some of their friends. Then we went to the world famous club Kapital. I think Kim, Steph and Brett have all been. It is 7 stories! Each floor was different. Our group got separated, and it was impossible to ever meet up, but we still all had fun. On Sunday we went to a flea market near by. It was HUGE and there were probably a million people there. Madrid is also very hilly, so we walked around this one street with vendors and then got to many more streets. There were some cute things but it was too overwhellming to even shop. I ended up buying a green case for my blackberry for 3 euros but thats it. Then our group wanted to do differenet things, like nap, eat, or just sit, so i decided to go off on my own. It was the best decision ever. It was sooo nice to finally just do what I wanted and not have to deal with a group and everyones opinion. I walked around the flea market more and took some cool pictures. Then I went to another famous museum called Reina Sofia. It was a lot of contemporary art which was really cool. The building itself was amazing and clear elevators that take you to the top with cool views. It was so nice just going throught it at my own pace. I saw works by Miro and Dali, and it is famous for having a lot of Picasso and his gamous huge painting Guernica. After I sat in the sun and got this really good pasta, then went back to the hotel to meet up with the group and leave for the train. Although exhasuted, sunday night I met up with Sam's best friend from hs who is studying in Florence and was in Barca for the weekend, at George Paynes an, Irish restaurant/bar. It was really fun and im glad I got to see him. They had karaoke there and it was hilarious.

Random Barcelona

Last week, during the week I hung out a lot with my friend Lucy from my photojournalism class. She is from pasadena and goes to USF so im soo excited to hang out with her next year in the city. Her apartment is in the gothic quarter, literally 2 minutes away from school, so we met there and hung out and then did our photo project on bike riding in barcelona. It wasnt that good. We walked around and took pictures and then met up with her roommate Colleen at this little restaurant. We ordered Sangria and some tapas, but then realized we only had a half hour before class, and it happened to be the strongest sangria i have everrrrr had and we had to down it, sooo it was kinda funny going straight from that to our class to present our photos. We got an A. Classes are the biggest joke. I really wish all the grades transfered back to berkeley because im getting legit A+s on everything. Got the highest grade on my Sports and Culture midterm, and an A+ on my photography and photojournalism paper. My teacher for photo and photojournalism, Fred, it the best i loveee him. He is literally the most hilarious person ever and shows us such interesting things. Another day Lucy, Colleen, and their friend from home invited me to get lunch with them at this chinese restaurant that was sooo good. I had been craving asian food, and another coincidence, their friend from usf is studying in berlin and is best friends with Charlie, Danielles
"bf", and Dylan from SAE at cal. And im going to Berlin the same weekend as Lucy and Colleen so we'll probably hang out with them. I also love that I can walk to class. Its about a 20 minute walk, but its beautiful and when its sunny and nice its so fun. Night life has been more mellow recently. Im so exhausted from traveling so its nice to relax in our apartment. Last night though I met up with Katrina, Krysia, and Celine from cal at this bar off las ramblas called Ovella Negra, there are two and this one is smaller and I really liked it.