Temporarily Italian: Barcelona-- Part 2

Spain was a totally different experience that Paris. I was actually very excited to go-- having taken Spanish for 6 years in middle and high school, I have learned so much about the Spanish culture. It was so rewarding to go and experience it! Our time there was very limited, however. We flew in on Monday morning and left on Wednesday morning. It was essential that we made the most of our time there!
We found our hostel with no problems and met one of our friends there who wanted to go a few days before us. This hostel wasn't the greatest (we had to buy our own towels and the bathrooms were pretty dirty) but it was perfectly located on La Rambla (one of the main/busiest streets in Barcelona) and it was so social! They had activities planned for Halloween and every night a group from the hostel went out to clubs together, for those that don't know where to go. Plus, they pay for any cover charges which is very nice.
After checking into our hotel, we ate paella, drank sangria and just wandered by the port. It was so warm there! I think it must have been in the 70's. The sun was shining-- it couldn't have been more perfect. We tried to go to the Picasso museum but it was unfortunately closed. Instead we decided to go to the cathedral and walked inside. The architecture in Barcelona is outstanding-- not just the cathedrals but every building and every placa! Outstanding. That night we went to dinner with Ben (our Australian roommate that we met that day) to a tapas restaurant. So delicious! I can't remember everything we ordered but my favorite was definitely the potatoes. It was like a potato torta. Delicious! Now, while in Barcelona, it is necessary to experience the night life! We left as a hostel around 1:45 AM. Yes, the bars and clubs don't get busy until 2AM. It is perfectly normal to stay out all night into the wee hours of the morning. There are so many people out and about, you'd think it was the middle of the afternoon!! No wonder they have siesta, I would be exhausted if I did that every day. Tuesday was for some reason a holiday for Spaniards so most things were unfortunately closed. We made the best of the situation though. We walked to the Gaudi houses and saw them from the outside. Absolutely breathtaking. Then we walked to Gaudi's cathedral, named La Sagrada Familia. It is intredible to think that someone designed a church to look like this. I couldn't believe it!! From there, us girls took the train to Pueblo Espanyol. It was originally built for an architectural convention but then re-constructed because it became so famous. It is a small village that has stores from every different region of Spain. It is so quaint and has the cutest stores. We window shopped and took about a million of pictures. I know my mom would have loved it! That night we got a great recommendation for paella by the port. I decided to be adventurous and order seafood paella (while in Spain, do as the Spaniards, right?!). Poor decision. They put entire pieces of sea creatures in there. I think there was a shrimp that was literally just yanked out of the ocean. It was certainly an experience but definitely worth it. That night we decided to go out again because we only had two nights in Barcelona!! Unfortunately we were only able to for a few hours because we had to catch a bus to the airport at 5:30am. So, from the club, we took a taxi to our hostel, grabbed our bags, trudged through the rain to the bus stop, caught the bus and safely made it to the airport on time! Ireland, here we come!!! :)