Breadstick Mountain

Yesterday, despite the rare, gloomy weather here in Barcelona, a group of 5 of us from the residencia got up Spanish-early (9 AM) to head to Montserrat. Montserrat is a steep, jagged mountain that reaches up over 1200 meters. Although it cost 10 euro round trip and left your glutes unhappy, it was definitely worth the money and effort to see the rock formations and the view at the top. It was by far the coolest site I’ve laid eyes upon here in Spain.

The day started off with a train ride out of Barcelona towards a small town about an hour away called Manresa. As the train was nearing the station, Montserrat loomed over as this standalone mountain reaching up into the clouds. About a third of the way up the mountain, you could see the Monastery (on which construction started over 1000 years ago) and Abbey perched almost precariously between the rock faces. It was quite a site to pull up too, especially since it looks nothing like the area around the city.

A gondola took us up about half the mountain until we reached the Monastery. The ride up was almost vertical, and we had our eyes on Kyle because we knew he was afraid of heights. We headed over to the Monastery once we got there to check it out before the hike. The inner sanctuary was ornate, filled with Latin just so the builders could show off their vocabulary, and surrounded by smaller cathedral rooms dedicated to saints. A couple of the rooms were dedicated to reclusive monk hermits that had lived in caves in the mountain! But the main attraction, high above the altar, was the Black Virgin statue of Mary holding a young baby Jesus who is holding a pineapple. That last detail is a symbol of both livelihood as well as a strong case for starting your baby on the pineapple diet.

We got pretty restless inside the Monastery since it was crowded and slow moving, so we burst with energy toward the start of the hiking trail. The trail ended up essentially being a two-hour Stairmaster. It was comprised of the six of us understating how tired we were. We climbed about 600 meters in all, but the last 30 minutes of the trail was hidden in trees, so we had no idea how high we were until we came upon the top pretty suddenly. It was an awesome surprise. The pictures can’t convey how steep the drop was all the way down the mountain. We had gone from sea level down at the train station to 1250 meters above, so it was pretty amazing to look straight down on the valley below.

View from the bottom of the gondola.

Just starting the ascent and we're already this far up!

Check out that beanie, Kaley.

A good view of the rock faces right behind the Monastery.

The inner sanctuary of the Abbey.

All of us guys eatin' their bocadillos. Not pictured: Megan, who also ate a bocadillo.

What poor souls had to lay down the concrete for all these stairs?

Not even close to the top, but already cool looking. 

Megan looking like a mountain woman. 

The sun breaking through the clouds towards the top. 

Close to the top!

I did not expect to see snow in Spain. Also note that I'm sporting the basketball shorts like a true Californian. 

That's 1250 meters (about 4000 ft?) of sheer, straight drop. 

Me and Megan atop Catalunya. 

As we were standing at the top, throwing snowballs and yelling into the rocks below (ok, maybe that was just me), it was hard to believe that we were just outside of sunny Barcelona. I hope I won’t forget being at the summit of Montserrat for a long time. I definitely recommend it to anyone traveling to Barcelona…a lot of history and a rewarding hike thrown into one.

We were all exhausted on the train back. I, for one, drooled while sleeping across from a German man and woke up to his disapproving eye contact.

Cuentito #4 - It is a mundo pequeño

Hola a todos. I thought I'd take this break between classes and use it to tell you a crazy, crazy story. Maybe you had to be there...but you can imagine how this blew my mind.

Last week, a bunch of the guys from my residencia and program went to a bar off Las Ramblas (a main artery street here) (yes, the drinking age is like 15 here) (and yes, Mom and Dad, I drink responsibly at a pace akin to the tortoise in the "tortoise and the hare" story) (the hares in this case being all other American students in this program besides Megan... but slow and steady wins the race!). Ok, I´ll stop with the parentheses. This is all necessary build-up for a very short story.

OK, so we go to this Bar - L`Ovella Negra - and it´s in this random alley sidestreet (but well lit and safe) off Las Ramblas. I was having a cheap Spanish beer with 8 of us around a table, and the bar was filled with Spaniards...on a Monday night, of course. I look up and notice a white guy that looks American based on the way he was wearing goofy running shoes and an Eddie Bauer-looking sweater. Then I realized, I recognize that anti-fashionista attire, and I recognize that white man!

Of all places and of all people, there was Bill Fanning - my professor in Marketing at Berkeley all of last semester. He taught a class of 25 of us, so it was small and I feel like I actually got to know him as a professor (most of my professors a Berkeley give lectures for 100 people and don´t really bother fraternizing with students). I couldn´t believe it. I had to do like 10 seconds of double-takes because my brain couldn´t handle the two worlds colliding. I walked up to him and said hi, and of course he was pretty shocked too. Once the surprise wore off, he said he was there with his son who had studied abroad in Barcelona and now lives there (oh, that´s an interesting idea?). Luckily, I got a good grade in the class so it wasn´t awkward talking to the guy that just put me through a hard final a month ago. He was heading back to Berkeley the next day because classes started on Wednesday.

So, moral of the story is don´t get embarrassingly drunk in a bar, even 15,000 miles from school, because you might run into your professor! (I, of course, was successfully sober and am referring to a hypothetical situation).

What a small world.

More sights and sounds from Santiago!

Here's a little video I put together from the trip...enjoy!

PS - Full screen it if it's too small

Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña

Buenas noches y buenos dias a todos!

This weekend, we found ourselves trekking through parts of Spain that we hadn't even read about in the travel books. It was fulfilling to tackle Santiago de Compostela and A Coruña without the use of tour buses, travel guides and yelp. We stumbled upon centuries old cathedrals, a Roman lighthouse that dates back almost two millennia, and tapas made from coagulated pig's blood...(one of these things is not like the other). 

To give you an idea of the timeline of our trip, we left Barcelona for Santiago de Compostela on Thursday afternoon, and on Saturday we headed for a day trip to A Coruña. Yes - that's like a vacation within a vacation within a vacation - like Inception but with vacations. We got out of the bus in a dilapidated, lackluster part of Santiago and thought to ourselves, "is this it?" Luckily, it wasn't. As we walked to our hostel, "Roots and Boots," we passed through the Casco Viejo. This is the old part of the city that draws the most tourism for its centuries old buildings, narrow cobblestone streets, and famous Cathedral in the center of old town. We had fun the first day exploring the Casco Viejo and finding a good tapas restaurant to eat at night. We told the waitress to recommend something strange for us to try, and she recommended Octopus. No big deal. What we didn't realize is that we had already ordered ourselves something called Chorizo de Sangre which is literally sausage made of coagulated pig's blood and rice. It was good until Megan asked the waitress - "this isn't made of meat is it?" and the waitress lamented the gross truth to us. It was still good though - just a little savage. 

First Ryanair discount flight exprience - satisfied!

Cathedral of Santiago. 

The narrow streets of Santiago in Old Town. 

The beach of the Peninsula. 

Chocolate with churros...won't be forgetting this any time soon. 

Saturday was a fun day of exploration. We headed from Santiago to the coastal city of A Coruña by train. We walked all around the peninsula in the cold sun, discovered the promenade full of shops and candy stores, and saw "El Discurso del Rey" - also known as The King's Speech when not dubbed over in Spanish. The coolest part of the day was walking around the ruins and Torre de Hercules on the far end of the Peninsula. I must admit, however, that the mock-Roman ruins were disappointingly not Roman and much more recently made than the cool, 2nd century AD tower that they share the coast with. The pictures, complete with green grass and turquoise water, can do most of the talking here!

Mock-ruins!

Looks kind of like St. Andrews? Are these OB posts? nope...

More mock ruins. 

Green grass, blue water and a tower. 

Ok, didn't notice my pocket was open. Don't fall out, train tickets!

Tower of Hercules

Cool surf fountain!

We ended the trip this morning by attending mass in the 1000 year old cathedral of St. James. The inside was ornate and unlike anything I had seen before. The priest was just as old as the Cathedral itself, so if I'm honest I'll say that I spent most of the time gawking at the interior instead of listening to his quiet Spanish. It was awesome to attend a service in a place that has represented spiritual commitment and sacrifice for hundreds of years, so far away from home. There were a handful of "Pilgrims" (complete with huge backpacks and walking sticks) that had braved the way along the 800 km road to Santiago and ended their journey in the Cathedral with us. Maybe one day I'll come back to Santiago after completing the trek, because it's definitely a place I'll want to revisit when I'm older! Videos to come soon. 

Inside of the Cathedral. 

In front of the altar. 

View from the Cathedral out on the Plaza. 

Until next time!

Magical fountains and feasts on mountains

This was quite eventful weekend filled with many firsts in Barcelona. For one, a group of us went to something called the magical fountains of Montjuic - it's a 20 minute fountain show in front of the National Palace of Catalonia. It was awesome and complete with an intense Opera score...the entire approach to the palace is filled with fountains, and it was very very cool. If there's one thing I've learned so far here, it's that the US needs more palaces and castles.

On Saturday, my friend Blaise and I (pronounced "Blaze" - gnarrrly) walked around the upper parts of the city and the famous Parc Guell designed by Gaudí. It was a intricate and hard to describe park - more curvy buildings, color tiles, and ceramic animals. The style of Gaudí  is free-flowing natural - it definitely fits in Barcelona. I'll post pictures when Blaise burns them on his computer. I'll need to fire up my own camera here soon.

While I was strolling around the upper-city, Megan was atop the mountains the boarder the city in a place called Calçotada. Once Sunday came, it was my turn to experience this unique place. In a nutshell, Calçotada is a place atop a mountain where one goes to engage in a savage, messy feast. Their claim to fame is the "Calçot" which is an onion that you eat as if it were hanging from the ceiling. Other highlights from the meal included unlimited lamb shanks, sausage, these foreign white beans, eggplant, chilis, salad, potato something, bread, lemon meringue, and wine drank creatively from a thing called a porrón. It was not a classy meal by any means - what meals with bibs are classy? - but an enjoyable feast nonetheless. I finally got to eat like an American again! Here are some pictures and videos from the weekend....

Above is a glimpse of how packed in we were at our tables, wearing bibs and drinking wine savagely from the porrón (see that guy in the back?). The challenge was to draw it away from your mouth as far as you could without spilling. Few succeeded. 

Here's my friend Diego eating a Calçot...you peeled away the skin which left a delicious onion thing to dip in some red tomato sauce. You can see by my vague descriptions that I wasn't exactly sure what we were eating, but I ate nonetheless. 

Lamb shanks and sausages - this is what I imagine those vikings from the Capital One commercials eating for dinner.

Through the window you can see how high above Barcelona we were. Also, you can see my friend Kyle who is undoubtedly eying the highly-demanded garlic and tomato bread. 

This is the view from atop our 7-floor residencia around sunset. Pretty cool!



A bit of the fountain show from last Friday.

Lamb heads, anyone?

The last couple days have brought about more adventures here in the city. We discovered the Boqueria, which is a gigantic, high-quality outdoor food market off Las Ramblas, we toured an older part of the city called el Raval neighborhood, and we caught sight of the famous "pooping man" at the mall by the beach. Rather than tell you about it through words, I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Above is the Arc de Triomf. We walk by it every morning on the way to class...there's another, more famous Arc de Triomf in Paris. Ours, however, is cooler. 

You can only be in Spain when you see a 30-foot statue of a pooping man inside a high-end mall. Spaniards are very proud of him...he is always seen in the back of the nativity scene doing his thing while the 3 wise men are chatting it up with Jesus. Spaniards see this as a symbol of the cycle of life...giving back to the earth. How about one for the front yard next year Mom?

This building made me feel as though I was back in Berkeley. It's in the Raval neighborhood, and it's been occupied for a number of years. From what I know about "okupación," it's a form of resistance in a public building where you take it over and the cops can't get you out. You also paint the building and forego showering. 

These are a couple of pictures from the Boqueria...this market was HUGE and filled with fresh produce. Everything you can think of. Many restaurants must do their shopping here in the beginning of the day. It was a bit pricey, but fun to walk around in.

Chocolate! Even the shiny looking pearls in the front right. The lighting in the market made everything look 10 times as good. 

Except this. 

This is the view from the top of our residencia in the Poble Sec district. Behind us, you can see that it's not the wealthiest part of town. Don't be fooled though, because it's not too run down. There are plenty of nice shops in this area, and it's pretty safe.

This is the view off the south side of our roof...pretty cool, huh? It's the Palace of Catalonia, and it's been turned into the national museum of art. 

So, things are going well here in Barcelona. Two of Five classes have gotten started, and every day has been relaxing, adventurous and sunny. Tonight I'm going out for tapas with the other groups led by our Spanish GAs. I'll probably try some interesting stuff!

For here or to go?

Something that I'm picking up on here in Spain...they don't eat the American 3 meals a day as we know it, and unlike Americans they aren't constantly snacking on Lays and Cliff Bars throughout the day. Here's what I've deduced of their 5 meals thus far:

Desayuno (Breakfast): Normally a coffee and something as small as toast, bread and some ham to start the day.

Almuerzo ("Lunch"): Something like what we know as brunch - they sit and have another cafe con leche and maybe a bocadillo (a long, thin sandwich with a slice of meat).

Comida: This is the biggun...take a break out of your day around 2PM to have a 3 course lunch - primer plato, segundo plato, and a postre. Some of our lunches so far have gone for beyond two hours!

(Siesta around 4)

Merienda: This is an optional evening snack after siesta...this may be tapas or other finger food to keep you going until dinner.

Cena: Around 10 PM (After my parents normally go to bed) - this is wine and tapas, or something much smaller than the 2PM meal. That way, you aren't falling to sleep stuffed to the brim.

It's an interesting schedule isn't it? Some of you might be asking, "Well with all this eating and napping, when do they work?" I think I've heard that the Spanish work day goes until 7 to make room for all the stopping and going. I admit there is a pretty relaxed vibe here in Barcelona though...it's not common/sticks out to be drinking coffee in a to-go cup or taking food to-go. People definitely don't eat in the streets while walking. Why? Because the process of eating is a time to relax, talk, and de-stress. In Spain, especially in more traditional cities outside Barcelona, they aren't into our American always-on-the-go attitude. Hope this was an informative post and maybe you can give it a shot today!

PS. Megan moved into my district today...no more 45 minute metro commutes to go see her!

Adjusting to la vida cotidiana

After a responsibility-free week of roaming on the city, hanging out and not worrying about waking up to an alarm in the morning, today began the first day of class. There was something fulfilling about the way today went, because it felt like I had stopped being a tourist and started being a resident. I woke up at 8:00 and took the subway to class. I've been careful about keeping my wallet in my front pocket and my hand over it while on the metro. My neighbor on the hall got pick-pocketed his second day here and lost 4 cards, his driver's license, and 50 euros...not a good start! 

Megan and I have class together at 9 AM - Advanced Spanish Grammar and composition. Our professor is a 20 something native of Seville, and she looks like Penelope Cruz but has free-flowing, unkempt hair like this yak. Nevertheless, our small class of 9 got along well, and Megan and I could understand well enough despite her thick Spanish accent (quite different from the Spanish spoken in Latin America!). 

We found a nice local cafe to have breakfast with two of our classmates afterwards. This also felt like we were intertwining with Spanish life since we ate bocadillos and fococcias with cafe con leche rather than bacon, eggs, and hash browns (but had those been available...). 

My second class was at 5PM, and it's a financial management class taught in Spanish with about 60 Spanish students and 8 Americans. It was a bit intimidating, since all the Spanish students know each other and are loudly talking in Catalan before class starts, but it will be a nice challenge. The professor is a native of Portugal, so she speaks a clever blend of Portuguese and Spanish, picking words from each language as she chooses. Since I'm a Spanish and Portuguese major, I got by OK, but I felt bad for Megan since we expected the class to be taught in a manageable Spanish accent. 

At night, I did some Euro-shopping. That is to say that I bought enough groceries for about 2 days and carried it back to my apartment. Here in Barcelona, the supermarkets don't even have parking lots. So, don't bring your station wagon and Costco card and expect to buy groceries for the next 2 weeks. It seems that the people here by groceries on their way back home to get them through the next couple days. It also helps that a supermarket is right beside my apartment! 

In all, day number 8 in Barcelona feels like I'm becoming a little more Catalan than tourist. I can feel myself getting more comfortable speaking Spanish and functioning in public spaces. I'll leave you with this unsightly but common feature in Spanish supermarkets...enjoy your dry boar leg! 

Comment setttings changed

Hey everyone, I just made it so that anyone can comment on the blog without having to register an account. Sorry it wasn't like that in the first place - now leave comments and ask questions!

Chris

Visiting Camp Nou

One of the main things I've noticed over the last few days is how much Barcelonans care about their Futbol team - FC Barcelona. Spain itself has had a lot of success in the past year - winning the World Cup as a country and FC Barcelona itself taking the Champions League last year, but it's interesting that Barcelonans are Catalonian before they are Spanish. My guardian angel, David (Spanish student that leads a group of us CIEE students through the first week), said that he didn't care too much when Spain won the world cup. He lives and breathes FC Barcelona though. 

The museum and the stadium (Camp Nou) are adjoined. To give you an idea of how important soccer is to them, David said this is the most visited museum in Spain...over art museums and the like. The stadium is awesome since it's so big, and the bleachers spell out "Mes que un club" - more than a club. The museum was cool and high tech. The best part of the tour was actually getting to go down to the field since the museum and the stadium are connected. Here's a picture of me with David - you can see the stadium in the background...it holds almost a 100,000 people! I hope I can find a cheap ticket to go to a game before I leave. 

Cuentito #2 - Breakfast?

I'll write a couple posts today since there were plenty of things going on in the last few days - more exciting than buying a cell phone. Yesterday morning, I woke up and met Megan at the metro to go for a sunrise run (the sun rises around 7:45 right now) down the coastal street. It was pretty awesome! I'm attaching a picture of the area that we ran...it was right along the main artery street there.

After about a mile, it was apparent that both of us needed food before we could run anymore. I hadn't eaten since 5PM the day before, and we started looking for places to eat breakfast. The problem is, Spaniards either don't eat breakfasts, or their breakfasts consist of cafe con leche and a bocadillo (a small, small sandwich with a thin slice of meat).  Aka - there's no Waffle House or Ihop here, but we were hungry enough for a lot more than a bocadillo. We walked into restaurant after restaurant to no avail until finally I just said to one clerk: "We're from America, and normally breakfast is a big meal..." and she cut me off and said, "Bah-kon...patatas...huevos...toasts," and you can probably guess the enthusiasm we had responding "Si! Si!" It was nice to sit by the harbor with the sun coming up eating good ol' American comfort food. Don't get me wrong, we've been eating Spanish food each day, but the transition has been pretty tough. When you're hungry and out and about, sometimes you just have to eat what you know.

For instance, rather than having a burger with an egg on it, tuna pizza, or patatas bravas for lunch today, we just opted for KFC right next to the Sagrada Familia. + 10 culture points for visiting the Sagrada Familia, - 5 for eating KFC...we still come out on top.

Cuentito #1 - Cogiendo un movil

Cuentito is the Spanish word for short short story. I decided that sometimes I don't have a full entry in mind, but I want to share a little anecdote. So here we go!

Here is an account of my 4 attempts to buy a prepaid cell phone at a little store down the way called Orange. Orange is a huge cell phone provider in Spain, but this store is small and cell phones are elusive. For me at least.

1. January 5th - I went to the Orange store at 5PM expecting to get a phone in about 20 minutes. The clerk, a tattooed woman that laughed a lot and was engorging on candy (from their Dia de los Reyes holiday) had to help 4 people before me. Everyone in the store was speaking Catalan, so I couldn't follow what was going on. I stood in line for about an hour and 45 minutes total. I patiently waited as she took about 30 minutes with one woman in particular. As you probably could imagine, when people are laughing and enjoying themselves in a foreign language while you're getting impatient, it's no fun - not even in Barcelona! Verdict: When I got to the front of the line, she said they were out of cheap phones and to come back Friday, after the holiday. Time spent: 1 hour and 45 minutes.

2. January 7th at 4:30 PM - I walked back to Orange with one mission in mind - get my little phone and leave. When I got there, the walls were boarded up like they are in the picture attached here. Verdict: It was siesta time from 4:00 - 5:00 PM. I waited outside for it to open back up until 5:15 and it didn't. Megan was waiting to meet up, so I left and decided I'd try again later. Total time to this point: 2 hours and 30 minutes.

3. January 7th at 6:45 PM: I got into Orange and no one was in line. I said a prayer of thanks and she helped me pick out a cheap phone. Verdict: Forgot my Passport. Total time spent: 2 hours and 50 minutes.

4. January 7th at 7:30 PM: After running back to get my passport, I arrived for the ultimate time at Orange. Unfortunately, an old man had walked in just before me and he decided it was a good time to buy his first cell phone. As you know, anyone past the age of 30 needs a lot of help when it comes to their first experience with technology. Verdict: The old man was nice to me, but he took his sweet time. Total time spent getting a phone: 3 hours and 50 minutes. My observations on culture, life, and language in the little Orange store: Priceless.

Andando por la ciudad

Hello everyone! Day four in Barcelona. Since the last time I've posted, I've seen a ton more of the city and have quite a bit to share. On Wednesday the 5th, Megan and I split up into our two different groups to take a bus tour of the city. This was the last day of orientation (ie. the last day that we get a fancy lunch paid for) but a lot of people were itching to a have a free day to explore. On the bus, we toured through a large part of the city (Barcelona isn't spread out like LA, but compact and pretty dense) and saw some awesome stuff.    We drove straight up to the Sagrada Familia...it's the most intricate building I've ever seen. You could take a whole class on just that one building. Gaudi (the modernist architect of lots of things here in Barcelona) hardly ever uses right angles in his work. (Like another building we saw on one of the wealthier streets called La Perrera). I met more people on the bus and can tell that there's a good group of guys to hang out with in the program.

Yesterday, we pretty much walked everywhere that we passed by in the bus tour. A group of 6 of us walked for 5.5 hours and saw a ton of the city. The highlights were El Parc Montjuic, which is a green, hilly park on the coast right behind my apartment. The park is home to many of the olympic buildings from the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. We took pictures at the Olympic Stadium and the coolest place for me was the Palacio in the park that's now the national museum of art in Catalonia. Pretty cool stuff. 

I have much more to say and many more observations to post, but I'm on my way to the FPC Barcelona museum with my "Guardian Angel" group. I plan to buy a phone today and do my first grocery shopping at El Corte Ingles, and then I'll update later. My own pictures coming soon!

Welcome to Barcelona

Hello to all friends and family. I hope this kick-off blog post finds you all happily beginning the new year. The purpose of this blog is to simply relay the highlights of my time abroad in an entertaining way. I'll tell you what I've learned, share photos, and try and show you how life in the states differs from life here.

Upon arriving in Barcelona after 19 hours of travel, my mom would be worried to know that my first use of Spanish was outside the airport talking to a program coordinator - "Dónde está mi guitarra? Uh oh...pienso que la dejó en el reclamo de equipaje..." I can safely say that after some fretting (no pun intended), all is well now and "mi guitarra" is safe with me in my room here.

Yesterday, we arrived at a 4-star hotel called La Gran Havana for our orientation and a one night stay before moving into our residencias. The hotel was nice enough that I was worried that a large part of our tuition was spent on the first day. Megan and I were split up into different groups and we met a lot of nice people from Indiana, Fordham, Minnesota, and Skidmore. The vibe of the program so far has been "fiesta fiesta fiesta" so far, but most of the people are nice and fun to talk to. I'm still not used to being in the "what -the-heck-day-is-it" time zone, so I fell asleep around 10 o'clock in La Gran Havana to get ready for another day of orientation.

For day two, Megan and I were split up into 2 groups - BC1 and BC2 - to get lectures on academics and housing. These two groups are broken up into smaller groups of 8 with leaders called "Guardian Angels" that are Spanish students here. They have toured us around the city both days, and they're good at answering all of our questions about the city. Barcelona is incredible so far - street after street of ornately constructed, old buildings. The city, however, has a very modern feel to it. My Guardian Angel, David, is 22 and he said after studying abroad in London he found that he never wanted to live outside Barcelona.

After our orientations and tour, Megan and I moved into our separate residencias - District Melon and District Marina - that are about 50 minute walks and 25 minute metro rides from each other. There's a chance she'll be able to change to mine, which is in a section of downtown that has lots of places to eat and a nice park behind it. Our rooms are single rooms that look European, modern, and lime green. They're pretty cool and make a good use of space for how small they are! Here's an example of the room (I'm in Poble Sec and she's Marina): Melon District. It feels like I'm living in a Spaceship pod.

I went on a nice adventure through the city to find Megan tonight...without cell phones it's hard to plan when to meet and what time. I took the metro (very nice subway system), and proceeded to get a little lost on the streets before heading the right direction. The streets are complicated - I'll get back to you on that because I'm still confused by them. The names of streets, rather than hanging above the street, are the sides of buildings in small print. It's crazy! Once I was walking in the right direction, I stumbled upon   the temple de la Sagrada Familia that looked really cool at night.

After that, Megan and I wandered around to find a place to eat (there aren't many restaurants around her complex) and stumbled upon, you guessed it - an American sports bar. Our first full night in Barcelona and we end up at a place called "The Sports Tavern" with vintage American sports decor - (Wrigley Field, Home of the Cubs...Tarheels 1926, 1928, and 1930 NCAA champions...). The owner served us, and he was a young Spanish guy. The Seahawks/Rams game was on (midnight our time, afternoon on the West coast) and we asked him who owns the place...an American? He said he did, and he loves everything American. He proceeded to look at the game and say "What sport is this?" We said football. He said, do you like cricket? We said no one in America really does. It turns out he doesn't really know American sports, and his bar was decorated by a professional company that decorates bars in Zaragoza. He was fun to talk to...we spoke Spanish to him and he spoke 'Merican to us. We topped off our burger and pizza (ok, we ate Spanish food at lunch we promise) with the local beer of choice. This is particularly funny because Megan and I don't drink, haven't in college, and haven't together...so we said "cheers" and tried it and turns out "La Estrella" is too intensely disgusting for her. She didn't finish half...memorable quotes: "I'm drinking death..." "My face is stuck in a disgusted position..." "Why did you order me the cheapest beer for my first drink?" It was fun though, and we laughed a lot.

After a less stressful trip back to Poble Sec, I'm ready for another fun day in Barcelona. Stay tuned for a lot more pictures and videos!