So you may or may not have been wondering where my blog posts have been as of recently, and well I guess I have been a little busy so my apologies! But I will give you all a quick highlight of some of the highlights as of recently…
The past 2-3 weeks/weekends I have spent right here in the beautiful city of Barcelona. The past 2 weeks have surprisingly kept me fairly busy in terms of academic work. Yes I know your probably think “Eric , I didn’t think you actually had class and school work while you were abroad?” Unfortunately, that is not true, but after several midterms and presentations things are looking good again!
So during the week I go to my classes, grab lunches and cafes with my friends and try to take it pretty easy. On the weekends my friends and I have been going to an area called the “Gracia District” this area is really sweet! It consist of a large area that has many local bars, which are filled with local people and well local beverages. Not only that drinks are actually quite reasonable, and all of the bars deliver a different and interesting atmosphere, and also allows for us to attempt to use the Spanish we have been learning in class during the week. So most weekends this is the area we frequent and have a nice time out.
If you remember awhile back I posted about a place called Ovella Negra… Well in the past we had been going to the small hole in the wall one, and recently discovered they have a LARGE one in another area. This is also another great spot to go with a group of friends and meet other Americans, Spaniards, and foreign students. It’s also really cheap you can get a giant tower of beer w a tap to share at your table for only 16 euro, not bad! What makes this place so cool is it’s like a warehouse, with really high ceilings, long wooden tables, and ping pong and foosball tables. Always a great time, especially when no one is able to agree on what to do that night.
Sooooo last Sunday was a big night its was Carnival De Sitges. Sitges is a beautiful, beach, resort town about a 40 minute train ride from Barcelona. Often times known as a very well friendly city for gays and lesbians to do there thing. It is also host to the premier carnival of Spain, and well my friends and I just couldn’t pass this up. And let me tell you neither could the Barcelonans, Americans, and other tourist, it was a PACKED city with people from all over the world. Unlike the French Riviera Carnival, this one was definitely much more intoxicated and rowdy, its more known as a giant party. It definitely lived up to its reputation as such, from the bars before hand, the actual carnival parade, and the bars and clubs afterwards it was pretty out of hand. Getting home was another story the lines for the trains and buses back to Barcelona were massive many people waited 1-2 hours just to get on, and if your not one that likes to be crammed into a tight spaced moving object you were in for some problems. Let’s just leave it at my buddy and I did not get onto the train until after 7am and I was not back to my apartment until 815am, Crazy fun memorable night but glad I was able to partake in the carnival festivities!
Other things I have been doing is when the weather is nice we like to go down to the beach after class and just hangout, people watch, and relax to the ocean breeze and waves. It’s even more entertaining when the infamous “Naked Man” walks up and down the beach… Other days we will just walk for hours through the city and see the many different offering of Barcelona perfect on a nice day and FREE J I also purchased a 7 museum pass so I can check out all of the main museums while I am here. On Saturday my friend and I went to MACABA which is the main Contemporary art museum in Barcelona. http://www.macba.cat/controller.php Personally, I found it quite confusing and weird, the works were very strange and just hard to follow, but you have to respect the many forms of art and its obvious there are plenty of people out there that do enjoy it.
This weekend on Saturday is Las Fallas which I will tell you more about next time I blog, the following weekend I will be going to Florence for the weekend. Again sorry for not keeping you more updated, hopefully I will get a little better! Hope all is well for you all back in the states, and in other countries, be safe and enjoy life!
Regards,
Eric
