"Barcelona no es Espana!!!"

Even though I have not recuperated all of my energy, I hope that I have enough brain power to write a post that makes sense. I highly doubt it.
BARCELONAA!!!!!!
What an amazing place- and what a great time! I had never specifically planned on going to Barcelona while here, since I've obviously been to Spain and I wanted to visit more new countries, but I am so glad that I did! Everything was wonderful and so much fun, and I enjoyed being able to fully converse in the main language! (Except when people used Catalan)
Our plane left at 9pm, and after a bumpy Ryanair ride, an hour and a half bus ride, and getting lost while looking for our hostel, we finally got to our room. It was tiny- smaller than Leonard 424 and with twice the amount of people- but we had our own bathroom, got free breakfast, and everything was clean and new! Also we only paid 14 euros a night per person for it. When we got to the room it was very late and we were exhausted, so we just went to bed.
The next morning we got up early in order to see the sights. We walked from our hostel to the Sagrada Familia which was awesome, and all of the girls bought amazing scarves at discounted prices because of my AMAZING haggling skills. (hahahah, I need to learn to haggle better, I'm sure I didn't milk enough out of him) After that we walked from the Sagrada Familia to the Barrio Gotico, which was a significatly long walk, but it was awesome because we basically took a walking tour of that part of the city. We saw the Arc de Triumf and took amazing pictures (this is also where my camera decided to die on me, and for that sad fact I only have about 20 pictures of this trip- thank god for Katie's obsessive picture taking!) and then we walked to the park where we saw a couple taking their wedding photos, the most badass dog just chilling in an amazing sweater, and some guys doing crazy fake-fighting dancing in a gazebo. We also took pictures by the fountain and on a statue of an elephant.
After that we went to the Picasso Museum (I loved his take on Las Meninas) and then the ticket lady recommended this bar/restaurante that was close by for the "gringo"s first tapas! It was a huge hit and the guy was very nice- he made a sampling for us, and it turned out to be relatively cheap. After that, we went back to take a SIESTA!! and then we got ready to check out the area around Las Ramblas, where Maria Aurora gave me some places to check out, but only after having "platos combinados" and most of us trying "lomo" at a non-tourist restaurant that was awesome.
In true tourist fashion, however, we didn't know how to get to those places, and while asking the most amazingly beautiful and nice guy for directions he gave us the name of a cheap bar around the corner, which we went to and met the most ridiculous people, including a girl named Noche, a guy named Victor who told Shiza all about hoe Catalunia isn't part of Spain and how it should be independent, and a guy who may or may not have been named Xavier who hit on Ben and told us that hitting on guys was "how he picked up girls". Weird strategy, especially since it most definitely wasn't working. Hmmm.
The next morning we decided to go to Montjuic, where we took a cable car (I think that's what it's called) up to the top of the mountain and spent a while touring the castle that was up there. The castle was beautiful, and what was amazing was that after being used for fusilamientos (shotting squads) and warfare for centuries, it is now being turned into a center for peace. Deep!
After the mountain we went to eat lunch in a tourist restaurant where we ordered the "menu del dia" or fixed menu and then we walked around a bit. This, however, was when it started to rain- which ruined all of or plans about going to see the Cathedral and the Gaudi park. Instead we did a bit of shopping and then went to a cafe to sit down- after that I bought an AMAZING coat for 12 Euros and put it on immediately because I was soaked, and then tired of the rain we ducked into the first palce we saw in order to try the sangria. The place was very nice, but obviously for an older crowd so after a glass we went back out to face the rain.
We then found another tapas bar where they count the tapas by toothpicks and so we tried their delicious food, and then we walked to the beach (still in the rain). We passed by a camera crew that was shooting an action film and although there was no Johnny Depp or other amazing actor, it was still cool.
When we got to the beach me and Katie went for a swim (still raining!) for about ten seconds and then we decided to go back to where our things were kept at the hostel and change. We changed and then hung around the hostel hangout area until it was time for us to catch our bus- we waited for another hour at the bus station where an epic game of "Would You Rather" was played, and then we took a bus-plane-bus-train-metro home, where I talked to my host family and then took a shower and PASSED OUT.
It was an amazing weekend, and as this week I have classes/my first day at my internship/our first exam/ Leuven/Antwerp/Ghent, I think this week is gonna shape up to be extremely busy as well. BUT I LOVE IT!

Besitos!