Spring Breakski

Our Spring Break Schedule:

Thursday through Sunday: Budapest, Hungary

Sunday morning to Sunday night: Barcelona, Spain

Sunday night to Tuesday night: Agadir, Morocco

Tuesday night to Saturday morning: Marrakech, Morocco

Saturday day: Layover in Casablanca

Saturday night to Sunday morning: Barcelona, Spain Round 2

So readers, brace yourselves for this will be a rather long entry.

These past ten days were everything I imagined and better. I went to Budapest with Mallorie and Jennie both of which I knew, but not really well, and ended up falling in love with them. Jennie coincidentally goes to IU and we have hundreds of mutual friends and Mallorie goes to Boston University. We decided to take the night train considering it was a nine-hour ride, and it worked out flawlessly. The car had three beds, a fancy pull out sink, and the smelliest conductor my nose had ever been acquainted with. We arrived in Budapest at 9 am and were hassled by a lurking cab driver, that ended in a good laugh when we read in the “Top Ten Budapest” book to specifically not take a cab when he is waiting in the train or bus station..oops!

We finally arrived at the Carlton Budapest, a great hotel with great location that happened to be a business hotel. The staff had never seen the eyes of youngins like the three of us. The room wasn’t ready for check in so we bought our tickets for the Hop On Hop Off bus and began our glorious day. The first stop announced was the Citadel which seemed like a breathtaking view of Budapest so we hopped off, took a long stroll around, sat down and overlooked beautiful Budapest while listening to Mallorie’s ipod speakers. Once we got back on the bus and it began to drive we realized we saw the COMPLETELY wrong area due to the fact that on the other side of where we were was the national monument and many statues and green gardens. Once again…oops.

We continued to ride and stopped off the second largest Synagogue in the world. The temple was spectacular and was a perfect way to honor the Passover celebrations none of us were properly partaking in. Outside of the temple was one of the best Holocaust memorials I have ever seen, a silver tree and each leaf had a person or a family’s name on it. For lunch we bought ourselves a bunch of delicious treats and had a nice little picnic by the water then saw the Parliament building and decided it was nap time.

That evening we went on a magical sunset boat ride down the Danube river. The scenery was stunning, the company was fabulous, and the champagne wasn’t half bad. After the lovely cruise we went to one of the best Italian dinners I’ve had thus far in Europe at Faustos. My meal consisted of a delightful caprese salad, scallops, and many many glasses of red vino. So good! Then met up with some boys that were friends of friends and went clubbing in Budapest.

The first bar we went to was really cool with lots of sitting areas, graffiti, and hookah. We met some British men with whom we began discussing our future travel plans. We informed them that we were going to Agadir, Morocco when he started blurting out, “AGADIR IS FUCKIN’ WENDAY.” We were all super confused with what WENDAY meant, and he just repeated over and over “FUCKIN’ WENDAY.” Eventually he got the point across that Agadir is a very windy city. We left the first bar after meeting many a creepy men and headed over to a club called Morrison II. This club was awesome, the bar area was outdoors and there were multiple indoor dancing areas. The first one played generic music and was extremely crowded. The second was a karaoke room where the lyrics were on three different screens so the entire room could be belting the correct lyrics at the top of their lungs. The final and favorite room played everything from Sweet Dreams to Jitterbug and we loved it.

On Friday we rode the funicular to the top of the hill on the Buda side were we saw the beautiful National Museum and the Castle and church. Afterwards we decided to finally make our way to Margaret Island. Margaret Island was in the Top Ten Budapest book and we had our hearts set on it since the early morning. The only problem was that people kept misleading us and telling us we could walk to Margaret Island…honestly the whole day we were questioning, “Can we walk to Margaret Island??” and the question remains unanswered. Regardless it was great, we walked around parks, saw a UNESCO heritage site, and ate some delicious cotton candy. Post Margaret Island time we took a nap that resulted in us waking up at 8 am. We were tired little girls.

We officially declared Saturday Museum and Bath House day, and Museum/Bath House day it was! We went to the Museum of Fine Arts after having some great corn on the cobs from a stand outside. The museum was great, it housed my new favorite Van Gogh, which was a piece that he painted whilst being in the insane asylum. The piece was titled “The Prison Courtyard” and you can truly feel his angst and pain.

After we headed over to the Bath House. Being the silly girls we are we forgot towels and flip flops, so we had ourselves and bathing suits….and this wasn’t the most sanitary facility. We had to use the bathroom before heading over to the pools, and ive never tried harder to stand on my tippy toes in my life. The room reeked of sulfur mixed with #1 and #2, super vile. We perseveared and headed to the indoor pools, and after seeing only men over 60 we thought maybe we wanted to head to the outdoor pools. The pools were so crowded, we couldn’t even imagine what high season would be like. Obviously we were harassed by a group of scary looking German men and followed around by a guy on a kick board until we decided it was time to head on out of the Bath House. We met up with my friend from freshman year again and went out to an authentic hole in the wall Hungarian Restaurant. Polished off a nice bottle of vino and headed back to the Carlton to get some rest before our 6 am flight to Barcelona.

We spent the day in Barcelona where we met up with the fourth member of our traveling crew Liza Bo and saw my friend Seidmon again. When we arrived the weather was horrible, but we kept our positive attitudes and the sun came out soon enough! We went to Parc Guell again because Mallorie was a first time Barcelonian and we all didn’t mind seeing Gaudi’s work round 2.

We ate some amazing food and had some GREAT laughs. About an hour before it was time to leave for the airport the sky grew pitch black and began to POUR rain. Within a few minutes the four of us were the sole people on the streets and everyone was laughing at us from their cars. Eventually the rain turned into a hail storm with wind so strong our umbrellas were turned inside out and we were laughing so hard each one of us peed our pants a little. It was absolutely hilarious when we showed up to my friend’s house to get our bags and we were dripping wet as if we had showered with our clothes on. Back to the airport, and off to Morocco.

We landed in Marrakech, Morocco at 9:25 PM and the car we reserved to drive us to Agadir obviously didn’t show. So although we didn’t want to we hopped in a cab. Our first cab driver was named Abdul and he was not a happy camper to have to drive four hours at that time of night. He stopped literally every five minutes and it began to freak the four of us out. Eventually he stopped at a gas station where he found a friend of his from Agadir and pawned us off onto him. He also ripped us off but we were ready to just get to Agadir.

Our new driver was named Hussein and he too was big on the stops. I guess Moroccan cab drivers just don’t understand that it’s a business and seem to think the stop and go scene is okay. About two hours into the drive Hussein stopped at a great little gas station, having to pee Mal and I went in to see some great looking food and Hussein chilling with a cup of coffee and about five friends. I was like, “Hussein, lets get going..?” He responded with, “few moments.” I guess that’s just how Morocco does it!

Upon arriving to Agadir we were exhausted but checked into our hotel. The lobby looked nice enough so we thought it would be an okay situation. The bottom line is that the Golden Beach Resort is not so golden at all, I wouldn’t even give it a bronze…it was garbage. When we got to the room all of the windows were open and I smelt a stench that is truly indescribable. Here I will try though, perhaps body odor mixed with a week old wet towel. Liza and I slept on the couches and woke up at 8 am to some seriously loud construction. To say the least this was not an ideal living situation for our spring break beach get away. So we got ourselves dressed and decided to see what Agadir had to offer. This Morrocan town is literally a beach, and nothing, I mean nothing more. But what we did find was an incredible all inclusive resort across the street, so we meandered in and got a great deal for one night. One hundred dollars a person for one night, ALL inclusive.

And since we were checking in at 10 am the day of we were able to score eight LARGE meals out of the situation which includes breakfast, midday snack, lunch, and dinner, and did I mention all you can drink? We were some seriously happy campers. So we lounged by the pool, met a ton of really nice people, and ate till our bellys were going to explode. We sat by the ocean and watched a beautiful sunset. The weather was great but truth be told it was a little “FUCKIN WENDAY.” All in all it was a great day.

The next day was not so great. Yes breakfast was amazing with every delicacy a girl could dream of, but the sun as not shining and as I said before there is nothing else to do in Agadir. So we booked a car and decided to head back to Marrakech during the day time. Our drivers showed up and turned out to be 21 year old and 19 year old brothers. They immediately loved us and put on their 7 hour mix tape. This tape had some classics including Eminem, 50 cent, our favorite song Stereo Love, and obviously some Jay-Z. We jammed out the entire way and the driving boys got a total kick out of us. The only way to communicate with them was through my broken Francias, but somehow they understood and we got by! The scenery was beautiful and we were so pleased with our decision to book it to Marrakech in the day time. We saw mountains and rivers and the sun set from our car and it was all great. When we got to Marrakech our drivers hooked us up with some guys pulling buggies to put our luggage in. The walk to our Riad was pretty nutty. Mallorie and Jennie invented this term called “bobble-heading” and this is when you cant look straight ahead you are constantly looking to your right and left in order to take everything in. Walking through Djemaa el-Fna the first time was a sight to be seen. Belly dancers, monkeys, snake charmers, food stands, henna artists, basically absolute insanity. We were staying in a Riad which is basically a small Moroccan home turned into a hotel, it typically includes 5-7 rooms and has a courtyard, roof, vegetation, and a body of water. Our riad was brand new literally opened in March and therefore our little buggie men were unaware of its location. Luckily all the people of the alleyways of Marrakech were kind enough to guide us, we literally had an entourage of 20 kids and men guiding us to Riad Azukar.

This riad was amazing with great service, perfect location, comfortable beds, and a spectacular roof that overlooked Marrakech. On the roof was a group of 4 people formerly from Thailand that currently live in London. They told us to go out to a club named La Couptoire with them and we weren’t about to turn down an invitation. We smoked Shisha and danced to Arabic music spun by a great dj then decided it was time for a grub fest. We went to a great little kebab stand where they did it the authentic way. Loved it!

The next day we ventured into the Souks.

Let me tell you if that this was my jam! I loved the colors and literally wanted to buy everything offered to me, turns out bargaining its quite my forte. We wandered the souks for what seemed like days until we went to the Ben Youssef Medersa. The Ben Youssef Medersa is home to the most beautiful architecture in Marrakech and was a former school of the Kuran that closed in 1962.

The tiling on the walls was magnificeint and we could go upstairs and take a look in the rooms that the students spent their time in. This building dates back to the 14^th century and was one of my favorite sites on the trip. On our walk back to the riad we decided to get some Henna which they said would last three weeks. I would round this down to about three hours, because by the time we got home it was completely gone…can you say rip off? For dinner we went out to a delicious Morrocan meal including belly dancers galore. Jennie and I got a little tipsy off of the wine and were ready to pass out early on in the meal.

Thursday morning we had arranged to get a tour guide. She turned out to be wonderful. Her name was Ouidad and she was very well spoken and had some of the greatest grown up braces id seen in some time. She took us to see the Bahia Palace which housed an old king, his 4 wives, and his 24 concubines, busy man no? Then we went to a couple of parks and sat down for lunch in an old palace. After lunch Ouidad surprised us with bringing her absolutely adorable three year old daughter, Rehab, to spend the afternoon with us. We went to a Berber pharmacy where we bought herbal oils, snoring remedies, got 20 dirham massages (1.5 USD) and other goodies. We had a great day of learning with Ouidad.

Friday was my most favorite day of all. We woke up at 9 am and went on a tour to Ourika Valley. The valley is in the Atlas Mountains where we were able to go inside a Berber home. The Berbers are Islamic mountain people that live off their own wellbeing, meaning they make their own bread, have their own cows for milk, own honey bee hives for honey, etc. They sat us down and explained to us their tradition and gave us a tour of their home. He showed me the “Berber Bathroom” and having to go I asked where the “Berber Cloth” was to cover myself. He closed the door and I began to make my business when all of the sudden a HUGE SNAKE slithered out of the hole I was peeing in!!! Without pulling up my pants I sprinted out of the “Berber Bathroom” screeching about the awful snake.

The entire Berber household was laughing their asses off and my three friends all peed their pants in laughter. Then the Berber man beat the snake to death with a stick…it was quite the experience.

After that we went to another Berber pharmacy where we snagged some more cheap massages and free samples. Then was off to the camel rides! It was such a tourist trap but we loved it anyways. Finally was the main event, a hike up to the Cascades. Our walking tour guide had a dog named Joe Rasta and his whole body was shaven other than his head which looked like dreads. It was a hoot.

Once we got to the cascades we realized that it was FREEZING water from the top of the Atlas Mountains but somehow the entire village began to cheer for us. Literally from the top of the mountain were kids and people cheering us on to make the leap into the ice cold water. Somehow we were persuaded into it and it was amazing!!! We laughed for an hour after. We ate lunch on the river and chilled with some Morrocan men sitting on a blanket behind us.

Our flight was at 6 am again and we had a 7 hour layover in Casablanca where they wouldn’t let us out. In transit we napped and ate until we landed back in Barcelona at 11 o clock. We went out to one of the most fun nightclubs of my life called Razzmattazz and both me and Mallorie got our phones stolen. We stayed at the club til closing at 6 am and stayed up til our flight at 9.

These were the best 10 days ever. Now I am waiting for my best friend Melanie to arrive, and she is not happy with the no phone situation.

Munich for Spring Fest this weekend!!!

Momma, Lemsy, and Jenny Come to Europe!

Although I ventured to Vienna at the beginning of May with my group, my mother asked me to kindly return for the second leg of their trip. Since they were traveling all this way to see me, I guess I could travel all that way to see them. So then it was planned, Vienna Round Two.

The bus was fine until they dropped me off in Bruno, Czech Republic for an hour where most of that hour was spent figuring out if I was in the Czech or in Austria, I eventually recognized a familiar “Dobredan” (hello in Czech) and saw people using Crowns (Czech currency). I eventually made it to Vienna and navigated my way to the hotel that was in the boonies of Vienna. Our hotel was called the SCHLOSS WILHELMINENBERG. If that’s not a tongue twister I do not know what is. Originally a hunting palace dating back to 1781 throughout history it served many purposed, the most interesting to me was in 1945-1946 it served as an asylum for children and concentration camp victims in need of recovery. We spent the evening seeing the Hasburg Palace where there was a convention for neurologists. Walking through we found a little party that we stepped in, Mom and Jenny were rather interested while Lauren and I took a nice little taste tester of their hors d'oeuvres. My mom called me a crook, I figured they weren’t gunna eat it all anyways! We adventured through the streets of Stephensplatz and eventually stumbled upon an adorable Italian restaurant where we dined and enjoyed delicious food and wine.

The next day we had a busy agenda. Obviously this begun with a very early wakeup call, a nice big breakfast, then making ourselves sandwiches from the included breakfast meal. Pretty thrifty if you ask me! On the schedule was the Belvedere Palace, the Schönbrunn Palace, the Naschmarket, and the Grinzing Winery.

On my previous trip I did not enter the fantastic Belvedere so I was very happy to have done so this time around. Inside was an art exhibit featuring impressionist artists and my new favorite artist Gustav Klimt (1862-1918). My absolute favorite painting by him was titled Judith I, she is so interesting with her very realistic face and body but impressionistic surroundings. The palace had a huge entrance way where a sign read “SCREAM AS LOUD AS YOU CAN, NOW!” and once you did the lights flickered and the entire room made a breathing noise like it was inhabited by ghosts, really creepy but funny. Afterwards we headed over to the Schönbrunn Palace which literally took a 180 from when I went.

The grass was green, the Easter festival had begun, and the gardens were magnificent.

Once we finished we sat down for a cup of coffee and my mom and Jenny were persuaded to buy scarves from “Sharon Stone’s Choice,” a charming Greek man who Sharon Stone bought one scarf from and he thought he was an A-lister.

When I was last in Vienna I went to the Naschmarket on a Saturday at 7 am when they were just setting up the weekend market, full of the most random stuff from leather bags to dolls to antique cameras to fur. Unfortunately it was a Wednesday so only the open markets were open, but fret not for this was equally as fabulous.

The freshest fruits and vegetables and taste testers galore. Jenny said she had the best olive of her life there. Lauren and I bought a falafel ball for .20 euro dipped in hummus that was divine! Finally we were at the last stop on our agenda, the Grinzing Winery.

Unfortunately the winery was closed so we ventured over to a little authentic Viennese restaurant where things took an interesting turn. Jenny and my mother are both very health conscious people and never in my life would I imagine either of them sipping on brews, eating the mixed platter of potatoes, sausages, and every other type of meat. They also downed a bottle of red wine that left my mother rather tipsy if you ask me. The metro ride home was one of the funnier moments I’ve spent with my mother considering she was cackling like a hyena and crossing her legs so that she didn’t pee her pants from laughing too hard. The Spanish boys behind me asked, “Is that your mother? She is the coolest mom in the world!” then preceded to ask me what she was smoking because she was laughing that hard! When people say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree I suppose an evening like that is what they are referring to. Austria in the springtime sure is a Wein-er though!

The next morning was not easy for my mom, or any of us to be quite honest, but we checked out of the Wilhelminenberg, said goodbye to Wein, and got on the train to Praha. Once on the train, two buff Australian men asked my mom if she had a bottle opener, which she obviously did because she has everything, and it started out the hourly bothering of my mom and Jenny by the Aussies. Eventually they gave in and played a couple hands of poker.
Prague still is and always will be my favorite European city. It has undeniable charm and history that trumps anywhere and everywhere, and if you were to visit I can almost guarantee you would feel the same. Jenny fell in love the second she walked into Old Town Square. We went out to dinner with my one of my amazingly lovely best friends Robyn where we ate HUGE chicken, meat, and seafood skewers.

Jenny in front of John Lennon Wall

On Friday we went on a tour of the Jewish Quarter where we saw a Jewish memorial of over 90,000 individuals murdered in the Holocaust. Sometimes it’s very hard to be in Eastern Europe because of how reminiscent everything is to those horrible times. I want to block it out and pretend it doesn’t exist, but it is impossible nor do I feel it is right to forget. It angers me and makes me so terribly sad that something so horrible happened less than a century ago. On the tour we also visited Franz Kafka’s birthplace and his coffee shop. Jenny bought a copy of “The Metamorphosis” one of Kaftka’s most well known novels.

My baby sissy

On Saturday, we went to Karlstejn 40 minutes outside of Praha to see Charles' Karlstejn castle.

It was a very charming little town and I absolutely adore the countryside of Prague. Its so quaint and adorable. In the evening we went to Petrin Hill at sunset and sat down for some beer and cheese. Afterwards we walked to Prague Castle and saw the incredible view of the city from the top. We topped off our great day with a delicious dinner at Pravda. The ladies came to the JZP to see my little apartment and meet my Ukranian roommate before their early morning flight back to the states.

I was sad to see them go but we had a great time together. Next on the schedule is Budapest and Morocco for spring break. I leave on Wednesday!!

Bonjour Paris et Sensation White!!!

Dearest readers, allow me to preface this entry with an apology for my absence. I have been rather busy with my travels and academic workload, but nonetheless here I am now ready to indulge you in my adventures.

Monday of last week I received a facebook message from my friend Zach, the one I met up with in Barcelona, telling me he wanted to meet in Belgium for Sensation White. Sensation White is the world’s largest traveling party that fills arenas with 18,000 people clad in purely white clothing all gathering to dance from the hours of 10 pm to 6 am.

My cheapest traveling option was to fly into Paris and take a train to Belgium, and considering I had a friend, Chaitra, studying in Paris I figured I would take the opportunity to venture to the City of Love. The morning of my flight I got on the 30 minute metro ride only to be accompanied by hands down the smelliest man I have ever encountered. His hair was longer than mine with curls and dreads that cascaded down his back and his stench made me quiver at each breath I took. Literally I was pressed up so hard against the window inching away from his rankness as much as possible.

My flight was on Wizz Air, and let me tell you, this airlines surely trades convenience for prices. The flight was 30 dollars but you land in the boonies of France and have to take an hour and a half bus ride of which they drop you off at the opposite end of Paris from anything of recognition. Being absolutely alone, and being directionally challenged, I was set on arriving to Chaitra’s house without getting severely lost. My first stop was into a Paris pharmacy to find my beloved dry shampoo, which is a Paris brand, that was successfully purchased for $20 less than I would have at Sephora in the states. My next stop was to the metro. For some reason the Parisians thought it would be a good idea to only have one single ticket stand in the entire metro stop and the line took me over 24 minutes to get my ticket. After arriving in Chaitra’s adorable apartment I was ready to grub. We went to a nice little café outside of her place where I ordered some delectable French onion soup and a bottle of red vino. Our waiter was a strange one, kept rambling in angry French and looking over my shoulder at every bite I took. Worse than the creepo waiter was the old man with missing dentures staring, winking, and miming at me to leave my numero de telephone for him…very interesting lunch.

We went out that night to a club titled Le Cab, very swanky place indeed. Our entry was 20 euros which made my jaw drop considering I live in Praha where entry fees do not exist for women and neither does the fricken euro. After we left the club Chaitra prepared for me one of the top five best Caprese salads in her apartment that I have ever ingested. Good work Chaitra, for you are a chef extraordinaire! I woke up in the morning to meet my new friend Natalie and Emma to head over to Belgium for the party we had all been waiting for. Natalie just so happens to be my Megan Kateff, my good friend from high school's friend from University of Michigan, while Emma is MELANIE AUGUST, my best friend’s friend from Univeristy of Wisconsin. Small world. (Hope you liked the shout out and will stop bugging me for it Melbourne).

When we arrived in Brussels we had 10 minutes to get on our next train to Genk, Belgium. The line for the down escalator was packed and we didn’t miss the train so with the swoop of my arm I motioned the ladies to sprint down the up, I wish more than almost anything I had this moment captured on tape because it was hysterical! Picture this, three girls with tons of baggage running down the up while over 50 people are waiting in line for the down escalator staring and yelling at us. We laughed for about 20 straight minutes once we made our next train.

Upon entering the arena for Sensation White your jaw drops to the floor. The stadium is filled with people of all ages, please note when I say all ages I mean: ALL AGES. I was dancing with a couple that was about 55 years old for a good portion of the night and they were loving life! You actually are not allowed to enter the door unless you are wearing a white top and bottom, and this party would not have been nearly as cool without it. From the top was a sea of white, everyone dancing their asses off to crazy techno, house, and mash up music. I was in heaven!

Europeans LOVE the Black Eyed Peas, its some weird obsession that you cannot escape no matter which part of the continent you are in, so obviously they played mixes of Boom Boom Pow and I Gotta Feeling that had the whole crowd rocking out. It was also Zach’s 21^st birthday and it was a night to remember. If anyone has the opportunity to get over to a Sensation White I recommend it completely, one of the most fun nights of my life.

With two hours of sleep on the floor of a hotel room we headed back to Prague. The weather is still rather cold but with one midterm out of the way I am anxiously awaiting the visits from my cousin Alex Dalal from Berlin and my mommy and sissy from the States. J Life is good.

Here are some pictures of Sensation White:

CRAZY!!!!!

MADNESS!!!!

Walk, Walk, Walk in Barcelona!!

We touched down in Barcelona after a long day of delays to be greeted by the warm Mediterranean breeze and my dear friend Mike Seidmon’s loving arms. Seidmon lived on our floor freshman year and we have been great friends since, he is currently “studying” in Barcelona. Our hostel was located about a two-minute walk from La Rambla, which is Barcelona’s big and lively avenue. The hostel was adorable, very well kept, nice sheets, our own private balcony overlooking the street, and a public terrace that was its finest feature!

I love hostel life. Brushing my teeth with girls from Holland, sitting out on our terrace and talking about everything with a couple from Ireland, and sharing a room with girls from Belgium the first night. When we arrived we went to an unbelievable dinner and sipped on some fantastic red vino, which by the way is such a cooler word that “wine.” Spread the word about vino. Anyways, afterwards we changed and went out to a club titled Bikini something or other. Didn’t get home till about 7 am.

The next day, Thursday, was a very exciting day because one of my favorite people ever, Zach Samaras, who is studying in Madrid, flew to meet us for the weekend!! After we checked him into the hostel we decided to walk, and walk we did. I am pretty sure that the three of us walked a total of 6 to 8 miles meandering the streets of Barcelona. We walked to the beach and met some crazy kids who were swimming in the freezing cold water. I went up to them and said, “Hey! What the heck are you doing in there? It’s flippin freezing!!” Their response, “we are from Canada.” That explains everything.

After the beach we stumbled upon La Boquaria, a massive and hectic open market, which had everything from baby lambs head (with eyeballs!!) to Haribo gummy candies of every kind to some of the freshest fruit I’ve ever seen.

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Supposedly this is the oldest market in all of Europe, we went at the end of the day and they were practically giving away their delicious smoothies, and I was very pleased to find myself some tasty pomegranates!! We also found an open antique market where I bought a pair of splendid vintage sunglasses for what I bargained down to 12 euro! We ate a great meal of Mexican food and mojitos with all of my IU friends, Robyn, Seidmon, Zach, Liza and I. It was quite the joyous reunion!! At night we walked back to the beach to star gaze.

We met our fourth roommate once we returned, a Brazilian man who was at least 34 that spoke Portuguese, a little Spanish, even less French, and about five words of English. This led to a rather interesting living situation with the man we named ‘Greg Ramirez.’ Greg led to some great laughs due to the complete language barrier and age difference.

Friday we attempted to rent bikes but after a big fail we decided, well Zach decided, to walk to Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia. If you have ever been to Barcelona you must know this is not something the average tourist walks to, far too far, but not for young Zach. This building has been in the process of completion for over 200 years.

We paid 13 euro each to walk inside this not even nearly finished, yet absolutely unbelievable, cathedral. After touring the inside we went to the Gaudi museum that taught us a lot about the man. All of his architecture is greatly inspired by nature and almost exactly matches up with the piece of nature he had intended to recreate. Very beautiful and inspiring. One of the most amazing portions of the museum was a collection of photographs of La Sagrada beginning in 1898 where the building was just beginning and the surrounding area is nothing but grass.Mind blowing!!

After that we convinced Zach to let us give our feet a break and took the metro to an area closer to our hostel and sat down for a bite to eat. Since we were on the Mediteranean and since I have an obsession with seafood I obviously ordered the Seafood Paella. Delicious! We walked around and saw the Arc de Triomf and decided to call it nap time. After nap-time we met up with Seidmon and went out clubbing. I have never felt like I was in an episode of the Entourage more. His crew was a group of 20 bros all wearing nearly the same blue button down shirt—top three open—all ready to have a major brofest. They reserved a “VIP” area for this special evening and with “bottle service” where girls bring out bottles of Absolut in skimpy outfits with sparklers, literally I felt like P. Diddy. The club had shows in between certain songs where dancers performed to Michael Jackson’s Thriller dressed like zombies on tables and stages, it was wild to say the least. We danced at this club until we realized it was about 5 am and our feet hurt.

Once we returned we quietly returned to our hostel room to find that Greg Ramirez was not back! What a party animal we had on our hands!! We hung out on our patio until we were completely exhausted and saw Greg stumbling into the room, clearly a little tipsy trying to communicate with us in a combination of Spanglifrench. Once the lights were turned off things got weirder, Greg on the top bunk began laughing hysterically to himself and muttering, “I do not speak English!” over and over and over again until Liza, Zach, and I were all three laughing hysterically along with him. It could have been an episode of a television show, definitely one of the funniest moments of my life.

Saturday morning was not a pretty one for Liza, girl was hungover! We met up with Seidmon and went to Spannibus, Spain’s largest cannabis convention. It was really funny, and Zach had been looking forward to it for quite some time. Afterwards we headed over to Park Guell. The park was originally part of a commercially unsuccessful housing site, the idea of Count Eusbei Guell, whom the park was named after.

The park is located on a rocky hill that winds up forever until you reach the top and overlook the most spectacular view of Barcelona. The architecture of the Municpal Garden is truly fantastic with Gaudi’s colorful designs and curvy structures. Barcelona’s Gaudi designed buildings are one of a kind and give the city a life of its own. That evening we went out to dinner and ate some great gelato. My other friend from IU, David, met up with us for a little walk on the promenade, it was very nice to see him even though it was such a short while. It was a truly fantastic weekend with truly fantastic friends.