I'm (not) From Barcelona, get it?

On the morning of May 5th, I woke up bright and early at the wonderful hour of 6 am to catch a train from Bilbao to Barcelona. With directions that managed to be vague and quite in depth at the same time, taking up an entire page of my little travel notebook, I got to the hostel around 14:30 and checked in to plug into my much missed internet. My first thought was that Barcelona was freaking huge, so I needed a few hours to lock myself away inside and get over being overwhelmed before venturing out and exploring. As my months of traveling go on, I'm beginning to turn into a horrible tourist, but it's okay!

Crazy awesome building near my hostel!

Plaça de Catalunya

The first night I met up with Marlen's friend Maria from Germany whose studying in Barcelona for the year, who I ended up stealing and seeing every night of my trip. That night Maria, her friend Christina and I went to two bars, one called Oveja Negra and the other whose name I forget, before I had to go home and pass out around 2 due to my early wake up that morning.

On Saturday I got up and headed to the Boqueria, which is a massive market that pretty much had be jizzing myself. I immediately proceeded to spend €5 on delicious chocolates, then bought some fresh pineapple-coconut juices, a pepper and an onion and wandered around for at least an hour. It was basically the best hour of my life. I love food. And vegetables. And chocolates. I saw vegetables I'd never seen before in my life and crazy mushrooms. If I was in Barcelona longer and had more money, all of it would definitely be spent on food from there! So--if you're ever in Barcelona and enjoy eating...go to the Boqueria!

The entrance to the Boqueria! Noms!

Very wrinkly tomatoes in the Boqueria!

In the Boqueria, I really wanted to try one of the pitahaya's (I think it was cactus flower, but not sure), but I didn't because I didn't want to spend 2 euro. I sort of regret that now.

La Rambla, the main street in Barcelona.

Cool street with lots of laundry hanging out the windows in el Raval and a guy carrying an orange tree.

In the courtyard of a medical hospital research something (I think) in el Raval, as I was trying to find a specific vegan restaurant, and failing. But! I found orange trees and pretties!

On my wander around el Raval, I found an orgasmic store. No, literally. See? Apparently organic food = orgasms. I think so.

That night I met up with Maria again and her friend Sina, who was also German and studies dance in the city. I am apparently collecting Germans, yes. We went to a bar sort of by the water and then on to a lesbian party at a place called Lolitas, which was definitely the poshest lesbian club I've ever been to, but it was fun. Maybe I'm just a big stereotyping asshole, but I'm not used to lesbians looking so...straight.

Sina and Maria, I'm not sure what's going on with the spotlight effect.

My drunk face and Maria.

After Lolitas, Maria and I went on an epic drunk bike ride to Sagrada Familia on one bike. I'm still not sure how we got there or how we didn't die, but it happened! Wir können es schaffen! I think my ass is still bruised from sitting on the metal frame of the bike though, oops. Unfortunately I don't really have any good pictures since it was dark, but it was super intricate and pretty! Here's a picture I stole from the interwebz, though:

My last day in Barcelona was Sunday and everything was closed, which was silly. So until later in the afternoon I only ventured out on a quest for pasta sauce. At night I attended part of a harpsichord concert with Maria and her friend Albert, key word...part. One guy started clapping before it was time and everyone gave him a death look...including the harpsichordist, which sent us into a fit of laughter that we couldn't stop. However much I tried to hold it back, I ended up bursting out laughing in the very quiet filled auditorium. The worst part was when the harpsichordist STOPPED in the middle of a song to scold the audience and say, "I can't go on...please be quiet and cover your mouths." I hope it wasn't just us he was scolding, but at the break we definitely scurried away from there. I think I shat myself.


As for the rest of the night, it involved watching a couple have some intense sex in the back of a bar and this picture, which pretty much sums it up:


I give Barcelona two thumbs up except for the freakish snow storm that delayed my flight back to Berlin by over 3 hours. Wtf was that, anyway? It was so sunny and nice, otherwise!