Spring Break! This is the week I was waiting for since I arrived to Germany and I would of never suspected what it had prepared for me. It started excellent, but ended horrible.
Barcelona, Spain: Our first stop this past week was Barcelona, the city I had always dreamed to visit. The view from the plain as we were arriving to Barcelona was beautiful, an anticipation to what was waiting for us. As soon as we arrived, our first mission started: to find the hostel in which we were staying. It took us approximately about an hour to find it because we were not used to the way the streets were labeled. The street name is in a plaque high on the wall only on one side of the street. Apparently, we past the street where the hostel was but we did not know because we never turned around. Also, after asking for directions, people kept telling us to go down the road a certain amount of streets. The problem was we would of never considered alleys to be streets, just like the spaniards do. After finally finding our hostel, Valerio (one of the staff) gave us a delicious welcome with some paella and patatas (spanish rice with potatoes). He didn't even charge us first, but rather told us to just put our belongings in the floor and to join them for dinner. I have tried paella before, but I have to say this was the best paella I have ever had. During dinner, we met many new people from all over the world. This is exactly what I enjoyed the most from this hostel. The environment it had allowed everyone to communicate and be friendly with everyone else. There in the hostel, I met Philip. Philip is actually from Bonn, Germany and was there for a night before going on a hike for his geology class. He is awesome and promised we would have some beers here in Bonn whenever he gets back. I also met Csaba, who is from Hungary and lived in London for a while. Since we were going to London later that week, I was asking him what he recommended us to do there. Then, there was Steven who is American but is currently studying abroad in London. He joined the conversation I was having with Csaba. That first night, we all decided to go to a bar tour in order to get to know the night life in Barcelona. The first bar was pretty chill and I loved it, specially since I had what is so far the best drink ever, a Barcelloneta. If you want to have a hint of what it is, imagine a vanilla milkshake with a little bit of alcohol. It was the best! We also got a free lime vodka shot and I finished my friend's rasberry drink. The bar was small, but that allowed us to have conversations with other people. The next bar was the complete opposite. First of all, it was almost dead with only some few old people drinking quietly. I decided to try a sangria from Spain. I can say it was pretty good, but nothing beats the Barcelloneta I had before. While drinking the sangria, Csaba, me and some girl whose name I forgot decided to leave the bar because it was boring. We walked our way back to the hostel, but not without first stopping for a hot dog. The next day was our first get to know Barcelona day. We walked everywhere in the city and got to see a famous cat everyone takes pictures with, the cathedral, some stores, and the beach! The weather over in Barcelona was perfect for the beach. We took our shoes off, walked around for a while, and then layed down and just chill. At the stores, I found out Spaniards love Mexicans. When I walked into one of the stores, I said "Buenas tardes"trying to be pollite. As I was looking at shirts, the owner of the store approached me and asked me if I was Mexican. Her question took me by surprise. I said yes and she immediately gave me a warm welcome. Then she told me that she would give me discounts because she really likes Mexicans. I did not have money at that time, so I asked her if I could come back. She said definately! But the highlight of the day was not the beach or the warm welcome to the stores. It was definately the game: Barcelona vs Deportivo La Coruna. The trains to go to the game were packed, which only emphasizes the fact that soccer for Spaniards is like a religion. As soon as we arrived to Camp Nou, I could not believe what I was seeing: the biggest stadium in the world and home to the best soccer team in the world, my favorite since Mexican Rafael Marquez played for them back in early 2000s. We walked quiet a distance to find our gate but I did not care. I would do anything to see my favorite soccer team in action. The game ended 2-0 favoring Barcelona of course, but the best part was that I saw Lionel Messi, ranked number 1 by FIFA, score a beautiful goal right infront of me. I can't even describe with words how I felt when I saw that ball go in and Messi celebrating with everyone else. That night, I decided to just chill and drink some wine back in the hostel with my new friends as we talked about the game. The next day was also a get to know Barcelona and got to meet a new friend, Larry. We first went to go see a castle which made me dream about how cool it would have been to be a Spaniard back then during the World Wars. The castle was build as a fort and used during those eras. After the castle, we went to the olympique stadium and some fountain in the middle of the city. According to Valerio, there is a beautiful show in this fountain every Friday and Saturday, but we missed it because we decided to go watch the game. After looking at different pictures online, there is no doubt it is a beatiful show and I will definately love to see it live sometime. We also got to see the Sacrada Familia church, which is a gigantic church with beautiful modern architecture. We could go in to see the inside and touch it, but we thought 17 euros was quiet expensive to go in so we decided to just take pictures from the outside. My day that Sunday ended by attending mass in Barcelona's cathedral. I have to say it felt good attending mass in which I understood the language. That night, before going back to the hostel, I treated myself to some white chocolate and mango ice cream, the best ice cream I have ever had. After spending approximately 3 days of my vacation there in Barcelona, I fell in love with the city. I will definately go back sometime, hopefully to stay.
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