From left to right: Kels USA-California, Collin USA-DC, Idan Israel-Jerusalem, Ercan Greek/Miami. Jarrah Australia-Sydney, Kirdy USA-Oregon)
October 10, 2013
But, man oh man are we glad we went! Leaving Barcelona was like leaving family!
When we left Paris, we made a pact to start being really social in the hostel and try to make friends and begin this crazy backpacking, youth hosteling adventures! Little did we know that our favorite part of Barcelona would be the wonderful fellow travelers!
We were completely blessed! As soon as we walked in the hostel (before even being able to take off our packs) a group of 4 boys invited us to eat with them (they cooked a feast)! They said we looked like we were in super need of food and tired - yes, we were that easy to read. :)
We bonded almost instantaneously! Two of the boys are from the USA (Miami and DC) and the other two are from Israel and Australia! They invited us to head up the big mountain in Barcelona to see a great view of the city. We discussed common traveler talk, politics, religion and random 20 something's discourse! It's so fun to have so many different cultures, views and lives coming together while respecting each other, joking and just having a blast! Super eye opening!
We stayed on the mountain watching the sunset as the night of Barcelona became bright. There was a drum circle happening that we befriended!
After the mountain, we headed back to hostel and met so many more people! Two Finish guys who we had no luck pronouncing their names so ended up calling them Fin 1 and Fin 2! There was also a girl from Poland, a boy from Germany and many more!!! So much fun!
The next day we decided to go to the beach with our little, original group of 6! About 23 degrees Celsius all day meant skirts and flip flops! Awesome! On our way to the beach we went to La Sagrada Familia - pretty much the symbol of Barcelona! It looks like a huge sand drip castle! Very cool!
The beach was wonderful. It felt so good to be in the salty Mediterranean Sea! We swam and played in the sun, enjoying every minute.
After the beach, we hit up a grocery store where the 6 of us each pitched in two ingredients for our Greek/Miami friend to work his magic and make chicken fajitas with mashed potatoes, salad and wine! Very cheap and oh so good! It was so fun to be around the same group day in and day out.
After dinner we hung out and chatted in the hostel for a while, then gathered a big group of us together (maybe 13) and headed to a beach party/free club entrance! We danced the night away with our friends from around the world!!! This would be our second night without sleep in Barcelona and not the last! Viva Barcelona!
The next day we had to check out of our hostel but decided to spend an extra day in this great city, so us two girls, and our four friends from Israel, Australia and Finland all got a room at a new hostel for the night (our original hostel was completely booked)!
We went on a walking tour of the Old Gothic City! It was crazy to see the old Roman Empire still standing in peices, as well as the exact square where Christopher Columbus returned to Spain with all his new world goods to share with the king. We stood in the place where the old world met the new world! So cool!
This was a freak day in Barcelona, RAIN! We weren't going to let that get us down though! We just hung out with friends!
That night we went to the magic fountains! It is this really amazing color fountain show that happens in front of the most gorgeous palace. It was truly spectacular view! And very unique to Barcelona.
We went out to our last meal with our friends and had wonderful stone oven pizza! We did as the Spanish do and stayed in the restaurant till midnight! After dinner, we walked the streets of Barcelona, ate ice cream, ran into live music and a huge local Catalonian party! It was all students from the university that were our age! What a cultural experience, from the live music to the drum lines to speaking Spanish with the locals! It was the icing on the cake of our time.
We didn't want to go to sleep (and sleeping 3 hours that night might not count as sleep) because we didn't want to have to say goodbye to our amazing new friends! These boys were like family to us by this point! The only time spent apart was to sleep (and Lord knows that wasn't much)!
Barcelona set the bar high for our hostel experiences from now on. We loved our time not because of the city itself but because of the memories we made with friends from around the world! We are truly living the life right now!!!!
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