As regular readers know, this academic year I’m studying abroad in England, which is exciting to me because this is my first time in Europe, which means that I have a lot of stuff to see. About a month ago, I told some friends that all the travel pictures I would take would just be me playing rock paper scissors in front of famous things around Europe. Apparently some people thought I wasn’t being serious.
Sagrada Familia, a perpetually unfinished church.
Torre Agbar, a famous office building that in no way looks like a giant penis.
The Parlament building of Catalunya.
Outside the Barcelona Zoo.
The Arc de Triomf.
The bench at Parc Guell.
The lizard at Parc Guell, which was so busy it was damned near impossible to get this picture.
The view of the city of Barcelona from the top of Parc Guell.
But What Did You Actually Do?
The first day there, we primarily just wandered around aimlessly, getting our bearings, which we did not get, but it was our first of many trips to Las Ramblas, a long street full of restaurants and tacky souvenir stands, where we made a great deal of travel plans primarily based on what we saw on postcards, calendars, and magnets. In the following days, we literally walked all over Barcelona seeing the Parc de la Ciutadella, the Barcelona Zoo, the Picasso Museum, Parc Guell, Sagrada Familia, the Olympic park that I don’t know the name of, and a few houses famous for their modernist architecture such as La Pedrera.
And we found the world’s smallest playground.
But it was fun.
But still kind of spooky.
But Do You Have Any Fun Hostel Stories?
Absolutely!
The hostel we stayed at in Barcelona had something like fifteen people per room, which actually wasn’t all that bad because the way the room was designed, we had walls and a curtain that actually offered us a great deal more privacy than I would have expected in a hostel. Unfortunately, you still have to hear everybody else in your hostel. On the first night, an American girl came in, announced her presence, and spent the next two hours roping other people in the room into being as loud as she was, and then later on as drunk as she was. Then she fucked one of the French guys in the room, which was predictable. Less predictable, however, was how much the French guy shrieked during sex. Like a child. Which is something I sincerely hope not all French people do.
The loud American girl left after the first day, but the French guy stuck around another day, where I got to hear his shrieky voice again in the shower, where he proceeded to sing the only two lines of LMFAO’s “I’m Sexy And I Know It” anybody actually knows for the duration of his shower, which was more than a little annoying.
The People Have Spoken