Barcelona -- You Get What You Pay For & Pick-pocketers Beware

Barcelona was great. It was my first time going on a trip with people from my class and without school affiliation. We had to plan everything!
Day One (Friday): The flight out was at 7 am... so it was best for me to not sleep at all, considering how unreliable my alarm clock/phone is. So, I watched Eurotrip and packed.
I walked to the bus stop and met up with Angela, Emily, Rachel, and Amanda. We go to the airport, got on the plane... Everything went well. We took another bus to a plaza near our hostel. It took us about 30 minutes to check in. We stole food for breakfast (we were half an hour away from getting it free, come on!)
Our hostel, upon first glance, was great. Then, we saw our rooms. We had two sleeping roommates, two girls from Australia, who we would later fall in love with. We had safes to put our stuff in, beds with dirty sheets, etc... normal hostel stuff. We rented sheets, towels (3 euro for a hand towel... reasonable? No. I'm keeping that!)
We lost no time. We immediately began to explore the city. We took a tour of the soccer stadium... WOW. I love soccer now. Before, I liked it. I was really into it during the last World Cup. But, now, WOW...
Hours and hours of exploring later, we took a short nap.
We got up at 8:30 for the hostel's free dinner. IDK who that food was supposed to fill, but there was a reason it was free... we got about A slice of pizza. Fin.
we went back to bed so we could get up to go out that night. The hostel organizes outings every night to different famous clubs. We decided to go with them that night. We got all ready and adorable, but had to wait a whole hour from the time we were supposed to leave before we actually began to leave.
We weren't bored, though. Our friend from CC-CS, Victoria, had given me her number earlier that day and she was in Barcelona, too. I had received a call from her that night and texted her back but someone else replied. We assumed her phone was stolen. We spent 20 minutes on the phone with some jackass (whose number I'd mistaken for Victoria's) and a guy from the hostel who spoke fluent Spanish trying to come up with a place to meet where he could return it. Then, she looked in her room and found it.
We got SO sick of waiting. Angela and I decided to go off on our own. We found a club about 3 seconds of walking later. It was super close and we got in for free so we decided to stay a while. It was a strange club, but we had fun. We attracted some unwanted male attention, of course. First, there was the Spaniard that managed to grind on both of us at the same time. He was evaded. Then there was the creepy set of dirty-haired boys from Wisconsin that couldn't dance. Evaded. The SAME Spaniard found us and he was sweating so hard that he got Angela's hair wet! I grabbed the closest, biggest guy I could (over the sweaty Spaniard's shoulder) and mouth "HELP US!" hahaha
In a matter of seconds, our legs were free of Spanish men, the sweaty man was storming away, and we were in the company of some very nice Belgian boys. They were a little boring though.
We decided to head out around 4. We had a long day ahead of us and we hadn't gotten any sleep the previous night.
On our walk home, we went down the wrong street. As we walked we passed a lot of men who were selling single beer cans from six-packs that they were holding and some were even selling pastries... Whatever. Anyways, hahaha. We didn't realize it was the wrong street until we got to the youngster-filled plaza at the end. I said we needed to act natural, hang for a second in the plaza, and then we could head back without looking too obviously out of place or lost.
We headed back down the street. I was on the left, with my clutch in my left hand. Angela was on my right.
As if in slow motion, all of the following happened:
I felt a hand on my left hand and it was pulling on my bag.
I stopped walking and saw a man coming into my sights from the left side. I screamed the most savage scream I've ever let out. It was totally instinct. I didn't even know what I was doing, just that I needed to act quickly.
I pulled my bag towards myself, but he wasn't letting go. I told him to let go and he still didn't.
He left me with no choice:
I pulled my bag, and therefore him, into my body. I lifted my right leg and as hard and quickly as I could, I smashed his balls with my pointed-toe boots. It took 3 hard, true hits before he let go. I will never forget the look on his face. He must no have been used to this reaction, because he looked so sad and said, "no?" I stepped back and kept my clutch against my chest. Everything sped up again. It was real time. I took account of his age. He had to be about 60. I felt bad for a second. But, he didn't HAVE to try stealing my purse!! My anger bubbled back up and I clubbed him across the head with my clutch. I screamed, "You scared the SHIT outta me!"
Angela and I left. She looked so confused. She asked me, "Are you OK!?" After a second I could answer.
"I'm GREAT!" It felt really good. I had been warned about the thieves in Barcelona so I had been very aware and alert every second I was in that city. It felt so incredible to be able to protect myself and a friend. I felt really powerful hahaha.
Angela and I couldn't stop talking about it all night.
"Why'd he rob me?! I'm a half a foot taller than you!"
"Dude, I had NO idea what was going on! I didn't even know it was you that had screamed!"
-"Why didn't anyone help me!?"
-"They were just sad he got to you first!" hahah
etc. etc.
I'm glad I have this blog to remember and share the details, but you are all missing out by not getting to see the reenactment in person. I don't think this gets the whole message across hahahah

Day Two (Saturday): We got up for breakfast, went back to bed, and finally started our day. We bought tickets for a bud tour recommended to us by Rich. We could get on and off whenever we wanted and stay as long as we wanted, because another bus would come every 10 minutes. We saw so much Gaudi. His cathedral is... amazing. I mean, there are no words. He was said to be obsessed with it and its design. He knew he'd never see the day its construction was finished. When asked how he felt about that he answered that it was no problem for him, God has all the time in the world.
Awwwww
Then we saw his AMAZING PARK. Gruell. WOW. I'm totally at a loss for words tonight because there's no good way to describe these things.
Then, we were let off at La Placa de Espanya (Did I mention yet that they don't speak Spanish in Barcelona?)
There was the most breath taking fountain show I've ever seen. It's super famous. There were SO many people watching it. The place as a whole, was the most beautiful place I've ever been in my life. Half the time We were there, I was just making that "Eh- Uh-Umm" noise. I settled with, "Wow, this place is, like, really pretty."
Well put, I know.
A short while later, we found out we had a new roommate. He was some Italian guy our roommates had found him sleeping in Sarah's bed. (It's her own fault, if you ask me, no one should make their bed that nicely in a hostel! ;D)
That night, we went to a few small clubs (I was too scared to do much more). Angela made best friends with a couple black guys, one was the owner of one of the clubs. I had to teach her about giving out fake numbers... hahaha. She WOULD be to nice to know about that. And we both made friends with the guys who stand on the block handing out tickets to get into clubs for free. One was really cute... and a juggler... Don't ask. hahahhaha

Day Three (Sunday): We'd planned to go to mass that morning, it WAS Palm Sunday after all. But, no.
We settled for getting up super late. No breakfast, which meant no lunch (because we stole lunch at breakfast).
We finished our bus tour and it was a little lack-luster compared to the day before since we'd seen EVERYTHING the day before. By 3 we were SO hungry and so cheap, we ended up having lunch at McDonald's. Judge us, I know.
Then, we headed to the Picasso museum. It was so strangely located. It looked like any other building. But, it was spectacular. We got to see everything from his earliest (normal looking) sketches, to his last and last works. I'm such a fan now. His Las Meninas collection left me like on of those pretentious, posers who stares at paintings for ten minutes. It was totally worth it. I loved them!
Talked to my mommy, had dinner, played Kings with sangria with Madolyn and Emily (our Australians). Then, we headed out to the club for the night. We had made a lot of friends in the hostel at that point. There were a lot of really really cool people there. We had to go a little early though, because Madolyn wanted to be sure to make her train to their next destination... understandable.

Day Four (Monday): We missed breakfast, again. So, to my delight, we went to the market for breakfast food. Gelato and pineapple was amazing.
Angela and I didn't have a lot planned for the day, so we just explored around the immediate area. We saw the cathedral, a famous neighborhood, and returned her jersey. hahaha
OK, Angela and I are both VERY cheap. She bought a really really cheap jersey from a tourist shop and I got one that was a little more legit from the stadium. She decided she didn't like hers because it was a little outdated. So, we went into the closest gift shop (there are only a million of them) and she bartered with them. She told them how she'd only just bought it and that she wanted to exchange it for another one (that cost the same) for one that was a little newer.
Five euro of a payoff and five minutes later, she'd accomplished her goal.
We had paella for dinner, searched for missing shampoo (sweet Jesus, don't ask), and hung out in the lounge of the hostel with all of the people we'd met the night before. We acquainted ourselves with out newest roommate, ANOTHER AUSSIE. Totally cute.
We packed it in. Got up early, and headed home. Our leaving flight was also at 7...
I've probably been awake ten full hours since we got back. I cannot sleep enough.
All in all, great trip!