Ahh spain how you amaze me!!
I have really come to embrace the siesta primarily in a food coma, procrastinating or when i need to stay awake until 2am to go to the club.
While i have come to embrace it... i still have moments when i loathe it! The times when i need credit and the store is closed. when i need groceries and the store is shut.. when im shopping and all the stores close. its shit!
Then there is the day long siesta Sunday.. wow now a whole day where nothing but selected cafe's and zara are open. This city pretty much encourages everyone to get extra wasted on saturday nights because there is nothing on sundays they can do anyway... the day can't be wasted by sleeping all day!!
It becomes a little problematic when friends AKA Pegah wakes up super sick on a sunday morning... of course we get her out of bed walk to the doctors only to find closed doors. so plan B find a pharmacy, get some pills and knock her out until the next day when the doctors re-open. AHHH no the pharmacy isn't open either. WHAT THE HELL!! even the police don't work past 2 mid week or on sundays. What kind of country is this.. however it is a lifestyle to idolise.. i would love to have 3hr lunch breaks.
However Sundays are quite shit when you didn't go out the night before and wake up earlier than normal.. this is the case for me today... and i tell you it sucks i can't go window shopping (closed), i can't catch a bus anywhere not that i would anyway (don't run on sundays), cant go to the gym (closed) can't go visit friends (hungover/sick or sleeping), can't even drink because i drank all my bloody wine bahhhh
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How long can one honestly be on Facebook to waste time?? ahh
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
It certainly was a COOL party
Ahhh what a night...
leading up to the ERASMUS welcome party (however we have had erasmus parties for the past week)
i cooked a mean meal .. lining for yet another big night out in Barcelona..
The disco we went to was called 'Be Cool' and my oh my it was cool for many reasons
Firstly, The bar offered FREE SANGRIA for an hour!!! 5 glasses later.... the dancefloor got happening
Secondly, The dancefloor rotated.. thats right.. a rotating dancefloor.
Then... with our Erasmus ticket we got 2 more FREE DRINKS of our choice
It was a fantastic night... i met soooo many people - and from sooo many places.
However it seems the bar could not handle our lovely Irish lady Rachael ... they kicked her out around 1 or something.. and for the silly reason that she was just having a little lie down in the bathroom and having a little spew.
So the Irish left! But we kept going... dancing and dancing away... and by the end of the night everyone's faces where red and sweaty which made a lot of the photos i took absolutely horrible and hardly worth posting up here unless i really want to shock u all and get a few evil eyes by my friends..
and then we treked it home getting back on campus oh at about 6... i didn't get to sleep until 7 after a much needed shower, only getting 3 hours sleep because i had a useless class i had to attend!!
leading up to the ERASMUS welcome party (however we have had erasmus parties for the past week)
i cooked a mean meal .. lining for yet another big night out in Barcelona..
The disco we went to was called 'Be Cool' and my oh my it was cool for many reasons
Firstly, The bar offered FREE SANGRIA for an hour!!! 5 glasses later.... the dancefloor got happening
Secondly, The dancefloor rotated.. thats right.. a rotating dancefloor.
Then... with our Erasmus ticket we got 2 more FREE DRINKS of our choice
 |
| This is how packed the club was 5mins before it closed at 5am!! |
And lastly, every person in that club wanted to party.. when the club closed at 4:30am it was still completely packed!!
It was a fantastic night... i met soooo many people - and from sooo many places.
However it seems the bar could not handle our lovely Irish lady Rachael ... they kicked her out around 1 or something.. and for the silly reason that she was just having a little lie down in the bathroom and having a little spew.
 |
| This was a saviour in the club!!! |
and then we treked it home getting back on campus oh at about 6... i didn't get to sleep until 7 after a much needed shower, only getting 3 hours sleep because i had a useless class i had to attend!!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Gaudi
Today i was one of those people, camera in hand, bag firmly across my shoulder, comfortable shoes and taking photos of everything... yes i was a tourist!!
 |
| House of Gaudi Museum - Entrance of the park |
Yesterday a group of us went to Park Guell, one of the many famous Gaudi projects. And my oh my did it impress me!
The creativity of this man is amazing, i wonder how on earth he came up with his designs or what drug he was smoking. The fine detail that he went to is just amazing, all the crowds were going camera crazy taking photos everywhere and all lining up to get in photos with certain features. But the asians always outdo everyone.... picture crazy!!! they want to be in a photo with everything!
The creativity of this man is amazing, i wonder how on earth he came up with his designs or what drug he was smoking. The fine detail that he went to is just amazing, all the crowds were going camera crazy taking photos everywhere and all lining up to get in photos with certain features. But the asians always outdo everyone.... picture crazy!!! they want to be in a photo with everything!
OHH IM A GOOD TOURIST
The commercial aspect of the park was also a little amusing... we had the chance of listening some buskers playing classical music while being surrounded by huge stone pillars
We really enjoyed a group of musicians who played instruments they had created out of plasic barrels, boxes and so on.. all man made. And it sounded fantastic!!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
ERASMUS party
Erasmus is the European exchange program that allows Euro students to study their course in other Euro countries for 5 months ... Although im Australian, as an international student im considered one of these students... there are so many perks that come with this.. discounts, planned trips to Andalucia, IBIZA and pretty much parties every night of the week!!!
As i have mentioned... the spanish lifestyle is much more layed back than ours in regards to their attitude of time.. So Tash, Pegah and I have attempted to adapt.. its been a hard process. Sleeping in until ohh say 10 or 11, then having lunch at around 3 then forcing ourselves to have a siesta. Last night we also had a dinner party with Tash's fantastic reciepe of Chicken and caramelised onion. Now without an oven we managed pretty well, all hands were on deck to help multitask the 4 stovetops, the rice, the wine (for me only) and the salad. And a round of applause is needed the dinner was a major success!! it was yum and we ate at the 'normal' spanish time for dinner at 9:30 - 10pm. Then it was off to an ERASMUS party!!
We headed into the city with a crowd of Erasmus students - brazilian, slovenian, czech, polish, Spanish, and a few others!! In true student style we had big bottles filled with sangria and vodka to drink on the train.
The night started off in the city at a sports bar called Sonar Tavern.. now beer here is pretty cheap well for the size of it.. 1L cups!!
At 2am it was then time to head over the road to the discotheque 'RAZZMATAZZ'.. it was an absolutely funny night primarily because the whole club the size of a factory was filled with other Erasmus students from the 3 other universities in Barcelona so there were sooooo many different languages around me.. yet the music was still all in English!! and suprise suprise i was soooo much taller than a lot of the girls but definitely not the only blonde!!
The random stage show they have on every wednesday night in the theme of 'Murder on the dancefloor' - a set created a scene of cluedo and 4 dancers and a dj were dressed up as the characters of cluedo... funny as all night long they just danced to the music... but the highlight was one of the dancers i took a clip of him check it out so funny
Then it was a mission to get home because we stayed in the city and had to get back to Vila (the campus) in the rain and our taxi decided to take us into the city instead of the train station what was only like a 2 min drive away... so we got saturated having to walk to another station and we missed our first class
we were not happy little australians...
As i have mentioned... the spanish lifestyle is much more layed back than ours in regards to their attitude of time.. So Tash, Pegah and I have attempted to adapt.. its been a hard process. Sleeping in until ohh say 10 or 11, then having lunch at around 3 then forcing ourselves to have a siesta. Last night we also had a dinner party with Tash's fantastic reciepe of Chicken and caramelised onion. Now without an oven we managed pretty well, all hands were on deck to help multitask the 4 stovetops, the rice, the wine (for me only) and the salad. And a round of applause is needed the dinner was a major success!! it was yum and we ate at the 'normal' spanish time for dinner at 9:30 - 10pm. Then it was off to an ERASMUS party!!
We headed into the city with a crowd of Erasmus students - brazilian, slovenian, czech, polish, Spanish, and a few others!! In true student style we had big bottles filled with sangria and vodka to drink on the train.
The night started off in the city at a sports bar called Sonar Tavern.. now beer here is pretty cheap well for the size of it.. 1L cups!!
 |
| Me, Matt (Aus), Lukus (Austrian), Igor (slovenian) Tash (Aust) |
 |
| Tash, Slovenia, Joao (brazil) Pegah, Nat |
At 2am it was then time to head over the road to the discotheque 'RAZZMATAZZ'.. it was an absolutely funny night primarily because the whole club the size of a factory was filled with other Erasmus students from the 3 other universities in Barcelona so there were sooooo many different languages around me.. yet the music was still all in English!! and suprise suprise i was soooo much taller than a lot of the girls but definitely not the only blonde!!
The random stage show they have on every wednesday night in the theme of 'Murder on the dancefloor' - a set created a scene of cluedo and 4 dancers and a dj were dressed up as the characters of cluedo... funny as all night long they just danced to the music... but the highlight was one of the dancers i took a clip of him check it out so funny
Then it was a mission to get home because we stayed in the city and had to get back to Vila (the campus) in the rain and our taxi decided to take us into the city instead of the train station what was only like a 2 min drive away... so we got saturated having to walk to another station and we missed our first class
we were not happy little australians...
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Settling in
Shopping is definitly a very unusual experience here.. the 'centro commercial' shopping center close to our uni campus has a huge shop now this warehouse of a shop sells everything from groceries, alcohol (a hell of a lot of it), clothes, shoes, whitegoods, lightingtaps, books fans to electronics.
coles + target + bunnings + harvey norman all in one.
After spending about 20mins admiring the alcohol section i moved onto the groceries section..... my god soooo much to choose from and yes they sell soy sauce but no friggin Vegemite - lucky i bought some with me!!!
The fresh produce here absolutely shits on Australia, there was a whole aisle of hanging ham legs... so wrong but i had to take a picture!!!
 |
| Thats right 1,15 Euro |
Getting all my goods home was definitely a mission!!! sore arms today!
We randomly got invited to a party last night at a polish guys place and so we went along only to walk in the door not knowing a single person... but it was super easy to meet people there
everyone is so welcoming and even more convienient they speak english .. so much for the spanish practice.
It was a good night, we met more people irish, spanish, czech, Turkish, irish, polish, french you name it! We were invited to try the punch ... oo it was interesting a concoction of a lot of vodka, orange juice and sugar.... we were also invited to try some home made alcohol made from vodka, gin, cava and something else.... it was bright green
Well it was definitly a funny night, about 30 people all squashed into one apartment the size of about 5 x 4, and just about a third of the people smoking pot in the room made it like a dutch oven..
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Catalyna and Spain
Spain is seperated into 11 reigons like Australia with the 6 states.. however Catalyna is the only one with its own autonomous government seperate from spain because they claim they are independent of Spain having their own identity, culture and language.. its really interesting most of the city has signs, menus, and tv progams with both the catalan and spanish language.
Yesterday we came across a street party that was promoting and celebrating liberty of Catalan.
The party involved people playing music, spray painting artistic representations on the street wall, drinking and of course a massive feast!!! |
| The smell was to die for!!! |
Round 2
After a lousy 5 hours sleep it was time to head back into the city for another night out!!!
The two other students who are not living on campus live close to the city in Gracia so we headed for their place to start and then finish the night
at about 10pm we all set off for dinner.. in spain you do not think about dinner until about 9pm
We chose a pretty dodgy place but it had paella, sangria, patatas bravas and beer. and it was super cheap so we were all cheering!
Drinks continued flowing well for me at least while we all got ready to head out.
At about 1:30 or 2 we went to a club in the city called catwalk, it was massive but drinks were stupidly expensive 12euro each!!! although it played stupid r & b but none the less i had a great night... oo and may have kissed a french man!
The two other students who are not living on campus live close to the city in Gracia so we headed for their place to start and then finish the night
at about 10pm we all set off for dinner.. in spain you do not think about dinner until about 9pm
We chose a pretty dodgy place but it had paella, sangria, patatas bravas and beer. and it was super cheap so we were all cheering!
Drinks continued flowing well for me at least while we all got ready to head out.At about 1:30 or 2 we went to a club in the city called catwalk, it was massive but drinks were stupidly expensive 12euro each!!! although it played stupid r & b but none the less i had a great night... oo and may have kissed a french man!
Again the night didn't end until about 7am in the morning!! at about 6:30 the munchies called and this is when Pegah and i found the churroaria open... we got some churros and fresh potato chips if there is such a thing? here you can by chips by the weight 20 euro a kilo!!
Hitting the town!
Well i must say the shopping in barcelona is absolutely amazing i love it!! For the first week i have explored the shops around the city from the small boutiques to the large department store el corto ingles
On Thursday evening we had an intro meeting for international students who are living on campus
we have people from all over Europe staying on campus as well as people from mexico, sth america and a little chick from JapanShe is HALF my size soooo funny and apparently she is a really good cheerleader ha ha. suprisingly NO English people or American cheering!!.
following the meeting at 10:30pm we all headed into the city for a night out!!! 'salir de copas' First stop was a small bar where we were all told that TEQUILA shots were 1 euro!!! all other drinks were 3euro. so about the same as in Syd ..... wrong more than half the glass is vodka.. We stayed there until about 2pm when the bar closed lining up shot after shot.... messy then we moved on to the disco... and we danced and danced and danced until we got back home at about 7.... spending about 40mins getting lost while trying to find the train station
The night was so funny all different nationalities dancing together singing along to ENGLISH music. The japanese girl was by far the funniest to dance with so tiny and full of energy..
in this link at the bottom of the page there are two little photos that were taken of us http://www.revivelanoche.com/v2/Main.php?do=Fotosdefiesta&viewAlbum=N12285X12194P12233T12233U12285T12246
I made good friends with people from netherlands, italy, spain, mexico and columbia i think this year is going to be fun!!!
On Thursday evening we had an intro meeting for international students who are living on campus
we have people from all over Europe staying on campus as well as people from mexico, sth america and a little chick from JapanShe is HALF my size soooo funny and apparently she is a really good cheerleader ha ha. suprisingly NO English people or American cheering!!.
following the meeting at 10:30pm we all headed into the city for a night out!!! 'salir de copas' First stop was a small bar where we were all told that TEQUILA shots were 1 euro!!! all other drinks were 3euro. so about the same as in Syd ..... wrong more than half the glass is vodka.. We stayed there until about 2pm when the bar closed lining up shot after shot.... messy then we moved on to the disco... and we danced and danced and danced until we got back home at about 7.... spending about 40mins getting lost while trying to find the train station
The night was so funny all different nationalities dancing together singing along to ENGLISH music. The japanese girl was by far the funniest to dance with so tiny and full of energy..
in this link at the bottom of the page there are two little photos that were taken of us http://www.revivelanoche.com/v2/Main.php?do=Fotosdefiesta&viewAlbum=N12285X12194P12233T12233U12285T12246
I made good friends with people from netherlands, italy, spain, mexico and columbia i think this year is going to be fun!!!
Friday, February 11, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
the little things
well Barcelona so far has presented itself with some interesting experiences i doubt i will forget
1. the amount of random cats that are around our uni housing - everyone just randomly looks after them and they just roam around the place
2. Wine in the SUPERMARKET - yep thats right and only for wait for it .... 86 euro CENTS!!!!
3. Old ladys in their big fur jackets, fish net stockings and bright lippy
4. smoking weed in uni grounds is allowed
5. A 3 course meal with a glass of wine less than 15 Aust dollars!!! and great food too
6. it is considered normal to wake at 12, eat dinner at 10pm and go to bed each night at 12 or 1
7. A city going i complete shut down all for the sake of a food coma nap !!
THis is a city that i definitly am going to enjoy!
1. the amount of random cats that are around our uni housing - everyone just randomly looks after them and they just roam around the place
2. Wine in the SUPERMARKET - yep thats right and only for wait for it .... 86 euro CENTS!!!!
3. Old ladys in their big fur jackets, fish net stockings and bright lippy
4. smoking weed in uni grounds is allowed
5. A 3 course meal with a glass of wine less than 15 Aust dollars!!! and great food too
6. it is considered normal to wake at 12, eat dinner at 10pm and go to bed each night at 12 or 1
7. A city going i complete shut down all for the sake of a food coma nap !!
THis is a city that i definitly am going to enjoy!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Just Arrived in Barcelona
Well after a not so great start catching a vomiting bug off Danger on my last night in Aus and the night of my farewell party... then 30 hrs of travel...Sydney to Singapore to London and finally here in Barcelona!!
it was definitely a mission trying to navigate our way with our ameture spanish and lack of arms to carry all of our luggage. however thank god Michael one of the other students travelling with us is much much better at spanish so he saved us and we managed to get cabs to take us to the Uni housing.
My little apartment is so cute, small but sunny, clean and pretty modern. i live with 3 other spanish girls so if my spanish doesn't improve then there is definitely something wrong!!
i only met one of my flatmates because the others are on a weeks holiday after exams. Carmen the one i did get to meet seems really lovely AND woo for me she can speak english!!! so i didn't have to attempt to introduce myself with my weak spanglish
Super angry i forgot my camera so i can't take any photos until i get a new one!!
On our first night here we had some dinner around 6 which to the spanish would be completely super early weird and abnormal. We ate at a restaurant on campus it was nice, and because we were so tired we chose to use the english menu they had woops! AND of course i was super excited to try the local wine and a bit of sangria... the dining experience was made especially bizzare for us with the indian background music being played.
We figured we should attempt a little grocery shopping afterwars so we have some breaky for the next morning.. now finding it was interesting.. i asked for directions in Spanish and the guy replied in English... WHAAA.. ha and finding food that we had a little familiarity with was a bit of a challenge, but never the less Michael found his Coke, i found strawberry yogurt, tash found bananas, and pegah found a few goodies
Walking back wasnt the funnest thing... we froze.. all day the weather had been really nice not needing anymore than a cartigan but now i was lucky to have my aunts possum scarf keeping me warm because it was freezing!!
it was definitely a mission trying to navigate our way with our ameture spanish and lack of arms to carry all of our luggage. however thank god Michael one of the other students travelling with us is much much better at spanish so he saved us and we managed to get cabs to take us to the Uni housing.
My little apartment is so cute, small but sunny, clean and pretty modern. i live with 3 other spanish girls so if my spanish doesn't improve then there is definitely something wrong!!
i only met one of my flatmates because the others are on a weeks holiday after exams. Carmen the one i did get to meet seems really lovely AND woo for me she can speak english!!! so i didn't have to attempt to introduce myself with my weak spanglish
Super angry i forgot my camera so i can't take any photos until i get a new one!!
On our first night here we had some dinner around 6 which to the spanish would be completely super early weird and abnormal. We ate at a restaurant on campus it was nice, and because we were so tired we chose to use the english menu they had woops! AND of course i was super excited to try the local wine and a bit of sangria... the dining experience was made especially bizzare for us with the indian background music being played.
We figured we should attempt a little grocery shopping afterwars so we have some breaky for the next morning.. now finding it was interesting.. i asked for directions in Spanish and the guy replied in English... WHAAA.. ha and finding food that we had a little familiarity with was a bit of a challenge, but never the less Michael found his Coke, i found strawberry yogurt, tash found bananas, and pegah found a few goodies
Walking back wasnt the funnest thing... we froze.. all day the weather had been really nice not needing anymore than a cartigan but now i was lucky to have my aunts possum scarf keeping me warm because it was freezing!!
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