Barcelona :) It's been real!

After a long ferry ride consisting of eating, sleeping, knitting, reading, sunbathing, aimless boat exploration, and chatting with yet another Tasmanian, we finally arrived in Spain! We helped an Italian who was also headed toward the center of town, carry his 3 huge bags and walk his dog 4 Km, lent him our phone and tablet so he could contact his friend, and got a free taxi ride to our hostel as a "thank you" for our kindnesses! We checked in at 23h and hit the sheets in our 8 bed dorm.
The next couple days consisted of some exploration of the city, but no more overdoing it because we knew we had 10 days! Evening were all different. We attempted to go to a club with our new French-Canadian friend, Sam, to get our groove on, but turned around quickly when we saw there was a 15€ surcharge. We played "sangria pong" with a group of crazy Scots, and just hung out. We had access to a kitchen, so we were able to do some nice cooking, and breakfast was included: two things that help us stay within our 20€ daily budget! All in all it was a pretty good hostel, and we had a nice, quiet stay!
On the 11th, after 3 nights at this hostel, we went across the city to a different hostel. This one had 9 floors of rooms (most of them full), a big common room/bar/computer room, a huge terrace overlooking the city, a kitchen, a big gym, a pool, etc. When we arrived and saw all this, we were a little worried that it would be like the PLUS hostel in Florence... but it wasn't! It was altogether more inclusive the way things were set up, but I guess the people we met here made it what it was more than the hostel itself. We hung out with a group of 6 Americans, as well as some Ukrainians, Uruguayans, Australians, English (Angel :) , Swedes, Germans, Chinese, etc. It was a lot of fun sharing experiences and hanging out with these kids! The only thing that was  wrong with this hostel was one of our 6 roommates, Paolo, an Italian... He would take random people's food out of the fridge to feed himself, take alcohol from anyone, and just help himself to anything in sight. He didn't take any of our valuables, but it was simply a drag having to be soooo careful with our stuff.
So, a quick overview of the happenings at this hostel: We played games (usually drinking games) with our new friends, I worked out at the gym included in the hostel price, Kels and I lost each other in Barcelona for a couple hours, we went to a pro football game (Barca vs. Celtics) I let a Swede pierce my ear, we made a huuuuuuge pot of paella and a bowl of sangria for all our new friends, ...and more adventures...! It was a great time and we learned a lot during the 3 nights at this hostel!
Our next hostel was right in the center of the constant tourist excitement section of Barcelona: Les Ramblas. This place was definitely more of a party oriented hostel, and not a great place to come if you just want to relax. The common room/dining room/game room/bar were all lit up with colorful lights, and there was always music playing. It was a lot like our last hostel in Rome. We each paid 9€/night (not the cheapest in Barcelona) but were given 3 free meals a day (which we didn't always take advantage of, but it was nice to have as an option), and free entry to a few clubs, which have a 15€ cover charge. It was fun spending time in the common room in the evening! We started up beer pong games, got free beer all night from the bartender :) , and, again, met many cool people. We made some Irish friends, Italian..., "Frenchy", American, Yugoslavian, Australian, etc., and were surrounded all the time by tons of drunk Brazilians (who are all over Europe, for the football game in Morocco).
Barcelona is known (among young travelers) for it's nightlife. Kels and I had just come from a very eventful few weeks in Italy, so, we thought we'd take it a bit easy at first since we had plenty of time (10 days) in Barcelona. Oddly enough, I only made it to one club (and Kels to none)... We just enjoyed our time in the hostels with the other travelers around, or decided it be better if we take it easy for a night (usually unsuccessfully), so, by the time it was time to go out, we were either having fun where we were and preferred to stay, or couldn't afford the cover charge, or were just not in the mood. Quite honestly I'm not too bummed about that.
We each went on a free walking tour of Barcelona, learning some of the history and making what we saw a lot more relevant and easier to appreciate. We spend some time on the beach (in a bathing suit!), and walked to a beautiful park overlooking the city, found an amazing Latin street band, saw the Sagrada Familia, walked around with our American friends, went to the famous, beautiful market on La Rambla, went out and actually bought sangria, spent time to ourselves, etc. We had some good relaxation time due to the generous amount of time we allotted ourselves in Barcelona.
They were wonderful times we had in Barcelona, and these few paragraphs don't even scrape the surface of the bundle of things we did, people we met, and things we learned... I definitely want to go back soon and spend some more time there, as well as around the rest of Spain! These southern European countries really pull me in!

Barcelonaaaa ♡ Te extrañaremos!

Roma ★ ...and Pisa!