BARCA BARCA BARCA

Hello!!

So again with the regrets for not being able to post as often - I've got a few different posts going now and someday the skies will clear and I'll be able to finish everything and get back on track with this, which I WISH could be higher on the list of priorities for me.

But at the moment I'm on vacation and as my travel partner is still struggling with the concept of wakefulness I get to take a moment and talk about it for a bit. Isn't that exciting? I think so.

Alas, the story of how I came to be here is a little bit sad. We're in the midst of Reading Week here at DCU, meaning no classes Monday-Friday. I had planned a 6-night trip to Spain - 2 nights each in Barcelona, Sevilla, and Madrid and was looking forward to getting away from the school work and be able to do one real trip, have myself an actual mini-backpacking experience, as I have been much busier than I expected to be and it would be nice to get away and see a little bit of a beautiful country. Unfortunately, at the last minute I decided that there really was too much work to do and that I couldn't afford to be put more behind by a week-long trip, so the trip was shortened to just the two nights in Barcelona.

Some of you knew me the last time I went to Barcelona...that little mini-exchange my junior year of high school. I came back and was absolutely certain that I had found my future home - plans were made in my mind that I would go back some day and live there, study there in college then somehow find a job. Things didn't work out that way, once I reached college it was Buenos Aires that drew me in and I'm glad it did, and once I arrived down there I saw many parallels between that city and what I remembered of Barcelona, and I loved it.

And now, more than 5 years later, I'm back! Just for a short couple days but already I'm remembering the feeling that the city gave me the last time I was here. It's beautiful, the people are friendly, the weather is nice - basically just one of the more gorgeous places in the world that you can imagine. And, as any city is going to be much different when you're 21 than when you're 16, its like discovering it all over again. The hostel is a blast, the worldwide Australian invasion (seriously - they're everywhere) makes for a very good time. Last night on a whim we joined a group from the hostel on a cross-city journey that stopped to pick up people from the sister hostels and eventually ended up, drunk, at the Barcelona stadium for a match...Barcelona against, well, someone else. Barca demolished them 5-0 after toying with them and not scoring at all in the first half - it was a good time and had us nicely worn out at the end. After spinning our wheels for a while we decided that we were content to just head back and sleep, and such a good decision it was, as I was running on something like 7 hours since Sunday and Will was on something similar.

Now, we're well rested, Will is up and ready to go, and we're off to do some power sight-seeing/lunch eating before we have to figure out what tonight will bring. Anyway, thought I'd get you all an update and I'll talk to you soon.

Love you all and take care!