Barthhhhalona - Happy Halloween!

I woke up to my alarm at 4:10 Friday morning to get ready for Barcelona.

That was… ROUGH. I am never going to book a pre 8 am flight again.

I probably will cause they’re cheaper but that’s beside the point.

So anyways, Liv and Liz picked me up in an uber at 4:45 am and we headed to Orly to catch our flight to ~Barca~.   We got to our AirBnb early that morning and had the whole day ahead of us, so we dropped our bags off while the apartment was being cleaned and headed out to brunch. We never actually met our AirBnb host… but he was buds with the people in the hostel downstairs so he told Liv to pick the keys up from the hostel desk.

Side note we had a KILLER airbnb crew for the weekend. It was me, Liv, Liz, Louisa, Caroline, Emma, Isabel, Maddie, and Willie and Izzy hung out a bunch.

Federal Café: I had seen instagrams of this place before (classic) and Liv’s friend recommended it so we decided why not. It was like a classic Durham brunch spot. Got avocado toast which was great cause I never get it in Paris. However, bread was pretty tough…. Though overall a good meal. And we got a chocolate banana power smoothie which tasted… healthy. I think I’m out of the “healthy delicious brunch game” and a little too used to my baguettes and wine. Or maybe I just ordered the wrong things. I’d still say it was good.. but I am also a little jaded because there was apparently this AMAZING brunch place called Brunch and Cake that everyone was RAVING about and the pictures looked amazing but we never went because the lines were always like 2 hours long.

Market: I forget what this market is called but it’s a HUGE food market not too far from our apartment. They had the BEST almonds I have ever had in my whole life. And I am a nut fanatic so that’s saying a lot. We got salted almonds and candied almonds. There were tons of stands with different types of nuts, bright colored smoothies, seafood, cured meats, cheeses, fruits and vegetables… anything you can imagine. We went twice the first day haha because once everyone else arrived they wanted food and I wasn’t opposed to going twice.

So after brunch/the market we met the rest of our friends back at our AirBnb to let them inside. However, the key didn’t work. I went downstairs to ask what was wrong with the key but my Spanish was not very good. The hostel man didn’t understand me and instead asked my name. I told him and he gave me another set of keys. Confused. The new keys worked so we were wondering what in the world the old keys were for…. Until we tried them in the door across the hall and found out they opened that apartment. So someone screwed up and gave us the keys to the apartment of 6+ 30 year old men across the hall. Don’t worry we never did anything bad with the keys……

That afternoon we walked to the beach and it was BEAUTIFUL. It was so warm and the water and sand felt wonderful. I was so happy to be in the sun. I knew Barcelona was on the water but I didn’t realize the beach was so big! We sat down at one of the restaurants along the beach and ordered some Sangria and a delicious bruschetta bread type thing. Very relaxing.

After our little happy hour we walked to the W hotel because we wanted to see their rooftop bar which is supposed to have an amazing view. Unfortunately, they were closed for ~siesta~. Typical Spain. So instead we looked out the water on their back deck which was still incredibly beautiful.

Then we walked back to our apartment to take a little siesta ourselves before dinner which was much needed.

Lascar 74: This was a SPECTACULAR tapas restaurant that Liv’s friend again recommended. The waiter knew what was up and said he would just bring us all the best dishes. Which he did. We started off with these cheesy clam things that were really good and then a lot of fish/sushi things and some potatoes and guacamole and I can’t even remember what else but it was good. We also all got these really good drinks called pisco sours. Apparently Peru and Argentina fight about what a true pisco sour is. Peruvians put an egg white in theirs and Argentinians don’t. Since it was a Peruvian tapas place ours had egg white in it which I have come to like in my cocktails. It adds a nice light foamy texture and doesn’t have too much of a taste. The drink was a little sour, a little cinnamony, and very good.

 

tasted better than it looks haha

­­After dinner we went to Opium, a club on the beach, which was really cool. We got there early so we beat the lines and soon after the club was packed. We hung by the bar at first, then moved to the dance floor, then out on to the beach, then found ourselves in the ~bottle service~ section. Since it was so packed it was easy to lose people, but I stuck with friends and loved hanging out on the beach it was a beautiful night! Got home around 430 which we thought was late.. later found out it wasn’t.

Slept in till like 12:30 on Saturday, which was much much needed. Wanted to go to Brunch and Cake but it was packed. Tried to go to Milk but it was packed. Ended up going to this sandwich place Willie saw that looked good, and afterwards we realized it must be famous cause the line was out the door. They ask what kind of meat you want and then whether or not you want everything on it (I assume, I speak zero Spanish this was all Willie). I got a killer chicken sandwich that kind of reminded of the falafels back in Paris. We then sat and ate them on the steps in the woooonderful sunshine.

Isabel and Maddie couldn’t exactly enjoy the sunshine cause they were.. I’ll say… struggling. Lol.

So Emma, Louisa and I left them by the water while we decided to head to some palace Liv, Liz, and Caroline told us they were going so we decided to meet them, we had no idea what this “palace” was.  But we wanted to do at least something touristy. So I plugged the address in to my phone and found “Chateaux de Juipe” and we began our journey.

Apple maps (the gem that it is) led us in to this park, which was very beautiful, but also very hilly. We get up our second large hill and can’t see any way down the hill. Isabel texts me and asks where we’re going… “Chateaux de Juipe!” I say. We assume apple maps must be wrong and switch to Louisa’s google maps. Google maps was no clearer, we ended up going up and down the same hill a few times until we finally found our way to a hotel. “Weird! A hotel all the way up here! Maybe they’ll have a way down!” They didn’t. We finally found a main road and kept going up. We passed lots of beautiful parks and fountains as I started sweating bullets. Keep in mind I was “struggling” a bit as well. About an hour later we finally reach the top of this awful mountain and arrive at our destination. Turns out it is a palace that is at one of the highest points in Barcelona that was historically used as a look out point and is known today for its great views of the city and the water. Would have been GREAT if our friends had told us that before we made the trek. But in the end it was worth it and after sweating out some of that tequila I think I felt a bit better.

Also turns out it’s called “Palace de Juipe”… but since my apple maps is in French, it called it a chateaux so I was going around calling it a chateaux to everyone sounding like an idiot. I should have known “chateaux” wasn’t a word in French AND Spanish.

We also found out there was a gondola that takes you to the top of the mountain from the other side… HA HA.

The Palace was cool. It had a big courtyard outside and a large courtyard on top. But we were overwhelmed. Barcelona isn’t that pretty from up top haha sorry eep. There were a lot of barges and construction machines surrounding the palace right at the foot of the mountain so that was a bit of  a bummer.

 

so happy to be at the top!

how we actually felt at the top

After getting down the mountain we went on a hunt for ice cream.. We stumbled upon this gelato place near our air bnb where I had AWESOME fig and ricotta gelato. Unexpected but nonetheless delicious.

We all had a bit of a conundrum on Saturday since it was Halloween and none of us had a Halloween costume. Luckily there was a bizarre little vintage shop across the street from our apartment. Louisa and I grabbed some western looking vests, slapped it over a black dress and called ourselves cowgirls. So creative I know!

 

liz stayed very in character lol

Then comes the next ~siesta~ !! I’ve gotten really good at napping here.

Our dinner Friday night was delicious but considering the effects of Saturday morning we decided we needed a dinner with more sustenance and much more carbs.

Tucco: Tucco pasta and empanadas was the solution! It was a 2 minute walk from our apartment and rated #1 on trip advisor or something like that. I got yummy ravioli, an empanada, a brownie, and a glass of wine all for 8 euros! My wallet loves Spain!

Razzmatazz: Everyone and their brother was going to Razzmatazz for Halloween. Everyone had bought tickets online and the line was OUT of control. There were metal fences and tons of security guards to handle the crowds. It turns out the club had oversold over 1,000 tickets. My friends and I had to split in to 3 different cabs, so I arrived with Liz, Liv, and Caroline around 1:30 am. There was a little opening in the fence so we snuck our way in. Because “we don’t do lines”. Ha. After about 20 minutes and a lot of pushing and shoving later we made it in. We later found out or friends who arrived 5 minutes later were not as lucky, didn’t get in to the club, and got pushed over in the line L Turns out a lot of people had the same issue so a lot of Duke people went to another bar. There was nothing we could do about it that point so we took our free drink tickets to the bar. For your free drink ticket (comes with entry) you could only get a shot. Razzmatazz clearly knows what’s up. The main room was a huge warehouse looking thing with long bars on either end and a DJ on a stage at one end. We danced for a while, I ran in to Nick and Parker from high school, some other duke people, and danced some more. There was a second level that overlooked the main room so we assumed that was where bottle service was. I ran in to my friend from my dorm freshman year who I hadn’t seen in over a year at Opium the night before, and he told me he had bought a table so we went to look for him. However the stairs didn’t take us to bottle service, instead they took us outside to a cool spot surrounded by brick buildings with even more people.   We then found ourselves in ANOTHER room that was small and narrow with big windows and lots of Halloween decorations. They were playing all the top 100 american songs which is rare in Europe so of course we went wild for that. They also released confetti in the room at some point which was sweeeet. We got pretty tired around 5 and called it quits. While walking to find a cab we ran in to a distraught looking girl dressed as an angel who turned out to be one of my sorority sisters hey! She was incredibly pleased to see us as she apparently had lost her friends (who I could have sworn I had seen 5 minutes earlier in my walk).  She was a sweetheart and once we finally found a cab we put her in it and sent her home. It proved pretty much impossible to find another cab so we just walked home. Took almost an hour but it was warm so we didn’t care. Then liv and I ate an avocado, I broke a glass, and we went to bed at 6:30…! I wanted to stay up for the sunrise but then I realized that was at 7:30 am and that last hour just wasn’t gonna happen.

We hung out there for a little until we came back inside and were greeted with another room very similar to the first but maybe half the size (which is still huge). Turns out this was the room with the famous DJ that was DJing who I didn’t know. But it was apparently a big deal. And I danced a ton in that room so I guess I liked him! After leaving that room we wandered in to yet another room with another DJ and another bar and another Duke girl who I don’t know but nicely offered to buy me a drink!

Sunday morning it was my turn to “struggle” while running on 4 hours of sleep.

We ended up going to a random brunch place. I ate an omelet which I think was good?

Sagrada Familia: This is a church designed by the famous ____ Gaudi. It is unlike any church I’ve ever seen. It reminds me of a sandcastle that we used to make when I was little by dripping wet sand to make the towers. And inside it had the most BEAUTIFUL stained class windows. The sun was shining through the orange/red side which made the whole church glow like it was on fire. The columns weren’t traditional columns and instead fanned out on the ceiling a bit like palm trees. The church is also still under construction, it’s notorious for never being finished. The church was beautiful but I was dead so I took a nap on one of the stone benches while everyone else walked around. It was a peaceful nap..!

Park de Guell: This park was also designed by Gaudi and was also on top of a huge hill.  It was very lush and had beautiful mosaics interspersed throughout the park. The view from the top was also beautiful! Again, not sure if struggling Kelly really thought it was worth it though.. Really liked the park minus the climb though. I really do like Gaudi’s work though. His colorful mosaics are bright and happy and pretty. I really wanted to get a souvenir with the gaudi mosaic cause they had anything and everything mosaic there. But I made the mistake of thinking I could find the same assortment in the airport and ended up with a weird little keychain.

Milk: Sunday night we finally went to the famous milk brunch restaurant, but for dinner. Liv and I split some delicious smoked salmon potato cakes and an Asian chicken salad. Then after we went to the awesome gelato place and I got churros which were warm crunchy and DELICIOUS. But the pot of chocolate they gave me with it was huge and I couldn’t finish it.

Also shout out to Brian for completing the NYC Marathon this weekend!

My Vacation in Paris

What I did after amsterdam….

I seriously can’t remember UGH this is why I shouldn’t wait to write blog posts.

Ah yes!

Musée D’Orsay: I live right next to the musée d’orsay and for some reason had never been until the Sunday after Amsterdam. It’s so close I guess I just always tell myself I’ll go in one day. I originally was planning on going to this special FIAC art festival at the grand palais with Natalie, who had a friend that gave her her pass to go. However, the ticket bouncer was not happy when Natalie didn’t have a second form of identification (to prove she was her friend), so we got kicked out. Oh well. Musée D’orsay was still really cool. I did the 5^th floor with all the impressionist works. They have a huge impressionist collection and at the end you can go in the cool room with the clocks that has an amazing view of paris. There’s so much in that museum so I definitely want to go back. Especially to see the splendeurs et misers exhibit.

Monday morning I went to class ran and studied at coutume in the afternoon with Liz and Wheeler. I also ran in to Ellie, which was a fun coincidence! So we all hung out. Then I had been dying to picnic on the Eiffel tower at night to see all the twinkly lights so I made my friends go with me J it was a little chilly, but not too bad, it was a beautiful night. We got some baguettes, cheese, and wine and sat out on the champ de mars just as the sun was setting. So we got to see the tower sparkle twice, once at sunset and once when it was completely dark. It’s breathtaking and really never gets old.

Tuesday I don’t really know what I did but it probably involved a lot of work and dinner at home cause it was a Tuesday.

^Lol this is FALSE. As I realized later when I finally got back to writing. I forgot that I had class off this whole week (except for Art History on Wednesday, because it was fall break at the Sorbonne and Diderot). SO!

Andy Warhol Exhibit at La Musée D’art Moderne: I ran in the morning and then met Liv, Steph, Ben, and Evan at the Andy Warhol exposition at la Musée d’art Moderne. I was pretty excited for this cause I love Andy Warhol but it was kind of a let down. It was at the museum of modern art and had a few of his good pieces but was pretty poorly curated. the pop art exposition I saw at the met a few years ago was much better done. I guess American museums just understand American art better... Anyways, I wouldn't say it was a total waste and it was kind of cool.

 

got in trouble for taking this photo so i couldn't take any more after that

but then i said screw it and took this one

another room in le musée d'art moderne

After Andy Warhol we went to Kozy café for a quick snack and to study. It was a beautiful day so Liv Evan Steph and I sat outside! Then I did homework which was gross and went home for host family dinner.

Treize (13 a Baker’s Dozen): Wednesday morning Evan Liv and I went to brunch at this little trendy spot in the 7th right near my apartment which I loved!! To be honest it was not French at all but brunch isn't French so whatever, sue me. The staff spoke perfect English, it reminded me of a sugar plum cake shop type place (I think they might be owned by the same people). Anyways, it was tucked away down this little cobblestone alley and we sat at a high booth in the corner. We were worried about it being crowded but no one was there at 1045 on a Wednesday haha. So we got to bond with the staff who were so nice!! It started to get bustling and crowded around 12 though. Treize is a southern brunch restaurant pretty much straight out of Durham. They had fresh BISCUITS. Like real fluffy southern biscuits. Liv and I got a quinoa porridge and Evan got "fried" (baked) chicken with French toast biscuits. Brunch came with a delicious juice and a coutume coffee. So good!

After brunch I went to another affordable yoga fitness Pilates class (same one as before) which I suppose I’ve become a sort of regular at which is cool. Then I had art history in the afternoon where I had to do my césar exposé. I think I blacked out for most of it but apparently it went well.

Wednesday night I had a wine tasting that was organized through EDUCO. It was so cool. There were about 20 of us and we tasted 4 different wines: a white sauvignon blanc to start, a red borgogne after that, followed by a rosé champagne, and a white dessert wine to finish it all up. She also had immense plates of cheese and baskets of bread for all of us. We learned how to describe scents and tastes. One of the wines smelled EXACTLY like a can of fresh tennis balls, which I used and everyone agreed and our instructor laughed. Thank you master somm. We also learned how to swish the wine around in our mouth and breath in to it to make the taste more powerful. And WOW it really worked. The first white was very citrusy. And the red dried out your mouth (cause all of the tannin which we learned!). I took notes I’ll show you all when I get home don’t worry. I’m on my way to being a master somm.

Moonshiners: After our wine tasting we headed to this speakeasy bar that is hidden through a pizza fridge. And it really is hidden. The pizza place looks totally normal and even has a different name. But the bar was really cool and played fun jazz music. The bartenders were funny and nice and the drinks were really good. Will definitely be going back there soon.

Thursday morning was woken by construction UGH.

Angelina: met my friends at the good old famous Angelina for brunch - on the bucket list! And I have to admit the brunch was pretty good. The hot chocolate was STRAIGHT chocolate. (The place is famous for its hot chocolate) Couldn't finish the whole thing but definitely satisfied my craving. Brunch also comes with a juice of your choice, mini pastries (croissant, pain au chocolat, pain au raisin), bread, bowl of fruit, and eggs styled your way (I got eggs Benedict of course). The pastries were warm which was so yummy and my eggs were good.

After that we went suit shopping for Ben... He went to Sandro to get his size and tried on a €2000+ suit. He looked spiffy but after getting the size we promptly left lol. They were nice though.

Next came my hunt for Stan smiths. We went to THREE different stores and I still couldn't find them. After Ben and I ventured to the 4th store (which ended up being a closed warehouse) I sent him on his way and continued the journey on my own. I called my mom in distress while walking to the adidas store on the champs Elysée when lo and behold I ran in to the REAL galleries Lafayette which was HUGE and covered with Christmas decorations. Their shoe department was bigger than my house and I easy found my Stan smiths. Woo!

Maille Mustard Store: While wearing my fly new kicks I walked around place de Madeline for a bit and wandered in to the maille mustard store

Jeu de Paume: On my way home I walked through les Jardins des Tuilieries and le jeu de paumme was finally open! I had run past it lots of times and had been waiting for the exhibit to open even though I wasn’t really sure what it was. Turns out it was an exposition all about Philippe Halsman a famous photographer who did a lot for Time Magazine. Yeah he was American… and I’ve learned the French don’t curate American artists that well. The exhibit was probably cool but I was peeved I didn’t get in free and I was tired. He did a lot of shots of Marilyn Monroe which I think was the best part. He also was famous for doing jumping photos of people because he thought that loosened people up and let their true personalities shine through. Which I actually really liked and thought to be very interesting. My Lochearn friends and I used to always like taking jumping photos so it made me laugh.

Thursday night I just had dinner with the host family and packed for Barcelona!

It was really nice to have the week off between Amsterdam and Barcelona. Normally travelling two weekends in a row is really tiring and I feel like I miss out on Paris. But this time I had plenty of time to explore and got to do a lot of things I had been wanting to do!