California Here We Come!: Back in Espana, I just couldn't stay away:)

This weekend my roommate Ana and I took a trip to Barcelona, Spain. We stopped in Pisa and Girona on our way, but our final destination was Barcelona. We arrived in Girona, Spain Thursday at 9:15pm. Family friend Mariona picked us up and took us downtown for Tapas and drinks. It got pretty late so we headed to Mariona's apartment and hit the hay. Mariona had work in morning, so Ana and I woke up, showered, packed up, and headed out. We took a bus into the city center of Girona to have breakfast. Then we went to see the Cathedral and other sites of Girona, then caught the noon train to Barcelona.
After arriving, taking the metro, and walking, we arrived at our hostel around 1:45 or so. We dropped our stuff and headed out. Ana is super chill and likes to go with the flow. She didn't have any sites in particular she wanted to see or any plan, so she was happy to let me be in charge.. which we all know I like:) I'm good at planning though and directions and such so I enjoyed planning the weekend. And she speaks Spanish because she is from Columbia, so she was our translater. Anyways, I wanted to see lots so I got a map and planned the best route and decided what to see when. I found a candy shop for Ana (we both have a slight candy obsession) and so she was happy. Friday we saw the Gaudi buildings, La Sagrada Familia Cathedral, and Parc Guell. We did a bunch of walking. Parc Guell is kind of far away, aka not the city center. We had to take a metro out there and then walk/ escalator up the most intensely steep street ever haha. We made it though, and it was so worth it! You could see ALL of Barcelona from up there. The mountains and the castle on one side and the beach and skyline on the other. So cool. We came down after walking all around, recharging, and filling up our water and such. We found this souvenir, discount, random stuff shop on our way back to the metro and we went wild in there. It was this sketchy place owned by an Asian family. They had great deals on magnets and other touristy stuff. I even got a cheap pair of knock off vans, my vans I brought here are genuinely falling apart, I'm not exaggerating. Oh and this random Hispanic lady came up to Ana, grabbed her arm and tried to come home with us. Yep. Her daughter came up as she was approaching us and tried to diffuse the situation, but this elderly lady was not having it. I mean she was snarling at the person she was with. Ana speaks Spanish so she told me everything that happened. Apparently the old lady was saying "Vamos (we go)." Then to her relative, "I am going home with her, not you. I want to go with her." And the lady, whom I'm assuming is her daughter or relative, was saying "No, you can't go with her. You don't know her. She is going to her house and we are going to ours." It was hilarious (for me cause I was three feet away dying laughing at Ana). The old lady would not let go of Ana and her daughter kept trying to pull her away but literally couldn't. We think she may have had alzheimers, which is obviously not funny but the situation was quite comical. It created quite a scene and went on for a solid 4 or 5 minutes which felt way longer. SO RICH. But we got our stuff eventually and headed out. We metro-ed back to our hostel, showered up, and headed out again. We went for Tapas, which is very normal in Spain. Then we made it to the 10:30 show at the Magic Fountain. It was just beautiful, packed with people, and they were playing some great classic songs to match the light show. After the show we stuck around to take some pics and then walked back. Another great story... Okay, so I had heard about getting churros con chocolate in Spain... so we did. I was under the impression that it was churros and this chocolate fudge/pudding type thing you dipped them in AND I had seen exactly what I wanted the day before! So we ordered and they gave us churros and hot chocolate. LOL. Ana and I were dying. So typical us. It's freakin summer and we order hot chocolate and churros. Oh well, it was still amazing. Last stop of the night, DA CLUBSSS. So Barcelona is know for being a crazy party city, and it is. I knew that I had wanted to go out while there, and knew I didn't want to drink much, and then get ready for this. Thursday, in photography class, I got an assignment to take pictures at clubs. We had learned about taking pictures of things that are "normal" to people our age, things that are regular things that we have access to. Our professor suggested clubs. He said, 'don't drink one night, go out with your friends, and be the sober one taking pictures of the night.' I did and it was actually more fun than I thought. I got to mess with my aperture and shutter speed and get some really cool pics with all the lights and such. Sadly all they played was techo music though which was disappointing and Ana and I couldn't really get into it:/ So eventually we gave up, sat on the beach, and people watched. Got home at 3:45am, and had to wake up at 9. Somehow, I was feeling fine. I really did not get tired until Saturday night.
Saturday we did the classic Barcelona sites and made it down toward the beach. We walked down Las Rambles street, a very famous street filled with shops and flower stands and street performers. After that we walked along the the ports, headed toward Parc de la Ciutadella. Once at the Parc we walked around it, saw the fountain, the parliament buildings, and the lake. It was now about 2 something, and we wanted to head back to the hostel to pick our stuff up. We stopped at the Arc de Triomf to check it out, then metro-ed home. We grabbed our bags, I changed into my bathing suit, and we headed to the beach. Ana wanted to read and wasn't feelin the beach, so she got a drink and chilled at an outdoor restaurant. It was actually really nice because she was able to watch our stuff so I just brought my towel and Iphone down to the beach. I laid out for an hour or so, swam a little, and then joined Ana to dry off. After that, we headed to dinner. We found this place with quite the deal. Sangria, bread, a starter (she got calamari and I got mussels which we shared with each other), an entree (she got Paella and I got salmon which we again shared), and dessert ALL FOR 11.45 euros. I was stoked. We had sandy skin, salty hair, and full bellies. It was time to begin the journey home. Bus (7:30) Barcelona to Girona, fly (11) Girona to Pisa, bus (12:45am) Pisa to Florence, taxi (2am) to our apartment. We didn't get in bed until 3am- TOO LATE! Or early... Anyways, we went to bed and slept so hard till noon today. It was such a great trip:)