Barcelona Study Abroad: You follow me?

Today marks two weeks in Barcelona, and it is going by way too fast. I feel like it's just one big whirlwind.

Thursday night, Roman took our GA group for tapas and cava at this little local tapas bar near the Barceloneta neighborhood. It was called La Champagneria. It's really small with absolutely zero chairs or tables and is always packed to capacity. Roman said normally you have to fight to get to the bar to order or befriend someone closer to the bar and give them your money to order for you. We tasted many different kinds of meats and cheeses and of course had plenty of croquetas (fried outside with cheesy, doughy, ham or chicken heaven inside). We also took full advantage of the 90 cent glasses of Rosat cava. The food was great and it was fun to be amongst all the locals. We stayed there for around 3 hours and then took the metro back to the residencia to meet up with everyone, which is where the title of this post comes from..

So Morgan and I are walking in the metro, switching from the yellow line to the red line and there's this guy walking in front of us, probably in his 50s, who is also switching from the yellow line to the red line. As we were walking, he kept glancing back at us, so we just figured he was partaking in the Spanish cultural habit of staring at people (they do it nonstop). Then all of a sudden, he stops in his tracks, turns around (seeming like he's kind of scared) and looks at us and goes "You follow me?!" hahahaha We could not stop laughing while we attempted to assure him that we were not, in fact, following him. It was great. Rereading this, I feel like it might be one of those things where you had to be there, but I'm keeping it anyways.

After we got back to the residencia after meeting our great new friend in the metro, we headed out to Ovella Negra, a warehouse style bar that serves wine and sangria in huge containers with spickets for 25 euro and has free popcorn (obvious bonus), with a group from the residencia for a much needed chill night out.

After class on Friday we checked out the Chocolate Museum in Barceloneta and then walked to the beach. It was sooooo pretty and way closer to the residencia than I thought. We managed to fend off people trying to sell us scarfs, sunglasses, coconut (?), massages, and Lord knows what else as well as the encircling pickpocketers who I feel are way more obvious than they perceive themselves to be. Later that night we had a few people over to our den, had the chance to meet a few people from Milan and London (yayy Melon District is finally starting to get SOME diversity), and then ended the night at Club Duvet.

Today (Saturday) we went on a 3 hour bike tour of Barcelona through a company someone found online called Bus2Alps that caters to study abroad students. I was expecting more of a small group kind of thing but was surprised to show up and find the tour was composed of 2 groups of 35. Besides the fact that it was freezing cold (the only cold day we've had so far...my fingers didn't have circulation for 75% of the ride) and we looked like a freaking circus with 35 of us at a time trying to meander the 5 foot wide streets of the Gothic quarter, it was a really fun tour and I think has done the most, so far, of helping me to get acquainted with the layout of the city.

Tomorrow CIEE is sponsoring a trip to Tarragona where we'll see Roman ruins and a different part of the coast. I'll be sure to post about it tomorrow and upload pictures since my camera battery is finally charged!