Barcelona Study Abroad: Cava...o?

Woww sooo it's been a little while since my last post. I swear studying here with the slow-paced, care free lifestyle and super easy classes has made writing even the simplest blog post seem comparable to running a 100 mile marathon through the desert (so dramatic but sadly true). I honestly feel accomplished when I write an email to my parents now, let alone a paragraph. But I know future me would really want now me to stop being dramatic and just write it already and get it over with so here goes.

A couple weeks ago, our program took us on a cava tasting tour and tasting (take notes America). According to Wikipedia, cava is "a Spanish sparkling wine of Denominacion de Origen," put simply, Catalan champagne. It can be rose or white and varies in sweetness depending on the variety. About 95% of all cava is produced in the Penedes area in Catalonia, with the village of Sant Sandurni d'Anoia housing the two biggest producers, Codorniu (where we went!) and Freixenet.

The tour was super interesting. I've never been on a wine tour or tasting and had never really thought about how wine that's "aged 5 years" actually has to sit somewhere cold, dark, and underground for 5 years. The cellars were massive and extend up to 30 miles underneath the ground (still inconceivable to me). The winery has been in the Codorniu family for 5 centuries (our tour was given by one of the family members). We even got to go on a Universal Studios-esque train ride through the cellars.

The tour was cool but my favorite part was trying all the different types of cava at the end of the tour. It was probably the classiest I've felt...ever. We even learned how to properly taste the wine by mixing it with air in your mouth to bring out all the "hidden flavors". After the unlimited cava, they cunningly guide you straight to the gift shop before you leave. I'd say about 80% of the people bought something, which would probably have never happened pre-cava. (there you go Kohl's, maybe I'll bring a few new ideas to this summer internship after all)

After the tour we took a bus to Sitges, a nearby town where I had previously visited for Carnival. It was nice seeing it in the daylight without hundreds of thousands of masked crazy people. We grabbed lunch at a little place with a menu del dia (salad with goat cheese and Argentinian sausage), got a couple bloody marys and grabbed some gelato by the beach before returning to the bus for our drive back to Barcelona. During our drive back we engaged in a wild animal search/safari/competition to see who could spot the most prostitutes posted up alongside the highway in their plastic chairs and booty-high boots. Oh Barcelona, how I will miss you.