Turning 21 in Barcelona

Casa Batllo

This was a big week in Barcelona! First, I am going to share some random great moments I had. So running in Barcelona is way more difficult than I expected—busy streets, constant stop/go traffic, and people blowing smoke in my face as I run by (uhg)—but I finally found a happy park in my neighborhood called Toro Parc. It is definitely not a big park, but I can run in different loops and look at the cute dogs while avoiding the busy streets (win win win). This week I also discovered crème de brie, which is delicious spreadable brie cheese. Every snack and meal has changed in a momentous way.

Onto other fun things this week:

Wednesday night Mara, Becca, and I found an awesome tapas restaurant in Gracia. We watched the FC Barcelona game at the bar, ate delicious food, drank cheap wine, and were having a blast. We promised to go back to watch another game, and I am determined to learn the FC Barcelona chant and really become a local.

21st at Bling Bling

Thursday night came quickly, and it was time to celebrate my 21^st birthday. My roomies surprised me with a cake, crown/boa, mini champagne bottles, and a virtual shotbook that was filled out by friends from home (thanks to everyone who made me a page!!!) and I was happiest girl in the world. We played some old-school jams (Danity Kane was a must) and prepared for the night out. We met our crew downstairs to go to Le Cyrano for the pregame to commence. We got a big table at Le Cyrano and had fun drankin, hangin, and munchin on buckets of free popcorn. Special thanks to the boys who bought me roses, because I had fun posing with them in every picture. Next, we moved on to Bling Bling and (apparently) danced for a while before heading to VIP for free ice cream and champagne with the fun sparklers. There were only 2 problems of the night: there were no spoons given with the pint of ice cream (it got ratchet) and I lost my boa—but I consider these to be very minor losses. Around 3:30am I was pooped and taken home for much needed sleep.

Brunch and Cake

The next day I recovered surprisingly quick and went to Brunch and Cake with the girls. We started our meal with a delicious slice of chocolate cake, and then I had eggs benedict on a waffle and it was one of my favorite meals so far in Barcelona! After being in food-heaven we decided to have a productive day and visit Casa Batllo. Gaudi designed Casa Batllo and it is another gem in Barcelona that deserves all of the attention it receives. I even caved and bought the picture we took there because it was so pretty and I wanted to remember the unique way I celebrated my 21^st birthday.

Next, we took a little break to regroup before going to get hot chocolate/churros and walking around El Born. I got Wok to Wok on my way home for my birthday dinner and I LOVED it. Wok to Wok is kind of like create-your-own Chinese food/stir fry, which was everything I wanted (and more). I finished my birthday by watching Tangled in my bed, which should not surprise anyone, and made me very happy :)

Wandering around lost on a dirt path
around Montjuic...

The next morning we had a slow start to our day and then Mara, Becca, and I attempted to hike Montjuic. I say “attempted” because we still are not sure if we did it right. We were very excited to go for a hike, but this so-called “hike” included walking up a steep incline street for 40 minutes. We walked up in silence and then were really confused when we reached the top. Then we decided to do the Sea Walk…got extremely lost and did not see any humans for about an hour. Our walk was not scenic and we were tired —however we laughed a lot and ended up walking over 7 miles (even though I could not feel my legs). After a much needed nap, we met up with our friends at La Rosa Negra. La Rosa Negra was GREAT—it had amazing Mexican food and cheap mojitos. After enjoying delicious flautas, tacos, passion mojitos, and tequila shots we went to O’vella Negra. I had a much better time at O’vella Negra this time! It was way less crowded, we got a huge table, a beer tower, and had a perfect night drinking and playing some foosball.

Today we started our day at Pim Pams and had the best burgers. Seriously, AMAZING burgers (half beef/half pork, bacon, cheese, egg, special sauce, and love)!! After, we finally went to Parc Guel, but were a little underwhelmed. It was a beautiful park, but people really hype it up. Once we got home we booked our trip to Belgium (YIPPPY) but Mara almost booked her flight to depart May 3^rd and return August 5^th hahahahaha. After lots of laughs we are now relaxing, eating pretend Superbowl food (shout out to Becca’s wrinkly hotdog), watching SVU, and waiting for Anna to return to us.

This week has been full of yummy food and great times. A big shout out to everyone who celebrated my 21^st birthday with me—thanks to friends at home for celebrating in December (lol), my mom for making every day I was home my birthday, all of the birthday wishes from home, my roomies for going above and beyond, and to my Barcelona fam for celebrating with me here--much love to you all!