Kieran's Gap Year: Barcelona, Spain

Entry 11.

We got to Barcelona around noon, dropped off our bags at the hostel and went the beach. Our hostel was dirty cheap and we had our own room but that was it. There was no AC so we had to open our window, which was overlooking a very busy street. The owner was a complete jerk and the "common room" was only meant for his TV viewing pleasure, which is all he ever did. When we got to the beach, we met up with Evan Marks and his friend Scott. We set up camp on the beach and were immediately assaulted by immigrants selling "cold" (frozen) beers. After 20 offers in 15 minutes we finally bought 5 mojitos for €15, thinking they would see our drinks and leave us alone. Not the case, they just came twice as often after that.
Afterwards we went St. Jordi hostel, the hostel Evan and Scott were staying at which was exponentially better than ours; complete with a common room, TV, intense computers and AC. We hung out at the hostel for a while and then went out with the whole hostel to a bar and then a pool party. We walked to the bar which wasn't that great and then got on a bus that the hostel had chartered to the pool party.
After the pool party we caught a taxi back to St Jordi's to get out daypacks. Since the metro was already closed by then we had to walk back to our hostel.
The next morning Jose and I went to the train station to reserve our tickets to Madrid while Guy went to the Barcelona soccer stadium. The wait at the train station was about 4 hours, so I went to a store and found an English newspaper and Time magazine.
After buying out reservations to Madrid we went to a cool church that was really gothic on one side, and super modern on the opposite side. I went to go hang out in the park while Jose went back to St Jordi's to meet up with Evan and Guy. After finishing my magazine I got really lost heading back to our hostel, grabbed a change of clothes, and proceeded to spend another hour wandering around, trying to find St Jordi's. I picked up some ham, cheese, and bread on the way to the hostel and made myself some delicious ham sandwiches. We then went to a shot bar with the hostel but it turned out that the AC was off and the "free shot" that came with the hostel was a mixture of champagne and OJ. After ten minutes we all left and headed to Club Boulevard. There Jose met some Middle Eastern princes who invited him into the VIP section with them. Jose talked them into letting me in too and we hung out with them for a while. We left with some Australians we'd met that night and I went to the beach with them while Guy went back to the hostel.
The next morning I slept in while Jose and Guy and Isa went to explore the city, and have the one very nice, free meal of the trip. I met up with them later on La Rambla. We walked past the Club Boulevard to see if we could find Jose's phone, but the club was closed so we got some food and headed over to St Jordi's again.
The next afternoon I had my first and only sit down meal of the trip, where it only cost 50 euros for four of us. We walked around the city for a while and explored different parks and plazas. Then we went to the beach and hung out for a while and then back to our hostel to change clothes. We then headed over to Evans hostel and took the metro to the beach with the entire hostel. After hanging out at the beach for a while and we made our way over to Club Opium where the DJ Avicii was playing. He didn't come on until 3:00 in the morning and our train was at 6:00 am so we didn't get to see much of him until we had to go home. Jose and Guy walked home from the club while I bummed a taxi ride with Evan back to his hostel and started to walk back to our hostel. I thought I knew the route, but after a while I realized I had no idea where I was. Luckily, Jose happened to be on our balcony and saw me walking down the street.
With our bags already packed, we heaved on our packs and set off to the train station at 4:45 in the morning.