Barcelona: My Quest to Swoon Lionel Messi

Yep. Barcelona is goin down in the books for one of my favorite European cities. I never woulda thought so, to be quite honest! I thought it wouldn’t be much different than Granada or any part of Spain, but it WAS.

Front row :D

Before I get into Barcelona though, I should start by sharing my experience Thursday night at a Nada Surf concert. If you have watched any episode of One Tree Hill, you are likely to have heard a song from this band. Super cute songs and music, love it. I was not expecting for this now 40-year-old lead singer to STILL sound as good as if I had just heard him on iTunes. DENG that boy (man) can sing!!!! I don’t even remember the last concert I went to, so this was fun for sure. Even better? Getting invited onstage by the dreadlocked bassist :) Me and Krista jumped up there and danced our little hearts out during the encore, got hugs and kisses from the band afterward, and also left with their set lists. Great, GREAT, night. Did I feel obligated to buy a shirt afterward? Duh. Okay Nada Surf. You and your marketing strategy win this time!

Earlyyyy the next morning, I met up with Brittany to go to the bus station, then the airport, and eventually BARCELONA!!!! Barca Barca Barcaaaaaaa! The weather was GORGEOUS when we arrived, Shivani gave us perfect directions to her apartment, everything was just joyous and merry and wonderfulllllllll. It got to be so hot though, so I thought, Why not hit up an heladeria? Let’s just keep walking til we find one. So we walked…and walked…and walked… we took a good 40 minute paseo and did not pass one heladeria. None. I was determined to eat some dang helado, though!! So eventually I settled on some ghetto ice cream from a convenient store. (Mango creamsicle. OKAYYYYY :D) That is probably the one thing that I would complain about Barcelona—it’s lack of ice cream. If a city lacks an abundance of heladerias, tempting you on every corner, spellbinding you with its variety of chocolate flavors alone, can it really be considered a city at all??? 

Judge this, Tyra!

 Later that afternoon Shivani took me, Brittany and her other friend Stephanie to explore all the Gaudi art around Barcelona. I’d heard of this art before, but I'd never seen it myself. WOW. Never seen anything like it. So unique, dreamlike and…just impressive!! Park Guell is this awesome place designed by Gaudi himself but I feel like "park" does not accurately describe it. This place might as well have been Disneyworld it was so whimsical and pretty! I was like a little kid, enjoying all the crazy art. One of my favorite parts was running around the straightaway seen in this picture that was used during Cycle 7 of America's Next Top Model where Caridee and Melrose had their runway showdown! What a nutso runway show--here's the link if you haven't seen it before! ANTM Cycle 7 Park Guell Barcelona

Gorgey view from the Park!

La Sagrada Familia--unreal!

More Gaudi art. I believe this was a hotel

After seeing all that, we got some dinner and then headed over to Plaza Espanya. This place... this is what won me over and perhaps put Barcelona ahead of Paris in cities I love. It is absolutely unreal. I kept taking photo after photo but as always it never captures the true beauty of the place. First, you go down this line of fountains:

Stephanie, Brittany, Shivani, Me

That eventually leads you to this HUGE magic fountain that has a light show during the weekend:

Then you go up a set of stairs to another fountain, and you get a pretty cool view of the city.

Then you go up another set of stairs, get another pretty neat view of the city, with more fountains awaiting.

Another set of stairs …the view is getting impressive, and not because you have now been upgraded to views including well-formed male statues.

More stairs…you can now see the whole city. But why stop there? Let's constuct a total of 29 flights of stairs to get to the top of this Montjuic mountain, and make the public work for the break-taking view that awaits them at the summit!!!!!!!!!

I lie. I don't remember how many flights of stairs it was. But when I go back I'll let know you.

But there were a lot!!!! And for once in my life I did not complain about the physical exertion called for in the climbing of these stairs. (Okay, little lie again. There were escalators to the top: minimal physical exertion needed). The view from the top is absolutely AMAZING. Totally unsurpassed--no view I've seen in Europe has even come close to it. You can see every big landmark in Barcelona including La Sagrada Familia and Park Guell, and additionally there's this sick ass castle on the mountain on the opposite side of the city, whose silhoutette you can capture as the sun is setting behind it. We literally sat there for a good 30 minutes without a word, just appreciating the whole thing. Man.

Here are pictures, and no they aren't mine. I'm too shamed to put my pictures of Plaza Espanya up but at least these stolen ones do it some justice :)

Magic Fountain

View from the top

We went back to Shivani’s and passed out. I had wonderful dreams of Candyland-like pastures reminiscent of Barcelona (jk). The next day was when the real task began: getting to Messi. Oh Messiiiiii. Such a marvelous soccer player yet absolutely unselfish and manages to be the biggest cutie the whole time. What more can ya ask for!!! Haha so me and Brittany did a buncha walkin around, site-seeing, eating, shopping that morning, but it was all just time-wasting, waiting for game-time!!! And once it was time to go to the game Brittany and I speed walked/sprinted over to the stadium. Literally I think we made a 45 minute walk take only 25. Ahahhaha you shoulda seen us when we finally saw the stadium—just the way that 2 adolescent girls would get upon seeing Justin Bieber. Embarrassing? Not in the slightest.

When we finally got in the stadium we were drunk of delight (though the beer we had beforehand may have also played a role) and could not stop squealing. We found our seats, took pictures, ate our bocadillos, and before we knew it the team ran out on the field! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. The stadium went nuts. Barcelona was playing Almeria, and you know what? Almeria kept the game interesting, that’s for sure! Barcelona was down 0-1 for awhile, that is, until good ol' MESSAYYYYY came in with a PK (the video I have at the beginning of this post) to tie things up. Followed by a goal assisted by Messi. And finishing it up in the closing minutes with Messi working his ass off to win a ball up front and getting a breakway!!!!! I was euphoric, having the absolute time of my life. Sure beats the Chicago Fire game I saw last summer! 90+ minutes went by wayyyy too fast. Final score: 3-1 Barca. Brittany and I remained seated when the game ended, soaking it all in. Then we got yelled out to get out. So we moved to another section of the stadium, resumed soaking-inage. Yelled at again. Third time's a charm? Nope. Relinquished power to the authorities and sadly left the stadium...but then REBELLIOUSLY circled it for a good 20 minutes!!! Hahahahahhahaaaaaaaaaa...

We went out that night and saw the crazy Barcelona beach night clubs, and that was cool. But I was too phased from the game to really find any of it to be particularly noteworthy.

MESSI!!!!

After reflecting on this post a bit, I have concluded that what smiley faces were to my Paris post, text size is in this one. Please excuse me if it's incredibly juvenile but I LOVED BARCELONA!