Ok, before I start to waffle on about my adventures in Barcelona, dont forget that there are other posts that I've just done (being lazy and doing them all today), one all about Madrid and one about the last 2 months of Brasil!

The bus to Barcelona was horrible! I hardly slept at all and the bus driver obviously had previous experience in torturing techniques judging by the way he delighted in turning the lights on and off to the accompaniament of his deep unrecognisable Spanish leading one to think they were in a rather bad nightclub with a dodgy strobe light system and crap MC on the mic rather than an inter-city nightbus! The fact that we were next to the loo released a glorious aroma into the air everytime one of our fellow travellors decided it was time to go! Eventually we got into Barcelona at 6.30am and went straight to the hostal which kindly informed us that we couldn't check in until 11am so we went for a walk around the city. Barcelona is incredible! It really is one of my favourite city. It reminds me of a blend of London with Recife (two of my favourite cities) and has an endless stream of things to do combined with fantastic archetecture from masters such as Gaudi, a beach (although artificial) and some good nightlife spots! We rather enjoyed our aimless walk around this cosmopolitan city before scabbing a free breakfast at the hostel and then using the internet for a bit! Eventually we got into our room and crashed out for three hours. We were somewhat in suspense about who our roomate would be (its so expensive to get a private room in Barcelona so we had opted for a 4 bed dorm). Ben had dreams of some ultra-cool supermodel with whom he could drink beer with whilst Phil wasn't in detail discussing some work of art or surreal literature he happened to be reading at the time. Amusingly, none of this came true. Not even the wish for a 'cool guy to drink beer with' materialised and for some reason we were blessed with quite possibly the most 'un-cool' person one could wish for - a 35 year old human statue! Well, thats what she told us when she wasn't constantly moaning about how ill she was or that we had the aircon on too much. She was obviously embarrased about her profession as she previously told us she was an 'amateur actress' which Ben most obviously construed as her being some form of prostitute. Indeed, so convincingly did he argue this point of view that I was somewhat won other that she could very well be a woman of the night until we saw her painted up in a ridicolous shade of gold posing with over-excited Japonese tourists on our last day in Barcelona. We then proceeded to have a photo taken with our illustrious roomate (Ben wanted to push her over to see if she'd move) who had continually cursed our mornings with her bangings and coughs (admittedly we got back at 7am every day!)!

The heat in Barcelona was glorious. Having not seen the sun in seven weeks we were just a little bit more than excited! The beach in Barcelona itself isn't great and any discerning Brasilian would turn their nose up to it (indeed Brasilian one friend, Bruna who had visited it before us had nothing but bad things to say about it!) but for three pale gringos to whom sunshine was a luxory and sand an added bonus - it was paradise! Throwing all risk of skin-cancer aside we invested in a factor 4 suncream which we then proceeded to smear all over our very-white-drained-of-Brasilian-sun-english bodies! Every day we went down to the beach to lap up the sun and bask in the heat. We even, much to my ridicolous over-excitement found Guarana (my favourite Brasilian fizzy drink!) being sold near the beach and proceeded to buy up the stuff in bulk to binge drink all day (leading to well worth it sugar rush!)! While on the first day we stood out like glow-worms in a darkened cave, eventually, little by little, we transformed into bronzed sunbathers so that by the last day we were laughing at all the new foolish people who had ventured pale down to the beach! We probably benifited from the official end of the tourist season as the beach and tourist destinations were crowded, but not that crowded so we could always get a space and see what we wanted to see!

Randomly, I bumped into an old friend who I'd done TSC (the teaching skills course all gappers have to do before going abroad, great fun but you learn nothing useful!) with in London the year before! We ended up chatting for over an hour until Ben realised that he actually knew one of her friends too! Turns out that she had also returned from Ecuador and lusting for the latino lifestyle had taken the same decision as myself and chosen Barcelona as the most obvious place to get a fix of the intoxicating latino way of life! Phil was by no means spared of embarrasment on the beach. Especially after day, tiring of the 'sexual predator' jokes Ben and I hailed a henna-tatooist on the beach and asked him to tattoo a playboy tattoo all over Phils chest. Whilst he protested to this we paid for a bull to be tattooed over his left nipple which led to fits of hysterics. We announced that it revealed his true colours and that he was to display it proudly in every club (the only time we said different was when we discovered that we had inadvertantly ended up at 'Gay-Night' at Pacha nightclub and hastily said to Phil 'dont show the bull! Please dont show the bull'!)! This eventually led to bull being included amongst Phils several nicknames, but he took it in his stride and actually grew quite fond of the bull although obviously not enough to show it to his parents when he gets home. We were somewhat amused as to how he'll explain it to his new fellow Cambridge buddies!

Barcelona also sports some really good nightclubs! On the Friday we went to one called Razmattaz which had the potential to be quite possibly one of the best I've ever been to (Paul's Favourite Nightclubs: 1) NOX in Recife 2) Opera Bay in Buenos Aires 3) Fabric in London 4) Razmattaz in Barcelona!)! It had 5 rooms which made it like 5 clubs in one seeing that each room had its own bar and DJ spinning away. The mainroom played indie/pop and alot of punk and had a great party atmospher combined with the fact that the Futurehounds were DJing who are quite a large name in indie music right now. Another thing which was weird was that smoking was permitted in the club. I really dont like the fact that they have banned smoking in clubs in England. I dont smoke but the smoke disguises other things in the clubs that you dont want to think about such as puke and body-odour which come hand in hand with clubbing. Smoke isn't pleasent but you get used to it and is better than the more foul smells out there! The crazy thing about Spanish (and indeed all latin asides from Brasilian parties) clubbing is that the clubs dont get going till at least 3am! Everyone goes to the bar first and then parties. This leads to some serious pacing being done to prevent getting worn out! We actually arrived at 1am but then met some French clubbers who had been before and so took us to a bar first. Somewhat crazily, it was the biggest bar in Europe (so they said) and resembled more of a warehouse or school canteen filled with rows and rows of wooden tables and a dozen pool tables! We lodged there for at least and hour and were still 'early' entering the club just gone 2am! I think we were a bit tired that night and we burned out early at around 4.30am but left at 6 when the metro started going again. The club may have been huge with some good music but it lacked atmosphere. They didn't have a door policy so people came in badly dressed and there a definite over-representation of men. Maybe of the 4000 people the club could hold, 3000 or more were men. Whilst one doesn't go to clubs for women, it feels odd dancing surrounded only by men!

The next night we had booked with the hostal to go to Pacha, a legendary chain of nightclubs world-class reknown which pretty much every clubber has to visit one day! The bus didnt leave until 1.30am so we paced ourselves correctly and took a nap before going to the bar at 12.30. It was at this point that we had the delight to encounter quite possibly some of the most intellectual and conversationally stimulating people I have ever met in my life - Kev and his mate Trev graduates from the illustrious university of Reading. Kev had dirty greasy hair and seemed like he had been born into a hoody which remained permanantly on and had probably not been taken of since his mum bought it for him in Primark when he was 8, he had a tendancy to say 'yeeeeeeah mate' every few seconds into a conversation even if it was, as-mostly-happened, uncalled for! His friend, or 'mate' as he referred to him, probably wasn't called Trev but when we characterised them later he ended up with this name for comedy-factors sake! He had, greasy long hair and was sporting a dirty T-Shirt, he led the conversation but was occasionally interrupted by a 'yeeeeah mate' erupting out of Kev who's face then spasmed with a look of utter pleasure before residing back into its usual bored emotionless state. They managed to impart us with such words of wisdom such as the best way to get rid of a mugger is by "sayin' 'ello to 'em like their your mate ('yeeeeeeeeeah mate' Kev)" and giving wise words of wisdom to Phil such as "maaate, like if i went to Cambridge i would do something like maths or some sh** like that 'cos it has no revelance to real life and you gotta be real brainy - no disrespect to you" after we quizzed him how on earth English Literature could be more relevant to real life than Maths, the corner-stone-of-society, he fell into a subdued silence which was only interrupted by uncalled for, yet uncontrolled, 'yeeeeeah mate' from Kev who then looked like he had exhausted himself for one night and declared that he was going for a beer!

Eventually, intellectually enlightened and now up for a good party, we left the hostal but found the 'free-bus' had gone and left so went with some of the people from oue hostel to Cataluyan square and waited for the bus there. It was here that we met some Brasilians and started speaking to them in Portuguese! Weirdly, one of them was from Recife and had been to the same school as Juliana and her friends but was just one year younger. We didn't speak for long as the bus then arrived and they stayed behind as, typically being Brasilian, they were waiting for some of their friends who were late so thus couldn't board the bus! We sat at the back of the bus and I started chatting to some Argentians who were there on holiday, they were quite interesting and one of them, whose name i cannot remember, stayed with us for the whole night after his friend couldn't get into the club. Pacha turned out to be Nazis on dress code! Ben was looking quite smart in smart jeans and a T-shirt yet, for some reason the bouncer turned him away! After me and Phil kicked up a fuss that we wouldn't enter without him the bouncers kicked us out the que too so that we were left with some Italians who were in the same situation! Deciding that bouncers aren't the most intelligent of people, Ben and Phil went round the corner and switched tops, turning Ben's T-shirt inside out on Phil so it just looked like a smart blue T-shirt. We then entered the club with no problems at all, the bouncers didn't even flick an eye-lid! We got a bit of a shock on entering the club! Maybe it was just the night or something to do with the club but it was packed with gay men! Vests, peroxide hair, make-up, the works were on display everywhere and the club seemed to be endorsing this judging from the huge scantily clad black men dancing on stage! A number of our fellow bus mates looked round once before leaving but we managed to find a group of our friends, the Argentinians and the Brasilians and formed a circle with them on the dance floor which was pretty good. The music was admittedly amazing apart from one really weird bit when they started playing clown music and a man in drag started singing on stage but the club changed half way through as alot of people left and it became quite good! There were alot of VIP areas though and Ben got quite cocky and managed to walk into the main VIP area by simply looking confidently at the bouncer and walking straight on. Wheras the dance floor was packed the VIP area was scantly full with a full men in suits and several models whom Ben swore must of been hired by the club! We actually left at 6am and this time weren't burnt out which was really good! We good the metro back with the Argentinan guy who got out the stop before us before getting back to our hostel! We got to bed at 7.30 but actually had to leave the hostel at 10am so we only slept for 2 hours before going down to the beach where we spent the entire day! At night we went back to the hostel, pretended we were still guests there, crashed for a bit and then went out for a meal before going to get the bus back to Madrid.

To end the journal now would leave it devoid of cultural fact and leave my readers assuming I'm some uncultured yob who just parties and sits on the beach. In fact, being two aspiring Historians and an English buff we fitted in our fair share of cultural activity as we explored the city by the evenings! Las Ramblas was amazing and lived true to the famous quote that one could walk down the street and wish it would never end. Not only were the shops amazing but there were some fantastic streets performers such as some breakdancers who actually made the concrete look like a trampoline and of course, human statues! We also loved the gothic quarter and visited the cathedral which was covered in scaffolding but was gorgeous on the inside. The combination of history and a vast amount of the cities unique culture left me craving to live there one day! We also visited Gaudi's masterpiece - La Sagrada Familia and marvelled at the fact that this world-class monument, 100 years into construction will take many more years to complete! We also had a little bit of an addiction to sitting in those lovely little Spanish bars and cafes watching the world go by from our table, asides from one night where it all got too expensive and we cooked up a huuuge pot of pasta with olives and an incredible sauce (courtesy of culinery genius phil) and Ben proved himself to be a bit on an expert with the burgers for us carnivore gluttons who couldn't settle with just pasta!

Everything about the city of Barcelona makes it worth a visit. The vibrant atmosphere is reflected in its buildings and even by the way its chic residents dress (almost on par with the Italians!)! All of us wished that one day we could return and buy an apartment and afford to shop in those luxurious designer shops along Las Ramblas whilst not swanning on the beach or on a private yacht! Reluctantly, we bid our goodbyes and returned to Madrid on the nightbus!

I'm going to write Madrid (part 2) here because I'm too lazy to open another blog! Basically, we hardly got any sleep before arriving in Madrid and realising we had slept for only 4 hours in 48 hours! At 6.30am we went round various hostals in the city begging people whether we could possible sleep there for just a few hours. I was quite impressed with my Spanish/Portuguese at this point in that I was able to understand the constant rejections we occured! We then went to a little cafe where we sat for 2 hours and ate crossiants whilst experiencing some of the worst service I have ever experienced (poor Phil got the rough end of it again, its gotta be a vegy thing!)! We actually left without paying the bill and ended up sitting in another plaza for another 2 hours before heading back to our old hostal who looked after our bags and let us use their toilets before we went off for lunch! Lunch for me was a fantastic 3 course meal starting with a great sea-food spanish paella, followed by steak and chips and finished up with Ice-cream! The boys stuck with Pizza and yet again, Phil's arrived late and burnt! We then wandered back down to the palace and strolled around the streets of Madrid before finding a local bar. We indulged in trying the Spanish drink Sangrida (or whatever it's called I cannot be bothered to google it) which tasted disgusting, Ben abandoned his whilst me and Phil drank and then gasped for air! It was like wine mixed with orange juice and tasted just as disgusting! We spent two hours there before spending another 2 hours in the sofas at the hostal before having a Bacon sandwich and jumping on the metro for the airport! We left it all a bit late and as we were entering the metro the gate began to shut on us! Somehow we caught all the last metros until we were close to the airport. We missed the last direct train to the airport and so teamed up with a fellow travellor who had missed the train and got a taxi to the airport where we waited 3 hours for the plane! By the time we finally got back into the comfy Ryan Air plastic seats we achieved the impossible and fell asleep which is probably not suprising seeing as we had slept less than 10 hours in nearly 4 days! We were welcomed back to England with weird looks (we were all wearing shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops) and cold weather and waited a while until Dad rolled up in the Punto! After bidding a fond farewell to the boys at Ringwood I got home, slept for 8 hours, had dinner and then slept for 12 more hours and then got up and wrote this before I forgot it all! All in all it was a fantastic holiday and a great little getaway before university and we all look browner and feel alot better for it with plans to definitly return someday!