Barcelona, mugging

My final trip outside of Madrid was...memorable, to say the least.

What can I say about Barcelona? I had to go. It's Spain's ultimate hot spot. Which is exactly what I don't really like about it. I don't think we encountered one person natively from Barcelona there. I dunno, it's just not my kind of city. Too many brand names and tourists. Just another nondescript cosmopolitan city to me. Don't get me wrong, Barcelona is a beautiful city with many interesting sites to see and supposedly good nightlife. There's just nothing really Spanish about it...although there shouldn't be really, considering the anti-Spanish sentiment there. Barcelona is part of Cataluña, a province of Spain that prides itself on being the state of Cataluña rather than Spain. They speak Catalan there, and prefer to speak English to foreigners over Spanish.

Highlights of my weekend:
Firstly, our hostel: We were in a 12-person room, which is as stressful as it sounds. They almost didn't have all the beds for us because some girls checked out late. The bathroom had a motion-sensitive light, but the motion detector was too far in the corner. So unless you stuck your hand out of the shower every 6 seconds, the light would turn off and you would shower in the dark. Some Italian women that shared the room with us would have shouting conversations at 7 in the morning. It was an experience to say the least. But by the end of our stay, we essentially had the room to ourselves, which was nice.
Our room
Friday Corey, Amy and I flew out a bit earlier than the rest of the girls and while Amy slept, Corey and I wandered the city. We walked through the old town, down to the port, then up to the Arco de Triunfo (Yes, every major city seems to have one, thanks Napoleon).
El Arco de Triunfo

We visited one of the houses designed by Gaudi, a famous architect that fully represents Cataluna and is famous for designing buildings without any corners. Seriously, this guy owns Barcelona. He has 3 houses and a park, and also designed the Sagrada Familia (see below). We also ambled down La Rambla, the main street in downtown Barcelona, saw the Picasso Museum, Gaudi's park, and the beach.
"La Pedrera" by Gaudi
Bagels in Spain! There aren't any in Madrid, we swear on it.
St. Joseph Market
Looks like a fruit stand in Vietnam! I had me some mangosteens (man cut in Vietnamese) at a whopping 4.50 euro for 2 of them!
El Parque Guell (also by Gaudi)
Sittin' on the dock of the bay
La Sagrada Familia
"Impress the girls" by eating Burger King. Would this ever fly in the States??

The most crazy thing that happened to me this weekend was definitely getting mugged! Yup, guess it had to happen to me for real at least once on this trip. We were walking out of a bar at like 1am, just strolling down a side street about 3 blocks from the main road. Amy and I were lagging a few steps behind the rest of the group when two guys grabbed at our bags and pulled us into the street. I was grappling with my guy in heels, but managed to hold onto my bag, losing only my cell phone. The asshole fell into a stone column too, that bastard. But anyway, Amy was not so fortunate - her bag ripped and the guy made off with her passport, camera, wallet, phone, everything. She and Corey, along with like 10 other people, unsuccessfully pursued this guy around the block. It was pretty nerve-wracking. The only difference between Amy and me is that my bag didn't rip. What's more appalling is that the police van that picked up Amy and Corey dropped them off 5 blocks from the police station and made them walk!! They didn't even talk to anyone until 5am.

So yeah, the mugging really dampened my lasting impression of Barcelona. Not even because I got mugged - that could have easily happened to me the numerous times I've walked home from Sol - but more that the cops made Amy and Corey walk, just a general negligence of crime against tourists in the city. Since getting mugged, I have heard so many ridiculous stories about Barcelona. I'm sure the fact that Amy and I look like rich Asian tourists didn't help our cause either. But yeah, no worries, I'm just fine! Sad about my phone, but there are worse losses in life. I am happy to be staying in one place for the next two and a half weeks...my final two and a half weeks here...wow, I'm going to sit and process that.

One more exciting event though - the siblings coming for the weekend!