Friends, Friends, Friends!

We have been so blessed to have lots of great friends from home in Barcelona and Europe traveling around!  I have loved it since it is my first time to be abroad with old friends.  Lots of great memories we will have with each other for years.

When our visitors came from Florence (Torrey, Riley, Ellen, Melissa, and Holliday), we decided to make our own bike tour and show them around the city.  I felt like local tour guide getting to show them around.

Here is my fav pic from our adventure--

4th of JULY

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!

We celebrated here in Barcelona with all of the americanos around!

Sadly, no fireworks, but we did attend an American party, ate hot dogs and painted our faces with red white and blue.

A restaurant called The George Payne had the greatest idea to have a 4th of July party.  They gave free hot dogs.  And we brought face paint!

Emily was the expert face painter.  She had a line of at least ten people waiting soon after this.

Riley and me!  Sad she leaves Barcelona tomorrow!!

Aly and Riley eating hot dogs. So American!

We are proud to be Americans here in España! 

The W

We finally made it to the W.  I had been looking forward to this visit all summer long! And it was so cool.

The hotel is new and hip to Barcelona-- you never want to leave when you walk in.  Everything is very modern and trendy.

We went up to the lounge on the 26th floor called Eclipse to check out the view of the city.

It was filled with swanky Spaniards and foreigners.  And the view was incredible!!

 This picture does not do it justice...

It was really fun to get to go with our friends visiting from Florence!

Holliday, Melissa, and me with our yummy mojitos!

 And here is the whole group outside with the W!

Ice Bar

Since it's pretty hot here and our apartment does not have AC, we decided to head over to the Ice Bar the other night.  It was a bar entirely made of ICE! 

Benches, walls, cups.. everything made of ice! How cool is that???

When you get there a man gives you a big puffy jacket to wear.  Thank goodness because it was freezing and we all stupidly wore sandals...

He opened a huge freezer like door and we entered.....

So much ice everywhere!

Ice sculpture of Sagrada Familia

and a frozen soccer jersey.

It felt great to get out of the heat, but we couldn't stay in for too long since our toes felt like they were going to fall off!

Sitges Round 2

We headed back to Sitges (beach town about 45 minute train ride outside of Barcelona) today. 

Since Barcelona's beach was only made around 1992 to help the city with tourism, etc, Sitges is the spot where the Spanish people have gone to the beach for lots of years!  It is a natural beach, unlike Barcelona's, and is so pretty and relaxing.

 Today we walked farther down the beach and hung out in this area with little coves and rocks.

 The highlight of the day was renting this---

A paddle boat with a slide!  Weeeee!

Beach Day

We had a fun day at the Barcelonetta beach today.  I am going to miss this beach so much!  It is always filled with tons of people, but makes for the best people watching ever.   You don't need an ipod or a book here because you can just watch crazy people all day.  

We walked farther down the beach today where the water was less crowded and there were less people trying to sell us things, etc. 

Emily and me with our friend Torrey who is visiting this weekend!

Today's spotting-- 

This crazy guy balancing/juggling this glass ball on his body.  The kicker is that after I took these pics, he started to do it completely nude....... crazy Europeans. 

Bo de B

Bo de B is our favorite lunch spot in Barcelona. 

It is a little shop on the way to the beach from class with the best fresh sandwiches and more! It is super inexpensive for a ton of food.   

There are always just two ladies working non stop.  The line can end up down the block on weekends.  The inside has a few tables to eat, so if you are lucky you can sit inside instead of waiting at the window.  Sometimes we prefer to sit inside and eat, but sometimes we just like to get it to go and eat it on the way to the beach.

There are tons of fresh veggies to chose from to put on your sandwich.  And, they cook the meat as you order.

 This is a chicken sandwich or "bocadillo de pollo." They are HUGE.  Good to share with one other person.

And here is a salad platter which is also so yummy. 

And finally, papas braves.  These are what Bo de B is well known for and are a typical Spanish thing to eat.  They are like french fries, but wedges, with lots of sauces on them.  

This place is where we "regular" here in Barcelona.  A lot of study abroad students are always at Bo de B because it is so cheap and great!