Sitges and Barça

I apologize for not writing very often. During the week there really isn't much to say; all I do is go to class and sometimes I might get lunch or walk around downtown or something else. Not really worth writing about.

This weekend was really awesome though! On thursday night I hung out with a girl from my Spanish class, Katy, and her roommate Victoria. They both go to school at Simmons College in Boston and don't look confused when I show them my finger tattoo. Katy is tons of fun and we get along really well because we're very much alike, which is more than I can say for other people I've been around. We went to a club called Sutton which was fun. There were two rooms: techno - claro, and house stuff. As much fun as it was, I don't understand how people can stand to go to clubs allllll the timeeeee!! It gets old pretty fast, for me anyway. Because of the fairly long night on Thursday, Friday was spent just relaxing, getting a haircut (just a small trim) and relaxing.

Saturday was the first API excursion, and the trip went to Sitges, a beautiful beach town about 45 minutes outside Barcelona. The sun was actually FINALLY shining on Catalunya and it couldn't have been more perfect. This town looked and felt like a mixture of Greece, with all the blue and white, P-town, and what I've seen of Californian boardwalks and beaches. Sitges is recognized as one of the top gay tourist destinations, which is why it reminded me of P-town; there were bears everywhere! Not just that, the atmosphere was just so laid-back and open and so reminiscent of P-town. Sitges is also where Carnaval REALLY goes down.
It's hard to describe how beautiful it is. The water was bright blue, the sand looked like it was shimmering, the tiny backstreets were so cramped and cozy, the architecture was beautiful and a vast mixture of styles, lots of cute stores all around selling all kinds of stuff.. I definitely want to go back someday when it's even nicer out to take advantage of the beautiful beaches. I'm gonna keep myself off one piece of beach we stumbled upon, though, which is apparently where all the older male nudists hang out. It was a bit surprising at first, but then just funny.

When we got back to Barcelona around 17:30, I ran into an F.C. Barcelona "botiga" and got myself a jersey because next up was the Barça vs. Getafe game at Camp Nou. WOW is the stadium massive.. it looks big from the outside but it seems even bigger on the inside. We found our seats and were immediately greeted by the women next to us, regular season pass holders. We "borrowed" Yolanda and her friend's season passes so that was the section we were in. We saw the players warm up and stretch and shortly thereafter the game was in full force and less than 7 minutes in, Messi had scored the game's first goal! Not long after that, my boyfriend Piqué got a red card. That was a sad moment, have to say.. The game ended, and Barça had won 2-1. What an experience. The stadium was full, as far as I was able to tell, and the kinds of people watching were so different. The woman next to me didn't say much but was clearly very into the game. The older woman behind me was yelling out homophobic and racist slurs throughout the whole game. There were little kids watching, people my own age give or take a few years, older people who you could just tell have had season passes for as long as they can remember.. all these people, so different, with the love of Barça in common. Every now and then you could hear the fan club start a little chant and next thing you know, the chant was everywhere around you and everyone was singing along. The lady next to me taught me one of them so I was singing along too.

Olele, olala, ser del Barça es, el mejor que hay
(basically, there is nothing better than Barça)

It was such an awesome experience (:

After the game I met up with Katy and some other people and we all went to a bar called Amsterdam. One of the bartenders asked us where we were from and I told him that I was icelandic. Apparantly he told another bartender and that bartender, Johnny, came up and said "hey so you're from Iceland? Cool, so if I say "hvordan går det", do you understand that?" I told him, in Danish, that yes I did understand but that wasn't Icelandic. Took him off guard, though he obviously knew he was speaking in Danish, not Icelandic. Turns out he had studied in Århus for some time.
We stayed until the bar closed and I made my way home by foot at around 3. Very good day, basically.

http://gallery.me.com/rakel88/100107
http://gallery.me.com/rakel88/100114