never pregame with kyke. never allow kyke to buy you free shots. as evidenced by my extremely long and miserable hangover today, loco lunes got its name for a reason. 

Kyke is the club promoter in Spain… being on his mass BBM list I receive multiple messages throughout the week with what is going on in the discoteca scene. Here is the message I received tonight…

What up? what up? Here we go again with LOCO LUNESSSS but this time in a new sick spot: BUCARO!!

Bucaro is located next to Broadbar (Aribau 195) and is a big venue with 2 parts!
1st one has a huge bar, where u grab the first drink,you chill a little and figure out what your mission is gonna be for the night…once u are not feeling your body alcohol is doing effect and you’re not shy anymore (just in case you are shy) let’s go to the other side of the club also known as BLACKOUT ROOM, everyone wasted and ready to get loose. The music will make u dance until u realize its time to go to class

SURPRISE IN SEVILLE.

Rachel, Sammy, Brooklyn, Danielle & I decided it would be fun to surprise Alison for her 21st this weekend in Seville. Shockingly, we actually pulled it off. Rachel & Sammy arrived in Seville around 9:30 Friday morning, stood outside Alison’s room, and called her and said “hey look out your window… SURPRISE”. At that point I’m sure she decided that the rest of us weren’t coming. Not sure what kind of friends she thinks we are, obviously we weren’t missing out on her birthday. FOMO. The rest of us arrived at 4:20 and sat around in our hotel room, which looked like a cruise ship, twiddling our thumbs until we could surprise her at 9 for dinner. We all met up at the fountain by the University & as she was approaching we awkwardly stood with our backs to her not really knowing what to do until she walked right by us and we chased her down and grabbed her. Not sure if she was more scared or surprised but her reaction is in the picture below. We had great tapas for dinner, which her friend Shannon who is fluent in spanish ordered - nice job, and topped it off with chocolates filled with alcohol that we bought at the airport on the way. They were surprisingly stronger than anticipated - thumbs up. A few things about the food in Seville

*You can get tap water for free

*You can get bread for free

*They give you free food when you buy drinks

AKA: Seville is a lot cheaper because a lot more is free, thanks Barcelona.

After dinner we went by the Tower and did the traditional “Botellón-ing” (drinking in the streets) that they do in Seville. We tried explaining to Alison and her friends that if we did this in Barcelona we would get shot, mugged, raped, or all of the above. We were also baffled that we didn’t need to hold our purses in our laps at dinner. Culture shock?

After our Botellóning experience we went out to a “club”. Although I absolutely loved Seville, one thing it cannot compare to is Barcelona nightlife. Their “club” consisted of a venue playing American rap music. We had a blast but I do have to say I missed the house music rave of Barcelona. 

The next day was Al’s actual birthday. We saw a bunch of people riding around in horse carriages and spontaneously decided it would be fun to take one around to see the city, it was perfect. We ended at the Plaza de España, took pictures, & headed to the Alcazar. After spending about one minute inside I realized I had, in fact, been there before but loved seeing it again a second time. We ate lunch at a Tapas restaurant and then headed to the Cathedral to walk up the 35 stories to see the view of the city, incredible. We ended our day at Haagen Dazs eating “Banoffee” (Banana, coffee, carmel) ice cream cones… to-die-for. It was an absolutely perfect day in Seville and the smaller culture of the city made me really appreciate España, very glad I went back for a second time. 

FLAMENCOO

The Schengen Area operates very much like a single state for international travel with border controls for travellers travelling in and out of the area, but with no internal border controls. This agreement may be swell for European travelers but this is why my passport is never stamped. When I return to the US I will have collected a whopping TWO stamps from the NINE countries I will have traveled to, one from Spain & one from the UK, awesome. 

Amsterdam is not a place to half-ass anything. So, parents & family, if you choose to read this post please do not think badly of me or look down upon my actions/decisions… you only live once.

We arrived in Amsterdam around 6:30pm and made our way to our hotel. While checking in we were informed that our booking of a four-private room with a shared bath was changed to a room with 3 beds & a mattress but a private bath (i think it worked out better this way though). We dropped our stuff off and immediately went to meet friends and walked to our first “coffeshop.” Enjoyed our time there, went to a bar, went back to the coffeshop, then went to eat at woktowalk (kind of like a custom made pei wei - so delicious), changed clothes, went to another bar & then a club. Successful first night. 

Saturday was spent doing all of the touristy things. Saw the Anne Frank house & ate at the delicious pancake bakery next to it, went to the Heineken museum, and then ended the day at the I Am Amsterdam sign… which was out of commission that day, of course. Stumbled upon an amazing Falafel place for dinner & then went to the Moulin Rouge… borrowed from Kim’s blog this is what it entailed:

Act One: Green Tape Lady: Green Tape Lady was a pudgy lady who ‘danced’ around for a little. Her finale consisted of her pulling an unhealthy amount of Green Tape/Ribbon out of a part of her body that I had no idea could store that amount of Green Tape/Ribbon.

Act Two: Cowgirl Lady: Cowgirl Lady was dressed as said cowgirl. Though, this had nothing to do with her ‘show’. Her special talent was this… she was an ambidextrous of sorts. In her act, she mastered writing with a very special part of her body. She displayed this on an awkwardly excited, Asian volunteer from the audience.

Act Three: Banana Lady: Banana Lady probably did some variation of what you’re thinking. She, too, used audience participation (who volunteers for this stuff??). The four volunteers ate banana off/out of various parts of her body.

Act Four: The Live Sex Show. No explanation needed.

Headed to multiple coffeshops afterwards and went to sleep.

Woke up early in the morning on Sunday to eat breakfast, went to a coffeshop, then headed to the Van Gogh museum. I think they should tell you before hand than the Starry Night isn’t there… or America should send it back. I was quite disappointed it wasn’t there but enjoyed the museum anyways. On our train ride back we noticed people climbing on the I Am Amsterdam sign so we hopped out to take some non-lame pictures. We had time to spare before our flight that left at 7 so we popped back in to a coffeshop on our way to the train station. Although this was a spur of the moment idea I am very glad we did so. The scene looked a little like this: Brooklyn, Danielle, Rachel and I (the four least likely candidates to smoke before going to an airport) huddled around a table in a circle passing around our little friend Pure. When the shop owner instructed us that we should not buy Pure, we didn’t listen… I now know why. Good thing we were on time for our flight that was delayed 3 hours. Made it home eventually after a very fun weekend. 

NO WOMAN NO CRY 

PERFECT DAY IN BARCA

wed - friday was our ies “study journey” to valencia. i’m not very sure what part was the “study” because most of the trip entailed sitting on a bus sleeping. 

day 1 (wed): slept on the bus to the Torres winery, took a tour of the winery & by picking up maybe every other word spoken to me in spanish learned a little about the history, tasted the wine, bought some wine, slept on the bus to valencia, checked in at the hotel (classy holiday inn), slept at the hotel, ate dinner at the hotel (nasty), went to a local bar with some friends, slept (aka day = sleep)

day 2 (thursd): went to the Oceanographic museum in valencia (saw some sharks, took some pictures, watched the dolphin show), ate lunch in the local mall (tasted as good as it sounds), slept through the bus tour of the city, walked around a church (when she mentioned that there was a mosaic of a jewish star all the jews flocked to take a picture), ate dinner at the hotel again (gross) & slept

day 3 (frid): slept on the bus to the city of Tortosa, walked around in the rain looking at churches and remnants of castles, slept on the bus to a restaurant that we got lost finding, ate an actually delicious meal of onion that are char-grilled that you peel off and eat with a special sauce & a ton of meat, and then slept on the way back to barca

off to amsterdam next friday for adventure #3