Travel Update! - October 27th

Are you ready?? You should be so stoked for this update.. Cause I am so stoked for this update. Ready ready ready?? Yes. Let's go.So. We left in Venice, yes? I was headed to Spain, once again. Stoked to get back to somewhere familiar. And honestly, Barcelona left such a great impression on me last time, so it was an easy decision. Plus, knowing the language (roughly) in a country is such a comfort. Would highly recommend learning another language. Even if you already know 5,  just keep adding them. It's one of the best things I've found.But alright. Are you ready for Barca? It's going to be a long one.. Still yes?Me too. As I flew into Barcelona that afternoon, I watched rain streak down the windows and my heart fell. There's no feasible reason for rain in Barcelona. People don't come to Spain for the rain. Thankfully though, it didn't last long and the rest of the trime in the city was sunny skies. I got off the plane on a mission. I know this airport. I know the metro system. I know where I'm headed. I'm ready.I met up with Aaron at the hostel. One a little too fancy, a little too expensive for my taste. Thankfully, we only stayed there for 2 nights, otherwise I would have been broke. 32 euro a night is ridiculous for any hostel, especially on my budget. We spent the day walking around the city. I love that I know Barca enough that I don't need a map to get around. I actually ended up walking 30k that day (18.5 miles, for you Americans out there). I can't get over Barcelona. The architecture is phenomenal, the music on the streets is unreal, the overall sense of community blows me away. I love it. If you ever get the chance to hit up Barca, do it. Absolutely. You won't regret it. After those 2 expensive nights, we moved to another place for 2 nights. At this point, I met a rake of Irish lads on an architecture trip for school, 2 lovely Canadian girls, and a incredibly interesting guy from Norway. At this point, things with Aaron were starting to get strained.He got a bit upset at me for not reciprocating feelings and all this other crap so after a couple days of mental breakdown, he got drunk and flung insults my way, thus instigating the collapse of that friendship. Sorry bud. He flew home the next day.I spent the rest of my time with the Canadian girls, Mairi and Kirsten from Palmerston, Ontario. We went out clubbing one night and it completely turned my trip around. I ended up strangely running into an american guy, Steve, from my hostel in Rome. He was staying at a different party hostel in the city (The one I had booked for the following 3 nights) and was on a pub crawl at the time. I absolutely love the way traveling allows you to meet up with random people all over the globe. It's great.After meeting up with Steve again, and finding the Canadians, we ran out to the beach and went skinny dipping. Would not recommend skinny dipping on an already populated beach at 3 am. I mean, it's quite the rush, but it's freezing. I ended up staying out till sunrise, just having a great time with everyone. It was so much fun.The next day, I said goodbye to the Canadians and moved to the party hostel, Kabul. Here, I met some amazing people, hung out with Steve again, and then met up with my kiwis. They were coming for the weekend before heading to Paris, and were ready to party. Which happened. A lot.After 4 nights of extreme party, Tabea and I moved to a really relaxed hostel uptown, in need of some really good sleep. We watched the sunset together, had an amazing experience with pinxos (go to a place called Blai street if you're ever in Barcelona. It's super cheap, incredibly tasty, street food), met a guy from Holland who had been to all 7 continents, toured the entire city, and had some really relaxed and much needed nights off. The night before Tabea left, she was headed out to meet up with some friends from Cuba, so I took off across town on the hunt for food. I ended up at Walk to Wok, got some good noodles and kept up my walk. One thing led to another and I was getting free drinks from a newly friended British stag party. Crazy how things turn out. But yeah. Barca was a good time. A completely indescribable time. I wish I could keep this update going forever and tell you everything, but alas. I'm on a time crunch.After Barcelona, I was headed to Madrid. Off to see the capital for the first time. Off to eat too many goddamn churros. Off to meet up with even more strangely coincidental travelers. Off to enjoy halloween in a truly Spanish fashion. You ready?