Parissssss

I spent this past weekend in Paris with Zach. When we first got there, we decided to just walk around and see where we end up. With our good luck, this stray walk dropped us right into the Eiffel tower. It was so cool to see it for the first time. It was so breathtaking.  It is such an icon that I have heard about and seen pictures, but seeing it in person was something else. We went back on our last night at sunset and went all the way to the top. It was cold but well worth it. You have to go to the top when you go to Paris. The view was incredible. Paris really is so beautiful, so seeing it from the top was amazing. The next day we got a really early start and went straight to the Louvre. Seeing the pyramid in person was another cool sight. We saw the Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, which was so small and overrated. I thought it was stupid that people make such a fuss about it. After the Louvre, we went to the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was beautiful. One of the most amazing churches I have seen abroad. I lit two candles for my dad. After that, we ran into the love lock bridge. We bought a lock from a guy selling it and wrote our names on it. We then headed over to the Luxembourg garden. It was so beautiful and relaxing. We just sat in chairs and laid in the sun. After that, we went to a cafe and got a bite to eat and some wine. We went back and chilled at the hotel and then went to this restaurant that everyone tells me to go to. They serve you wine out of baby bottles and it is cheese fonude. The concept was cool and interesting but it was kind of gross. It was a hole in the wall with graffiti splashed all over the walls. The next day we took a boat cruise which was a great way to see all of the sights. After that, we walked on over to the Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomph. The Arc was huge!! The Champs Elysees was a really cool street. It was more down scale than I thought it would be. The Abercrombie and Fitch was so nice and there was a line to get into it! We went to a really good dinner that night and hate cheese, wine and creps. We felt very french. The next day we just explored the city and went cafe hopping. I loved Paris and could definitely see myself living there. 

 

 

 

I loved the vibes. Everyone was so laid back and just chilled at cafes all day long.

SPRING BREAK- MADRID AND MARBELLA

My spring break started out in Madrid and then proceeded into Marbella. My roommates and I decided to take advantage of our spring break and travel Spain. By being in Barcelona, we have Gotten to know a part of Spain. We got to know their culture, the food, how the people act, what the nightlife is like, and almost every aspect that we were able to take in, in four months. When we first got to Madrid, it was already late afternoon. We walked around to get a feel for the city. We walked in and out of shops. They have mostly chains there, with a couple cute boutiques. We went to Topshop to get clothes that we needed for our week in Marbella. We went to this sushi restaurant for dinner. It was really good and cheap! We were so burnt out from the flight, so we decided to take it easy and go back to the hotel. We woke up on the earlier side the next morning. We got dressed and headed over to the Reina Sofia museum. It is a museum of 20^th century art. The museum is mainly dedicated to Spanish art. They have collections of Spain’s two greatest masters, Dali and Pablo Picasso. The most famous masterpiece in the museum is Picasso’s painting Guernica. My roommate, Sarah, studied and wrote a paper about this painting. She was really excited when she got to see the original work in person. We then went to the Prado museum. It is the main Spanish national art museum. It features art from the 12^th century to the early 19^th century. There are 7,600 paintings, 1,000 sculptures, 4,800 prints and 8,200 drawings. There are also a large amount of other works of art and historic documents. It was HUGE! It was one of the biggest museums that I have ever been in. I really enjoyed walking around and analyzing the works of art. I was really intrigued by all of the use of angels in a lot of the religious art.

After we went to the Prado Museum, we stumbled upon a really beautiful park. It was one of the most gorgeous parks that I have ever seen. In the middle of the park, there was a huge pond. It had rowboats paddling. My roommates and I sat next to the pond and drank sangria for a little while. It was really relaxing. Afterwards, we went to this tapas restaurant and sat outside. That night, we went to Kapitol. It was a 7-story club. Each floor had a different theme. Some were different genres of music and then there was a Bacardi Mojito floor. The next day we had a little bit of trouble with the train, but we were off to Marbella.

In Marbella, we got a villa with 18 kids. It was the biggest and coolest house. It had an indoor and outdoor pool, a golf course, a put-put range, and a tennis court. Basically, anything that you could think of to be in a house, it was there. It was a really fun week. Our friends were in the villa next to us. It was a lot of eating, drinking, lying out and relaxing. We went into town a few times. The town is so cute. Marbella reminds me of the Hamptons, but in Spain. There are a bunch of low-end and high-end shops, restaurants and bars right on the water. Marbella was a lot of fun and interesting living with boys and girls being under one roof.

Guide to going abroad in Barcelona

Now that abroad is coming to an end, I have decided to make a guide for future students who decide to travel to Barcelona to study abroad.

We will start with food. Everyone knows that Barcelona is known for tapas. The most famous tapas restaurant in El Bourne is called Cal Pep. This is an up-and-coming/hipster part of town. Some of Cal Pep’s popular tapas dishes are patatas bravas, croquettes, and tortilla espanol. The other tapas dishes are mostly seafood and vegetable dishes. Other  great tapas places are Bar Pinoxto or El Quim. Both of these places are in the Boqueria off of Las Ramblas. La Boqueria is a really cool market. Another good tapas place is Ciudad Comda. It is in Placa Catalunya. Other good restaurants are La Champgneria, Da Greco, Carpe Diem, Rosa Negra, Cerveceria Catalana, Milk, Princessa 23, and Bar Lovo.

Here are song things to do and sights to see. Camp Nou is the stadium where FC Barcelona plays. It is the biggest soccer stadium in Europe. La Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell are works of Gaudi. Gaudi is a famous architect here in Barcelona.

His work is splashed all over the city. His work is very trippy and weird. The Picasso museum is another thing to see. It is cool to see the work he did as a child. Montjuic is this high up mountain. At the bottom of it, there is a fountain show, which is spectacular. Tibidabo is the highest point in Barcelona and there is a little amusement park.

The nightlife is crazy here. The main clubs are Otto Zutz, Shoko, Sutton, Bling, Opium, Catwalk, and Up and Down. These were the main clubs that I frequented, but obviously there is a whole city full of clubs. The bars that I went to most nights were Pippermints, Dow Jones, Chupitos, and Hot Bar. Pippermints is this bar with massive drinks. 40 people can share one drink. Each one has a lot of straws coming out of it. Dow Jones is a cool atmosphere. A few times  a night the stock market crashes and drinks are super cheap. Chupitos is really fun. They have all these cool shots. Some shots get lit on fire and there are some that you can roast marshmallows out of.

The beach is my favorite part about Barcelona. It has Carpe diem, Shoko, and Opium Mar facing the beach. I love to go there on the weekends that I am here, and in between classes.

Here is a list of 10 things you should know before going abroad to Barcelona:

Green EVERYWHERE!- DUBLIN for St. Patty’s day!!

Dublin was awesome!! It was so pretty. All the people are so nice and merry. From the minute we got there, we felt how warm the people were. The cab driver helped us find a hotel in the heart of the city. We had booked a hotel prior to our trip, right by the airport. We were trying to save money, but didn’t think about the fact that we were going to have to pay for cab fare to and from the city. We got a hotel for cheap and ended up staying in the conference room! It was the only available room. We took a hop on and off bus tour. We saw all the sites including Trinity College, St. Patricks Cathedral, Dublin Castle, The Guinness Storehouse, Christ Church Cathedral etc.. It was rainy so my pictures didn’t turn out as well as they could have. After seeing all of these amazing sights, we stopped at a pub on the other side of the river. The river divides the north and south. The southern part was the part that we stayed in. It has more life and a lot more going on. We wanted to check out the other side. It was much quieter and more residential. At this pub, we ate chicken wings for the 4th time that weekend and it was only Friday! I don’t know why we loved them so much there. We then went shopping for St. Pattys day attire. We went to a store with 2 floors that were both filled to the brim with green and white. It was packed and very hard to move. I got all the gear I needed and we went on our way. Afterwards, we went to this pub where we saw a bunch of our friends from Barcelona. It was really fun. After a while, we were exhausted and went back to the hotel for a nap. That night we went downstairs of our hotel. There was this pub that was poppin’. We only stayed there for a beer or two and then proceeded back up to our hotel room. We had to wake up early to start the St. Patty’s day festivities. We woke up around 9 or 10 and started gearing up. I wore a green headband with two antlers on top in the shape of a shamrock. I also wore a scarf that read IRELAND on it with a green sweatshirt and a green and grey St. Patty’s day T-shirt. I also wore dark green jeans. I then layered the necklaces. The colors of their flag are orange, green, and white. I wore multiple beaded necklaces. One of them had a green shot glass attached. Not going to lie, I probably took a shot or two out of it before it broke off and fell onto the streets of Dublin. I was very festive and dressed for the occasion. We spent the day pub hopping and going in and out of the pub to watch the parade. The parade reminded me of the Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade. There were a lot of floats and people dancing in the streets and on top of the floats. It was cool to see everyone in the streets dancing and being merry. It was crazy! So many people and so much beer. I made a few Irish friends. They were so nice and we had a mutual interest in getting to know what life was like for the other person. I can’t believe that people actually live in Dublin. I feel like nothing would ever get done! Maybe it was just the fact that we were there on the craziest weekend. That night we went to another pub. This one was the famous pub of Dublin. It was called O’neils. Here I took an Irish Car Bomb. It is a famous drink in Dublin, and very good. It reminded me of a saki bomb. You drop a shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream into a glass of beer and chug. I also danced with the Irish. There was a band there playing Irish music and my friend and I decided to jump into the circle and dance with them. It was very fun and sweaty. The irish really know how to dance.

The coolest part of Dublin are the colored doors. Most doors in Dublin are bright colors. It was cool to be on the bus tour and see doors that were yellow, purple, red and green.

On Sunday, we went to the Guinness factory. We saw how they make beer. It was really cool because that is the popular beer in Dublin (it comes from Dublin). After the tour, we walked to the top of the Guinness factory and saw the view of Dublin. I tend to make a point to do this while I travel. Up at the top, they give you a free beer with entry to the museum. At this point, we were kind of beered out and decided to opt out of the free beer. We then went back to the hotel and went to the airport. It was a great weekend and one that I will definitely remember forever!

Czech me out

Prague was great! There is so much history. It was beautiful and the weather was perfect. I was nervous about the weather because my friends have said it has hit below zero in the past few weeks, but it was 50 degrees and sunny the entire time. Right when we got there, we immediately went to lunch because we were so hungry. We went to this place called Bakeshop. It had everything. I got a salad and half a sandwich. This is where I discovered how bizarre crowns are. It is so hard to make the exchange from euros. 1,000 crowns= 50 dollars. It is crazy walking around with a bill that says 2,000 on it. Afterwards, we went to the Charles Bridge and the astronomical clock. It is located in the old town square. It dates back to 1410. This is the oldest astronomical clock still working. We also hiked up to the Prague castle and went to the John Lennon wall. The John Lennon wall was really cool. It is a huge wall with all of this graffiti. It was started when Lennon died. People paid their condolences by writing Beatles lyrics etc. Now, anyone can paint on it. I wrote my dad’s name on it, which was comforting. We also went to the Jewish quarter (Josefov). I saw the old jewish cemetery. It is the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe. We saw the Pinkas Synagogue. This is now used as a memorial for Holocaust victims. Our last stop was the Jewish Town Hall (rococo hall). 

At night, we went to this 5 story club called Karlovy Lazne. Each floor played a different genre of music. The first floor is called the music cafe. It is designed in the style of “main flow.” People can surf the net on this floor. The next floor up is the discotheque. This floor is all electornic music. There are sick lights and sound effects. There is a 5m x 2m video wall and an interactive wall, laser statues, hypercube and other cool effects. The next floor up is kaleidoscope. It is devoted to ageless oldies. We spent the most time on this floor. We danced the night away to the tunes of The Beach Boys and Madonna. The 4th floor is paradogs. This is the R’N’B and hip hope floor. The last floor is the chill out. There are huge gold couches where you can just lounge and sit back, drink, and relax.

We late night ate cheese balls. Everyone says that when you go to Prague, you have to eat one of these. It was really good, but was a little overrated in my book.

I could definitely see myself studying abroad here. The city is beautiful and there are so many sights to see. The nightlife is crazy, too. I met a ton of people and overall, it was one of my favorite weekends while studying abroad.

Advertisements=the new drug

Why do we let advertisements change the way we think? Society as a whole gets sucked into this economic bubble and has trouble breaking out of it. Advertisements give off this slanted perception of what is right and wrong. Do we really want the products we see in advertisements? Probably not. Do we as consumers want these products because of the image that is given off in the ad? Probably.

We see a beautiful woman or a celebrity rocking a hot new pair of sunglasses in a pool surrounded by very attractive men. There is alcohol in the hands of the men. It almost looks as if they are handing her the drink. Alcohol most of the time equals a good time. This is exactly what is being shown in this ad. She looks like she is having the time of her life. What could possibly be better? In this ad, Jessica Alba is doing exactly this in a advertisement for Ray Bans.

Advertisements can also be very demeaning towards woman. It is much like rap songs. In most rap songs, they are rapping about taking advantage of woman and looking at them as if they are objects who don´t have feelings. A lot of songs have really bothered me in the past. I take lyrics to heart, unlike some of my friends. I don´t want men to ever treat me the way the rappers are speaking. I want full respect. In some advertisements, they show women half naked with men caressing their bodies. In this ad, it almost looks as if they are trying to get her drunk enough to be able to take advantage of her. They are all individually handing her a drink. She also has a lot of cleavage showing. It looks like they have photoshopped her body. They perked up her boobs and slimmed down her waist. Is this how advertisers think women should look like? That is the image they are giving off. What must young girls think when they see this ad? Their self confidence must diminish greatly. Very few woman actually look like this. In fact, I feel as if this body is unattractive and not believable. I feel bad for young girls who have to look at this ad and think that that is how they should look.

Why do we let advertisements sway our opinion? Why do we sometimes let them bring us down? I do have to say that sometimes they can shed light on situations. There are days where I feel down in the dumps and feel as if nothing can pick me up. When I come home after a long day and flip through the pages of the new issue of ELLE Magazine, seeing bright colors and beautiful photographs can be helpful.

We live in a society where buying materialistic items makes us happier. I have dealt with this in my own experience with the death of my dad.

I have always been an excellent shopper and have loved every minute of my time in a store. Lately, I haven´t been caring about what I wear, what I buy, and what items I own. All I care about is the loving relationships with the people around me. There has been an exception in my recent personality change. Shopping has been very therapeutic. Ads have not played an active roll in my life lately because I would rather shop in an actual store. The act of purchasing items gives off endorphins.

Advertisements have a way of changing people’s views and opinions.  They are powerful and extreme, yet millions continue to be released into the world everyday. I am even guilty of having advertisements suck me into purchasing something.

When in Rome…

We took a train from Florence to Rome. It was short and not very scenic. When we got to Rome I went with Susie to her friend from home’s apartment. It snowed in rome for the first time since 1992 so all the cabs weren’t working. They claimed they didn’t know how to drive in the snow. It was horrible. The whole city like shut down. It was annoying and hard to go anywhere but very cool to witness Rome in the snow. After we got to the apartment, we went to the Roman Forum. It was cool to see the ruins. There is so much history in rome. It would be a cool place to study abroad. After that we went to the collesium. It was really cool. I see so many pictures of it and it was cool to be right there. It was where the gladiators fought. A fun fact is that there was so much blood that it had to go somewhere so they invented the drainage system to get rid of the blood. We also saw the Spanish steps when we first got off the metro. I didn’t realize what it was but took a picture anyways. We then went and got a slice of pizza. It was amazing. Just as good as I knew it would be. It was a cute little shop where everyone is standing around eating pizza out of a brown paper bag wrapped around it. The girls I was with got some yummy fried doughy dessert. It was great also. It was super cold so we went back to the apartment to warm up.

It was miserably cold and hard to go sightseeing, but I stuck it out and knew I had to see it all and fit it all in. I was dedicated to taking it all in. We then went to the Vatican. It was cool to see. The pope didn’t come out though. It was too snowy, so he stayed in! The Vatican was pretty beautiful. I then took a cab by myself to the hostel. It was gross but very cheap, so it was well worth it. I took a shower and had trouble leaving the shower because the hot water felt so good after being out in the cold for so long! We then went to the best restaurant in rome. Its called Tonys and was amazing. It was such a scene though. Everyone that was visiting went there. I walked in and saw the entire jewish population from the east coast. We ate fried calamari that I didn’t really care for. We also got chicken parmasan and penne vodka. We got a lot of wine for free. We also got free dessert. There were no cabs, so we couldn’t find a way to get to the club that our friends were going to. We gave up on trying to find transportation, and figured it wasn’t worth it. We ended up going to this restaurant and got a few drinks with the Arizona boys. We stayed out for a while. We couldn’t get a cab home so we hitchhiked. I was with the Arizona boys and this guy in a brown Mercedes picked us up and it was super shady. When we woke up in the morning we went to this restaurant and got what was called an “American breakfast.” It was stupid of us but it was really great. It was eggs and pancakes and then we split a waffle with nutella it was AMAZING! We then left for the airport. On the way to the airport I found this graffiti on a wall. All of my friends call me ZAS and I saw it sprayed on a building. I immediately stopped the cab and ran out to take a picture. After I got my picture, I hopped back in the cab and proceeded to the airport. 

All in all Rome was a great trip. I would love to go there sometime when it is nicer out.

Catalunya Radio vs. 9.55

Catalan radio and american radio have many differences, but at the same time many similarities. Aside from the language barrier, walking into the catalan radio station was very different from my experience walking into an american radio station at home.

The most popular radio station in Detroit (my hometown) is 9.55. I went there a couple years back for a tour. My friend was interning there and wanted me to see what her work life was like. She was excited to show me all of the aspects of the station.

I found a lot of differences from the two separate visits. A major difference is that in The United States, there are different radio stations for different reasons. There is a sports broadcasting radio station, a news radio station, a station that just plays music, and a station that gives you information on stocks.

When I visited Catalunya Radio, I noticed that the station serves multiple purposes. There is a sports section downstairs and then a music section upstairs. You wouldn’t find that in the U.S.

Depending on what type of mood you are in, there are many different radio stations that you can listen to.

In the United States, there is XM radio also known as Sirius radio. It is a satellite radio service. It provides 69 channels of music, and 65 sports, news and entertainment channels. Sirius broadcasts 24 hours daily and is always commercial-free and uncensored. They offer variety to every type of genre that listeners would want to hear. 

Catalunya radio doesn’t seem to have this. They broadcast exclusively in Catalan.  They have 4 separate stations. Catalunya radio, musica, informacio, and iCat fm. Catalunya Radio was the first station. It is a general station that broadcasts 24 hours a day. The Musica section mostly plays classical and contemporary music. It also broadcasts 24 hours a day. The Informacio station was Spain’s first all-news station. iCat fm is linked to the internet and promotes traditional and contemporary culture.

When my friend showed me around the station, we started with the offices of the controllers. We then saw the room with all of the discs.  It seemed like they had every type of music and every song ever recorded. It was the same at Catalunya Radio. They also know exactly where everything is. It is organized by artist. At Catalunya Radio, it was the same.

We then met the DJs. They were so fun and friendly. They seemed really cool. To be a DJ, you have to have a big personality. 

I enjoyed both experiences. I learned more from the Catalunya Radio visit. It was something different. I have listened to 9.55 for my whole life. I knew what songs they played and a lot of what the station is all about. I thought my visit to Catalunya Radio was very informational and cool.

A regular citizen journalist turns into a mini celebrity

On January 15, 2009 Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger landed a plane safely on the Hudson River. He saved the lives of  all 155 people. A couple years later, my father was asked to write Sully’s book about his personal experience on this day titled “Highest Duty.” He also wrote about Sully’s life’s adventures that led him to be able to do what he did on this day. I have first-hand knowledge on the events that occurred on the Hudson River on that day. My dad spent countless hours interviewing Sully to get a feel for what happened, and to be able to tell the story as if he was on the plane with Sully that day. For those of you that don’t know, my dad is a writer. He used to write for The Wall Street Journal, and then his career made a sharp unexpected turn into writing non-fiction best-selling books. Taking this class on Journalism, confirms all of the ideas my dad has taught me about journalism in my life.

Although my dad wouldn’t be classified under a citizen journalist, he still has taught me about what citizen journalism is all about.

On the day that US Airways Flight 1549 touched down on the Hudson River, a normal citizen who happened to be gazing out at the Hudson River during this time, snapped a photo of the passengers on the wings of the aircraft.

This guy was just a citizen who ended up being able to put a picture to this at first tragic, but very joyous event. Without him, we would have just heard about this incident. The Hudson River photo snapper, aka Janis Krums, gave the world a gift. Citizen journalists have the power to do so.

The day that this happened, he tweeted a link to the picture that he had taken along with the words “There’s a plane on the Hudson. I am on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.”

About an hour after he posted the picture, it had already gotten 43,000 views. Twitter changed the role that citizen journalists play in our society today. It allows any old citizen to post a picture along with a 140 character status update. That night he had gone on multiple television stations such as MSNBC and the days following, went on multiple talk shows.

Mr. Krums went on to become a mini celebrity and the most famous citizen journalist of modern times. He had no idea that his photo would become one of the most iconic photos of 2009 nor that it would be broadcasted on every station, printed in every paper, and plastered all over the internet. His photo captivated the world and make us all realize the power that social media can have on our society. He changed the way news is reported and began the Twitter craze.

Susan Young, a social media storyteller, interviewed Janis Krums about 5 lessons on citizen journalism.

1. Citizen journalists will always be at the right place at the right time with the right tools. The difference is they must have the skill to use them. Once something is happening, it’s too late to be learning the tools. I had the tools to spread the message and knew how to use them. If you have the ability to spread the message, you have the power.

2. News will be reported, no matter what. The way it’s being reported is continuing to evolve. Traditional journalists  will always be second on the scene from now on, especially in the developed world. That’s because more people have i-Phones, smart phones and video capability.

3. Traditional media is evolving. The tools that were used before are just not going to be used in the future. I think journalists are embracing social media. They are just figuring out what’s going to stick in the next five years.

4. I had a very modest following on Twitter of less than 200 people. I thought there was a public forum, and I should Tweet the picture because it could be valuable.  At that point Twitter wasn’t very mainstream, so I didn’t see how big it could become. I didn’t send the picture to CNN or Fox. I just sent it to the followers I had on Twitter. And from there it spread. I don’t think newspapers, journalists, and news organizations were using Twitter as a source quite yet. It was pretty new. At that moment, I saw the value in what it was, but I didn’t see the value of what it could become. I don’t think anyone could see that it could be spread around the world the way it was.

5. The younger generation is consuming news not through Television or newspapers, but through the Internet. People now interact with their news. You can get into an online community and start talking about a topic. It makes it special for people once they figure out how to use it. The new generation wants to share and have their opinions out there. If a reporter misses something in a story, a commentator can say, “Hey, you missed this”, or ”add that”, and it becomes a living story.  Before, it was “This is how it is and you don’t get a change until an update later on.” Now it becomes a living story and not static.

He inspired all citizens to be able to get involved in the citizen journalism movement and showed us all that it is possible to share incredible things with the world, even if it is via Twitter!

Firenze

So we get to Florence and it was already kind of bizarre that the plane didn’t pull up right to the gate. We had to take a smelly bus with everyone packed in like sardines. When we get in the cab and we tell the driver we are from America he played “god bless the usa” which was so funny. He was trying to make us feel like we are home. We finally got to Jackie’s apartment. It was amazing. It was the biggest thing I have ever seen. Jackie took us to Za za’s which was really good. I got pizza because I felt like I had to in italy. It was AMAZING pizza! When we got back to the apartment we got dressed. We then went to a pregame where I saw a lot of my friends from college.  It was really fun and good to see people. After that we went to the club which was not that much fun. It was really small and just had a bunch of VIP rooms. After a not so great night at the club we walked 1 whole hour home on the cobblestone in my heels and tank top. We walked with a large group of guys, but still it was horrible. They don’t take cabs in Florence. I don’t understand why but Jackie said she does this every night. When we woke up in the morning, we went to The Diner which was really good. It was all American food which I am kind of missing here in Barcelona. I got a salad with feta (my favorite) yumm. It was such a scene! I saw everyone I knew. I even saw Susie (my roommate in Barcelona). In Florence you see everyone because it is so small.

After lunch we went to the Duomo (Florence Cathedral). It was really beautiful.  Overall I don’t think that Florence was that pretty but the duomo is amazing and blew me away. It has a gothic style and was completed in 1436. It is topped with a huge dome. Inside it looks like a normal church, but 30 times the size of one. There are these candles that you can light for a loved one who is gone. At the time, I had felt lucky because no one I had known had died. Jill lit it for her grandparents. Jackie and I lit it for the troops in Iraq. I wish I could go back and light one for my dad. We then hiked up halfway. It was a tiring hike. We didn’t go the whole way because it was really high up and a lot of steps but halfway was still a strenuous hike. After that we went to the Ponte Vecchio which is pretty but it is so famous and overrated. It is just a bridge with a bunch of nice jewelry shops on it. After that we went to their main department store.We also made a wish at this famous pig. You rub the nose and throw a penny in the pigs mouth and it slides down with water into a drain. Then we went to astor which is a cute coffe/wine shop. Jackie said people go there to pregame a lot. We got a glass of wine and just chilled. We then went to this restaautrant acqua al due. They are famous for their blueberry steak which of course I had to get. I feel like I don’t get enough meat in Barcelona because the meat kind of grosses me out. The steak was really good it didn’t really taste like Blueberrys.

After dinner we went to the club. It was an okay club. A lot of locals go there. We hung out with all Barcelona people and Jackie. We might as well have been at a club in Barcelona. When we tried leaving the club Jill wasn’t allowed. We were so confused. The deal was that when you walk in they give you a ticket and you have to hang onto it. Luckily, I put mine in my purse even though I thought it was just a promoter giving me something I didn’t want. Jill lost hers. She ended up having to pay 50 euros to physically get her body out of the club.  It was ridiculous. Took a toll on our night. When we got home I passed out and I felt bad but Jackie slept on the hard floor while Jill and I got the bed. We woke up in the morning and took a train to Rome. The train was an hour and a half.