a shonna in barcelona: wrapping it up

after a truly magical first day, we learned that two other airbnbers had re-routed their turkey trip and were coming to barcelona. spencer and dave (h) are in what i call, my 40 closest friends at airbnb. i haven’t actually created this list, it’s just something my team teases me about since i have so many “close” friends at airbnb. 

spencer used to live with sean. sasha just moved in with sean. spencer moved out to live with dave. and dave and spencer went to college together. during our time in barcelona we also discovered dave and i were on birthright in israel at the same time in january 2009. crazy small world. 

anyway, we were super stoked to have them join our trip. 

we all met up for some lunch… more jamon (thinly sliced cured ham), some weird and delicious potato thing, calamari, etc. all delicious. while spencer and dave went to check into their airbnb, yat, heather and i ventured to park guell, what barcelona calls it’s disneyland. park guell is at the top of the mountain overlooking the entire city of barcelona. what a beautiful view. at the very top there is a viewing point up a very danger rock mound. no railings, lots of people, someone has to have fallen at some point. but as we started to approach we saw this amazing guy in leopard print from head to toe singing hilarious classic songs with slight changes in the lyrics. blue suede shoes was blue suede fucking shoes. he would stop and yell out university of motherfucking rock and roll. he was a kick. and we watched and danced with him for about 30 minutes. he loved heather. and i mean LOVED. i really wonder what he was on. some kind of drugs or something. so great, yat bought his CD. he definitely made our day. 

CD tracks
view from park guell
university of motherfucking rock and roll
we walked around the park, a lot of it is surrounded by sculptures, benches and architecture from guadi. a while later spencer and dave met up and we shared a bottle of cheap, yet delicious wine. we headed back up to the viewing point as the sun was setting… another great day in the books. 



we grabbed a snack before heading separate ways to take naps before our big planned night out. we had two goals: 1. go to this shot bar that was recommended as “emotions guaranteed” and 2. go to crappy tuesday at the apolo, recommended by a couple of our hosts. at 11:30pm we sat down for another delicious dinner. more jamon, more octopus and some really delicious steak. right on schedule at around 12:30pm/1am we headed to chupito to have some major emotions at the shot bar. sure enough - experience delivered. this place has literally hundreds of shots listed on the wall. none of them say what they are and they’re all about 2 euros each. we started out with a couple flaming ones, the boys kept going with ones involving taking the shot then drinking the remaining gas from the fire with a straw, orange peels, a shot called harry potter, and it went on and on. heather and i had like 2 or 3 but the guys had like 5 or 6. it was insane. and so fun. and the emotions were flowing. lots of dancing. it’s a small bar an there was only other one set of people there so they allowed us the pick the music. spencer showed off his incredibly whip nae nae moves, yat with hotlinebling and we ended the night with a really fucking incredible lip-sync of bad blood. sadly i was uploading a ton of pics and videos to snapchat and when we got home, somehow they were all gone. so.fucking.tragic. 


shots on fire!
after emotions and a lot a lot of shots (19 shots for $49) we headed to the apolo club for "crappy tuesday". we didn’t really know what to expect, but it sure did deliver. we basically danced for over two hours. the place was packed but not in a drenched-in-sweat kind of way. the perfect kind. an awesome girl DJ who’d throw in motown songs. dave and spencer are so fun to dance with. spencer is like 6’8” or something ridiculous but he’ll come down and dance at my level. so much drinking. so much fun. and at 4:30am, we called it a night. i checked my jawbone (like a fitbit) and 4:30am i was already up to 6.6 miles. fuck yes. #stepsfortomorrow. 

dance like no one is watching

wednesday morning was slow moving… we had a mission to do some shopping to buy my face wash (normally $35 in the US, like 15 euros in spain), check out some sunglasses heather wanted, get some wine, go to this boutique we had passed by the night before, get some churros y chocolate (famous in spain) and check out the boqueria market where yat had been eating every morning for breakfast. every great asian city has one of these markets. in my experience i’ve never seen them outside of asia but heather said they have them in syndey too. fresh fruit, amazing seafood literally just caught from the sea, candy on candy, so much meat, the colors are vibrant. the hustle and bustle… just one of those things you can’t miss. we sat down at a bar and had some muscles and squid. got some chocolates for friends, sampled some more octopus and had the biggest oysters i’ve ever eaten. and ate more jamon. 


we then were on a search for churros y chocolate, which heather heard was a must in barcelona. we were recommended a place called chok the chocolate kitchen which didn’t end up having churros but was the cutest store ever. sasha would have died over the donuts. then we found another place but it didn’t open until 4pm. a lot of places close for siesta around here… from about 2pm - 4pm. i get it, but also its kind of annoying. we stopped in a lot of stores buying gifts, checking things out and finally sitting down for some churros right when the store opened. they were delicious, but i personally would have liked the chocolate a little bit more sweet, because i love everything super sweet. and honestly, i’m not sure you can beat a disneyland churro. but the experience, you know? 


we took a long walk back through the fancy shopping area, stopped in various wine stores, bought a few things and by 7:30pm we were dying. at this point we had walked like 14 miles and really needed to go home. we bought some jamon and manchego cheese and planned to go out for dinner but after our snack and some bin candy (haribo candy is legit, must find), we called it a night. we had a 4:50am pick up to go to the airport and we needed to pack. 

barcelona definitely has my heart. when i ended my 2006 euro tour barcelona was high on the list of cities i thought i could move to. i was excited to come back to and see if that idea i held onto for so long was still valid. this trip has definitely validated that feeling. i could live here. and while i struggle SO much with language, i feel like i could learn more spanish and make it work. one day, yeah? 

the people in catalonia (soon to be separate from spain) are incredibly nice. people often mistook me for a local and asked for directions, which i always appreciate. this happened in france as well. fuck yes, #livelikealocal. people are helpful, relaxed and generally seem happy. the culture is rich, the food is amazing and the weather was beautiful. 

i had an incredible time re-connecting with heather. i am so lucky she was able to come meet me and spend time rediscovering a city together. we’re great compliments because she likes looking up food places (which i hate) and i handle directions (which she doesn’t love). we never run out of things to say and we laugh a lot. i also appreciated that she embraced hanging out with my airbnb peeps, that weren’t originally part of the plan. although as it turns out, i was the only person originally going to barcelona. funny though because i distinctly remember asking dave to come but he said he had other travel plans. funny how things work out. heather and i are quite a bit older than those guys and it’s a good reminder to embrace the adventure, stay young and feel good that we can hang until 4:30am (although i’m definitely feeling it now). 

as we headed to the airport, i couldn’t help but think about the words alain de botton writes in the art of travel. i hated the book but he makes very valid points… we see the beauty, fun and adventure of travel when viewing others' photos, reading their blogs, hearing their stories… but the act of traveling takes a toll on our bodies. i haven’t slept this little in this many consecutive days in who knows how long. the hours it takes to get home, waiting in airports, alone. its not fun, but it’s so worth it. 

i watched a really cute movie on the plane home called paper towns. it’s one of those coming of age high school movies that just stick. the moral of the story is to get out of your comfort zone, chase dreams, make new dreams… the most incredible experiences occur when we get out of our daily routine. while i generally embrace this as my life motto, it’s a good reminder and i feel thankful that this trip has done exactly that… firsts, seconds, moments of joy, exhaustion, excitement, dancing, food, friendship - new and old, exploring, discovering, and always asking questions and learning new things. 

travel does this. 

my heart is full, and yet i’m excited to come home. 

until the next adventure………… (in 4 weeks) signing off from shonnagagaland.

our airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/638018 further away from barceloneta and las ramblas but truly felt more like a local, easy to get around. recommend gracias neighborhood too.  

restaurants i’d recommend: 
what to see and do: 

  • sagrada de familia 
  • park guell
  • get a drink at the W hotel
  • go to barceloneta 
  • churros y chocolate
  • shopping in gracias neighborhood
  • eat paella 
  • eat jamon
  • boqueria market (don't miss)
  • espit chupito bar - shots shots shots (don't miss)
  • apollo nightclub (don't miss)

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