Today after work we´ll go for a basketball game, something we´ve been trying to organize for a long time ever since I said that we have to since we play their game of soccer. Then I´m going to go home, shower, and pack my bags, something I haven´t even touched yet. At night we´ll go for good bye drinks at an absinthe bar, simply to end on a very memorable note. Hopefully we won´t be out too late and I´ll get some last sleep. Otherwise, that´s it for me. Tomorrow I´m leaving around 5:45am for the airport and catching an 8:20am flight that will get me to Frankfurt at 10:30am. Then a 12:55pm flight will get me to Philadelphia at 3:35pm local time. Hopefully all goes well and I should be at home and on my phone by 6.

Wow! Honestly, I cannot believe it´s over. I cannot believe I spent 9.5 weeks here. Some days were faster than others but it was one big blur. I was looking forward to this for over a year and now it´s almost like I was never actually here. Of course it´s not possible to see everything. Valencia, Bilbao, Zaragoza, Avila, and Segovia are amongst the cities I would still love to visit in Spain alone. However I saw BEYOND a lot, to the point that everyone at work thinks I´m insane. Also,  a lot of people, both here and there, are asking me if I want to return now. I can´t really answer that. It´s a bittersweet feeling that changes depending on the situation and my mood. On one hand, I absolutely loved Barcelona and the people here. It´s filled with stuff to do and you´re never bored. I also loved the lab, both scientifically and otherwise. The people here have been incredible to me. It really feels sad saying good bye. I feel like I´ve made real friends here. On the other hand, this trip has left me in an incredible financial hole and physically exhausted beyond words. I must also admit I miss my friends, family, and home. So I guess I´m ready to go back, although I will probably miss Barça too. I definitely plan on coming back. Aside from wanting to return here, I really want to see Italy. Maybe next summer but we will see. Будит день и будит пища (apologies ahead of time if I mispelled that).

Since this is my last post, I want to thank absolutely everyone for helping make this possible. Dr. Bosch, Edu, Federico, David, Ninoska, Virginia, every single person I met here, and my friends and family,  specifically. I can´t even imagine going into details as there were way too many people that made this possible. Another huge thanks to everyone that visited this site, either frequently or once in a blue moon. I appreciate it. Overall, I had an absolutely amazing time. So much has changed since I got off that plane about 9.5 weeks ago, scared as hell.  I´ve seen more than I ever imagined, learned more than I could ever explain, and had a better time than I EVER thought I would. There was so much more to this trip than the 4,000 facebook photos and 70 posts. Some of the best things aren´t in the pictures and some of the best experiences aren´t going to be talked about. I sincerely and seriously recommend that everyone considering studying/learning abroad do it. I guarentee you will learn a lot and have an amazing time. In the worst case scenario, it´s just a few months of your life. If anyone wants any advice about getting around, cheap transportation methods, etc. I´d love to help or find someone that can.

I´ve been thinking for a while on how to end my last post with a one summary sentence however nothing came to mind. This was simply too much for one sentence, even one post, and even one conversation. I guess if I were to try: I´ve had the most amazing time but there´s no place like home. See you all in Philadelphia. Over and out.

-Miguel

Around 2:00am the club started getting bigger as platforms started sliding out from everywhere. Tiesto came out in front of a huge wall in the distance and we were able to rush fast enough to get to the very front. For the entire concert we were basically 15 feet away from Tiesto. Huge subwoofers blasted his music from both sides of the stage and the lights filled the huge, jam-packed room. I have never imagined a club that size. Rain came down from the ceiling in the middle of the club and the strobes from the very front reflected different images on the water drops, everything from tripping graphics to the words ¨Tiesto¨ and ¨Ibiza¨. As Tiesto played the hottest beats, everything from his old techno stuff to techno remixes of other genres, every other moment was a surprise. Sometimes things would fall from the ceiling. Other times cold fog would blast us in the face. Towards the end, the wall behind Tiesto proved to be a screen and a bunch of images and words started reflecting. The combination of the smoke and lights looked like something straight out of google. I was SUPER disappointed every minute that I did not have my camera.

I seriously recommend everyone parties at least once in Ibiza. I will definitely return. Another club that looked memorable is Amnesia. There are schedules of who plays where and when on the internet. Guetta is there every Friday, van Buuren every Tuesday, etc. It´s not cheap. Club entrances range from 35 euros to 80 euros. This one was 50. Drinks are also so expensive that pregaming is a must. Mixed drinks range from 15 to 20 euros per drink and a small bottle of water is 6 euros. However, the atmosphere is indescribable. If you party at one of the bigger clubs, the party goes on until about 6 or 7am. Then the afterclubs open up. The biggest is Space which opens at 6 or 7am and you can usually get in for free after 9am. The party here continues until about midday. Then you pass out at the beach.

Since we had a ferry to catch to Formentera, we stayed until about 5:30-6am. We danced nonstop for about 5 hours so at this point we were very tired. A quick taxi ride took us to the ferry and, as the sun rose overhead, we got to Formentera around 8am. Formentera really is a unhabited island. We should have spent time seaching for a paradise beach but since we were exhausted, we just settled for the first one we found. It was small and shallow but we were literally the only ones there. There was no life around which was relaxing at first but got quickly boring. We enjoyed the rest but there was no shade and no way to cover up. I got way darker and slightly burned my face but Sasha completely fried herself and is now in pain. We stayed at the beach until the 9pm ferry and then returned to Ibiza and flew back to Barcelona. When all was said and done, we got home at 3:00am and I spent literally 42 consecutive hours without sleep. Super exhausting but really worth it.

Again, I want to repeat how amazing Tiesto and Ibiza were. I highly recommend it. Very tiring and expensive, but worth it. I will definitely try to return again. Ibiza beach would be fun to visit if you want to continue the party. Formentera is definitely worth a visit if you want to rest on a nice beach with very little to no people. However, be prepared for very little life and shade and go when you´re not super tired.

Now I´m back to work and Sasha´s recovering at home. Today should be a slow day and she will leave first thing tomorrow morning. One of our colleagues, Xavier Anguela, will defend his thesis tomorrow and hopefully get his PhD. That´ll take care most of the day. The dinner/party is at night. Originally I wanted to do a goodbye dinner with all of the people I met here but since most of them will be at this dinner anyway, I felt there was no need. It should be fun as the whole lab is going but hopefully we´re not out super late. Then Friday I have a few specific work things planned and I will have to hand over my work to my supervisor. I will probably not go out Friday night and just spend the time packing and resting. I will update again before leaving; hope all is well on the other side of the ocean.

-Mike

Firstly, Lisbon is one hour behind Barcelona time which explains the flight time differences. I´m surprised I didn´t figure this out before. For some reason my alarm clock did not go off and we woke up half an hour late and had to take a taxi to the airport but it was a good way to wake yourself up. We were able to get Sasha a ticket at the last minute, to make a long story short, which was really nice. The flight there was perfectly smooth and I was able to even sleep for a little bit. Once we landed, we immediately took a bus to the hostel and dropped off our stuff. Lisbon is a huge city but the center is fairly concentrated. Our hostel was perfectly located. The two main plazas were blocks away and the water was a few blocks away as well. The workers seemed nice and just about every main site was nearby.

We spent the morning just walking around the city and seeing some of the main attractions in the center. The city was very nice and a lot more beautiful than I expected it to be. It´s also very mountanious and built right off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. We walked to the top of the highest hill and saw St. George´s Castle. It was nice and the view was spectacular. An earthquake shook Lisbon in 1755 and many of the famous churches and buildings have never been fully restored. On our way down we grabbed some lunch and checked out some more famous sites, including the Santa Justa elevator and other nearby churches. We returned to the hostel around 4pm and got some rest.

In the evening Sasha wanted to rest and I wanted to explore some more so we split up for a bit. I took a tram to a different part of the city and explored the Belem District. There I saw the Monastery of St. Jeronimo and various other monuments dedicated to Portugues sailors. The view of the water off the coast was especially nice. After walking around for a bit I returned to the hostel around 9pm. I intended on going to sleep a bit early and resting up but got convinced into going out. Everyone in the hostel was super friendly and I met people from Canada, Greece, New Zealand, Chile, and many other countries. The specifics of the night won´t be making it to here or facebook but it was super fun. We ended up in a club called Luke´s which was amazing. It was three stories of techno music, huge dance floors, and fun people. We ended up returning back to the hostel at 7am. Needless to say, I was pretty tired the next day.

I got to sleep in on Sunday and checked out at noon. Afterwards Sasha and I split up again and I explored the city some more. I took a two hour boat ride around Lisbon which showed me the city from the water. Afterwards I visited the more modern district of Portugal and ended the day with a visit to the Oceanarium, self-proclaimed the largest aquarium in the world with over 10,000 species. We then took a taxi back to the airport and flew home, again without problems. When all was said and done, we were back home at 1am tired but having really enjoyed Lisbon.

In summary, Lisbon was one hell of a city that I enjoyed considerably more than I expected. I liked the way it was built on the ocean and I thought every single street was nice looking. The people were really fun as well and the nightlife was fun, at least for that one night. I also enjoyed the weather. It´s really hot during the day but dry. Once the sun sets, there´s a nice breeze and no humidity. Portuguese is similar enough to Spanish that I can sometimes understand the general context if they speak slowly. That being said, everyone there speaks English and/or Spanish so it wasn´t a problem at all. I thought it was a bit dirtier than Barcelona. The streets are clearly not cleaned daily and there are a million old people walking up to you on every corner selling pot, in a non-subtle kind of way. The public transportation was also very different. There are only four metro lines with few interchanges and they only function in the center. If you want to go elsewhere, you have to take a tram. It´s a bit annoying but kind of cool to take a tram throughout the city on regular roads. The modern district is completely different from the touristy center, filled with tall, business buildings. I cannot compare this city to Madrid since I loved both of them and comparing one to the other wouldn´t be fair. I can say that although I feel like I have seen all of the main sites in Lisbon, I would have  gladly stayed longer or returned and see Sintra, Fatima, and Porto too. I think Portugal doesn´t get talked about as much as it should.

Now I´m at work. I can feel the tiredness but I´ll be able to sleep it off in Philadelphia. Less than five days left! Something is wrong with my charger so my camera doesn´t charge now. It´s a problem I´ll solve back home now. Hopefully we can use Sasha´s camera in Ibiza tonight and Formentera tomorrow. The Lisbon pictures (about 250) are on my computer but I won´t be able to upload them onto FB until Wednesday  at best. I probably won´t be able to update until then as well. I hope everyone had a good weekend!

-Mike

Today was a typical work day and I finally received my check. I’m very happy and will head to the bank on Monday to figure out the best way to transfer it into my bank account. Otherwise, Sasha and I will go out for her birthday tonight somewhere in Port Vell but not stay out too late because we have an early plane tomorrow.

The idea is to spend the last weekend in Lisbon, Portugal. Initially, the idea was to take the train there but once I realized it’s a 700 mile ride without any direct connections, I decided it wouldn’t work. Financially, I should’ve probably just abandoned the idea but seeing the actual text on the homepage of this site, I decided to cut my losses and fly there. One other good thing about Europe is the presence of cheap transportation means. Hostels are cheaper than any hotel you find in the US and air companies like Vueling and Ryanair provide flights around Europe for dirt cheap. I will take a shuttle to the Barcelona airport for an 8am plane that should get me to Lisbon at 8:50am. I will spend the weekend there exploring with no currently definite itinerary in mind and spend the night in a hostel called Home that is supposed to be centrally located. On Sunday a 9:30pm plane will get me back to Barcelona at a quarter past midnight and I will go to work the next morning. I’m not sure why the flight there is so much longer than the flight back but I don’t think it really matters. It’ll be nice to see a third country on this trip. At this point, we plan on Sasha coming too but we’re still in the process of buying her tickets last minute.

Monday night after work we will go to Ibiza Island for a Tiesto concert. For everyone that does not know what Ibiza Island is, it’s basically the clubbing capital of the world. Tiesto spins at Club Privilege, which is supposed to be the largest club in the world with a capacity of 10,000, every Monday night. An 11:15pm plane will get us to the island at a quarter past midnight where we will party until the next morning. Originally the idea was to simply use my last day off to hit the beach there and rest but a few coworkers told me it’s too touristy, overcrowded, and Formentera is a better option. Formentera is a tiny island right next to Ibiza that has only 5,000 inhabitants and is supposed to be all white beaches that are nearly untouched. So, the next morning a 7:30am ferry will get us to Formentera at 8:00am and we will spend the entire day resting and tanning at the beach. We’ll take the last ferry back and a red eye plane home, getting back to Barcelona around 1am. This is already booked for the both of us. This will complete my amazing itinerary for the Barcelona stay.

Clearly it’s going to be a busy four days and taking into account that I might not have internet, I will update whenever I can. Should be really fun so full stories will come, sooner or later. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

-Mike

Instead of the soccer game tonight, everyone´s going to Edu´s (my supervisor) house. It was his birthday a few days ago and we are going to celebrate with a BBQ at his house. It´s supposed to be in a valley outside of Barcelona with a pool and a gorgeous view of the Montserrat Mountain. I usually don´t take pictures when out with the locals but I´ll try to sneak in a view. Unfortunately, it means I will probably play no more soccer games here as next Thursday there are some plans brewing too.

Friday Sasha and I will go out somewhere for her birthday, which is today.

-Mike

We got to Cordoba around 2pm and were there until about 6pm. Cordoba is a tiny city set on a river, surrounded by a wall. As always, the streets were tiny, cobblestone, and gorgeous. We spent most of the time walking them, everywhere being an amazing view. We walked through the Jewish quarter, where many Jews once lived. There are so few now that the synagogue we walked past doesn´t function anymore, as there aren´t 10 male Jews in the entire town. The best part of Cordoba, and by far my favorite part of the trip, was the Mosque in the center. It is amazingly gorgeous from the outside, noticeable from miles away. It is the third largest Mosque in the world, the first two being in Mecca and Morocco, respectably. The Mosque was built in the 7th and 8th centuries by Muslims. Imagine something that old! The interior is even more amazing. When Spain was reconquered by King Ferdinand III in the 13th century, he destroyed a part of the interior and built a church there instead. So, the interior is a huge, gorgeous mosque with a small but equally amazing church in the middle! I never imagined anything like this. All of the churches are so gorgeous in Europe, covered in gold everywhere you look, and here was one INSIDE a gorgeous Mosque. It was an interesting site.

The weather in Cordoba was around 40C (110F) and dry which made walking hard but bearable. I also liked how the city was set on the river. We then left to Seville and got to our hotel at around 7pm. After a super quick shower we had dinner. Part of the group went to a Flamenco show after dinner. Originally I wasn´t going to go because I already saw it but someone I met from Brazil invited me and I felt bad saying no. The show was fun and included a drink of Sangria. The actual palace/stage was nicer than in Barcelona but the show itself was pretty similar. It was set to different music from the opera Carmen. We returned to the hotel around midnight and I was able to get a good night´s sleep. The hotel was of VERY high quality and I had an entire room and a huge bed all to myself, quite a change from a hostel!

Today was a 9am departure from the hotel. Seville is also a gorgeous city but much larger than Cordoba which makes it harder to see everything. The temperature was about 40C but with 90-95% humidity which made walking absolutely impossible. When I say impossible, I really do mean impossible. The first few hours of the tour we drove around to all of the famous sites of Seville, the various churches, bridges, and factories. Seville was also the location of the 1929 and 1992 Ibero-American Exhibitions so it was interesting to see all of the constructed buildings. Plaza Espana is the building constructed by Spain and, of course, is by far the most amazing and prestigious one. Afterwards we walked around the old quarter featuring more of the same, albeit never old, churches, mosques, and beautiful old buildings. The Islamic presence in southern Spain is noticeable and impressive. I wish there was a way to coexist like it was possible centuries ago. One mosque has  Jewish star on its door!

The tour ended around 2:30pm and the rest of the day was free time. After grabbing lunch, I walked around Seville for a bit, going to the top of the church for a spectacular view, seeing the bull fighting ring (second largest in Spain, third largest in the world), and some other small things before my camera died and I felt like I was soon going to join in. The tourist-friendly streets are covered by canopies so the locals can make some money from shopping but it barely helps. The entire time it feels like you´re in a bubble without oxygen. Most of the group was then going to Granada the next morning but I didn´t even know this option existed, nor would I be able to take advantage of it anyway since I can only take so many days off work, so I got my high speed train ticket from the tour guide and headed for the station. A 7:45pm train got me back to Madrid and now I´m relaxing in the hostel. The movie on the train was Frost Nixon and I´m happy I finally got to see it…and in Spanish too!

These were really tiring but very impressive four days. All of the cities are largely similar but very different too, in their own ways. I cannot choose a favorite and simply recommend all of them. Seville is the only city where I can see people actually living. The other three are more ¨tourist only¨ cities. Out of the four, I´m most likely to return to Granada because 1) La Alhambra is simply amazing beyond all words (most visited monument in Spain) and 2) I feel like there is a lot more to see there that we haven´t seen yet. Apparently there is a monastery full of traditional monks, gypsy caves, etc. Just gives me an reason to return! Also, I really like the idea of taking a tour. Although I enjoy the free time to do things my way, it´s the best way to see a lot with less effort.

Now I´m off to shower and sleep. Tomorrow is an incredibly early wake up call and then Sasha and I will head back to Barcelona via a 6:30am train. She will go on her own and I will go straight to work. We plan on going out at night to celebrate her birthday as it´s on the 23rd. This last weekend will be spent in Lisbon, Portugal and then we´re going to a Tiesto concert in Ibiza on Monday night. Details will follow later in the week. I also have about 600 pictures to get on facebook. I can´t believe I only have about 10 days left!

-Mike

The tour left from a few stations away at 9:00am and consisted of two different parts. The first part took us about 70 kilometers north of Madrid to El Escorial. El Escorial is a monastery built by King Philip II in the 16th century. Unfortunately, interior pictures are not allowed as everything is authentic, from the tapestries to the furniture, and the flash ruins pictures. The monastery was huge, surrounded by gardens, and on top of mountains, providing for a beatiful view everywhere you go. Hopefully the exterior pictures will do it some sort of justice. It´s really powerful to walk in a building where everything was constructed so long ago. The best part was the interior crypt. This is a circular room in the very basement made of bronze and Italian marble and covered in gold where lie the bone remains of 24 of the most important rulers of Spain in the past. Each coffin was gorgeous and it was a really cool room, albeit a bit eerie. Three unmarked coffins were ready, set up for the parents and grandmother of Juan Carlos, the current leader of Spain. The remains of these three people can be found in a room away, drying. After they die, there is a 30-40 year wait so that just the bones remain which are then kept in the crypt. There were other rooms around and each one was very impressive.

After El Escorial, we drove to the Valley of the Fallen, a few miles away. Valley of the Fallen is a monument in the middle of the mountains dedicated to the soldiers that died during the Spanish Civil War. A 350 meter high cross, seen miles away, stands as the mark of the monument. The actual monument, in which photography is also not allowed, is roughly 300 meters long, cut out into the montain, leading up to an altar.  The actual crypt is permanently sealed of and roughly 60,000 soldiers are located there in remembrance. In the center, there is a tomb of Francisco Franco himself, a very controversially remembered figure.

After checking out the monument, we returned to Madrid where lunch was included, always nice. The second part of the tour was Toledo. That was roughtly 70 kilometers south of Madrid. Toledo is a gorgeous city, somewhat like Granada. All the streets are super narrow so we walked around for a few hours. Aside from the really small and cool streets, there are a ton of beautiful churches and an Arabian-Jewish quarter. None of the historical buildings allow interior photography but the exterior was great too. Toledo is enguarded by a huge stone wall, build by the Muslims, but also houses the oldest synagogue in Spain, which we saw. It is a sign of how all of the cultures lived together peacefully roughly 800 years ago. We ended our tour with a visit to the Toledo factory, where gold and metal jewelry is made. The way the city is designed-enclosed on a mountain-makes for an interesting visit.

The tour was in both English and Spanish but the Spanish was spoken clear enough that I was able to understand everything. The tourists were from everywhere, but mostly spoke Spanish. I met people from Mexico and Costa Rica. Towards the end, I met a family from SouthPhilly. What a small world! I got back to the hostel around 8:15pm and now I´m resting. I got about 5 hours of sleep this night but that´s actually an improvement over previous nights and, along with some napping on the bus rides, I actually feel pretty good. Now I´m going to either get some extra sleep or hang out with Sasha in Madrid for a bit and go to bed a bit early anyway. Tomorrow the tour starts at 7:45am so it´s another early wake up call. I honestly don´t remember which of the two cities, Cordoba or Seville, we´re going to go to first so I´ll let it be a surprise. I know both cities should be very cool and very hot: temperature predictions are 40C for both, roughly 110F! Since I won´t be back in the hostel until Tuesday night, I will probably not update until then. Current picture count is roughly 330. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

-Mike

Afterwards we headed down the mountain and walked around Granada. Granada is a super gorgeous city. It is a mix of an old, mountanous, European city with small, narrow, cobble stone streets and an old religious village. The main cathedral was amazingly gorgeous and the Arabic and Jewish quarters (the latter of which was by far much harder to find) were really cool. It looked like something out of a movie. Definitely one of the most interesting cities I have seen so far.

We had a quick Tapas and beer lunch and then went to the palace at 2pm. The interior of the Islamic palace and the gardens around it were super gorgeous. It was literally a photographer´s dream. Of course plenty of pictures were taken but, as usual, they won´t do it justice. After the palace we walked around the city some more and bought some souvenirs. Hookas were absolutely incredibly cheap, as were some other Arabic souvenirs (no good Jewish ones that I could find; hopefully in Cordoba). After a paella and beer dinner, it was time to return to the bus which took us back to Madrid without a problem. Looking at the map, I can´t believe all of what we did and saw in the last 24 hours. As usual, it´s impossible to see everything in one day but I am confident we saw the best of Granada and are both in agreement that it was great. Current picture count stands at roughly 190.

After arriving in Madrid, I am now in my hostel relaxing. Everything is great but I´m super tired. I will shower and get some sleep. I can´t believe I was in this same hostel 3 weeks ago. Time flies, although it feels like I haven´t been here longer than that. Tomorrow is another early wake up call and an organized tour of Toledo and around. If we get back early enough, we´ll hang out in Madrid at night. Hopefully another update tomorrow night. Hope the weekend is going well.

-Mike

We spent most of the day touring the city as I showed her some of the main sites of Barcelona. It reminded me just how beautiful this city is. In the evening we went to a Flamenco dinner. It was a pretty nice place off Las Ramblas that featured an all-you-can-eat buffet filled with some amazing Paella de Mariscos (Seafood Paella). When cooked right, it´s the best food I´ve had here. After the dinner we moved into the next room and watched the Flamenco dancing show. It was really impressive and the pictures won´t do it justice. Afterwards we went for a night swim which was nice because the water was surprisingly warm. There were a lot of people on the beach relative for a Wednesday night. Try doing that in NJ. Thursday was another typical workday with a very fun soccer game afterwards. The soccer games will probably be one of my most missed memories when I return; it´s really fun. While I work, Sasha fries herself at the beach. On the metro ride back from the soccer game, I chatted with one of the guys we play with. I just want to reiterate that the idea that Catalan people aren´t ¨friendly¨ or ¨open¨ isn´t true. He´s Catalan and was very nice, as is everyone else I meet. Maybe people are just harder to meet in the US than in Europe so I´m used to it? I don´t know really.

I put up all of the new pictures on FB in ¨Barcelona V.¨ There is also a Flamenco video that will go up sometime next week when FB lets me. The plan for this weekend is intesive and borderline crazy. Intending to see some of the really old cities in the Southern part of Spain, I tried to fit it all in at once. The idea will be to use Madrid as the ¨center¨point of the trip and travel from there. I will go straight to the Barcelona Sants station today after work and take a 9:00pm high-speed train that should put me into Madrid at 12:17am. A short metro ride from there will take me to the bus station and an overnight bus will leave at 1:30am and get to Granada at 7:30am. Hopefully I can get some sleep on it. I will spend most of the day in Granada and leave that night. All of these cities are tiny so a day should suffice in each. The bus will leave at 7pm and get back to Madrid at midnight and I will check into the same hostel I stayed in a few weeks ago (time flies!). Sunday I bought a full tour of Toledo and around it. I will spend the night in the same hostel and take a two-day already bought tour of Seville and Cordoba Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday night it will end with us back in Madrid where I will spend one more night in the hostel before taking a 6:30am high-speed train back to Barcelona, getting here around 9:30am and going straight to work. Clearly a super-busy weekend but I am sure that I will survive and it will be nice to see so much in so little time.

As of now, it seems that Sasha will join me for at least most of the weekend but we are still in the process of buying her tickets for everything. I will have very limited internet access over the next four days so I will update as possible. I hope everyone has a good weekend!

-Mike

After the stadium, I spent the rest of the day resting. There were some parties in the evening, but I wanted to get a lot of sleep for the first time in over a month and retain some energy for this “home stretch”. This stadium basically completes the list of all the things I wanted to see in Barcelona. Originally, I wanted to see the Liceu too but I think it’s weird to take a tour of an empty theater so I will just find a play next time I’m in town. Of course, it’s always impossible to see everything but I am confident that I have seen all of the main things in Barcelona and I loved every moment of it.

I woke up at 10:30am today, feeling a bit refreshed. We decided to hit the beach with a fairly large group which was super fun. I got a lot darker (a bit burned actually but I’ll live) and the water was perfect. I left a bit early at 5pm and went for the Plaza de Toros. The bullfighting was really cool. I sat in the first row, although in the sunny side. There were 6 bulls from 2 different ranches fighting one by one against 3 different matadors taking turns. The bull is killed in three principal stages. I won’t bore you with the details that can be found all over wikipedia but it was interesting to see. The final kill is one sword stab and the bull goes down without a fight immediately. I don’t think pictures will do it justice as it doesn’t portray all of the crowd’s reactions, music, etc. but it’s just go give an idea. I don’t think I’ll be watching this often because I actually feel sorry for the tortured bull. There were moments when I couldn’t believe how the bull didn’t just bleed out to death in the middle of the fight. However, to see it once is interesting.

I got home around 10pm and now I’m resting. The pictures of the weekend will be on FB when it lets me (probably tomorrow). Sasha’s coming this Wednesday (until the 30th) and we have a Flamenco Dinner planned for the night of her arrival. Otherwise, this week should be pretty ordinary so I’ll update as stuff happens. Next weekend I’m taking two days off and traveling to Granada, Toledo, Seville, and Cordoba, all small cities around Madrid that I thought were worth the visit. More details as we get closer to the weekend. Three weeks, two weekends left and a million things still planned. Stay tuned. Hope everyone had a good weekend.

-Mike