Una Bella Estate: Adios Barcelona, Ciao Firenze

FINALLY back in Firenze after a whirlwind of a trip to Barcelona (a taxi to a bus to a plane to a shuttle bus to a bus to a taxi...), but firstly:

"Boy I hear you in my dreams, I feel you whisper across the sea..."

Clearly, this has to be a picture of the day. Hi Marc! Happy birthday (yesterday I was clearly too overwhelmed to post this on time) to my favorite dork. I miss you, I love you, I wish you were here (soon enough!).

So, Barcelona. Saturday night we had delicious tapas and seafood paella, then to a really shi-shi hotel (Hotel Arts) to sit on the couches of the roof bar/lounge, sip cocktails, look at the stars and feel the ocean breeze. Not too shabby. Met quite a character, a Barcelona native who apparently lived in the hotel (rich) and was very entertained by the fact that we are from New York (ah! New Yorkers! I love these New Yorkers). With him, we discussed the art of bullshitting (ahem, Branson): "oh yea man, good bullshitting job man, brava!" - that went on for about a half hour. Then he took us to a club on the beach called Opium, where we waltzed into, since apparently everyone knows him (Javier? that was his name), where we stayed for about five minutes and decided we were over it. Solid night in Barcelona.

(Arc de Triomf)

Sunday we went to the Picasso museum (amazing! so, so interesting), then to Parc de la Ciutadella (where the "Arc de Triomf" is...bonjour Paris?), then to the Sagrada Familia Church (designed by Gaudi, still in the works, but very awesome), then up to Parc Guel for some frolicking in flowers and cloud watching. Smooth, sailing, right? Yes, until we went back to the hotel to get our luggage and I realized my external hard drive (you know, that thing with my entire life on it? every picture I've ever taken? Every paper I've written?) was gone. Obviously, I must have left it in the room. Long story short, they wouldn't let us back into the room until we haggled them, Branson and Hannah called their parents to devise a plan, we left a note with an offer for a reward, I had a very teary breakdown to my parents (and then Marc) on the phone, and we all came to the conclusion that whoever saw it in the room stole it. SO, that sucked. CHE PIZZA ("what a mess," as the Italians and Allie Swatek would say). But such is life, we'll figure it out. On that note, I'm very happy to be back in Italy, although Barcelona was certainly a place to see. Pictures!! :