Barcelona: One hell of a ride

So the time has come for me to write my last blog as I pack up and get ready to head back home tomorrow. Honestly, I don't really know what to say. Where did time go? It seems like just yesterday we arrived here in this amazing city and had no idea what to expect. This place was our home for almost 4 months and we couldn't have asked for a better one. As I pack up and get ready to move on to the next step, I cant help but re-live some of the insane times we had here. From skydiving in interlaken to getting pepper sprayed in prague to simply chillen on the beach here in barce, it really is going to be tough to leave.

It took me a while to get adjusted to this city, but honestly once I did, I never looked back. We had some of the best times of our life here, and I can truly say these have been the best few months of my life. I've gotten the opportunity to meet so many amazing people and travel to so many amazing places. I guess its kinda like they say, you never really know what you have until its gone. Thats kind of how I'm feeling right now. I feel like 4 months just went by with the blink of an eye. Its one of those things I will look back on and smile from ear to ear. As I sit here somewhat saddened by the fact that its actually time to go, I have to think to myself not to get sad that its over, but to smile because it happened. I just got to spend the last 4 months of my life with some of my best friends and travel all over Europe. It really doesnt get any better than that.

As exciting as it is to get back home to America, its just as difficult to leave. A very bittersweet feeling, but man did we make some memories or what. Barcelona was everything I expected and then some and I'll never forget this experience. It was a blast. Thanks to everyone who kept up with my blog for the past few months, I hope you enjoyed reading them!

I guess all good things do have to come to an end eventually...

I'll miss you barca.

So for the last time:

MEMORIES MADE,

Prit

Ibiza: BOOM BOOM BOOM

Boat to Formentara

Chillen in Ibiza

Urban Dictionary - Ibiza: A truly beautiful island off the east coast of Spain. Home of the greatest clubbing experiences on the planet, showcasing the great and good of the dance music scene.

That about sums it up. Ibiza was absolutely insane. We started our journey Thursday night on a 7 hour boat ide to the island. There were about 200 kids from our program going so we had a big party on the boat, it was a really good time and a perfect start to the weekend. We arrived in Ibiza at about 6AM and checked in to our hotel, which was right on the beach. It was absolutely beautiful, but we were all so exhausted that we just passed out. We woke up around noon and headed down to the beach, had some drinks and just enjoyed the sun. After that we went back to sleep to rest up for the night. Later that night we all went to this lounge/club and it was a white party. It was a really good time but everybody just kind of took it easy because we had to wake up around 11 the next day to catch a boat to this island called Formentara.

We woke up the next morning and headed to the boat. About 100 of us took a 40 minute boat ride to one of the most amazing islands in all of europe. When we finally arrived, about 15 of us went to this private, secluded beach and just chilled there all day. It was just what the doctor ordered, a perfect day just to chill and relax. The beach was so nice and the water was legit the clearest, blueist water I've ever seen.

We had been told that we were going to this club called Pacha that night so we all just took it easy to prepare for that. We got back to Ibiza around 7PM and took a little nap. When we woke up everyone knew it was time. This club is one of the top 5 clubs in the world so we had to prepare ourselves. We headed over there around 2 and had the time of our lives. We fist pumped with the best of em for about 4 to 5 hours and before I could even blink it was 7 in the morning. We finally made it back to our hotel and the sun was starting to come up and the birds were chirpin. I didnt get to sleep until about 830 because I had house music blastin through my head. I really dont even know how to put it in to words, it was an absolutely insane night, a night ill definitely never forget. We woke up just a few hours later to catch a 40 minute flight back to Barcelona. Reality set in when we were in the air and we realized this was our last time traveling back to barc so it was definitely a weird feeling.

Its soo crazy to think our stay here is just about over. Although I miss america a lot, its going to be really hard to say goodbye to this place, after all it was my home for 4 months. I'll be sure to check back in one more time before we all head back home on saturday. So till then, hollaaaatchyaboi.

Just keepin the good times rollin

Yah dont say that!

Makin my last few memories here,
Prit

Amsterdam and Beerfest in Munich

Heineken Brewery in Amsterdam

IAMsterdam sign

Hofrbrauhaus (Old school gemand dude)

Enjoyin some liters at Beerfest

Sorry for posting these late, I've been busy with school and traveling, I will post Amsterdam and Munich now and Ibiza tomorrow.

Where am I? This was the question I had to keep asking myself as I wandered the streets of this crazy little city. I don't really know how to describe Amsterdam besides saying its disney world for college kids. Amsterdam was everything I thought it would be and more. First off, the red light district is out of control. Everywhere you look there are prostitutes standing in windows and they aren't your stereotypical dirty prostitutes, these women are hot! But that's neither here nor there. Its kind of a creepy scene at night but its still a really good time nonetheless. The coffee shops are also very interesting as well, in Amsterdam, everything goes. Also, the food was very impressive. We went to this incredible little pancake bakery where I got a bacon and cheese pancake and Miller got a chocolate banana pancake. They were absolutely incredible.
Besides the obvious red light district and coffee shop visits, we actually did get to see some pretty cool things. On friday we saw the heiniken brewery, the Van Gogh museum, and the IAMsterdam sign. All of those were fun and on saturday we went to The Anne Frank house and a comedy club called "boom chicago" that was really funny. All in all, Amsterdam is an amazing place. So many crazy things and such little time but we definitely saw everything we needed to. Once again, another successful trip.

Why drink and drive when you can smoke and fly? (Kidding obviously)

Munich is another really cool city. Unfortunately this time around, we didn't get to see anything the city had to offer besides spring fest and beer houses. We arrived on Thursday and the first place we went to was this beer hall called Hofbrauhaus. It was a traditional, old school beer hall with all kinds of crazy weird German bands playing and all kinds of old weird German people hanging out there. It was really cool, the beers were huge! They had half liters and liters(obviously we got the liters because we're hardcore haha). They had all different kinds of beer and needless to say it was a really good time. We spent about 6 hours there before we finally had to leave and get some rest for the actual festival which started the next day. Friday was insane. We woke up and walked around a little and then went back to the Hofbrauhaus for a few beers before beer fest opened up. At around 4, we headed over and things got rowdy. There must have been probably 250 kids from America studying abroad all over Europe there. We went to a huge tent and started drinking with everybody. A few hours later, we went over to a bigger and better tent, where we spent the rest of our night. Unforutnately, my night got cut a little short because for some reason the bouncer decided he was sick of us and threw us out. In the process, my blackberry got thrown out of my hand and lets just say I nobody could find it. So after that I was pretty pissed off so I did the best thing for me and just went back to sleep. The next day we woke up and did it all over again. This time, it was more successful. We had an incredible time and that night we even went on some rollercoasters that they had at the festival. It was an incredible time.

We woke up the next morning at around 5 to make sure our flight back to Barca was on time. Of course, it was cancelled due to the freaking ash cloud from Iceland. If you would have told me my flight back to Barcelona was cancelled due to an ash cloud from an errupting volcano in Iceland I would have laughed at you and then probably punched you in the face. So our journey started to find a way back to Barcelona. All the flights for the next few days were cancelled so we tried to get a train. We went to the station and asked the lady what was the fastest way to get back to Barc and she laughed at us, pointed to the calender and saidwith an amused grin on her face "next week." After that we tried to charter a bus. After hours of debating with the bus companies we finally got a group of 100 people together and chartered 2 buses back. 18 hours later we finally arrived in Barcelona exhausted and with school looming in just a few hours. Besides losing my phone and getting a flight cancelled, it was an absolutely amazing weekend and we all had a great time. Lovin life right now, but only 6 days left. The ibiza post will be up tomorrow so make sure to check back then.

P.S. - VOLCANOS SUCK!

Makin memories,

Prit

Spring Break: Prague,Rome, Florence, Greece

Lennon Wall - Prague
Coliseum - Rome
Vatican City - Rome

Top of Duomo - Florence
Toga Party - Corfu Island, Greece

Before I get started I should warn you that this post is a little lengthy. We had an incredible spring break and I want to talk about each place. If you dont want to read it, don't.

Prague: Our first leg of the trip had us in Prague, Czeck Republic. We got a really nice apartment style hotel there for 2 nights. The first day there we walked around and checked out the city. It was pretty amazing, a lot of castles and bridges and things of that nature. It was nice because everything was walking distance. Anyways, the food there was pretty solid, had a few really good sausages(there were stands every block). The night life in Prague was pretty impressive. The first night we went to a few bars and a club that was playing all 70s and 80s music, a nice change of pace from what we are accustomed to in barca. The next day we got to walk around the whole city and see everything. We saw the john lennon wall, petrin hill, old town, charles bridge, some huge castle, and we even got to go to a beer garden. It was awesome. That night it was time to celebrate this guys 21st. Without getting into too many details, we went to a club and rapchik may or may not have gotten in a fight with the bouncers and we may or may not have gotten pepper sprayed. Either way, we had an amazing night. Prague was a very cool city and a ton of fun. Successful trip.

Rome: The next stop on our journey was Roma. Let's just say rome might be the coolest city I've ever been to. Everywhere you look there is ruins and things of that nature. We got to see the colesium and the vatican and many other amazing sights. I'm not really in to history much but this place was incredible. Everything was so amazingly interesting. The food was the best thing I've ever experienced. Pasta, pizza, gelato, tiramisu and profiteroles, get outta here. Easily the best food I've ever had, the pizza was incredible but if you're wondering, its not as good as deep dish :). The night life in rome is pretty solid. They aren't really into the clubs as much, its more bar oriented. It was definitely a nice change of pace. The whole time in rome I was actin like a wise guy, and obviously the line "when in rome" was used quite a bit. Overall, Rome was tremendously tremendous.

Florence: After our trip to Rome, we headed to Florence. All I can say is wow! What an incredible little city. Unfortunately we were only there for a little over 24 hrs but we definitely made the most of it. Within our first hour there we probably saw 30 people we knew from home or from IU. We got to see a ton of people that we hadn't seen in a while so it was really nice. Once we dropped our luggage off at the hostel, we started walking around and saw as much as we could before it got dark. After that we went to dinner and it was amazing. Honestly the food here is probably the best in the world and everything on the menu looked amazing. Luckily a lot of people spoke english because the only italian words I know are arivaderci(and I say it like brad pitt in inglorius bastards), ciao, and gratzie. Its actually a really funny language because everything sounds so funny, literally almost every word ends with an I or o. Moving on, the nightlife in florence was pretty surprising. We went out with some friends and literally there must have been 100 people we knew at the bar. We all ordered this beer that everyone called blackout beer(yes it definitely does exactly what it sounds like) and it was on from there. Foolishly we pregamed at our friends apartment before the bar so needless to say we were feelin pretty good. All in all it was a great night. Finding our way back to the hostel, not so great. We stumbled the small city of florence for probably close to an hour(it should have been a 10 minute walk). The second day we woke up and walked around and saw everything in florence. We went to the top of the duomo(a huge, beautiful church in the center of the city) and we saw the statue of david(the dude who rocked goliaths world). We had gelato twice and went to this amazing sandwich place and I asked to guy to "make my sandwich real nice" so he did. Anyways, florence was another successful, amazing trip and I could definitely see myself studying there. We then hopped on the train back to Rome to spend one more night there before catching the cruise to Corfu Island greece.

Greece: After a 4 hour bus ride from Rome to Port Ancona, we hopped on a 14 hour cruise to some random little city in Greece where we then got on another hour and a half cruise to Corfu Island. Once we got there everyone was ready to go and things got a little rowdy. We dropped our luggage off along with about 400 other college kids at the Pink Palace. We headed down to the beach and just hung out there until it was dark. Then we had to get ready for the infamous Pink Palace toga party. We got in our togas and went to down to dinner. The food was decent, but honestly anything would have tasted decent after being in Italy for 4 days. Anyways after dinner we raged and had a great night. The next morning we woke up and signed up for the booze cruise. We got on at about noon and didn't get back until around 6. Needless to say it was an amazing day. We got to sail around the island and do some pretty cool activities. By the time we got back a nap was well overdue. That night we went to a club called The Palladium(doesn't compare to the one in pulco). We had a great night but we payed for it in the morning. We had to wake up at 8 to sign up to go atving and I felt like I just got run over by a train;however, it was well worth it. We went atving around the whole island for about 5 hours and it was so much fun. By the time we got back to the hotel it was time to pack up and check out. Our trip was coming to an end but and we had another 24 hours or so ahead of traveling. All in all, corfu was amazing. The weather was perfect and we got to do some really incredible things.

After our 14 hour cruise back and 4 hour bus ride back to Rome, we got one more incredible dinner. Finally, we had to head to the airport and head back to Barca. What an incredible break. We got to see so many amazing things from the charles bridge to the coliseum to the duomo to the incredible beaches of Corfu. What an incredible trip. Amsterdam tomorrow, can't wait!

I'm a nobody, nobody is perfect, therefore I'm perfect

Makin memories,

Prit

Pre Spring Break - Post visitors

So I just wanted to check in right before spring break. Ill make this one real quick.

Unfortunately our run of visitors has come to an end as the brown kid has now come and gone. We had a great time, I got to show him around the city that I've called home for the past few months. We went out a lot while Naz was here and I was pretty impressed with his ability to keep up since hes been chillen at home the past few months. We even got to watch most of the first and second rounds of the ncaa tourny, but lets not talk about that. Its crazy to think that when we get back from our spring break we only have about 3 weeks left in barca. Where has time gone?

With that said, Spring Break is finally upon us here in barca and im gettin pumped. We got a busy 10 days ahead as we are going to Prague, Rome, Florence, and a cruise through Greece. Its about to get out of hand, especially since I have my 21st comin up on Sunday. Night one in Prague, night 2 in Rome. I cannot wait. Thats really all I got for now, I will have plenty more when/if I return from our 10 day adventure.

Lets touch god tonight boys...

Makin memories,

Prit

Snow in Barca...Classic Kotvis

Another amazing couple of weeks in the book. Finished up midterms last week, that was a great time. I'll get my grades back in the next few days so lets keep our fingers crossed.

So last week kotvis visited, needless to say we had an incredible time. I got to show him around the city and take him out to the clubs. Unfortunately the weather was a little under par, and it actually snowed in barcelona for the first time in a REALLY long time. The locals here were freaking out to say the least. I was walking from one class to the other and people were literally taking millions of videos and pictures, most of the people here have never seen snow before. Two days before the snow I was hangin out at the beach, so it definitly caught some people off gaurd. The city basically shut down for the day.

Last thursday night was probably one of the best nights we've had since arriving in this amazing city. We went to dinner right on the ocean, and enjoyed a nice meal that included all you can drink wine...needless to say that got a little bit out of hand. After dinner, we went on a mini bar crawl on our way to the club. At one of the bars, I ended up getting thrown on stage by a "dancer" and getting my shirt ripped off. I'll spare you all the details, but lets just say it was a good time; Kotvis was loving every second of it.



Unfortunately, Lou had to leave but lucky for us Sherm the worm is now in town. Gunna do it all over again this week with him, and the brown kid gets here on wednesday so that should get pretty rowdy. Oh by the way, cohen had a friend in town last week and we got to meet her friend who was visiting from London, his name is Tom and he is a professional rugby player. Probably the coolest person I have ever met, and we got to hang out with him for like 3 days. His accent was just absurd and everything he said sounded hysterical. Last thing...I have a newfound obsession with Justin Bieber, hence my facebook profile picture. He's just the man.

I hope all my friends back home enjoy there spring breaks in acapulco and panama city beach...but sorry guys, it still doesnt compare to here.

You can take me out of college but you cant take the college out of me.

Still makin memories,

Pritkin

FC Barcelona - More than a club

Heyyyyy world. Its been about a week and a half since my last post. Everything over here has been great, still have midterms until next monday though. The weather here has been gettin better by the day which has somehow made barcelona even better.

Last weekend we finally made it to Parc Guell, which is one of the coolest places to see here in Barcelona and its only a ten minute walk from our apartment. Parc Guell is a "garden" built by Antoni Gaudi, a famous catalan architect. It has amazing structures and you are able to look over the whole city, its an amazing sight to see.

The weather was so nice that we were also able to finally go to the beach. We have been to the beach before, but we hadn't been able to actually just lay there and hang out. It was really relaxing and its really nice to be able to hop on the metro and be at the beach in a matter of minutes, quite a contrast from hoppin on the b-bus in bloomington and going to college mall. We had the pleasure of seeing two naked men walk down the beach right past us. It was absolutely disgusting and it made me want to throw up. Literally the only thing these men were wearing was high black socks and sneakers. Seriously, it was nasty.

We capped off the weekend by going to the FC Barcelona soccer game. It was absolutely incredbile. People here are obsessed with the team, they live and die by it. There was about 90,000 people there for a game that wasn't really a big deal. Unfortunately, they dont sell any alcoholic beverages at the game, which is probably a good idea because it would definitly get out of hand. With that said, we hit up a bar before the game and indulged in some beer and tapas which got us feelin good before headin over to the stadium. We ended up singing the IU fight song as we were walking in, needless to say we were gettin some weird looks.

Life is good.

Great moments are born from great opportunity.

Makin memories,

Pritkin