British Police

So as you all know, my purse was stolen and I reported it to the police. So far, I've found the British police to be SOO much nicer than American police. I guess that's my personal experience. They haven't found my purse or anything, but they're so much better with accommodating victims and following up.

First of all, when my purse was stolen, my friend called 999 (UK equivalent of 911), and I thought we'd get yelled at for calling emergency for a purse-snatching. I mean, 911 in America is for bigger emergencies and if you call them for something stupid, they get mad and I don't know...isn't there a fine or something? I've called 911 once in LA because I saw a car on fire on the freeway, but the line was busy. 911 sucks.

Second, they called my friend back with a police reference number, but I also filed a report via the Internet (you can file on the Internet! How convenient!) and I didn't just get some generic letter saying "We have received your report and we don't give a damn." I got an actual email back from someone at the police station asking me for additional information about my cellphone and stuff. I was really shocked they cared.

Then, a couple nights ago, I get a call at 11pm from Kensington police asking if my Fendi bag was brown because they just found one. I thought, WOW, you really are looking for my shit. Not only that, my crime was reported in Shoreditch and I live in Camden, but Kensington police are aware? They communicate amongst the bouroughs! WOW! That's unheard of in America!

Since it was so easy to get a police report, I was able to replace my keys and student ID free of charge as well as change my number to another SIM card. Anyone who has ever lost a cellphone in America and dealt with the process of claiming it for insurance knows that the police don't turn around with the info very quickly. Last time I lost my cellphone, I got the run around of what presinct to report it in (Fullerton, LA, NYPD...blehbleh) and once I finally found the right prescint, they transferred me around a bit within their office and then put me on hold, forgot about me, hung up on me. I called back and they told me that I had the wrong person, and transferred me around some more! AHHH!

Also, today I get a letter in the mail from some crime victims organization, which is completely unnecessary, but it's really sweet of them to care.

I've had some pretty bad experiences with American police growing up. I've seen them witness my friend get stabbed and not do anything. They just really suck at the big things and the small. I've never liked policemen in the States. They never do anything for you other than give you speeding tickets. But so far, the London police are great in my book. The fact that they take my stupid petty crime so sincerely and have the infostructure to facilitate the process for victims...that's just fantastic. America should really take a page from their book.

Thanksgiving in London

This was my first Thanksgiving outside of the States. I've always hated Thanksgiving, but now that there is no Thanksgiving, I was a bit sad! I'm the only American in my programme so I went to school and I was like "Happy Thanksgiving!" and everyone's like "It's Thanksgiving?" Very strange feeling...

Turkey was on the menu in the cafeteria at school for some reason, so I had some for lunch. Then for dinner, I went out to dinner with a couple of the other American girls in my hall. We went to an Italian restaurant, but we did the whole "What are you thankful for?" thing and talked about how much we hate Bush.

Lauren (from Atlanta), me, and Vanessa (Minneapolis).

Our Thanksgiving dinner.

Then I went to get drinks with my friend, Magda, who is Polish but went to American international school growing up so she wanted to do something Thanksgiving-y. So we got drunk and renacted a Thanksgiving skit. We took turns playing the turkey. (Gobble gobble!) Later that night, Magda's 48-year-old boyfriend came in from Portugal and we raided the Tesco and managed to find turkey slices and cranberry sauce and made Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches! Yay!

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for:
1. My friends and family
2. Having the opportunity to globetrot around the world (Thanks Dad!)
3. My Ugg boots which keep my feet warm
4. Vitamins

I missed my family and friends, though. Especially my little sister since we always go to Denny's on Thanksgiving. I'll be home for Christmas, though! Yay!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and I leave you with a Thanksgiving episode of Friends. I couldn't find the one I wanted (the first Thanksgiving episode where everyone can't go see their families and they end up spending Thanksgiving together and Chandler says "I'm thankful that all your Thanksgivings sucked.")

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America to Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

I love Borat. I love sex. Yak-she-mash! (I don't know spelling...but note, it's not Kazakhi, it's Polish!)

So I live in Glorious Nation of England now, where Sasha Baron Cohen, aka Borat is also from, so I had to go see this movie. Everyone keeps talking about it. My prof even wrote a paper about Cohen's other character Ali G, so we've discussed Borat in class. People keep asking me if I was offended by the film, so another reason I had to see for myself.

So having seen the film, I think it's great. I didn't find it too offensive. Of course the picture of America was exaggerated, but all the exaggerations had some elements of the truth. He did take the stereotypes out there, but I know from personal experience that there are people like that in America. Of course, they're not a majority. That'd be like saying America is full of Pamela Andersons as well (another major American character in the film). Overall though, I thought it was funny and well scripted. They managed to create a strong storyline that really explains how the funny sequences fit together.

A lot of people are saying the film is in bad taste and I hear a lot of Americans are really pissed about it, which is understandable. I mean, it's a funny ass film, but I can see the danger in a film like this as well. In the hands of someone who knows nothing about America or Kazakhstan, it paints a very unfavorable, exagerated version of the countries that is not all that true and may be taken literally.

It paints Kazakhstan to be this ridiculously poor nation where people have sex with their sisters and chase Jews for fun. Yeah, it's all really funny, but how true is that? I don't really know, but I guess you can always ask Isis. She's been to Kazakhstan en route to Afghanistan. And of America. There's a scene where he's at a rodeo and shouts "We support your war of terror!" and everyone cheers. Yes, it's all very funny, but I'm pretty sure that the people thought he was saying war on terror. Also at the rodeo, there's this racist guy who tells Borat to shave his mustache so he can blend in and not be mistaken for a Muslim and we should shoot all gays. Yes, there are people in America who probably share this view, but that's not representative of the majority. Borat also meets frat guys who are just drunk idiots, and yeah, while this is the popular image of frat guys...and can be true a lot of the time...that's not a completely accurate picture of fraternity life. There's also a scene in a Pentacostal church where they convert Borat and people are speaking in tongues and falling down and all of that. Yes, I grew up in a church like that, but I've been to several that aren't as evangelical and don't believe in manifestations of the Spirit. It's not the majority. YET...I'm sure some idiots out there in the world look at a film and take the image too seriously. Hell, before I came to London, I really thought London would be full of people like Hugh Grant.

So I recommend people to watch it as a comedy, but not to take it seriously. It's not real, but Sasha Baron Cohen is freaking talented and the movie is well-made for what it is. ENJOY!

You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two

SO...today was one of those days when I really wish I didn't get out of bed. I actually didn't until pretty late. I had a lazy Saturday afternoon at home, and then...made the mistake of venturing outside to the Big Bad World.

One of my profs, Ruth, was DJing at a bar on Brick Lane in East London, so some of my classmates and I decided to go check it out. I'd been to the bar before, it's pretty nice, and it's just really cool to have your professor DJing at a bar, no? So I head out to meet up with my friends Cathy and Sonja in Shoreditch, which is only 3 tube stops away. THING is...damn King's Cross station was closed, so I had to take a roundabout route to Shoreditch, which made me 20 minutes late. Luckily (sort of), Sonja was also really late because of the same closure. FUCKING TUBE!

So then, Cathy, Sonjia, her boyfriend and I went to eat at this little outdoor restaurant next to the bar. I was sitting on a bench and had my handbag next to me. AND IT WAS STOLEN right before my very eyes. Living in a city, you just get so used to ignoring people. If someone's right next to you, you just ignore them because it's always just so crowded. I didn't even notice the bastard.

So here's what they took: Fendi handbag, Fendi wallet, all my credit cards, student ID, NUS card, £50 cash, €15 cash, and $5 Australian dollars (from my buddy John), pink Nokia cellphone (which I had just paid $300 for!), my big stuffed pig on my cellphone, a book with maps of London, a pack of Marlboro Lights, a purple lighter, Oyster card, and my keys to my dorm.

I called the police and filed a report, but I really doubt they'll find them. My friend Cathy called 999 (yup, it's not 911 here) and we filed the report. My friends lent me money to get back home and I cancelled all my cards. So all's well. Everything is replaceable...and this is the LAST TIME I buy a posh brand name bag again. Serves me right for being such a designer whore. My next wallet is coming from...whatever the British equivalent of Kmart is!

So here's the part that's a bitch...the people sitting at the table next to us saw the guys near my purse. They pulled their purses close to them, but didn't say anything until I asked them if they saw anything. They give me a description: two black males in their 30's. One was wearing a parka and carrying a plastic bag, and tell me which way the guys went. THEN WHY DIDN'T THEY SAY ANYTHING?! Really...what assholes. London people suck. There's a real culture of keeping to yourself, personal space, blahblah and not helping your fellow man. Say what you will about Americans, but that has never happen to me in LA. People TALK to each other in America.

SCREW YOU GUYS, I'M GOING HOME!

Note: LOOK, I wasn't the only person to get my purse snatched at a restaurant this week!
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/11/22/bush.purse.reut/
Barbara Bush also got jacked, but her story made it onto CNN. WTF?!

My First Uni Party - LSE Crush

College life is really different in the UK. For one, they call it "uni" for university. College is something else, so uni students will usually get offended when you refer to them as college students. Second, the biggest difference is probably that the drinking age here is 18, so alcohol is a bigger part of student life. Or at least, it's more out there. I'm currently living in a student hall and we have a bar downstairs. And all the student unions at schools have bars and clubs and they throw parties. On the flip side, they don't have fraternity parties...they don't have fraternities or sororities at all.

I went to one of these uni parties yesterday because my friend Chloe is in town, and she's an undergrad and they tend to go to these things. Being a postgrad, I've never gone because it mostly caters to that 18-year-old just legal demographic, and it might be an 18 and over club with alcohol, but hell, it's still an 18 and over club, and you know how great those are.

But anyhow, the party was on campus, so I wasn't really expecting much. I just kind of strolled over there, waited the queue and went inside, and it looks like this:

It's like a legit club inside there, with alcohol, DJs, etc. There were three rooms, one spinning hip-hop, one spinning house and pop and one that was more loungy. And the place is packed with 18-year-olds and kids making out on couches and there's like a hooka bar. And the drinks were really cheap. It definitely beats those damn frat parties with the "jungle juice" or whatever it was called and the grainy vodka and dancing in the fraternity basement shit. This place is like a college student's dream!

So here's some pics from the website and from my phone camera:

JiaJia's friends, JiaJia and me. Remember JiaJia from a couple entries ago? He just keeps coming back, doesn't he? Me, JiaJia and Chloe are friends from Shanghai. Chloe and I met him and his friends at Blue Frog Maoming Lu one night and we've kept in touch over the months, so it was like a little Shanghai reunion last night.

JiaJia and Me. There was camera guys wandering around snapping pictures. These days, everyone's paparazzi aren't they? Speaking of which on an unrelated note, my cousin showed me this website, www.xanga.com/ktownfug, and it's SOOO funny and SOOO sad. And it makes me feel SOO glad I don't go to those Asian parties.


Me and Weifen!

Chloe and her friend Alicia.

SO...in conclusion, DAMN, it would have been great to have something like this around when I was 18, but at 23, not so much fun. It was just too crowded full of belligerent drunks and loud. It's nice to know that 18-year-olds are the same regardless of where their from.

What is Happening to America?

So, okay, I confess, I don't read the news and I'm pretty ignorant about current events, but I do read Perezhilton.com and unfortunately, that's the extent of my US news these days since I don't have US TV, radio or papers, BUT, this made it onto Perezhilton.com and so came upon my radar:



So I guess the UCLA police tased an Iranian-American student because he didn't have his student ID on him and wouldn't leave the library. The full story is at: http://www.dailybruin.com/news/articles.asp?id=38960

BUT DAMN, while this is pretty shocking, it didn't shock me too much. What is becoming of our country? It really worries me. I know I'm sitting over here in London and globetrotting around the world, but it still worries me. What worries me the most is that I doubt this situation will get an adequate response. Americans just aren't as vocal about injustice anymore. They've become apathetic. Although who knows...maybe the UCLA kids will make me proud and get up in arms about this, but...I doubt it. I just reminds me why I left the country to begin with.

I haven't really addressed anti-American sentiment in my blog yet, so I guess I'll use this as an opportunity. At least in London, it's not so much they hate Americans, it's really more that we've become a huge joke to them, with Bush as the punchline. Nobody here approves of Bush. The people seem to question our country's values and our intelligence just by the fact that we allowed him to be elected, not just once, but twice. I think a lot of them understand Americans to be Bible-thumping, gun-toting, uncultured, racist idiots, overall. And I've never experienced it to be true, although I understand they get that idea by looking at our President, who is...a Bible-thumping, gun-toting, uncultured, racist idiot.

In one of the free newspapers they give you when you walk down the street between 5 and 8pm (either the London Lite or London Paper), they asked some people who was a bigger threat to the world: Kim Jong Il or George W. Bush and the responses were overwhelmingly Bush. Now that's a bit scary when you think that they consider our leader a bigger terrorist than that crazy psycho with the weird hair. What does that say about our country? Our foreign relations? Our future?

Americans have to start taking responsibility for America. We need to start caring what people think about us. We need to start voting and demanding for a proper government. And we need a government that represents what we really are, because I've lived in the States for 23 years, and last time I checked, most of my friends aren't Bible-thumping, gun-toting, uncultured racist idiots...other than Greg, but that's because he's from Texas.

Sunshine Vitamin Deficiency

So I've gotten sick quite a lot since coming to London because I've had trouble adjusting to the weather. I finally bought my first blowdryer. I've never needed one before but have learned the hard way that you can't go outside in the London cold with wet hair! So I've started taking vitamins lately. (They pronounce vitamins with a soft "i".) So I'm getting my Vita C and zinc and all that, but I think what I'm really lacking is my "Sunshine Vitamins." I think it's Vita D or E that comes from the sun, and without it you get depressed and sad. I never realized how sad you get when you go without sunshine for long periods of time. I guess I took it for granted living in Cali my entire life, but DAMN, it's really depressing here with the dreary skies and it getting dark at 4:30pm!

Anyhow, I finally learned how to Bluetooth my pictures from my cellphone into my computer, so here are some random pictures from London, out and about.


Me and my friend Magda at a bar in Soho where the cocktails were 10 quid (equiv. $20)


Me and Magda at CC Club.


I think this picture today. This is my school, King's College Strand Campus. Look at the shit weather...


My friend Jiajia and his friend Darren. I don't know if any of you recognize him from my China blog, but I met Jiajia and some of his friends in Shanghai this summer. I met up with him and Harry and some of their friends from art school in Covent Garden last night.


Here's me drinking a Coors Light! It's really funny, but it's like somewhat classy to drink imported American beers in London...like Bud or Coors, which is TOTALLY not cool to do at a proper bar in LA. I mean, we drink Bud and Coors at home, at BBQs, etc. but at a nice bar out, you try to look cooler and get an imported beer. BUT...in UK, Coors Light is imported beer!


This is the Christmas tree up at Somerset House, which is next door to my school. Christmas starts really early here. Oxford Street has already been lit up and they're putting up Christmas trees and the Starbucks cups are red. It's weird because I'm used to Thanksgiving coming first, but there's no Thanksgiving here.


This is a Degas painting from the Somerset House. I took a picture of it to text message to my sister, but I don't think the US phones receive my text messages. My sister really likes Degas ballerinas.


And this is a Monet I took a picture of for my mom. She likes Monets. The Somerset House has a pretty great collection of impressionist paintings and since I'm a King's student, it's free to me! So I walked around there one day between classes. They have an ice skating rink there during the winter. Should be opening soon.

I was wondering, how come no one ever leaves comments on my postings? You guys can you know...

Barcelona, Part II

So Day 2 in Barcelona, I wake up early (10am is very early here) and head out onto La Ramblas. It's this huge street that goes down the center of Barcelona. They have these live statues, which are crazy. They're people posing as statues and every now and then they'll start moving and freak you out.


Anyhow, went to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona...whatever it's called. It was one of the tickets Miguel gave me. So I went over there and...it wasn't great. It was ok, but sometimes, contemporary art makes me wonder...where does art end and bullshit begin?


How is this good art? It looks like sqwiggles to me.

There were a couple exhibits I found interesting, but the funniest thing I found in the museum was this little French girl who's father is trying to take a picture of her with her Mum, but every time, she'd like run off. She was SO funny and her parents getting so frustrated in French. So I joined in and started taking pictures of her as well...

Look I got one! Isn't she adorable?!

Here's a funny picture from the museum as well:

Asian men ARE too small.

So anyhow, I left the museum and was walking down an alley street when I hear these guys speaking English. I ask them "Are you from the UK?" Turns out they are, and they're really funny, so I decide to follow them to wherever they're going. They're going to breakfast (at noon) at some restaurant they swear exists at the end of Piss Alley.

So my new English gent friends take me to Piss Alley...

My new friends, Andy Twat, Gaymie and Spam, in "Piss Alley"

So here's the story. Awhile back Gaymie (real name: Jamie) and Spam (real name: Sam) rented a flat for a week in Barcelona. The street/alley on which it was always smelled like piss, so they renamed it Piss Alley. HOWEVER, when Gaymie actually went and took a piss on the street the night before we met, the Spanish police tried to arrest him and kept telling him "You are PIG!"

Anyhow, after much wandering around Piss Alley, we finally find the restaurant, which happened to be called La Concha (which may be translated to "The Cunt")...lovely...


ANDY: I don't want dairy! It's cow's milk, humans shouldn't drink it.
GAYMIE: You're a twat!
SPAM: It's only 10 euros!
That was the gyst of the conversation for the next hour. These guys are real English blokes like the ones on the telly. They are so fucking hilarious I just decided to keep following them around.

We walked to Sangrada Familia, which is the #1 tourist attraction in Barcelona these days. It's this cathedral that is still being built. The story is (and this is what Sam told me he read while sitting on the shitter so if it's wrong, it's Sam's fault) that Gaudi, this super-famous Spanish architect was building this cathedral and became more or less obsessed with it. He eventually moved into the cathedral and spent day and night on the building. One day, he was outside looking up at the building when a tram came and ran him over. He died and it took them a couple days to realize it was Gaudi, not just some homeless guy. Anyhow, in the 1930s, anarchists burned the original designs, so since then, they've been trying to complete the building by guessing how Gaudi would have done it. So for the past 75 years, this cathedral has been in construction. I don't know when it'll be finished because as the Spanish saying goes "Manana (tomorrow)"...

But first, before we arrived at Sangrada Familia, we went to a pub (they're English...) and passed the Arc de Triomf...


Learned to skip...


And found out how much the Spanish loved us!


But now for pictures of the Sangrada Familia:



Yeah...my pictures aren't very good, but hey Andy...I caught a pic of the scaffolding just for you.

After Sangrada Familia, I convinced the guys to come with me to Mount Tibidabo. Okay, so here is why I wanted to go to Mount Tibidabo. Anyone that knows me knows that I am a Friends fanatic. (What an understatement!) But anyhow, in the 4th episode of the 8th season entitled "The One With the Videotape" where the Friends are trying to find out who initiated the hook-up between Ross and Rachel, there is the following dialogue:

JOEY: Okay. Okay. Umm…Ooh! Oh-oh, I got something. It’s this story I came up with, very romantic. I swear any woman that hears it; they’re like putty.
ROSS: Really? Well then tell it to me.
JOEY: Okay. Now you’re gonna want to have sex with me when you hear it, but you have to remember it is just the story.
ROSS: (sarcastic) I’ll try to control myself.
JOEY: Okay. (Clears throat) Years ago, when I was backpacking across Western Europe…
ROSS: (laughs) You were backpacking across Western Europe?
JOEY: Have a nice six more months Ross! (Starts to leave.)
ROSS: (stopping him) Okay! Okay! Okay. I’m sorry. Please, please, you were in Western Europe and?
JOEY: I was just outside Barcelona hiking in the foothills of Mount Tibidabo. I was at the end of this path and I came to a clearing and there was a lake, very secluded. And there were tall trees all around. (Whispering) It was dead silent. Gorgeous. (Softly) And across the lake I saw…a beautiful woman…bathing herself…but she was crying…
ROSS: (intently listening) Why?

Okay...so why did I HAVE to go to Tibidabo? They said it on Friends! Also...I like funny words. (I first went to Chipotle in Berkeley because I like the funny word, too.) So anyhow, to get to Tibidabo, you have to the take a Metro, switch to another Metro, then take a tram...or so we thought! Turns out, tram was closed we had to take a bus. (Huge debate over this, and yes, Spam, you won!)

So eventually we get up to Tibidabo, but everything was closing, so we ended up more or less coming right back down. Thank you boys for coming up with me, however! You guys are troopers, and now we have the following pictures:





The next day, I went up to another mountain called Montjuic with another new friend named Yaka, an American who was staying in the same hostel. Originally it was to go to a couple museums, but we were really hungry and finally we found the place and they had some great tapas, actually. Took some pictures here as well:




Yaka turned out to be quite a character as well. As is his friend Jeff. We ended up not having time to go to the museums and ended up MISSING THE PICASSO which I am still mad about, but we did some walking, shopping and eating. I don't have many pictures from the third day. I'll get them from Yaka and post them later.

SOOO...that was Barcelona! I plan to go back someday because I still want to go to the Picasso Museum. Also, it's just a great city! I met a lot of interesting people along my journey and had lots of fun. France has been pushed back because I got sick in Barcelona, but we'll see how that one goes. I talked to my friend John from Australia today, and I think we're planning Denmark for February. Lots of travels ahead of me.

But to all my new amigos from Barcelona, it was a pleasure.

Ahnuld Relected!

Yay! This guy is still The Governator!

Unfortunately, I didn't apply on time for the absentee ballot so I was unable to vote in this election! There goes my perfect voting record! But...I've looked at the results, and I don't feel like I let you down. It was pretty much how I would have voted. I didn't do my usual research on the propostions...

But otherwise, I really wantd Arnold to get re-elected because although I didn't vote for him in the Recall because he's an idiot and because he's a Republican, over the past couple years, I've liked his politics. He's a daft idiot, but he has great people around him telling him what to do. He's a bloody Kennedy now for God's sake!

I register to vote in Fullerton because there's a councilwoman I support, but she wasn't up for re-election this year and Mr. Ed Royce will ALWAYS be our Congressman...and while I don't particularly like or support him, he hasn't really cocked up enough for me to vote against him, and even if I were to, I'm so outnumbered in OC, so whatever. So yeah...all's well at home, it seems.

Barcelona, Part II shall be up momentarily. Miss ya'll back at home, but "I'll be back!"

Barcelona, Part I

So then I took the RENFE train back into Barcelona city center. Before I went to Barcelona, I posted on a website looking for fellow travelers or locals who'd like to show me around. I totally lucked out because this guy named Miguel emailed me. Miguel wanted to practice his English with a native speaker, and he's a native Catalonian who works in the cultural industry! How perfect is that? So after I arrived, I met up with Miguel.


My new friend, Miguel.

So we took a walk around city center and Miguel told me about the history of the city, which was really fascinating. I may be wrong on a few things, but he said he'd edit my entry later for mistakes.


The Catedral. It's currently under renovation.


Lady singing opera outside the Catedral in the Gothic quarters. She was there the next day as well.


The city of Barcelona is built on the ruins of the Roman city of Barcino. This part has been escavated and lies exposed. They discover bits and parts of the ruins as time goes on. It makes it difficult, however, because whenever they try to build new things, they find ruins and the escavating and preserving processes slow down construction. i.e. With the Metro, they had to build around these areas.

It really makes you think. After being in Europe, you realize how little history we have to preserve in Los Angeles. And what little history we do have, we don't really make huge efforts to preserve. While this may seem like a bad thing, the positive side is that we are able to build without much concern as to what we are destroying, thus improving the economy. On the otherhand, we don't have the cultural richness of a city like Barcelona, or even that of London (much of it only dating back to early 1600's after the Great Fire). It's an interesting balancing act.



Strangest thing! When we walked into the city square where the City Hall faces the building that houses the head of the Catalonian government (like a State Capitol), there was a big X on the sky right above us! Miguel said it was a sign from the heavens marking this place as the center of world, which it used to be prior to the discovery of America.


Remaining four columns from the Barcino forum.


These are the very steps where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella received Christopher Columbus after he "discovered" America. With him, Columbus had brought from native peoples to these steps. That's me sitting on the steps in the picture. Just another American brought to see the Old World!

Miguel explained a lot about the history of Spain. Spain was actually not a united kingdom until Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile married and went around conquering neighboring nations and creating a united kingdom. To this day, Spanish people identify themselves as Castilian, Catalonian, Basque, etc. Barcelona is part of Catalonia which was part of the Kingdom of Aragon. Prior to the discovery of America, Barcelona had been the central port of the Mediterreanean. After, however, the world became bigger and trade was going from America to Spain, and Seville (in Castile) became the primary port. Barcelona, more or less, became abandoned, an afterthought of Spain.


Inside the Santa Maria del Mar Cathedral.




These are views from the Museu d'Historia de Catalunya (Museum of Catalonian History).


Me in Barcelona!

Oh...side note, but after the formation of the EU, it kind of sucks but they don't necessarily give you stamps in your passport when you enter and exit European countries from another European country. I'm still trying to figure out how it really works now, but look, I got a stamp!


I'll get to the rest of my Barcelona excursion in my next entry. Muchos gracias Miguel for showing me around Barcelona!