Week of love

The most amazing week thus far....

On Thursday the 26th of March miss Catrioana an I embarked on what would become the most amazing weekend to date.... tripping it out to Barcelona, Spain for the weekend. As so, I will start from the beginning...

Thursday night as many of you know is the typical salsa dancing night. However, we had our flight to glorious Barcelona at 6:45, YUCK! So, after arriving back to my apartment at half 2 or for the rest of you, 2:30, we decided not to risk sleeping through alarms and stay awake for the few hours before our flight. Despite the sleep deprivation we made it to the airport (Shannon airport) grand and after a huge Que we managed to make it the gate and finally our seats. We were so knackered that we fell well asleep before take off. I drifted in and out of sleep throughout the 2 hours flight, but Cat begun making conversation with the lad beside us. Luckily enough for us, he happened to be from Barcelona and guided us on our way from the airport to the bus and finally to the metro pointing us in the direction/stop of our hotel.

We checked into our 4 start hotel, which was of course amazing, but with a peculiar glass door to the bathroom. Granted the glass was that hazy looking glass, but still twas a bit odd. After, gaining a bit of energy we decided to peruse the city for a bite to eat. We found this lovely small restaurant a few blocks away from the hotel, which was amazing cheap. I decided that because we were on the coast and the Mediterranean I would eat nothing but fish for the duration of the trip. It was truly a lovely meal after which we made our way back to the hotel for a good rest before taking the city by storm that evening. After about a 3-4 hour nap we meandered a bit more to find a small bite to eat before dancing the night away. Oddly enough, we ended up in what we figured out was a lesbian bar eating ham sandwiches. Lucky and unplanned, we found out that the salsa club was just around the corner from our hotel. We arrived around 11:30 or so to find a nice sized club filled with salsa dancers. From as soon as we put our coats down we were both on the dance floor mingling with the people. Cat had the brilliant idea of putting a full face of make up on me that night, which proved to be interested later when I tried to take it off. But, perhaps that aided in gaining numerous dance partners over the course of the night. There was a few memorable dance partners including the older Cuban man who was teaching me meringue in an odd way, the knacker who was a bit inappropriate (I was a bit forceful with his hands after that), and the older Peruvian fellow we decided that I would be his lass for the evening. Although, he was a gentleman, it was a bit creepy that he was so into someone that could have been his daughter. It wasn't until 6am that the club closed and we began to find our way back. One of the lads, Max, who Cat had been dancing with over the course of the night was giving us tips for our Saturday in the city, but also trying to get us to meet him for coffee. He was nice, a great dancer, and a bit of a comic, but nothing to write home about.. (too much). So we managed to get home and to bed at about half 6 almost 7 that morning.

Saturday, we awoke by 10 and 11, but finally got out the door for some lunch around 12/1. After another amazing meal near the hotel we made our way to the Sangrada Familia, or the notable church in Barcelona. It was just simply amazing and beautiful despite the rain. It would be amazing to see it complete, but I doubt it will be in my lifetime since it started construction over 100 years ago! After we made our way to one of the small tourist stands where we found lovely gifts for everyone. But the woman tried to scam us by giving back the wrong change. When I responded to her in Spanish about the wrong change she took back the goods and gave us our money back! What a strange way of fixing a problem! We still managed to find gifts for everyone and it made for a good time trying to shop. After we found our way back to the area of the hotel for some food, again amazing fish! We returned to the hotel in order to nap before our long night. It was our plan to stay up till 6am like the previous night, pack and then make our way to our bus for our flight at 10:45. We planned to meet up with our friend Sjuan, from our salsa Thursdays in Ireland. He is originally from Barcelona, but was there on holidays/school work. We had another amazing night, which by the end of I was speaking just Spanish and having decent conversations with people. It was another great night, which by the time we made it back to our room we could barley walk. The heels nearly killed us so we had to get a taxi to the bus station. Eventually we found our way to the airport and gate back to Ireland. Despite our horrible state, the lad from the flight over made his way to sit and share the flight back with us. This time Cat was the one who drifted in and out of sleep, while I chatted with our friend. Very nice guy, who by the end succeeded in obtaining my number in order to attend salsa and help me practice my Spanish (wink, wink). Cute excuse, but I dug it. We finally made it back to Ireland, dead tired, but alive with excitement from the amazing weekend we just had.... But it continued....

Afro-Cuban Week-
Cat and I had to plan our travels around the following week of Afr0-Cuban workshops. The first day was 4 hours of dancing and 2 hours of song/percussion. I loved being able to continue dancing from the previous weekend and was bouncing with energy. After, a few of us headed to the pub for some drinks where your man, the teacher, decided to hit on me in a very inappropriate way. Needless to day, I wasn't having any of it and shot him down. The next day was a bit more of the same, but this time Oscar lead the song/percussion workshop after the shitty job by the teacher the previous day. Wednesday was a great day for a number of reasons. My course mate Alan, hadn't shown up till Wednesday and was literally thrown into the mix of hell. Being a musician rather than a dancer, I got the daggers from across the room when we started to dance that morning. When he found out we were giving a performance that afternoon on the dance, again I was given the look of death. However, we get on very well and it became a bit more craic than I'm sure he expected it to be (craic means fun for those of you not up on the Irish lingo). When I approached him about the teacher situation the previous day he was nice enough to extend his protection or rather just the "hands off" explanation that was a nice gesture. Wednesday night was a bit more craic as the band friends were playing and got to hang out with those people for the evening. Thursday was much of the same, more dancing and expanding our understanding of movement. But the highlight of the week was Thursday night salsa. Andrew from band came out after teaching and just proved to be a great night for all of us. Spent the night dancing away and trying to get into a bit of mischief which would have happened if I would have just walked up a few blocks to meet the course mate. Needless to say, it was a hilarious night of texting back and forth. Friday was a bit more chilled out with meetings and rehearsals, and a house party at a friends. Saturday was a bit crazy with playing at a GAA (Gaelic Athletics Association) game and then attending the 21st birthday of two of the girls in the band. It was a great night that continued back in my apt with Andrew and Antoinette. It was even better at about 4:30 when I made my roommate and his friend salsa dance for the first time in their drunk/hangover state. Sunday was another fairly busy day with a slow start that concluded with the band playing a mass for Palm Sunday.

Overall this was one of the best weeks here so far and would love to figure out a way to stay.... Love Ireland, love Spain, Love music, Love dancing, Love the people here, but also I love and miss you all at home! <3