Third in a series of nine.
Part 1 - Taylor Cunningham (6/13/17)
Part 2 - Lexi Prevost (6/14/17)

BARCELONA (May 19, 2017) – On Friday, May 19, we left our first hotel and headed for the city of Barcelona. We arrived at our second hotel, and we decided to go to Catalonia and walk around and through all the shops in the heart of the city. The main strip that we walked down was called the La Rambla. All week we were warned to make sure we kept all of our things locked and close due to the number of pick pockets around.
 
I (Teds) thought that it would be funny to pull a little prank on grandma (Ladora), and run by her and tug on her purse. When I tugged on her purse I instantly regretted it, and I think if I would have been any closer she would have given me a black eye. I didn't think of the consequences that would follow, but sure enough all day grandma would go around tugging on my backpack and every time I swear I had a mini heart attack. It was pathetic, but I was definitely paranoid for the rest of the day. If there is one thing I learned from this trip you don't mess with grandma-she is one of the toughest cookies I know.
 
There were a lot of different vendors and shops all throughout Catalonia. The traffic was crazy, and so were the people. It was also crazy to me to see lots of people lay out white bed sheets full of different products on the ground all up the strip and down the alleys of La Rambla. One day we were walking down the La Rambla and all of a sudden one guy with a white sheet stood up and yelled to rest of his white sheet guy friends "La Policía!" and they all quickly packed up their sheets, and took off in different directions. Then, a few minutes later when the police were all gone, they would lay out their sheets again and continue to bribe everyone who walked by.
 
The other big attraction that we saw right off of La Rambla was the La Boqueria market. This place was amazing! This place was home to a lot of different fresh fruits, live seafood, dry meat, average banana gelato, great smoothies, and some of THE BEST 6 Euro nachos that I have ever tasted in my entire life. We spent a lot of time walking around inside of there, and then decided it was time to move on with our trip.
 
We were walking around enjoying all the shops, and found a Footlocker and of course we couldn't pass it up. We ended up in the way back of the store looking at all the shoes and the handprints of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. One of the guys that worked there was explaining to us about how some famous basketball player was just in the shop a few weeks ago (I don't remember the player's name, because I was too busy trying to figure out how to make room in my suitcase for another pair of shoes). We finally left the shoe shop, and continued to walk around the city.
 
We ended up wandering down some dark, creepy alley, and we found probably one of the coolest shops in all of Barcelona. This shop wasn't your typical big city shop; this shop was extremely small with a lot of different, questionable smells. Kaycee and Beans (Alisha) ended up trying on the most amazing pair of pants that I have ever seen. They were silky smooth and had an insane amount of breathing room. They would be fantastic for casual wear, big gatherings, fancy nights on the town, and they would even make an exceptional pair of gardening pants if that is something that you're in to. They decided to buy the pants for a great deal.
 
 
We eventually found a place to have lunch, and enjoyed everything we ate except for one of the desserts at the end of our meal. It looked good on the top, but it was bad on the bottom. The texture was funky, and you could touch it with a fork and it would shake like Jell-O. It definitely was no gooey brownie with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top from Applebee's.

After all the different shopping excursions, we weaved through the streets of Barcelona and came upon one of the famous buildings known as Palau Guell. After entering, we realized it was not just any building, but that it contained at least seven floors of unique architecture that consisted of wood, stained glass, and wrought-iron details. We managed to lose Teds on about the second floor due to her boredom, but soon found her on the roof of the mansion with the GoPro taking pictures/videos of the numerous pillars that were covered in mosaic tile. After snapping a few group photos on the roof and taking in the views of Barcelona, it was time to make our way back to the bus. There was a ton of walking, but there were even more laughs along the way.
 
That night, we were able to visit the Magic Fountain of Barcelona. There were a number of different American songs that would play while the water would shoot up out of the fountain. The number of people there, and the size of the fountain, amazed us. Teds being Teds, decided to waste my money (it was only one Euro though – I was able to talk the seller down) on a flying plastic thing that lights up and shoots into the sky. I played with that for about a solid five minutes until I broke it and it wouldn't fly anymore – imagine that. All in all, the night was great, the people were even greater, and it was the trip of a lifetime that we will cherish and hold onto forever.
 

The Buzz in Barca blog is a 9-part series detailing the Yellowjackets' trip to Barcelona, Spain on the dates of May 17-21, 2017. Each of the player journal entries can be viewed online here.