Don't buy beer from the Pakis

I was told by a few different people that my last blog was a little A.D.D. and all over the place. Let me introduce myself, Hi my name is Cody Bradford and I am the poster child for Attention Deficit Disorder. But i'll try to keep this one on track, no promises.

As you might imagine, there are a lot of differences between the European culture and the culture in the United States. Of course the food is different, the different language is a given, but something you might not realize is the difference in night life. It's safe to say they definitely know how to party here in Barcelona and everywhere else I've been in Europe.


So picture this...
A typical night in the U.S. would look something like this:

• 9 - 10 pm: get ready 
• 10 - 11pm: pre-game (and wait for the last person in your group to finish getting ready)
• 11pm - 12am: leave or arrive to your destination (s)
• 12am - 2am: drink drink drink
• 2am - 3am: rally the troops and head home or to get drunk food (Kerby Lane, Whataburger, etc.)
• 4am: passed out

Here in Barcelona a typical night looks like this:

• 9 - 10pm: eat dinner/ finish eating dinner
• 10 - 11:30pm: siesta (nap)
• 11:30 - 12pm: wake up and get ready 
• 12 - 1am: pre-game and make plans for the night
• 1 - 2am: arrive at our destination
• 2 - 3am: drink drink drink
• 3 - 4am: drink party drink
• 5 - 6am: party drink think about leaving
• 7am: take the metro back to your house because it opened at 6am

I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I do that regularly but I've had my fair share of extensive recovery periods.
Since Barcelona's number one industry is tourism, you bet they have some awesome places that you probably wouldn't come across in the US (not even on good ole 6th street). Picture a menu with only shots. But not only a few shots, hundreds of shots. Not just different kinds of alcohol shots, shots that are on fire, or have marshmellows, oranges, spicy shots, mouth stinging shots, sour shots, you name it and Chupito's has it all for either 2 or 3 euros each.

I had one particular shot that they lit on fire and I roasted a marshmellow then ate it with the shot. It's definitely a cool place to go.

Personally, I've never been to Wall Street and I don't know the first thing about the stock market. But Dow Jones is another cool bar here that has prices of drinks displayed as stocks. It works like supply and demand, the more drinks that people buy, the more the price goes up on the screens (in the "stock market"). After enough drinks are bought, the stock market crashes and thats when the drinks are the cheapest so you buy as much as you can!

A lot of bars have their own signature special or deal. If you gather enough of your friends to go to Pippermint, you can buy a huge fish bowl of sangria to share.

But I wouldn't suggest trying to finish one on your own though.. that's not the safest idea. 

Though I enjoy going out with my friends, one of the main reasons I enjoy going out is because I get to meet people. And if you know me you know that I like to make friends with everybody that I meet. When I was in Berlin I somehow started talking to these two guys who were visiting from London. I introduced myself and of course they asked where I was from and I responded, "I'm from Texas, I go to UT!" And then I got a response that I would have never would have expected to hear, on the other side of the world...
My new British friend immediately threw up the hook'em sign and said "HOOK'EM HORNS!" and proceded to talk to me about how much he loves Texas football and how Mack Brown did his time but needed to go. Until this day I still can't belive I met someone on the other side of the world, from a completely different continent, who knew and admired so much about UT football.

(Just making sure everyone else was hookin'em too..)

Did I mention the clubs here? 

There are numerous clubs that you should go to if you come to Barcelona. They are all remotely similar with 10-15 euro (over-priced) drinks, tons of people, creepy old guys, bitchy bartenders, and club mix music. Oh not to mention promoters who blow up your Facebook timeline making sure you know exactly what is going on, every single night of the week. And no matter what method of transportation you take to get to the clubs you will encounter at least 1 Pakistanian man trying to sell you beer. Do. Not. Buy. It. i reapeat... DON'T BUY THE BEER FROM THE PAKIS! More than likely it's been stored in the gutter and rats and gross stuff has been crawling all over the cans. That might be a rumor, I don't know, just don't do it. 

Also, happy late birthday to my friend, Saleh, who just turned 21 last week! Safe to say that his birthday celebrations were epic. 

I'm going to try to listen to my Oceanography professor now. He has a spanish accent so when he says "beach" it comes out like "bitch." 

Hasta luego!

Cody