Hey guys. I've actually been back in the U.S. for about a week and a half but have been busy getting back into the swing of things, but this blog entry is going to focus mainly on my trip. Hopefully I don't mess up posting pics!

So anyway, I arrived in London on Sunday, March 15. I went to visit my sister, who's spending this semester studying abroad there. I stayed there for 5 nights and then on Friday we went to Barcelona for 3 nights, and then I spent a long day traveling home (3 flights, 4 airports, 4 different countries, 4 hour car ride home after arriving in the U.S., ~17 hours spent in airplanes and cars, lots of fun!). Instead of doing a typical play-by-play of the trip, I think it'll be more fun to make a list of general observations about cultural differences between the U.S., London, and Barcelona that I saw, and then do a little bit of storytelling along with pics after. So here goes:

• The drinking age is 18 (maybe less?) in Europe and 21 in the U.S. Obviously everyone knows this, but it really makes quite a difference in the lifestyles of young people. It was great being able to do simple stuff like ordering a bottle of wine at dinner in Europe. Also, we went to a concert featuring the band, "The Rifles," at a smaller concert venue in London and we had a great time. Afterwards I was talking with my sister about it and realized that in New York City, many similar venues are 21+, so even for someone who doesn't care about drinking, their options for seeing live music, comedy shows, etc in the States are limited. That seems wrong to me. I also met up with some CR members for lunch/drinks/low stakes poker on Tuesday the 17th. Most were about my age, and talking with them about this subject really made me realize how different it is. From the middle of high school or so it's just routine for them to have drinks with dinner, in family settings, wherever. To me, this makes a lot of sense, because I think people often develop drinking problems because it's exciting to drink due to the illegality (at least in H.S. or other places where it's not easily accessible). I could be totally offbase here but I'd like to see some statistics on alcoholism rates in the U.S. and Europe. The casino was quite different too, much stricter with dress codes and identification than Vegas casinos, but 18 to gamble. Seems like some fun mid-high stakes PLO games go too, kinda bummed that I didn't get to play those, maybe next time.
• London runs on an earlier schedule than anywhere I've ever seen. From what I've heard the bars close later on weekends, but during the week most were closing at 11! This is even earlier than Ithaca's 1:00, which I thought was earlier than anywhere. Clubs stay open longer, but I'm not really a huge club person (although we went to Notting HIll Arts Club and I thought it was awesome, they have different music depending on the night of the week but we went on Wednesday and I really loved the music selection and the atmosphere, basically a smaller club with loungy area and a cool dance floor that doesn't just play top 40 crap). My sister told me that London just kind of goes to bed and wakes up earlier than most other places. Quite a contrast to New York or Barcelona or probably 99% of cities in the world really.
• Tea and crumpets are not really popular in London, but fish and chips are. At least that's what my sis told me. I decided I'd have to give the fish and chips a try, so I went to a takeout place down the street from her flat. I got cod with chips (all fried obv), paid 6 British pounds I think, and got the hugest serving ever. This was especially weird because portion sizes at most other places I went were smaller compared to the U.S. This thing was huge though! I think the fish was about 10 inches long or something, and fairly wide. I was very hungry and managed to eat about half. It was very good but I don't eat much fried food so I don't think my body liked me after. Well worth it though, imo.
• The number one word spoken by British people has to be 'lovely.' It is used as a response to any typical greeting e.g. "How are you?", in place of 'thank you,' as the only adjective to describe pleasure e.g. 'This soup is lovely,' 'You look lovely,' etc. I think that's it but let me know if I missed some!
• People in London were mostly very nice. I had heard various things about this before the trip, but I was very impressed with how friendly everyone was, even when I needed them to repeat something because I couldn't understand their accent. I only had one exception, the first night there we went to a small pub down the street from my sister's flat. They had only been there once, and it happened to be someone's 50th birthday party, which ended up with them dancing with a bunch of old people and stuff. For some reason, they decided we should go there again. We got there, and there were 2 other people in the place, besides a live band that was playing (jazz I think). We had a group of 7 people, 2 of whom don't drink. The other 5 of us went up to the bar, and a man behind the bar (presumably the owner) says to me, "If your friends over there aren't drinking, they're going to have to leave." This really boggled my mind, as this place was getting no business and then 5 of us were trying to give them some and they almost seemed to not want it. Maybe he was just in a bad mood because of the emptiness of the place though, I don't know. He didn't actually make our friends leave, so whatever. But other than that little incident, everyone was extremely friendly, even cab drivers!
• Tipping etiquette is very different. Apparently it's not really necessary to tip at all in England, except in nice restaurants and cabs. Every time I tipped a bartender there they seemed very surprised. Apparently they already have tip money built into their salaries. Same goes in Barcelona, and from what I read most everywhere but the U.S. I was surprised at the differences.
• British food is not as bad as it's reputation. Okay well it is pretty hard to find anything but premade sandwiches for lunch, unless you look really hard, but I enjoyed most of the dinner food I had, and I went to both higher-end and lower-end places. One place I really enjoyed was Harwood Arms, a pub that featured some good English food. The ingredients are all from England and fresh, the deer are all shot by one of the owners and maybe some of the other stuff too, I'm not sure. We tried a few things, and I really enjoyed one of the venison appetizers and a lamb entree. Also, the service was great and one of the owners kept checking up on us, he was really friendly and helpful. This place was really cool and different from anywhere else I've been, I highly recommend it. Besides that, there were some higher-end places that rival those in other major cities. I really enjoyed the food I had in London, but maybe my opinion would change if I ended up eating premade sandwiches for lunch everyday.
• Spanish cab companies aren't very smart. We went to see The Killers in a venue a couple miles outside Barcelona (pics to come). The concert was great, I've become a huge Killers fan in the weeks leading up to the concert and they did not disappoint. The atmosphere was awesome, I spoke briefly to a girl next to me who said she only spoke a little bit of English, yet she was singing along with probably about half the songs. I'm trying to picture me learning all the words to about 10 songs in Spanish, and I just don't see it, even if I was exposed to the music a lot. That was really cool, and I think many others there knew just as many words as her. Anyway though, after the concert we walked outside and tried to hail a cab. There was a turnaround area where some cabs were coming. The thing was, most of them were full already. One would think that local cab companies would realize that 12,000 people were going to be here searching for transportation at the same time and subsequently send legions of cabs to the site and make lots of money. Instead, there was about 1 empty cab coming every 10 minutes. I think it took us about an hour and a half to finally hail a cab. Others were still there when we left, it could have taken them another hour for all I know. In the U.S. cabbies would be lining up outside the concert to try to recruit people to come with them. It was basically the same story after the FC Barcelona futbol game we went to, we ended up just taking the subway, and that was in the city of Barcelona. Note to entrepreneurs in Spain: if you start a cab company with a brain, you'll probably make lots of money. Preferably hire drivers who can speak English too, although that's less of a big deal than just not understanding basic supply and demand.
• Paella is awesome! I had paella back-to-back nights in Barcelona. The first night was at a high-end tapas restaurant, which was very good but seemed aimed at tourists. I enjoyed the meal overall a ton, as we tried a bunch of different dishes and had some excellent wine, but the next night we went to a more authentic Spanish restaurant (server didn't even speak English!) and I got paella there and it was just unbelievable. I want to figure out how to make my own, it's just so good and there's nothing quite like it in the States. If you go to Spain make sure to try some good, authentic paella!
• Security is very lax in Barcelona. Not sure if this goes for all of Spain but I'd imagine so. I was really amazed at the scene when we arrived at the Killers concert. There was a big wraparound line that didn't seem organized at all. On either side of the line there was garbage on the ground everywhere. There weren't even garbage cans anywhere really either. I guess this is standard? There were literally 0 security people until the very front of the line. A couple in front of us rolled and smoked a joint while they waited in line. Inside the concert was no different, all the tickets were general admission and everyone was just kind of pushing their way as far forward as possible. I didn't see any fights or anything though, maybe it works here. But it's quite different than what I'm used to.
• Beaches in Barcelona are funny. My first day in Barcelona my sis and I decided we'd grab lunch then get a cab to the beach. I went outside in a short-sleeved polo and shorts, and realized that I was the only person in the whole city wearing shorts. It was about 55 degrees out, but I just relate the beach with being warm and not wearing heavy clothes. But I was very cold so we went back to change before the beach, I changed into jeans, and then when I got there I saw people in winter coats even. I must admit, even in heavier clothes the beach is nice and relaxing, but it's just so different to what I'm used to. Also, the beach is cluttered with people trying to sell stuff. I bought a can of beer for 2 Euros from a guy walking around, it was a little bit warmer than the 'ice cold' he advertised, but not bad. The only Asian people I saw in Barcelona were on the beach too. They were women walking around offering massages. It almost seemed like they outnumbered the people lying on the beach, but they weren't very successful, aside from a group of drunk American guys behind us who each got massages. I probably would have done the same if I were drunk and with some friends just for the hilarity, but it is kind of weird and sad how many of them there are walking around the beaches. Aside from the vendors, the beaches are quite nice though, and even nicer when the weather warms up a bit I'm sure.
• FC Barcelona is good. Really, really good. We saw them play against Malaga, who came into the game 5th in La Liga out of about 16 teams. Barca completely destroyed them, winning 6-0 and seemingly possessing the ball for 80% of the first half. Malaga didn't even really get any decent scoring chances. It was amazing to see a team play such high level soccer. We had pretty good seats in the corner about 8 rows up and got great views on one end each half, seeing a pair of Barca goals at our end in the 2nd half. The fans are a lot of fun too. 3 rows in front of us there was a guy wearing an FC Barca scarf and a Budweiser hat (didn't even know Bud existed in Spain lol). He was quite inebriated and started cheers about every 3 minutes or so. The cheers were awesome too, although most were in Spanish and I couldn't understand them. It was a great atmosphere to see a game though and we had a ton of fun.