3 summers ago, I've decided to go for an university internship somewhere aboad. The country of my choice ended up being Pakistan - country I've heard of only as a terrorist paradise before. It all happened in summer 2014 and changed me more than I'd ever expect.

This post tho is about REUNION with my 2 best friends I've made there 18 months after we said final bye to each other back in Islamabad at the end of our stay :)

Hello people! Soo today I'm going to take a break from talking about Pakistan since I feel it might get boring. Instead of that, I'm going to tell you about 1st of three reunions I had with 2 best friend's I've made in Pakistan.

Starring

There's no reunion it there's noone to reunite with right? So let me introduce you 3 main characters of the story real quick:


Category	Hussam	Borja	Me
Nationality	Oman	Spain	Slovakia
Religion	Muslim	Atheist	Atheist
Sexual orientation	Heterosexual	Homosexual	Heterosexual
Relationship status	Married	Single	Single
Student of	Chemical engineering	Architecture	Computer science
Hobbies	Wedding photography	Parties, activism	Sports

I hope by now you've realized that the main point of this table is to point out how CRAZY different persons we are. There's almost absolutely zero overlap in our interests or how we spend our free time. And yet, when we're together, there's barely something else I'd rather do than be there in that moment.

Our reunions history

When we were saying bye to each other, I knew we'll meet again. But I didn't really know we'll meet 3 times in the next 2 years! So far, there were 3 reunions:

Barcelona, Spain - we went to visit Borha
London, UK - I went to visit Borja when he moved to UK
Muscat, Oman - we spent one week with Hussam and his family

Yeah, you're right! There' no Slovakia nor Austria!! It's for sure the next place, I'm not going anywhere!

BARCELONA REUNION

We've met for a weekend - Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Plan was:

Sightseeing
Partying
FC Barcelona match

Soo let's do it!

Sightseeing

God, I love Barcelona! It was honestly the most beautiful city I've ever visited. Dunno why ~~adsactly~~ exactly, but something clicked for me with that city.

Because Borha is an architecture student, he was able to explain a lot about Gaudi and all this stuff. We haven't taken almost any untergrounds and covered most of the stuff just by walking. Hussam was bitching about it all the time but eventually he gave up :D When we finally arrived to Sagrada Familia, we were all speechless. That thing is just out of this world!

^{Borha could talk about that building for days..}

After Sagrada, we continued wandering around and visited both, FC barcelona museum & headquarters shop and also that famous Gaudi's building where each balcony looks like a carneval mask.

Whole city really has this artistic vibe to it. Every square had some nice pieco of art, tiny aisles between the buildings always offered some nice little coffe bar with 3 tables max and in general, the whole city was just alive..

After we were done with the city centre, Borha took us to some leveraged point in the city where you can see it all above you. It was aaaabsolutely stunning there! Also, it was aaaabsolutely crowded there as well haha. Anyway we watched the sunset there and started drinking some booze with people around.

^{3 sweethearts :D}

^{Panorama 1}

^{Panorama 2}

Hell night

After the sunset was in books, we've made our way back to apartment and bought some more alcohol on the way. Me and Borha were planning to get totally wasted as we've spend 3 months in Pakistan, daily dreaming about cold beers, which we couldn't buy there. Bear in mind that any sort of alcohol was forbidden and temperatures were hitting 47 degrees there. So yah, getting drunk together was our "couple goal". Hussam on the other hand is a muslim and doesn't drink alcohol at all. I believe that night was pretty challenging for him, but he honestly has done great! Just check the pictures :)

We've partied the whole night and came home around 7am. I don't remember it though :P

"Hey Borha, dance with me! Dance with me as if I was your boyfriend for tonight!!"

IF YOU'RE SCROLLING, READ AT LEAST THIS!

Hussam was dancing with us all the time, we were drunk AF while he was drinking cola whole night. I honestly can't imagine being sober on such type of party. But I find it soooo cool, that despite it's not really aligned with his religion, he respected me & Borha and that we wanted to get wasted together. That's how different cultures and religions should live together. We returned the favor next year in Oman.
WhatsApp Image 2017-05-31 at 14.33.55.jpeg

WhatsApp Image 2017-05-31 at 14.33.55.jpeg

Hangover cure

Next day, we woke up absolutely shattered around 2pm. We managed to dress up and went out to get some soup and walk. Fresh cold air helped us tremendously. And with the rests of alcohol from yesterday, Barcelone seemed even more beautiful.

^{That day I've learned that nothing cures a hangover better than walk in Barcelona's fresh January air.}

https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmSHS2Nv1wdn3zDnmcG4fPfYEuQfxkA5DdkMpzKgQb2YdU ^{We were taking some "group" pictures, when suddenly...}

^{Borha got hit :D}

https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmUdTamKeFq4YZQ435g9A6ZmMJjf7Y7KJcSM3T72CeUakU

https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmUt9AxWZMbWe4ufuMXdg9rmqASQKB6j2pNhYRn23CnxHr

^{I really liked the patriotism of Catalunya people. Flags hanging on their balcony was just one of the ways how to show resistance against Madrid.}

^{How could I not love these guys??}

^{While me and Borha were struggling with crazy-ass hangover, Hussam was having time of his life}

Hoghwards?

During our walk, we've came across a campus of pharmaceutical university. It was absolutely amazing! I've never been lucky to study in such "old" campus with historical buildings. Whole time there I felt like in some movie, but couldn't figure out which movie it is.....and then it hit me! It's Hoghwards from Harry Potter

^{If this aint Hoghwards then what else is? :D}

^{I was soo sad to learn that those oranges are artificially made bitter, so people don't pick em up from the trees.} https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmXJq1RKtXYtvPrSkmW5kogMxrdKSLpa7Zg6uFkYPERZ2y

FC Barcelona vs. Espanyol Barcelona

And finally, the evening has come. And with that, the looong awaited item on my bucket list - watch FC Barcelona play live at Nou Camp! We were super lucky that they played home that weekend + on top of that, it was a Copa del Rey match and not a La Liga, so the tickets were much cheaper! Hell yeahhh..

^{We were sooo excited, that we came 2 hours before the match has even started :DD}

^{That stadium was jut magnificient!!}

^{Break after the first half!}

^{Blaugrana al vent, un crit valent, tenim un nom el sap tothom: Barca, Barca , BAARCA!}

Hussam, you gotta be kidding me now!😂😂😂

Lemme take you back to Pakistan. Hussam used to have this weird pack of typical Omani crisps and always when we were on some trip, he used to take a picture of that pack in that destination. No, I'm not kidding 😂 Now let's get back to the actuall football match. I'm watching yet another Barca attack when suddenly I can see Hussam is holding somehing in his hand and is taking a snaps of it. I briefly check him what's going on...and suddenly, I just burst out with laughter 😂 😂. He's doing it again!!!

2014 vs. 2016 :D

I hope you liked the post and enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it. The whole time with a smile on my face :) I can truly say I love those guys. And I also love Barcelona! This post is also my entry in TF Worldcup organized by Hive account@travelfeed. You can find more about the competition HERE.

In case you haven't read the whole post, make sure you at least read the highlighted paragraph in the middle of the post!

Thanks for reading!Martin

Also, in case this caught your attention, here are my previous posts from Pakistan:

You can find my latest posts here:

MY INTRODUCTION POST

How married muslim, homosexual Latino and standard Europan celebrated their friendship in Barcelona