First off, I must apologize that this week's blog is LATE! I blame the English weather...it is always a good thing to blame. I am just going to skip to the best part of the week because I honestly don't recall anything too exciting in the beginning of the week.
Around 1 AM on Saturday morning I was finally able to fall asleep. Then around 3:30 AM my alarm went off, my phone rang, and I got a text message. All of these disturbances happened to ensure I woke up in enough time to catch a 4:30 cab to the airport! Thankfully, I woke up got all my things together and head to the meeting spot to catch the cab. I was a bit ambitious and arrived about 10 minutes early (yes..I know, I was early!), it is kind of scary walking the streets of Bath at four in the morning...very quiet. Soon, the others arrived and the cab came. After a short forty minute ride we arrived at Bristol Airport and my first experience with Ryan Air began. I had to present my printed off boarding pass (if you don't print it off before hand it cost 40 pounds/euros to print it at the airport!) and have my passport checked. That didn't take too long, then we headed to security...much more relaxed compared to the States. Pretty much arriving an hour before your flight gives you enough time. Then we weaved around the airport to finally find our gate where we proceeded to wait in a "first come, first serve" line to board the airplane. When the gate was opened we walked outside to board the plane and it was beginning to rain! We managed to take over the back of the plane and I immediately feel asleep for the majority of the two hour flight. I personally did not test out the claim that the airline charged for using the bathroom, but I did hear that it is not true.
Next thing I knew we landed down in Girona, a small city about an hour north of Barcelona. The group of us took a coach into Barcelona and then attempted to find our hostel. The first sight we saw was the Arc de Triomf and it was magnificent! The arc was located night next to the closest metro stop, so we detoured for a few minutes and wondered around the arc. Then, we took the metro to our hostel. Once we arrived we walked on the left side of the street for maybe a good mile and a half and then realized that all the numbers were odd and we needed an even number, so we crossed the street. Once on the other side, we noticed that we walked about 100 building numbers too far. The walk was beautiful, but it was warm and carrying all our stuff wasn't too much fun! When we finally arrived at the right street address, we couldn't figure out how to get into the building to get to the correct floor. We ended up taking the back staircase, a rather scary experience, about half way up the stairway became dark! Plus, the Spanish have an odd labeling system for floor numbers it begins with ground, principal, first, second, and so on and we needed to walk to the fifth floor! We finally arrived, checked in, paid, and dropped our bags.
We then headed to La Rambla street and grabbed a quick lunch. We walked down the crowed, very touristy street and finally made it to the harbor. We sat for a little and enjoyed the warm sunshine and then continued walking to the beach. I put my feet in the water, which was so cold, and laid down on the beach for a while. Then, we headed to Parc de la Ciutadella.
The park was beautiful and had an incredible fountain in the middle of it. Everything was so beautiful! There were so many people laying down and kids kicking around balls...it seemed like a really nice way to spend a Saturday evening. We played around in the park for a while and then decided to go back to the hostel to rest for an hour or so before dinner. We wanted to have a late dinner and do it how the Spaniards do it, but by the time we finally agreed on a game plan and found an ideal restaurant that met everyone's requirements it was around 11:30 PM. We decided on a Tapas restaurant on some random street in some random direction, nevertheless we agreed on the place and I was starving and very tired! I shared four tapas dishes with a friend and they were all delicious!!! Spanish food blows British food out of the water, although I am sure that doesn't surprise anyone. Then the majority of the group decided to head back to the hostel because the whole two hours of sleep and walking around all day wasn't too ideal for a night out. The idea of going out and dancing on my very sore feet was not going over well! Finally, day one was over and I feel asleep the moment we arrived back in our room.
Day two began with a visit to Sagrada Familia. The church was absolutely unbelievably gorgeous. Gaudi's side was so amazing, it almost appeared that the building was dripped together with sand instead of built with usual materials. The church was huge and it still blow my mind that after a hundred years it still isn't finished! I would like to go back in 2026 (the latest date of predicted completion) to see the final product. Then we journeyed to Park Guell a park dedicated to Gaudi and eventually made it to the Casa-Museu Gaudi. The park was amazing, really everything was amazing and 'amazing' doesn't even give it justice! In the middle of the park was a sand plaza with street vendors selling various goods, music playing, and all around happy people. I think seeing this park was my favorite thing I did in Barcelona and I highly recommend it. After the park, we headed towards Placa d'Espanya. I actually separated from the group and met up with a friend for a quick lunch. It is always neat seeing people from home in other countries. I was very happy to see her and catch up! Then I reconvened with the group and we explored the Montjuic area. This is an elevated part of the city and provided beautiful views. From there we saw the Olympic stadium from 1992 and walked around another amazing park. We found a local coffee shop and had delicious pastries! (Note: the hot chocolate in Spain is amazing, but is more like hot chocolate pudding...not a drink) Then we went to see a fountain show, but it never happened :( so, we made our way back to La Rambla street and found a restaurant serving paella. It was so yummy and I cannot wait to go back to Spain and eat more. I accidently ate calamari and I liked it! The thought of eating squid still really grosses me out...but I really liked the texture. After dinner, we walked around La Rambla at night...a very different scene than the daytime and got some gelato (it was amazing, really amazing!!!). Then, we made our way back to our hostel and got a few hours of sleep before our early flight back to the UK the next day.
To sum it up, Spain is amazing!!! My only regret is that I didn't have sangria with fruit in it, I will try this when I am in Valencia in a few weeks. Weekend trips to other countries are very long and tiring, but worth it! Flying on Ryan Air isn't so bad...not amazing, but not awful...on the way back I managed to stay awake for a little bit and the airline tries to sell everything to their customers, there are non-stop advertisements! This next weekend I am going on an impromptu trip to Amsterdam and Bruges! I am really excited to go to Belgium so I can eat chocolate, waffles, and drink beer! The trip should be fun and it was a great deal. After visiting these two countries, my spring break trip, and a scotland trip in the middle of my exams, I think I will have seen almost everything I wanted to see while in Europe! The following weekend, Aron is coming to England and I am going up north to watch him ride in a Games competition and go camping :) This experience has been amazing and I highly recommend studying abroad to everyone if you have the chance!!!
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