Barcelona

Well before getting to Barcelona, ISA did a day trip to Segovia - where we saw a pretty church, a gothic cathedral, a castle, the acqueduct, and the palacio real/its gardens - and it was really pretty! Other than that, I spent the week actually doing school work, and went out a night or two. So now BARCA :) Sunday Paige and I anticipated meeting at the train station to take the high speed RENFE to Barcelona (it was cheaper to take the train and fly back) BUT Paige never showed, so I got on the train alone. She calls me at 9:30, and tells me she overslept but was going to get on the train at 10:30. Which means I was only alone in Barcelona for two hours so not so bad. Before Paige arrived, I just got settled in at our hostel (keep in mind that we are in a 6 person room - 3 sets of bunkbeds) and then took a walk down Passeig de Gracia - the most famous street in Barcelona - kind of like Rodeo Drive. Paige got there around 1:30, so we got lunch and headed to La Pedrara , or Casa Mila, one of Gaudi's most famous apartments, and it was incredible - the architecture was truly unreal. Gaudi was mainly inspired by nature, so he didn't like to have an sharp edges or angles, and everything looks so curvey! Then we took a walk down Passeig de Gracia towards La Rambla, another very famous street. Afterwards we went back to the hostel, showered, got ready, and went to dinner. As we walked in the restaurant, Paige realized she was in a lot of pain all of a sudden and we needed to find a hospital immediately. Since our hostel didn't know where ONE was, we got in a taxi and asked for the one closest to where we were. We got to the emergency room, and found that NO ONE spoke English. We saw the doctor, who also could not speak English, and he was knitting while we told him she was in pain - CRAZY. So he sends us to another hospital, and we get there, and IT'S PACKED! So we call Paige's study abroad program who tells us to go to another hospital. We get there, a man speaks English, we check Paige into the ER and wait... for 6 HOURS! Yeahhh 6 hours to get a little prescription to make her feel better. Then we pick up the medicine at the pharmacy, and head back to the hostel at 3 a.m. to find someone SLEEPING in MY bed! HAHAA Paige and I couldn't stop laughing, and luckily there was another open bed in the room. Next day went a lot smoother. Started at La Sagrada Familia - Gaudi's church that has been under construction since 1882 and is expected to continue until at least 2026, but a portion of the inside is scheduled to open for mass by 2010 - and it was stunning. The detail was incredible, and everything resembled something from nature (the columns looked like flower stems, and the ceiling looked like it had flowers all over it) and we even climbed up the towers to the top, where the view was incredible! Afterwards we went to an all-you-can-eat sushi bar, it was good, but not as good as the states so I'm looking forward to eating that when I get home. Went back to the hostel, napped, showered, got ready for a fun night! First we went to La Vinoteca - a wine bar - and drank blush Catalan wine and ate Spanish cheese - SO good! Then we headed to some random Irish pub, and it turned out to be such a great night. (Happy 21st Birthday Chris! ;) haha) The next day we started off at Parc Guell - Gaudi's park with so many fun things to look at. It's like a giant playground, and soo pretty! Then we met up with Clara, (who we were staying with the next 2 nights) a friend of mine that I met in Madrid who lives in a small beach town right outside the city called Castelldefels. She took us out to lunch on La Rambla, and then back to her house to drop our stuff. She then took us to another small town on the beach called Sitges, and it was sooo gorgeous. We sat and drank a cup of coffee overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, a pretty church, and a small port of sailboats. When we went back to her house, her family made us a huge traditional Catalan meal that was amazzzziiing! Her parents and two brothers were so nice, and it was great staying in their beautiful home on the beach, rather than our hostel lol. That night Clara took Paige and I to Port Olympic, which is an area right next to the major Port in Barcelona right on the beach. There were a ton of really fun bars and nightclubs next to the water, and we just went to one after another, it was a blast! The next day Clara took us into the city for a little tour where we saw City Hall, Parliment, Arc di Triumf, Plaza Mayor, a pretty park by her university, and then we stopped and had Italian food for lunch along the way. Afterwards, we went back to her town where we spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach, but it was too cold to go swimming =( Atleast I put my feet in though! That night we just had dinner with her family, showered, watched the Barcelona match for the Spanish cup, and finally Paige and I watched Vicky Cristina Barcelona, haha =) before we went to bed. We had to wake up early for our flight that departed for Madrid at 9 a.m. We got to the airport at around 7:45, got in line to check-in and Paige tried using her license for ID. They told her that she HAD to have her passport, even though we were only traveling within the same country. Her only option was to go to the police station to report it lost/stolen. With about 10 minutes until boarding, I went to the gate to wait for Paige to check-in, when she called me to tell me that somehow her reservation for the flight was canceled, and she had no flight back to Madrid. Since I had a class to get back to, I got on the plane and Paige had to go to the train station to buy a train ticket back to Madrid. Unfortunately, Paige had really bad luck with traveling and getting sick, but overall I am pretty sure that we both had a really great time in Barcelonaaa!


Only 2 more weeks left in Europe :( but Saturday I leave for my last trip to PARISSSSSSSSS with Kira!!!!! =D