Remember that time when....Barcelona, Spain

Whew. What a trip. This has been one of the best...and absolute worst trips I have ever been on. If it could go wrong, it happened on this trip…needless to say, I still consider the trip to Barcelona a success.

We should have known that this was not going to be an ordinary weekend from the very beginning. We arrived at the bus station in Alcala 45 minutes before our bus was supposed to leave (2:55). We did a little shopping in the convenience store nearby and then went to load the bus. It is 2:40 and we are still waiting for the bus to show up. We find this a little odd, so around 2:45 (ten minutes before departure) Lindsey asks an employee when our bus should be here and what number it should be. I was watching this conversation from about 15 feet away, and immediately knew something was wrong. Turns out we were at the wrong place…The man says the only way to get there this late is by taxi. So we quickly run into the street and hop into a cab. Around 2:57 we arrive at this small bus stop on the side of the road with only a few people waiting. Surely we are at the wrong place and missed our bus…Nope, one minute later it pulls up and we hop on board. Too close. If only that were the end of our problems...

It was an eight hour bus ride to Barcelona from Alcala. Which sounds miserable, but it actually was not bad at all. We took two rest stops and there was a bathroom on board.  I slept some and looked at the scenery (which looks similar to Texas…not very pretty).  As we were getting closer to Barcelona, the towns got prettier and prettier. I turned around and asked the people behind me if they knew the name of one of the cities (in Spanish of course). They told me and ended up talking to them for over an hour (all in Spanish... I was proud). They were around 24 (Manuel and Joanna) and were extremely entertaining. He was fascinated by the houses in America, where all the students in a university live together (a dorm). We explained to them sororities and fraternities and he asked if college life in America was really all parties like he saw in the movies. The difference in cultures is so interesting to me. After that, we decided to ask him what part of Barcelona our hostel was in. He looks at our reservation and then looks at Joanna… Apparently we aren’t staying in Barcelona. We are staying 30 minutes outside of Barcelona, in Badalona. Great!

 

Well, we arrive in Barcelona around 11 and after much trouble, we find the closest metro station. Immediately we can tell there is a huge difference in Madrid and Barcelona. One of the biggest differences is that in Barcelona they speak Catalan. I originally thought that Catalan was just Spanish with a different accent…nope. Completely different language. It is like a mix between Spanish and French. There are a lot of similar words but a lot of words I had never heard before. Luckily, I think there were more tourists than locals in Barcelona, so English seemed to be the dominant language. After about 30-40 minutes of lugging our bags on and off subways we finally make it to our stop. At first glance, this area looks a little sketchy. But the second we stepped inside the hostel everything changed. There were a ton of kids hanging out in the lobby, and they were all speaking English! Some with an accent, from foreign countries, but nonetheless…ENGLISH!!! This was very exciting. There were six of us and six people to a room. So we didn’t have to share with creepers.

                                          

It was great. Personal lockers by each of our beds and the whole place was really clean.  There were community showers but that really didn’t bother me. Except for, you know in some bathrooms you push the handle and the water comes on and goes off in a certain number of seconds? Well that’s how the shower was. So about every ten seconds the water went off and you had to push the handle again. Oh well, it was entertaining.  The next morning we had breakfast (included) which was toast, cereal, and juice. The usual.  Then we head off to downtown Barcelona to start our day of tourism.

Before we left, we bought two day tickets for a tourist bus in Barcelona. It has three different routes, over 40 something stops and you can get on and off as you please for the two days. It was great! All the interesting sites in Barcelona are so spread out that we would have never seen them all if it weren’t for this bus. While Tessa was printing her bus ticket, Calen, Lindsey and I ventured into this open air market.

It was AWESOME! It was one of the coolest things I saw in Barcelona. I know, I am really lame. But I really love fruit! There were aisles upon aisles of different tables, all with piles of food taller than me. There were fruits, vegetables, nuts, seafood, meat and much more. Lindsey, Calen and  I got a cup of mixed fruit and it was delicious.

Once we hopped on board the bus, our first stop was La Sagrada Familia. This cathedral was designed by famous architect Antoni Gaudi. He began work on this in 1882, and it is still under construction today. He died before it could be finished and it is now funded by churchgoers and revenue from ticket sales. We opted for an audio guide of the cathedral, which was a good call. Every detail had a meaning behind it. La Sagrada Familia is so majestic and almost whimsical. The pictures below don’t do it justice at all. The ceilings were extremely tall and the stained glass was beautiful. Once completed, the building will have three facades: Nativity façade, Passion Façade and Glory Façade. Each one is just a detailed as the next.

Next we visited Park Guell. This was also designed by Gaudi. As you will be able to tell from the pictures, nature is Gaudi’s main source of inspiration. Everything at this park was so beautiful. From the top of one of the buildings, there is a beautiful panoramic view of Barcelona. I had no idea how large the city was, until I could see all of it at once. Again, these pictures don’t do justice to the enormity of the city.

After a long day of sightseeing, we ended up at Micky’s for dinner. We ordered Paella and it was really really hot. It was so hot that right after I spooned my helping onto my plate, a fly flew into my food and literally shriveled up and died right there. It like melted before it could fly away. Poor thing. Oh well, Calen informed the waiter and we ended up getting more Paella. It had clams, oysters and octopus in it. It was delicious (going down…just wait for the coming up picture!)

After dinner we started heading back to the metro to freshen up for the night. As we were headed to the metro, this guy stops us on La Ramblas. (This is the really huge street in Barcelona with street vendors in the middle.  People sell anything from paintings to bunnies). Anyway, he was from Canada (where we claim to be from when we are being “obnoxious Americans”… (Thanks Uncle Nelson for that tip!)) and he asked if we had any plans for the night. Obviously we did not, since we were in a new city and had no idea where to go. He said that if we come back to a certain bar at 11 we can partake in this sort of bar hop thing. We pay 15 euros and go with a group to four bars where we each get two drinks free at each bar. At the end of the night they end up at this posh dance club where we get to skip the lines and get in for free. This sounded like a good enough plan to us. The only catch was that it was 9:30 and we had to be back by 11. We need over an hour just to get to our hostel and back. So we rush to the hostel rinse off and get ready to go back out. However, there are five girls on this trip, so obviously we did not end up leaving the hostel until 11. We go to the first bar and they have already left, and we have no clue where the second bar was. So we are back to square one, walking down the Ramblas, again.

Another man is trying to get us to go into his club when all of a sudden these three guys walk up to us…one carrying an inflatable shark. That bit of information is pointless to the story, I really have no clue why he had an inflatable shark. But he did. All of a sudden they start speaking and *ahhh* (that was the sound of angels btw) they are BRITISH!!!  We all started talking and decided that we had no clue where to go so we would go there together. The one with the shark lead the way towards the beaches to a dance club. We all kind of pair off and I get stuck talking to the most handsome (my judgment could have been slightly clouded by his awesome accent, but I still think he was gorgeous) guy in the group. He was 23, had a job in London and majored in Zoology in college. How perfect?! I am having such a lovely conversation with him, when all of a sudden I started to feel a little nauseous. I think that it must be because I haven’t eaten recently, so I am just really hungry. We stop at a vendor and I get a bag of chips (got a few fat American jokes for that). I eat a couple chips, and instead of making me feel better, I start to feel worse…We are in a park-ish area by the water when we stop to ask for directions. I feel like this is a good time to walk across the street to get a bottle of water to help my stomach. Lindsey says I shouldn’t go alone and walks with me…and thank God she does. The second I get to the other side of the street, I start vomiting. Hardcore throwing up (luckily I decided to throw up next to a dumpster so I was shielded from the British boys). But sweet Lindsey didn’t miss a beat and was there holding my hair the entire time. Love you! (Oh and I was kidding about the second picture of the paella. I’m not that gross.)  Well one thing about Spain is, all of the restaurants have indoor and outdoor seating. So the British boys didn’t see me, but I did put on a great show for the lovely people eating dinner. Sorry folks! The host from one of the restaurants saw me throwing up and gave Lindsey water, napkins and lemons (which were surprisingly awesome) to eat after I threw up. After awhile of us not showing up, the rest of the group called and I had to tell them I was going home. They all decided to come with me instead of hanging out with the British guys. I felt so bad. I seriously have had dreams before about meeting a hot British man, we fall madly in love and have gorgeous babies with awesome accents. But no, I decided to get sick instead. Oh well, no British children for me. In retrospect, we decided they were probably murderers so it was actually a good thing we didn’t get to hang out with them. (I still am having trouble convincing myself of that). But my friends were such troopers that night. What should have been a five minute walk to the metro turned into close to an hour.  We had to make frequent stops for me to throw up or just rest. At one point I didn’t think I could make it another step and my friends went rushing out to find a cab. Luckily I pulled myself together, and eventually we made it there. Calen got me a bag and I apologized to the two people I had to squeeze in between on the metro. Oddly enough, I didn’t get sick at all on the metro. Thank God. It was so crowded, and I just looked like a drunk girl. It would have been horrible. Since I was the only one sick, and I had no other symptoms, we decided I had food poisoning. We thought that maybe I drank some tap water while brushing my teeth (can’t drink the water in Barcelona) or had some bad food at dinner (it was the fly's fault!). But in all seriousness, I have the best friends. I haven’t even known them for two weeks, and there they were taking care of me (and passing up a fun night with accents).

However, when I woke up the next morning, Lindsey and Calen both were sick too. We believe it was the fruit from the market, since that was the only common link between us three. They could have washed it with tap water. Not sure. No matter what the cause was, it was miserable.

We had to check out of our room by 11, so while Rachel, Tessa and Whitney went to the beach, us three laid out on the couches in the lobby of the hostel. I was feeling pretty good, but didn’t want to risk it in the sun. Couldn’t say the same for poor Lindsey and Calen though, they looked miserable all day.

Rachel, Tessa and I decided to do a little more sightseeing before we left (Calen and Lindsey stayed at the hostel).

The first place Rachel and I went was the Poble Espanyol. This was built for an exhibition in 1929. This village showcases the different architectural styles throughout Spain. It was filled with shops selling cheese, wine, jewelry and anything else you could think of. It was really beautiful.

Next we went to Teleferic de Montjuic (Mount of the Jews!). This was a cable car that took you to the top of the mountain where Castell de Montjuic is. This was also a great opportunity to see all of Barcelona! One side was the city and the other was the beautiful Mediterranean. This cable car was ten times better than the one in Madrid. Tessa and Whitney were supposed to do this with us, but unfortunately, Tessa couldn’t find her wallet and went looking for it. We believe she got her wallet pick pocketed on the Metro. Things like this make me miss Starkville!

The last thing Rachel and I did before heading to the train station was watch the water show at Palau Nacional. Every night they have a show in their fountains set to music. Usually there are lights involved too, but since we came before it got dark, it was just the water. Still it was very impressive!

Around 40 minutes before our train is scheduled to leave, we arrive at the station. Rachel and I get our luggage, get some snacks for the train and head to grab dinner to take on the train. Calen and Lindsey had gotten there around the same time and were waiting outside of security. After we got our food, we have about 15 minutes until departure. Rachel and I head on through security and hand the ladies our tickets. We had bought a cheaper ticket that said under 26 years of age (which is good since we are under 26). It turns out that to get this price you also have to be a member of some club type thing. The lovely lady would not let us get on the train. She said (all in Spanish), that we needed to change our ticket before we could get on. The train was scheduled to leave in ten minutes. Just our luck. So I call everyone over and we run to the ticket office. The lovely man behind the counter said (again in Spanish) that it was simply impossible for him to convert 6 tickets before our train left. We talked to him some more and he ended up doodling on his computer, had Lindsey swipe her card a couple times and then handed us one ticket stub. We asked him if that was all we needed and he said yes. We literally sprint to security and once through hand the lady our ticket stub. Again, she would not let us through. The train was leaving in two minutes and she wouldn’t let us through. After much arguing, we ended up missing our train. The last train! It turns out, that the man had cancelled our tickets instead of changing them. We tried working something out with customer service but there was nothing they could do. Luckily we all got our money back, but now we were stuck in Barcelona, with no way to get home and no where to stay. We decided our best option was to try and get the midnight bus back to Alcala. After more metro riding we finally make it to the bus station and talk to the ticket office. The 12:00 and 1:00 buses to Madrid are full. Of course! The earliest bus they can get us on is at 8 in the morning…so we took it. It was our only option. We ended up “sleeping” on the hard floor of the bus station. It was freezing in there and it was next to impossible to sleep with all the traffic of buses arriving and departing.

Finally, 8 rolls around and we were headed home. I passed out for the first four hours. Slept like a baby. We got home around 6 (12 hours after we were supposed to). And for some really odd reason I am up at 2 o'clock writing this blog. I guess I am afraid if I didn’t write it now I would forget something. Sorry it was such a long post but so much happened!

So yes, all in all it would seem like the bad outweighed the good this trip. However, the city really was beautiful and I enjoyed visiting the different sites. And even with the bad, we created a lot of memories. One day, we can look back and say…

Remember that time:

-When we went to the wrong station and almost missed our bus

-We met hot British boys with an inflatable shark

-When we got food poisoning and threw up all over downtown Barcelona
-When Tessa got pick pocketed on the Metro

-When we missed our train and had to sleep on the floor of the bus station

I’d say it was worth it.

Paris in four days!!