BARCELONA

Granada Airport...

I have fallen SO behind on my blogging. My apologies (but mainly an apology to myself because now I have about 3 to write and my memory isn’t as fresh..I should learn by now not to procrastinate..thank you college).

I just woke up from my nap on the roof. I meant to only sleep until 5, but I was so tired and the sun was sooo warm that I woke up around 5:45 to the chatter of my Spanish residenica friends. When they saw I was awake they yelled “hola wapa (guapa…it’s a term of endearment that means, literally translated, “pretty”) como fue tu siesta” (..how was your nap..and then proceeded to tell me I was talking in my sleep a little bit and snoring. GREAT! They thought it was funny though, and it was nice to talk to them for a little bit before heading back into my cave of a room (roomie is sleeping).

I went to Barcelona 2 weekends ago (this past I was in Sevilla, which is southwest of Granada, and I will blog about that “soon”!) and visited my best friends from Minnesota. Katie studies in Barcelona, Sara studies in France, and Tara, in Italy. We actually planned a trip (never thought we actually would be able to fit our schedules) and it was so much fun.

my very official boarding pass

I arrived Thursday night, but not without a little confusion, of course. My flight was leaving Granada airport (an airport with 4 gates, the smallest I have ever been in) at 4 and I had to take a bus to get there. I wasn’t quite sure where the bus picked up thepassengers, but I had some sort of idea. Around 1:30 that today I was told that I should probably check which airport I was flying into because Ryanair (airline from HELL) always sends their passengers to one about an hour and a half outside of Barcelona to cut costs. I quickly realized that I was going to be flying into an unknown airport and that my friend Katie was supposed to meet me at another. To complicate matters further, she had no phone at the time because she had just been robbed. As I sit down to lunch, my Spanish friend Lorenna begins to ask me what my weekend plans are. I tell her my situation and she looks mortified, much more concerned about me than I thought to be about myself. She asks (in Spanish of course) “do you at least have an address for where your friend lives in Barcelona?” and I respond with a stare and a “no” shake of the head as I start to laugh. She starts laughing and saying “oh of course not, why would you need that? She has no phone, she doesn’t know what airport you are at (and neither do you), and also, the bus leaves in 10 minutes to take you to the airport.” At this point I realize I should probably get my things together and leave and not miss the first leg of the trip, the bus from where I live to the airport 30 minutes away.

The bus schedule said it would be there at 2:45, but the bus didn’t end up arriving until about 3:15, which was fine, because I ran into one of the teachers from my classes and she talked to me for a little bit and tried to reassure me about my trip ahead. Once on the bus it took about 20 minutes to get to the airport and then I had to check in. My boarding pass was HAND WRITTEN (very official) and the security was a joke. I think I could have walked through holding a machine gun and they would have let me go through. At the airport I was so relieved to have made it that far that I ordered a croissant filled with chocolate and a beer (everyone else had a beer, I thought I should try to fit in since my blonde hair usually has the opposite effect).

just walking out to the plane
reunited with katie!

I arrived to the airport in Barcelona and found the bus that would take me to the real part of Barcelona where my friend was. Luckily I had gotten a hold of Katie through her friend’s phone and she knew not to wait for me at the other airport. On this bus I sat next to a really nice Spanish lady who worked for johnshon and Johnson in London as a financial expert. Since I am a finance major it was nice to talk to her and she aksed all about my family and friends and I think my Spanish improved during this, yay! She kissed me goodbye (as do all Spanish people) and wished me luck with the rest of my trip once we arrived. Katie met me at the bus stop and I was SO excited to see her. I didn’t realize how much I missed her until I saw her running through the bus station to hug me (or I may have been the one running…). We conquered the metro together (she is a pro at it now) and arrived to her homestay around 9 or 10. We went out with her program friends this night and it was a lot of fun. We went to bed pretty late (together in her twin bed) and she had class in the morning. I slept until about 11 and Katie went from class to the train station to pick up Sara who took a train from France. Seeing Sara made me SO happy and we went out to lunch together and ordered paella and some sangria.

WHAT ARE THOSE...left= pig feet, then i dont know what animal's skull that is, and then some nice brains..
really creepy people that were everywhere in the city

Right after lunch Tara arrived with her friend from Milan who is her roommate there and her name was Katie too (her real name is katelin, spelled like my sister..weird..i had never seen anyone else spell their name the same). We walked around the city a little bit and Katie gave us a tour of some of the things in Spain. We went into this HUGE market and there were whole baby pig bodies and entire heads of what looked like eagles staring back at us. But there were nice things too, like candy and fruit and things that were not dead animals in a glass case! That night we realized that we didn’t have a blow-dryer at our hostel so sara being the genius that she is, remembered that there were fans in the hallway and that we could rig these up to be our “blow dryer”. It actually worked! We went out to eat and then went to a big bar that looked like a HUGE cafeteria.

Here, my friends from Granada (stina and grayson) who decided to travel this weekend too, met up with us and so my Minnesota friends AND Granada friends got to meet! If only my Kansas friends could have been there..my life would have been complete…This bar was a lot of fun and it was set up just like a cafeteria with long tables and things like that. After this we went to a club right on the beach that Katie said was fun, and it was! We stayed out pretty late and woke up around noon the next day to do more exploring.

our blow dryer
friends!

Katie took us to a couple monuments and then to the beach! We laid on the beach for a while while we watched a lot of Chinese people go around asking anyone/everyone multiple times if they wanted a massage. I was very tempted..but decided I probably shouldn’t disrobe in public without a swimsuit on. The beach was incredible and the ocean was GORGEOUS..i am so jealous that Katie can just go layout by the beach after class any day she wants. We got a great meal near the beach this day (Saturday) and then later met up with Grayson and Stina again for the night. We went to the same club again and it was fun, again!

The next morning we had to check out of the hostel at 11, and this was a feat. The hostel, which I forgot to talk about, was SUPER nice. It had a full kitchen and living area, 2 bathrooms, and then about 5 different rooms that people could rent out. We got a 4 person room and it had 2 twin beds and then a bunk bed. The staff was really nice and it was a great first hostel experience (considering I have heard some horror stories about some looking like converted mental institutions…)

port
on the beach! sara, tara, katie, me, katie
park guell

We went to Park Guell, Guadi’s park, once we got up and moving and it was SO awesome. The park was thought up by Gaudi to be a place for the richest of the rich in Barcelona and it would be where they lived and had all of their events and such, but unfourtunately about 1/5 or so of the way through the project got called off. Everything at the park was beautiful. There is a section that is these awesome caves and it is where america’s next top model was filmed for the finale when the finalist were ghost brides and had to run through the caves! The view from the top looked over all of the city of Barcelona. We ate at this park and ordered some bocadillos (sandwhiches) and then went to lay on the beach for about an hour or so before we all had to depart. Sara and Katie dropped Katie (tara’s friend), Tara , and I off at the bus station where we met up with Stina and Grayson to catch the bus to the Barcelona airport. I said my goodbye’s to tara (who I had missed SO much. I think seeing her again made me miss her more) and Katie and boarded my plane with Grayson and Stina.

caves!

I ended up getting home around 10 on Sunday night and I was exhausted. The weekend was such a blast and I still don’ think it has hit me that I just got to see my friends in EUROPE for a weekend.

I will blog about Sevilla soon. I am going to Ireland this weekend for Stina’s birthday (which is today) and Grayson’s bday (which is either tomorrow or the next day). They both turn 21!

We are flying into Shannon and visiting a huge castle there and also the famous cliffs. Then we are bussing to Dublin for the rest of the time. We leave tomorrow around 5! I have midterms march 30 through april 1 so I have to start studying (boooo).

Miss you all

view of barcelona from top of park guell