Last weekend I took a trip to Barcelona, but before that I had one of my long lost SMS (St. Mary's School) friends come to visit here in Sevilla. Mark and his friends came here for their spring break and the poor guys did not see the sun here in Sevilla. However, we still had a great time despite the rain. What is there to do in Sevilla when there is rain? Take a 4 person bike with 5 people and go get lost in a random park ... and pray to god you survive! It was a blast. Other than that we got to see some sites, catch up, of course get a few beers for the guys, and it was awesome seeing him! I am sure there are tons of good stories I am forgetting to post, but regardless it was worth mentioning!
So later that week I ventured to Barcelona. It honest to goodness started off to good to be true. Got to the metro station a tad late and the metro pulled up right as I was walking down the steps...walk off the metro to see the airport bus waiting for me, bypass a long Security line, you catch my drift. Too good to be true? Turns out ... yes. Left early Friday morning and got into Barcelona late afternoon to meet up with my roomie and SMS round two: Jordyn Ellis and Austin Scieszinski. We just walked around by our hostel and saw the marinas and Las Ramblas... a street a few kilometers long with shopping and crazy people dressed up...see below
Kind of down by the marina and right by our hostel
After seeing what we could in the daytime, we headed down to El Palacio and saw a fountain show at night. It was BEAUTIFUL! This fountain show was by far better than Vegas' Bellagio...marginally. It was colorful and played a mixture of first opera ...not so great...and then DISNEY songs in Spanish. It was SOOO cool. There were hundreds of people here of all ages ... and this is where we met up with some more friends from UW --- you can find them anywhere around Europe! Also ran into one of my friends Tori who I met in Paris, have a class with, and who happens to live with one of my best friends from home ... SMALL world.
The fountain in front of el Palacio
From left to right we have Jordyns friend JAckie, Jordyn, Austin, Adam, me R'Taija and it was such a beautiful night...but the night was still young. After the show we were STARVING. Adam, who is a good friend of Austin and who I had met ohhh in 6th grade showed us a great place to eat. We had "tapas" so we tried potatoes, peppers, house Sangria(YUM!) and our favorite...chorizo del diablo. They were little pieces of sausage lit on fire in front of us and they had to stay on fire for 10-15 minutes and they were SO worth the wait. After dinner a few of us decided to get snazzy and head out for a night on the town. HAd a great time meeting more people and we took a metro to get to a club down by the beach...fun until I was picpocketed in the club. Happened faster than you can ever imagine and Austin even tried to track the guy down ... he was on a mission. Frankly I am glad he didn't find him because who knows what would have happened. There are worse things in this world, but man oh man that guy hit his bullseye for the night. He got my camera (hence limited pics) money keys and wallet. Silver lining? Everyone was okay and Passport/credit cards were left at home. Austin and I trooped it home later seeing as we had no money for a cab. Some guy even tried to picpocket me (for the 3rd time) and at that point I about gave him my purse since it was already empty, but Austin fended him off being the soldier that he is. He even insisted on giving me a piggy back ride part of the way since I was in heels and struggling ... I am sure we were quite the site! One American guy even approached us on the way home and Austin yelled NO NO NO GET AWAY hahaha and I proceeded to tell him to relax, the guy was honestly lost. Austin had the paranoid side down for both of us, but I have been lost in a foreign city at night (Mallorca ring a bell?) and I could sympathize with the guy. Austin set me down and we helped the lad and were on our way home ... Can't thank Austin enough but hey SMS always sticks together... Need I say more? Our class is fortunately pretty close so that if any of us would ever need help, you do not really have to ask for it. Just another reason why I am so fortunate to have the upbringing that I did ... makes a picpocket not look like the end of the world. That and the fact that mom and dad were first to assure me that it did not matter as long as I was okay and happy, and I have already received my package with an old camera and ready to play Ultimate Tourist again ... watch out!
The next day we woke up to begin what may have been one of the worst ever days to tour a city... but we made the most of it. Literally I have never seen constant rain in Europe like we did in Barcelona as it NEVER stopped raining once on that Saturday. Jordyn and I went to the ATM... and that was no treat. We got splashed on the road a few times and were already soaked before our day had began ... and we saw who we think was a homeless man wearing a garbage bag with a hole in it with his head sticking out and it looked so funny we were laughing hysterically... read on.
AFter getting money and trying to make plans for the day, and after hording as many free muffins as possible (I think that is the only thing that got Austin out of bed before 10am) we decided to take a tour bus around the city becuase HEY, it would be dry and we could see everything..right? WRONG AGAIN. We paid 30 euros to have to sit on TOP of the tour bus and have the rain come pouring down on us on wet seats. We did not want to sit down because then our pants would be wet, but it took about 5min before we got yelled at and were not really given a choice. Granted the lady did give us a SHEET OF PAPER to sit on, how nice... That is when Jordyn and I (well mostly me...this is worth taking credit of) to buy trash bags like the homeless man we saw earlier. I will never forget buying those bags and trying to poke holes through them. Kayla-- think Ace Ventura and the Rhino... what I would give to be able to post that picture of Austin making a hole with one on the wrong side of the bag... he had like a cone head the whole day as well as a hunch back. Easy to say we were making a HUGE fashion statement that day...and Jordyn and her friends are Fashion majors but at that point who cares.
Before getting back on the bus, now that we were prepared, we decided to grab a sandwich. We figured we could stand INSIDE the shop.but NO. The lady kicked us outside since there were not enough tables. Again, there were pictures but not yet posted, of us sitting outside a little sandwich shop like wet dogs not allowed inside. We had to tell her what we wanted on the sandwich from outside. Where did we eat you ask? An alley...under an awning we could find. We saw some fine art while eating...or grafiti. Like I said, always have to make the most of the situation you are given.
After lunch it was back on the bus we went. Prepared with our trash bags, we went site seeing. Mind you, "sight seeing" in cloudy, rainy environment was interesting to say the least. We would take a corner and have wind and rain in our faces that even our trash bags could not save us from! We were informed that on top of a certain mountain was the greatest view of Barcelona, well, it was a great view of a cloud! Then we went to the Olympic Stadium where they were held in Barcelona in 1992. It was really cool to see the stadium and it could hold about 50,000 people.
Me, Jordyn and Austin inside the Olympic Stadium!
Me outside of a cathedral.
After we had toured the city by bus we were all hungry, cold, and more or less ready to be done touring for the day. We decided to head for a bite to eat. Just when we thought things could not get worse, a car came by us on the side of the road and completely drenched whatever part of us was not already soaking wet. Hiloarious to them I am sure, and funny to look back on, but at the time all I could do was nod and think What Next? We got dinner and called it a night and woke up to a BEAUTIFUL morning ... and I only had 3 hours to take it all in since my flight was so early.
Austin and Jordyn being the troopers that they are, even though they had all day, got up early with me and man oh man did we make every minute count. First stop -- most touristy spot of all -- Sagrada Familia. This is a church whose original architecht died and so Gaudi took over, and the construction of it is still being done today. Gaudi is an artist that is extremely famous throughout Barcelona but this is his best work.
We did not have time to go inside and tour, so up next was Park Guell which also has Gaudi influence throughout the entire park. In my opinion, it was like a big kid Candy Land!!!
the beautiful view from the park ... you can see Sagrada Familia in the distance!!!
Me in front of the park. You can go up and admire the artwork and mostly just look out at the beautiful city ... quite a different view than I had the day before.
Right by where you walk in... so beautiful!
The crew by the park.
After we had headed in the COMPLETELY wrong direction (my bad!) which was a major uphill mistake, and after nearly dying because I walked in front of a cab (yellow ones don't stop) we finally found the metro and wanted to make one last stop before I had to leave for the airport (Was on a strict time limit...you better believe I was late!) While on the metro we were planning on taking a gondola ride and seeing some palace thing ... instead we did a DEAD SPRINT to the Fenicular ... a tram more or less and MADE it ...to have the doors shut in our face and then tease us by sitting there for a solid minute while we had no choice but to wait .. Go figure! Oh well, like I said being with good company makes it much more bearable. We had to wait like 15 min. for the next one to come and at this point we were not really sure what we were taking or where we were going; turns out we had another beautiful view of the city. We ran outside, literally took a few snapshots (See below) and sprinted back to make the tram we just had taken up and made it BARELY!! take that karma.
One last shot of the SMS crew.
At this point my friends had already left me because I was late, and the "connecting Metros" HARDLY connected and we had to sprint (no lie) from one to the next, probably a 1/2 mile, and I still managed to be very late. Like I said, they were troopers for hangin in there with me and it was worth every minute of it (well, at least to me!) Finally made it back to the hostel, said goodbye, and I was on my own to get to the airport with some time to spare. Got to the bus, paid for a ticket, turns out was on the wrong bus, sprinted to the other one, he said no I was originally on the right one, the guy on the original bus shut the door in my face and drove off ... you catch my drift on how the trip went, right? I pity the fool who had to sit next to my sweaty self, but oh well, I had my free muffins that we horded so I was content to be on my way to the airport *FINALLY*. I saw enough on that last day to know that I want to return, and so my tickets are already booked to see it with my girlfriends in MAy and I could not be more thrilled!!
Have many more adventures to tell about Gibraltar and tomorrow I am Switzerland bound so stay tuned for more!
Peace, Amor, Espana
Ana :)
PS -- Since last post, would like to say have been saying extra prayers for Aunt Mel, the people in Japan, and everyone involved in Lybia events !!
¡Qué vida loca vives, Annie!!! Pues, también un estudiante mío fue robado en las Ramblas, pero mi estudiante era muy fuerte y rápido y cogió el hombre y su cartera!!! Ahhh, Barcelona.
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