Super Long Post about Barcelona!

Hi everyone!

Since you’ve last heard from me I have been to THREE more countries! Isn’t my life just crazy? I’ll start with my trip to Barcelona, Spain.

We (my room mate Sayuri, our friend Kristen and myself) left last Thursday (October 26^th) after classes. Our other friend, Margaret was supposed to come with us, but her bank refused her credit card transactions or something and so her ticket didn’t go through. And we didn’t find this out until about a half hour before we had to catch the train! Very hectic! From Florence we took the train to the airport in Pisa. Our flight to Spain was delayed, so we didn’t land until after 11pm. Then there was an hour bus ride into town! As you can tell it was very late by this time. We didn’t really know how to get to the hostel since the metro was closed. A girl from Gresham, Oregon (!!!!!) heard us from across the street and came over to help us get a taxi. We got to the hostel at about 1:30am and we were so exhausted!

The Hostel was great! It was very clean and everyone we met there was incredibly friendly. The staff was so helpful the whole time we were there. I would highly recommend the Hostel to anyone going to Barcelona. It was a great location too! Walking distance from just about everything.

Friday morning we got up early and went to the Picasso Museum. On the way there I found STARBUCKS, I was so excited I just about peed my pants. I went 4 times total over the weekend. The museum was great! It didn’t have a lot of his famous stuff (I believe most of that has ended up in France). But there was a lot from his early years, when he lived in Barcelona. The museum itself is in this really cool stone building and we got a great student discount there. Student discounts were pretty good all over Barcelona actually. We had planned to go to the Chocolate Museum next. But we got there and decided it was sort of silly and not worth our euros to see the sculptures of chocolate. Next on our list was to hit up the churches. We went to Santa Maria del Mar first, because it was closest to the museums.

Santa Maria del Mar was spectacular! It was very beautiful inside and out. My favorite part was the giant stained glass “Rose” window. Unlike the churches in Italy I have been too this one didn’t have frescoes, or white washed walls. The walls were plain stone. But the shape was the same. Cross-style with a central nave and smaller alters along the sides. I paid €.90 to light a candle.

After Santa Maria we wanted to see the Barcelona Cathedral. But it was under renovation so the outside was covered up and it was closed for siesta when we got there. Sad day. So we headed over to see La Rambla and eat lunch. There was so much to see on La Rambla! People were selling pet birds and tons of flowers. There were some tourists shops along the street too and a lot of street performers. We walked from top to bottom. It ends at a statue of Christopher Columbus. For lunch we stopped at a little place by an open-air market. At the market we got samples of these really delicious chocolates and I bought some almonds. Yum! We explored more of that area, walked down Rambla del Mar (it’s a continuation of La Rambla over the water, so it’s basically a really big foot bridge) and ended up in a mall of all places. I bought a sweater.

By this time we were really tired so we took the subway back to the hostel and had time to lie down before the next adventure.

We wanted to go see the Magic Fountains so we got directions from the staff and headed out there. It was amazing! The fountain is in front of a palace so that adds to the magic! They show is set to music, including ET, Titanic, and Star Wars themes. The show plays several times a night so we caught the one at 7:30 and were ready for dinner by the time it was over. My friends wanted paella, so we found a place that looked pretty good. I didn’t get the paella, but I tried some of theirs and it was okay, but not something I would order myself. But they loved it. The waiter at the restaurant was kind of mean to us. My friend Sayuri is Japanese and he was saying things to her in Japanese that were very rude. He wanted to take us out to a club after dinner and “get us wasted.” It’s because we told him we were American. American girls have quite the reputation in Europe and my friends and I are not like that so we were pretty offended.

After dinner we went to an Irish Bar where they had live music. It was really relaxed and we got to just chill and drink Sangria. Sangria is delicious and you all need to try some. The only bad thing about the bar is that everywhere in Spain is the smoking section. So my clothes were reeking of smoke after we left.

Saturday we slept in because we went to a lot of places the day before. When we got up, we bought day passes for the metro and headed up to see the Gaudi stuff. We started with Casa Mila. It was designed as an apartment building. We used our student discounts again to go up in it. The roof is the coolest part, it’s like the world of Dr. Seuss up there: all colorful and fun shapes. After that one, we went over to the Sagrada Familia: a church over 100 years in the making. I didn’t think it still took centuries to build a church with all of today’s technology… The Sagrada Familia is most impressive from the outside. In my opinion paying to go inside is overpriced and not worth it (although, it is the admissions that finance the construction). We basically paid to go into a construction site! There was nothing to see on the inside.

We headed over to the beach next. No we didn’t swim in it, it was October! But we did have some really good kebabs for lunch by the beach. We also found a row of hundreds of flag poles and decided it must be from when the Olympics were in Barcelona in 1992, I believe. We did a little more shopping, bought the tourist t-shirts and things like that. We also went to a Medieval market/festival. I bought a giant donut thing because I thought it was cool looking. We heard music and followed it back to the square in front of the Cathedral. There was almost a full orchestra on the steps of the cathedral and people of all ages (older people dominating) dancing. We had heard about this, but didn’t know if we would find it, much less stumble upon it! They dance Sardana, a Catalan (not Spanish) tradition.

For our last dinner in Barcelona we went out for some great tapas. We got the Sangria made from champagne too. We didn’t headed out for dinner until about 10:30pm, so we were totally doing it all the Spanish way! We had chorizo, meatballs, patatas bravas, Spanish omelet, salads, bread, and flan for dessert! Patatas bravas are my favorite! After we finished dinner we went back over the Ramblas area, it was so crowded! We wanted to find a fun bar to hang out at or a discotheque without an expensive cover charge. Didn’t really find those things, ended up at an Australian bar though, it was pretty cool.

Sunday morning we had a flight at 11am so we got up early to take the bus out to the airport. On the way to the bus station Sayuri’s purse got stolen! Some man ripped it right off her body in one of the scariest moments of my life. None of us were able to react from the shock of the situation. It was like 7:30 on a Sunday morning across the street from the bus station!

Some girls from Germany who were living in Barcelona (they must speak several languages, including perfect English) came and helped us call the police. We went to the station and filed a report with the police. They said purse snatching is pretty rare, but pick pocketing is extremely common in Barcelona. We knew about the pick pocketing, and were almost expecting that. But not this, this took us all by surprise. The police said that since her passport was stolen she should still be able to fly with the police report. We learned the hard way that was not the case.

We got the airport and the airline wouldn’t give Sayuri a boarding pass. We didn’t know to do. She was crying and we were all freaking out. The police had given us the phone number of the Japanese consulate in town, so they were our only hope. I decided to stay behind with Sayuri while Kristen took the flight and went back to Florence.

The consulate was closed because it was Sunday. Dang. But Sayuri was able to talk to them on an emergency line. They said her passport could be replaced the next day. So she had her parents fax her birth certificate and so eventually figured out a plan. I bought a plane ticket for a flight to Rome for 7:40am the next morning (Monday) and Sayuri was going to go to the consulate right when it opened and then try to get on the flight at 7:30pm that day. We took the bus back into town and found a place to use internet and sent e-mails to our professors about missing school on Monday. Then we had extra time so we went up to Guell Park, designed by Gaudi. It was a really cool park that has all this amazing tile work. Then we got some dinner and went back to the airport. We had to sleep in the airport because without a passport Sayuri couldn’t stay in a hostel. It was so cold in the airport! But there were actually a lot of people sleeping there too. In the morning I got on my flight (which was delayed) and took the train from Rome to Florence. I got to Florence in time to run to school from the train station and take a test. Luckily I had my text book with me so I had been studying all morning for the test.

Sayuri got her new passport as planned and got on the flight to Rome that night. But she didn’t make it to Florence until the next morning because she got to Rome after the last train had left that night.

All in all it was quite the adventure!

I had tests in Operations Management and Introduction to Florence the next day (Tuesday). And then on Wednesday we didn’t have school for the trip to Bosnia…

Bosnia was so great! I LOVED it! Blog about that soon…

And PS Pictures from Barcelona are on my Shutterfly. Sorry there aren't any in the post this time. If the link doesn't work its http://jessgiveup.shutterfly.com