Barcelona Trip and Last Week of Spain

Barcelona was really fun. The pictures are up on Facebook already, so check them out!

We got into the Reus airport late, because our flight was delayed. That messed up all our transportation plans to get into Barcelona, because all the trains and busses had stopped running for the night. We flew into Reus (an hour and a half away from Barcelona), because it was tremendously cheaper, and there was a flight directly out of Santander. So we had to pile into taxis - costing us around 35 Euro each. Ouch. But we finally got there, checked into our hostel, and were ready to go eat.

One of our group had already been to Barcelona in the past led us to this fantastic Mexican restaurant. The food was yummy, and it was made even better by the fact that we were starving. But, as are all things in Barcelona, it was expensive. Some people in our group went out to some bars after that, but my roomates and I went home so that we could get up early and see as much as possible on Saturday.

Saturday morning we got up, ate at the hostel, and hit the town. There is a major street in Barcelona caled Las Robles (I think that's how you spell it). We walked all up and down that street. There are street vendors, souvenier shops, and street performers. The performers are all dressed up in costumes, and they'll do funny or scary things if you give them money. I didn't give anyone money - there were enough other people there paying.

There was a huge rugby match planned for later in the day, and all the fans for both teams were out in full force. They were dressed in Rugby jerseys (is that what they're called? Anyways, they were wearing the Rugby outfits the players wear), or at least in the colors. One group of fans were all dressed as the Vegas Elvis - a white jumpsuit with a giant patch for their team sewn on the back. Then we saw a sea of people coming at us in their yellow jerseys. There was one family of three walking in the opposite direction with the other team's jerseys. When the two groups met, the little kid in the small family screamed the Spanish equivalent of "Your team sucks! My team is number one!" Since it was a little kid, there was no riot, but it prompted the yellow sea of fans to sing and chant and dance - you could hear them long after we (and the kid) were past them. Crazy Rugby fans may almost rise to the level of Football Hooligans in London.

We saw some other great stuff too - we went to a shoe museum, the Picasso Museum, and to the city Cathedral. They happened to be having mass there when we went, so it was really cool. Every Saturday night after mass, there is a band that plays out on the front steps, and all kinds of people gather there to do a traditional dance - everyone standing in a circle and dancing together. It was really cool. I got some videos of it.

After that, we decided it would be wrong to be in a city right on the Mediterranean Sea, and not at least set foot in it, so we headed to the beach. By now it was almost 7 p.m., but we went anyways. When we got there, we found the rest of our group all there - drinking Absynthe and swimming. So, we ran and jumped into the Sea. It was so warm and nice. I wished I had spent all day there too. But in the end I'm glad I saw the things I saw. I sort of wanted to try the Absynthe, but it wasn't the "real" kind, and I'm not drinking black licorice flavored anything if it's not authentic absynthe. So I didn't. My trip to Europe isn't exactly following the Eurotrip movie, but that's ok. I'm having a great time as it is.

My camera died while I was at the beach, so I don't have any pictures of us going out dancing that night, but it was fantastic. We all got really dressed up, and I even wore heels. We went to a club called Catwalk, and they played great music - a lot of hip hop - none of that electronica stuff Europeans love so much. We got there around 1 am (early for Spain), and we left around 5 am. I think I danced for a solid four hours straight. My hair was so sweaty and my beautiful dress was drenched, but I had a fantastic time. I drank a little sangria before going out, but managed to only spend the 20 Euro cover charge at the club plus a little for a bottle of water there. It was so fun.

We went back to the hostel and slept for a couple of hours before we got up and had to check out and get to the airport. It was so great. I would love to go back, though. Barcelona is huge, and one full day is not really enough time to see everything. I didn't even go to the biggest, most famous landmark - the Sagrada Familia. It is a chathedral designed and build by Gaudi. And I'd like to go to the Gaudi museum and the Parc Gaudi. But next time I go, I'll be prepared for the expense.

The last week of Spain was pretty fun too. We kept saying that we were going to make the most of it and go to the beach every day and go out every night, but we were all getting a little tired. We had a group field trip on Tuesday, and we went to some other old city and then up this scary, windy, narryow road (really scary in a bus) to a mountain. Then from the top of that mountain, everyone took a gondola up to the very top where there was still snow and excellent views of the countryside. I didn't go, because I didn't think it would be worth it - it was expensive to take a 4 minute ride up to the top, take some pictures and come down. Besides, by now I was getting really tired of going everywhere in a big group. I wanted to relax and have some quiet. So I stayed down and read my book. Professor Peeler stayed down too, because he's afraid of heights, and it worked out well, because we had a long conversation, and I think we bonded.

Then Wednesday was overcast, and we were all studying for our Music Law final on Thursday. Thursday we didn't go to the beach, because we were taking a final all afternoon. But Thursday was the last day of classes and finals, so we all went out Thursday night. We went dancing again (I love Europe for this), and got silly. At one place we went to, they played some old-school 90's club songs, and we had a dance circle. I did an awesome running man, and got cheered. It was fun. Then later in the evening, someone told me I had some serious dance moves, and I felt awesome.

We spent Friday packing and hanging out. Some people left on Friday. Those of us who didn't leave went to the Irish Pub one more time and played Monopoly in Spanish one more time. Then I lost Monopoly in Spanish one more time. Our bus to come to France didn't leave until 9 pm Saturday, so we spent that day finishing packing, cleaning up our apartment, and relaxing. It was sad to leave there on one hand, but on the other, I was ready.

I almost felt like I was ready to just come home. I was tired and I was burned out - hanging out with a group of people all the time is exhausting. I just wanted to be home, with Mike cuddled on the couch watching movies. It's the most comfortable happy place I know. I still want to be there, actually. But now that I'm here in France, I'm getting pretty excited about this program. I think I won't be as social this time - even though it's mostly a different group of people. I think I will stick to myself more, go off by myself more. My French is improving drastically. Today I bought a fan from a guy who spoke absolutely no english. (The fan was a necessity - it's mid-90's here already, and it's not even July.)

The first person from the France group is arriving tonight. She was on the Spain trip with us, but she didn't take classes - she got a job. She speaks Spanish really well, and she interned for credit at a law firm in downtown Santander. But now she's going to be taking classes with us here. I'm taking only two classes here in France, but they are each two credits: International Intellectual Property and International Human Rights.

Well, I've gone on long enough. Goodbye Spain adventure, hello France adventure!