Barcelona!!!

Here we go for Spain Part Three: Our Weekend In Barcelona. Here's how it went down: Saturday morning I got up and ate breakfast, quickly packed up all my last minute things, and Susan and her husband drove me to the airport in Madrid for 8am. It was a little early, but I was excited so it was all ok. Once I got there, I found my terminal and met up with Talia and Irene, who were with Irene's parents. They are so sweet! I only wish I understood the things that they were saying... But it was all in Spanish so I suppose it's understandable... Anyways, we got through security and everything with no problems and waited for our flight. This time, I was ready with motion sickness meds that I bought the day before in Madrid. Although most of you know me as the girl who never takes anything for anything EVER, motion sickness pills are something I swear by. So I took my pill and I have to say, it was the smoothest flight ever. Of course, it was only an hour long. But I don't care, I'm happy.

We arrived in Barcelona and had to figure out the way to get to the city center. Not the easiest thing to figure out. It involved a bus and a train (where there was a random guy playing an accordion. ON the train) and we did eventually get it and everything was fine. We did plenty of sight seeing during the day, including the buildings designed by the famous architect, Gaudi. The first thing we saw when we got to the center was a giant cathedral, very detailed and absolutely gorgeous, but unfinished, because he died before it was done. It had baskets of fruit on the points of the towers and huge carvings of Jesus on the cross and the saints on the walls. We considered going inside until we found out that it cost 12 euros a person and the line wrapped all the way around the building. We settled for a few pictures outside it and then set off to see his other buildings. Of course, none of us were familiar with the city, so we ended up lost more than once and walked around for a while, turned around a couple times before we found the correct street. On this street were a few more buildings designed by the same man, and they were also beautiful. I'm a big fan of Spanish architecture. By this time of day, I was feeling like my stomach was going to cave in on itself. But we couldn't seem to find a restaurant anywhere. Finally, we found a little Italian place, classy, but not too expensive and we ended up there. The first thing that they do is put bread and olives on the table. In the States, things like this are included in your meals and it's just something that you get when you go out to eat. But of course, not in Europe. And I knew this. So I asked Irene that if we didn't eat them, would we have to pay for them? She said we would have to pay regardless. So Talia and I each ate one by the end of the meal, thinking well if we're going to pay for them anyways... I got a cheese pizza and Talia got risotto and we split them. Once we got the check, we realized that we were in fact charged for the bread that we ate and not for the one roll that had been left. Fail. One euro for each one. Oh well.

That afternoon, we took the subway and went to the Park Guell. Basically, it is a huge park with a ton of really cool sculptures, buildings, and architectural beauties. The iconic thing there is this huge lizard that made out of different colors of glass pieces. I can't even explain the place because it was so different and unique. I've never seen anything quite like it. There were also street performers everywhere there. But these were very entertaining. One group in particular was a group of five guys, one reminding way too much of Steve Seritti (if you're from my neck of the woods, you know who that is) who played the trombone, and another with dreads that went almost to his knees. They played a sort of Spanish ska. They called themselves "Microguagua" and they were ridiculously entertaining. We stayed and watched them for at least 15 or 20 minutes before walking the rest of the park and watching some other guys blow huge giant bubbles. After we finished up in the park, we went back towards the city center to try to find our hostel. This was the fun part...

We spent the next three hours walking around the city, asking tons of different people, looking for this place. Finally, we called the hostel and they gave us directions. Turns out that their website didn't have the correct information on it so our Google maps weren't right. But in the end we did find the place and it was a very very nice hostel. Even bigger and nicer than many hotels that I've stayed in. We had our own shower, though we had to share a bathroom with a few other rooms. But it was clean and comfortable and we were all happy with it. We took a nice nap, only to wake up around 10pm to go grab dinner. Yes, people eat dinner that late in Spain. We decided for dinner that we would just go to a little grocery store a few numbers down the road and grab something to take back to the room. We got cream cheese and crackers, yogurt, I got a salad, and a couple of donuts plus drinks and headed back to the room to eat. We talked and ate and got ready to go out for the rest of the night.

We wanted mostly to go dancing. So we took a subway and a bus to where we knew there was a club to go to. However, once we got there we were told by the people around it not to bother and to try this chain of free ones first. We figured, why not, and spent the next hour or so in this sort of strip mall of bars that played music. The only problem was that we couldn't seem to get away from the creepy guys... But we did get pulled into one bar just to get free drinks! They all played music and had people dancing and many of them even had an... "exotic dancer" of sorts... After trying out each one, we decided that the first one was best, and went back there. This time around, we met a group of British guys that were there for a bachelor party and ended up hanging out and dancing with them for the rest of the night. We had a great time, and by the end of it, we had become pretty good friends with one of them who was named Max. I had a wonderful time! We didn't leave until about 6 30am and we didn't get back to the hostel until 7. We slept til about 10 45 because we had to be out by 11 and then we went to the beach for the day.

Sunday was calm and we didn't do anything except veg out on the beach all day and tan. The water was freezing, but absolutely beautiful. It was wonderful to be on the beach! One thing about the beaches in Spain... There are many women who walk around without tops on. Not all of them, but many. I'm not gonna lie, it did shock me a little. There were also people walking around trying to sell drinks, food, henna tattoos and massages. We fell asleep in intervals, and at the end of it all, each of us was somewhat burned, even me. Talia was the worst, and it turns out that she found herself with a bit of sun poisoning :( Around 4 30pm, we left, grabbed some food from another little grocery store, and headed to the airport to catch our plane home. P.S. They have Oreos AND Chips Ahoy in Spain. I'm so jealous.

We got to the airport with plenty of time and I took my motion sickness pill and everyone was good to go. I fell asleep before we even took off and stayed sleeping for the whole flight, only waking up slightly when we left the ground. We ended up being late landing and Irene's parents were there to get us. They very kindly drove Talia and I back to Susan's, where I took a quick shower and we crashed for the night, both exhausted and looking forward to a good night's sleep.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed our time in Barcelona. I think it is a beautiful city and I'm very glad that we decided to go, even if it did turn out to be a little pricey. But I would definitely go back in a heartbeat!

Tomorrow I am headed off to the sea (here in Belgium, no worries), but I will try to post Spain Part 4 before I leave! For now, I want to get some sleep. Bonne nuit !

16 days...

So I have started, yet again, to pack. I probably doubled my load of clothing. But I stuffed it all in the suitcase and, luckily, it all came to about 46 pounds. Which means I have 4 to spare!! But I didn't pack any pajamas, underwear, shoes or accessories yet. I think I'm just going to have to shell out the $50 for a second suitcase. Oh yah I looked it up today. It's $50 for the second and $100 for every case after that. Of course, I get a carry on and a personal also. But that doesn't do me a whole lot of good. Right now, my packing list consists of:

-4 pairs of jeans

-1 pair of khaki pants

-2 pairs of dress pants (one brown, one charcoal)

-11 casual skirts (wow that sounds like a lot when I write it out...)

-8 casual dresses

-2 fancy dresses

-12 casual shirts

-2 vests

-9 pairs of shorts

-4 sweaters

-6 fancy skirts

-3 blazer/jackets

-15 tank tops/sleeveless shirts

-1 casual jacket

-4 button-down shirts

-6 dressy tops

-8 cardigans

-1 Rotary blazer

Phew! That's a long list... And again, that's without some things... Maybe it is too much and I should cut it down... But my style is so big for me!! I'm known for it. Ughh this is just too hard. How about I just stay home??

P.S. Now that I have actually finished this entry, it now the next day, meaning I only have 15 days left now. It's all going too fast.

Flying... :/

I got an email yesterday that told me all about my flight. Which airline I'm taking, where I'll be leaving from, when I'm leaving etc etc. Now I had already known that I'm leaving on August 17th and I was told I'll be flying out of Philadelphia. I had also been told that I had to find my own way to get to Philly. Due to that fact, my parents and I had decided that it would be best to drive there and it was all going to work out perfectly because I was going to get to visit my Ryan (boyfriend :D) on the way there! (He is leaving on the 11th for the University of Pittsburgh) But also my sister had said she wasn't sure if she would want to come with us to see me off because of band camp... really... I'm not kidding...

HOWEVER!!!

Upon getting this email yesterday, I discovered that I am still flying out of Philly, but they have already scheduled me on a flight from Cleveland to Philadelphia! It was all included in cost, and I would leave around 11 30 in the morning... I think... If I recall correctly... So this works out for my sister being able to see me off and for the majority of my best friends to be there too. But what about Ryan?! Well then I later find out that he is coming back!!! He has to be there on the 11th for ROTC stuff, but he doesn't have to be there for class for a while after that, like the 23rd or something. Which I had already known, but he was just going to stay there in between that time. Well now he has decided that he will come back on the 15th!!! :D :D :D :D :D

I apologize for my super girly lovestruck ahhh moment, but it was necessary hehe Afterall, I am a teenage girl. It happens. I'm sure all you ladies out there would be just as ecstatic :)

So basically, I fly out of Cleveland on the 17th around 11 30am, get to Philly around 12 45, and have a 5 hour layover. Ughhhhhh. So then at 6 15 I leave Philly to go nonstop to Brussels and I'm supposed to get there the next morning at like 8 o'clock. Gahhh it all gets more and more real every day. Every time I find out something new about this trip it's like someone is smacking me in the face with a fish (I have no idea why I used that analogy) and I just have a reality check. Woah I'm going to Europe!!!

I have no real qualms about flying. I find it enjoyable. Though the last time I flew anywhere was 6th grade... But I remember liking it! Hehe I just hope I don't end up next to someone with bad motion sickness... I don't handle puke well... At all. Actually I'm quite scared of it. The only thing that I am really concerned about with the flight is doing it alone. Once I get to Philly I know that I'll be with a bunch of other exchange kids that are also on their way to Belgium. But I'm pretty sure I have to handle this first flight from Cleveland by myself and then figure out what I'm doing once I get to Philly. By myself. That is the scary part. And then once I do get to Brussels, what then?? I don't speak enough French to understand what people are going to be saying! And then I find my host family and then what?? How do I speak to them!! I speak some French (I had 4 years high school French) but not enough to have conversations... GAHH

Ok well I think that is enough rambling/complaining/rejoicing/whatever else emotional rollercoaster nonsense for one post... Wow this post has all kinds of emotion in it ha