Patterson and I booked our flights together on Vueling Airlines and set off to test the waters flying out of Barajas Airport in Madrid. Little did I know it is so much easier than flying out of Charlotte. The metro connects directly to the airport terminal and the whole trip door to terminal only takes about 45 minutes. Everything went smoothly, with the exception of me getting felt up by the security lady, and we took off around 8:30. Upon arriving in Barcelona we met up with our friend Amy from Brussels who also flew in for the weekend. A total of 8 girls flew in from places like Brussels, London, and Milan for our friend Mimi's 21st birthday and a lovely weekend in Barcelona.
After we left the airport and road the AeroBus to Las Ramblas, a famous tourist attraction near our hostel, we wandered around until we finally found our hostel, Kabul. The hostel experience was very interesting to me since sleeping in the same room as a 30 year old man from France would never been that normal to me (thankfully). We had 8 beds in one room and lockers for our stuff, the bare minimum. For those of you that know me you can only imagine the look on my face as I checked out the sheets and blanket on my bed, I know places NEVER wash blankets and I will try to forget that I used it. We left the hostel and met up with all of the Wofford people in beautiful Plaza Catalunya.
After our great moment of finally reuniting we ventured on to a Mexican restaurant which had a great deal of a 9 euro meal that included chicken fajitas, wine, and dessert, and no Dad it was not Taco Bell. After lunch we split up into little groups to do some sightseeing. Mimi, Molly, Amy, Patterson, Grace Perry, and I went to see the Arc De Triumph in Barcelona. It was beautiful as it was late in the afternoon and the weather was perfect.
Directly behind Arc de Triumph was a beautiful park, Park de la Ciutadella, complete with fountains, walking paths, and lakes. We loved walking around and exploring the beauty as the sun was setting.
We continued our long walk back to the hostel and got ready for a fun night out for Mimi's 21st birthday. We decided to get dinner separately and eat together outside. Somehow I ended up at McDonalds, yes mom you were right about me loving some Mickey Dee's over here. We ate at a table outside and drank some wine and then went to a bar called Ryan's which was a lot of fun. We stayed there and had a lot of fun because the bar wasn't too crowded and was completely overrun with Wofford people, a perfect description of the row. Unfortunately I didn't last long as I got tired from the travel and walking and had to go to bed before the group went to the club. Luckily for me I missed getting robbed at the club like my friend Molly and harassed by a Spaniard and getting spit in the face like my friends Kensley and Amy. I am guessing that since we were staying in such a tourist area that we were targets for crimes like these.
The next morning we woke up relatively early to start our day full of sight-seeing! Ironically I began my day at where else...McDonald's. We then walked through Las Ramblas, a long road of markets and stands, until we found the beach. We started at port Vell and continued to walk next to the water until we were on the actual sand. One of the coolest things about Barcelona is that you can be standing in the beach sand next to the water and stare at the picturesque mountains in the opposite direction. We were so lucky and had beautiful weather, hot enough for me to have been in a bathing suit.
We went and got gelato and sat on the beach and took in the fresh air. Sometimes being in such a huge city makes you feel like you can't breathe so the fresh, salty beach air was all we needed. After the beach we headed to the metro en route to Park Guell, a park designed by Gaudi on top of a mountain that overlooks the city of Barcelona. We turned up a huge hill, in which escalators helped us part of the way, and hiked up to the top to find one of the best views of the city one can find. We were able to see Guadi's unfinished, famous church La Sagrada Familia, the ocean to one direction, and the mountains to the other.
The park was really neat as Guadi's architecture is really one of a kind and looks like it is fresh out of a Dr. Seuss book. We enjoyed hanging out and sitting on the famous wall that is found in a lot of pictures of Barcelona. The wind started to pick up and the sun started to go down so we decided to return to the hostel and get ready for the night. That night Amy, Mimi, Patterson, Molly, and I went to a restaurant on the walk on the way to Dow Jones Bar, the bar we had picked as our destination for the night. In the restaurant we were able to watch the FC Barcelona soccer game, an intense tradition in any Spanish city, as we snacked on our king size Lunchable style pizzas. After our bland dinner we continued to the Dow Jones Bar, one of the coolest places I have ever been. Dad, it was right up your ally. The concept of the bar is based on the stock market. Drink prices rise and fall based on sales and when sales reach a certain point an alarm goes off signaling a "stock market crash" in which drink prices are cut in half or more. It was my kind of atmosphere as all of us girls were able to get a table and talk over drinks. I found the mojitos were delicious but once again I was so tired from such a long day!
The next day we got up ate lunch, at a place called Pans (bread) and company, caught our flight and returned back home to Madrid. Barcelona was such a beautiful city complete with breathtaking scenery and a picturesque beach. The language usage was fascinating as Catalan was used first, a mix between French and Spanish that I could not understand, then English next, and then Spanish, followed lastly by French. Barcelona was an international city as all languages could be heard, very different from the Spanish dominated Madrid. Barcelona had so many attractions to offer and the nightlife was great. Most of all it was so great to see friendly faces from Wofford! I loved being with my friends for a weekend and comparing notes on the abroad experience. I had such a great weekend and would recommend Barcelona to anyone! Lucky for me the Barcelona people, Grace Perry, Molly, Mimi, and Sarah, are coming to visit Madrid this weekend and I am so excited to show them around!
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