Since I had 3 weeks off from school, I figured I would take advantage of the time and head off to Spain a week after I got back from Belgium. My Grandmother is from northern Spain, and it has always been a dream of mine to go. Though I was only going to visit one city, I knew it was going to mark the beginning of my travels in Spain. My good friend Monika, whom I attend school with, told me she was planning on going to Barcelona the same weekend to visit her boyfriend, so we planned the trip together. We took a BlaBlaCar — which is a service here in Europe, where people post their car rides. For example, ours was a girl with her boyfriend who were leaving from La Rochelle and driving to Barcelona on Thursday and then coming back home on Monday, which is exactly what we wanted. So, with this service, they post their information, and the size of their car/baggage allowance/departure time and then they sell the seats in their cars. It’s honestly so cheap, you would be insane not to take advantage of it.
So, Thursday morning finally came, and Monika and I met up at the Cinema in Les Minimes, and waited for the couple to show up. They came about 2 minutes later, we loaded up the car and left La Rochelle. It was an 8 hour dive (kind of dreadful…but it wasn't too terrible), and we stopped in Bordeaux and right before we got to Barcelona. It was so funny because as we were driving through France, it kept getting warmer, until we finally got to Spain where it was HOT, and we were all stripping off our millions of layered clothes (since we left France in cold weather) in order to adjust to the temperature. After 8 hours of sleeping, writing, talking, more sleeping, and not knowing what to do with myself, we finally made it to Barcelona. They parked the car, and we all took the metro together to Plaça de Catalunya and we all parted ways. I started the (mild) one mile walk to Emily’s apartment (yes— the same Emily I went to London with). I looked like a complete idiot because I was walking around with my luggage and my massive pillow in hand, but, hey, who cares?
As soon as I walked up to Emily’s apartment, she was peeking out of the window with her roommates and they instantly yelled out my name, opened the downstairs door, and I took the elevator up to the 3rd floor to meet them. Since they were in the process of getting a new roommate, they had an empty room, SO, I lucked out and had my own room. I settled in, and we relaxed for about 45 minutes before Emily took me out to see the Sagrada Familia by night — which was absolutely incredible. To be honest, if you analyze it, parts of it look terrifying and monster-like, but, overall, it was impressive to see. We decided to have pizza at a restaurant that had the best view of the Sagrada Familia. The food was great and our waiter was just going 120% out of his way to flirt with me. It was officially the first time someone had told me that, “My tan skin enchanted them.” LOL, why thank you, but no thanks. After we were beyond stuffed, Emily took me through the Old City which was SO enchanting. There were street musicians playing romantic music and the Gothic Quarter was just something else. I fell in love with it, just as it was, lit up by the moon. We went back to the apartment and we stayed up with her roommates for bit just talking, before we all went to bed. By this point, I was already starting to get sick (thanks for that, rainy Belgium), so I passed out in a matter of seconds as soon as I got to my bed.
So, Thursday morning finally came, and Monika and I met up at the Cinema in Les Minimes, and waited for the couple to show up. They came about 2 minutes later, we loaded up the car and left La Rochelle. It was an 8 hour dive (kind of dreadful…but it wasn't too terrible), and we stopped in Bordeaux and right before we got to Barcelona. It was so funny because as we were driving through France, it kept getting warmer, until we finally got to Spain where it was HOT, and we were all stripping off our millions of layered clothes (since we left France in cold weather) in order to adjust to the temperature. After 8 hours of sleeping, writing, talking, more sleeping, and not knowing what to do with myself, we finally made it to Barcelona. They parked the car, and we all took the metro together to Plaça de Catalunya and we all parted ways. I started the (mild) one mile walk to Emily’s apartment (yes— the same Emily I went to London with). I looked like a complete idiot because I was walking around with my luggage and my massive pillow in hand, but, hey, who cares?
As soon as I walked up to Emily’s apartment, she was peeking out of the window with her roommates and they instantly yelled out my name, opened the downstairs door, and I took the elevator up to the 3rd floor to meet them. Since they were in the process of getting a new roommate, they had an empty room, SO, I lucked out and had my own room. I settled in, and we relaxed for about 45 minutes before Emily took me out to see the Sagrada Familia by night — which was absolutely incredible. To be honest, if you analyze it, parts of it look terrifying and monster-like, but, overall, it was impressive to see. We decided to have pizza at a restaurant that had the best view of the Sagrada Familia. The food was great and our waiter was just going 120% out of his way to flirt with me. It was officially the first time someone had told me that, “My tan skin enchanted them.” LOL, why thank you, but no thanks. After we were beyond stuffed, Emily took me through the Old City which was SO enchanting. There were street musicians playing romantic music and the Gothic Quarter was just something else. I fell in love with it, just as it was, lit up by the moon. We went back to the apartment and we stayed up with her roommates for bit just talking, before we all went to bed. By this point, I was already starting to get sick (thanks for that, rainy Belgium), so I passed out in a matter of seconds as soon as I got to my bed.
Friday started off with a super early morning because we were going on a hiking adventure to the Mountain of Montserrat. We waited for two of their friends to get there, and we headed off to the train station. I think the 5 of us had a total of 8 minutes from the time we got to the train station, to buy our tickets, and run to the train…luckily, we made it just in time. Here’s the catch — naturally, the train was slam packed, so we enjoyed the wonderful train ride (approx. 1 hour) while sitting on the floor. Woo-hoo! Once we got to the Mountain, we had to take a cable car up, in order to get to the city. It really didn't look that high up, until you closer you watched the cable car, you realized that it disappeared into the mountains. So…up we went into the unknown. The town was cute and simple with really gorgeous green scenery. We walked around for hours, just enjoying the nature and took pictures of anything and everything. We even managed to strike a few yoga poses on the edges of cliffs. Remember I said I was sick? Haha…everyone was walking around with tank tops, sweating, and I on the other hand,w as walking around with a swollen face (aka ENORMOUS cheeks…hello chipmunk face), and a sweatshirt on, practically freezing. It made the adventures funnier.
We sat down and had sandwiches for lunch, before heading off to find the famous statue (that you could climb), only to realize, it was right behind us. So, we went down the stairs and looked at each other, questioning who would go first. I think I forgot to mention that the very last few blocks of the statue hang over the edge of a cliff and if you fall…WELP, you're a goner. SO. Levi and I took two deep breaths and volunteered to go first. I LITERALLY crawled the entire way up…the way babies do..putting one leg up not he next step, then mulling myself up while clenching on to the steps with all my force. I was in the lead….and as soon as I made it to the second to last step, I made the mistake of looking down. Holy moly. I grabbed onto the very last step and I just could not manage or bring myself to go up. And that’s how my mini-anxiety attack started. I started laughing uncontrollably…but it wasn't just any laugh…it was like a laughing-sobbing-tears are coming down my face- kind of laugh. Everyone and their mom stopped to watch me. Meanwhile, Emily and the other two girls were capturing photos of this very epic moment, until Emily yelled out, “LEVI! Comfort her!”. To which Levi responded by patting my shin, and saying “It’s gonna be okay.” LOL okay so now that we’ve established that my life was a joke on that statue…I finally got my grip together and pulled myself up to the very last step. I carefully brought my legs around, and struck a pose for pictures. Meanwhile, my audience, was clapping for me hahaha, it was quite funny. After they snapped a few pictures, Levi and I traded places, got more pictures taken, then I practically sprinted down the statue as fast as I could so that I could be on safe land again. WHEW, that was an adventure in itself. We made it up the steps and the girls decided to go up. As Levi and I were standing there waiting to take pictures of them, a guy came up to me and said, “Wow, after watching you…I’m terrified. I don't know if I can do this.” Mind you, this is like a 30-something year old man…and I (imagine that), had to tell him, “No, no, you can totally do it. Just don't look down. It’s not that bad.” Hahaha, so he handed me his phone to take picture while he went up after the girls got down. I’m proud to say, he made it up without a problem, unlike some of us *cough cough*.
Since it was then mission accomplished, we took another train even higher up into the mountains, and enjoyed a nice walk with snack time, in the middle of the gorgeous open space. By the time we decided to walk back down the mountain, our feet and legs were begging us to please stop…but, we didn't have that luxury. SO, we continued on the long and (down-hill) walk, which was practically a light jog since it was so inclined, and it only took us a short 45 minutes. We then headed back to the train station, where we were determined to get seats for the ride back home. As soon as the train doors opened we sprinted in inside to snag 5 seats, and we all took small naps that were much needed. Once back in the city of Barcelona, we parted ways with Nora and Nina, and Emily, Levi and I headed back to the apartment to take nice, hot showers (and I needed to load up on medicine, because I was partially dying). That night, Levi was kind enough to make us pasta for dinner and then we went down the street to the corner grocery store to buy some ice-cream for dessert. We enjoyed our delicious ice-cream and then Emily and I began to plan our next day — aka doing all of the touristy things. We planned for about an hour, and then headed off to bed to get some rest for the long day we had ahead of us.
You can read all about our tourist adventures on the Barça Part TWO Blog.
XOXO
You can read all about our tourist adventures on the Barça Part TWO Blog.
XOXO