When in Barcelona...

I can’t end this blog without thanking a few people…

Blog readers: Thanks for reading my blog all semester! I hope it kept you updated and entertained!

My home/school friends: Thanks for understanding that I’m horrible at keeping in touch. I loved when I got to talk to you guys and catch up, even though it was a rare occasion.

My abroad friends: Thank you for making this experience what it was. I can’t imagine traveling with a better crew. To those of you I met abroad, it was an awesome run and it better not be the end. To those of you a already knew, keep ‘em coming.

Sari: Thank you for traveling with me at the end of my trip. I would’ve been a wreck if I had to go straight home. It was nice to gradually step away from Barcelona with you.

Grandma and Papa: Thank you for always traveling and making me want to travel. I know I’m not even close, but I hope to be able to get to see half the places you’ve been to. Thank you for the travel money you gave me a few years back- I don’t know how I could’ve gone abroad without it.

Lauren: Thank you for always being on gchat instead of working. I love talking to you during the day while I complain and tell you stories. Thanks for always being on my side. No matter what I’m telling you, if I’m excited—you’re excited, if I’m annoyed—you’re annoyed. And, of course, thank you for not going to Spain while you studied abroad so you could come see me J

Mom and Dad: Thank you Thank you Thank you! I am so lucky to have parents who ,not only, don’t mind if I go away form home but encourage it. Thank you for not killing me after some of my blog posts. Thank you for helping me out with money. Thank you for answering Skype calls from unknown numbers. Thank you for always staying in touch. Thank you, too, for listening to my complaints and excitement. Thank you!

Barcelona: THANK YOU! Thank you for the best 4 months of my life.  Thanks for opening my eyes to a different way of seeing things. Thank you for your history, food, culture and soccer team. Thank you for some amazing new friends and quality old ones.  Thank you for making me cry starting in mid-march when I would walk by myself thinking of leaving. Thank you for your gorgeous weather. Thank you for teaching me how to relax. Thank you for making me grow up and gain independence. MUCHOS GRACIAS!

Boqueria, people walking slow, walking to class alone, yelling about people in English and having no one understand, Bershka, La Cure Gourmande, speaking Spanish, never understanding Catalan, going to the beach mountains and city in one day, Bo de B, traveling with my best friends every weekend, Sarria 29, FCBarca, Sangria, Loco Lunes, looking at Xavi Alcon, Park Guell, facebook messages from Kyke (I wonder if those will stop),  Ayyy Guapa!!, coffee, getting lost on purpose, getting lost on accident, siesta, late dinners, pick pocketers, clutching my purse, hating Madrid for no reason, not fitting in my bed, Pippermints, Las Ramblas, pigeons in plaza catalunya, a 50% being a ‘C’, Magnum Bars, Corte Ingles, never using a cell phone, Visca Barca Visca Catalunya, living surrounded by history, the metro, collecting postcards, Sagrada Familia, guessing if I have hot water, using a drying rack for my clothes, hand washing my dishes, holding my showerhead, not having a TV, rationing Q-Tips, the Monica Lewinsky shot, essays with a prompt that says ‘write an essay about something’, euro shoes,  the many sustainably organized garbage bins, Guadi,  being happy to be alive every time my plane lands, old fashioned elevators, Montjuic, skype, being quite after 11, beautiful historic buildings, Clubs on the beach, SMAK (Stephanie East’cakes’, Meridith ‘international rageface’ Zippo, and Allison ‘pickle’ Lewis), Rocky, showering with shoes, Lester, proximo estacio, searching the city for peanut butter, gelato, passeig de gracia, dan from danone, statue people, expensive water, cheap wine, Hospital Clinic, Caprabo, the Olympic stadium, men selling flowers in restaurants, Pinocchio day care under my apartment, Castells, Carnival, Saying goodnight to people in the US when I wake up, elevator music on airplanes, Mes que un club

French Riviera Pictures

Our flight got into Barcelona around 7:00. After a week long e-mail discussion with the hostel about some pipe problem they were having, we were able to stay in our original place. We put our stuff down in the room and left to get our last meal in Barcelona. We kept our fingers crossed that Bo Da B would still be open (I’ve never been there for dinner before) and we lucked out. A perfect meal to end the semester, and for the first time since March, they were able to make me exactly what I wanted: A vegetable salad with egg. After salads and patatas bravas, we got on the metro to go catch a Magic Fountain show. I hadn’t been to one since the beginning of the semester, so it was really nice to see again. When the 15 minute show ended we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep for our early flight.

This morning we headed to the airport around 6:00am. I needed to get my bags that we put in storage, so I had Sari wait with our bags while I went to the locker. I was 2 euros short of the fee I needed to pay so I went back and got some from Sari and headed back to locker. I tried to put my bills in the slot that looked like it was for bills until I realized the machine only takes coins. Sooooo I had to go to the coin machine and exchange 65 euros for coins worth 10 cents to 2 euros! It took me quite some time to get them into the machine (while the security man stood over my shoulder laughing), but I eventually got my bag.

Now, I’m on the plane headed back to Chicago. May I congratulate myself for making it through 4 months and 11 days without getting pick pocketed in the pick pocketing capital of the world. Hats off to me.

May 20, 2011

Day 1: We had just enough time the night before to put our bags down in our B&B and grab some dinner. We were soooo tired, so we went straight to bed afterwords. The next morning we got up to go to the beach. Warning to all going to the beach: Check the weather before you go. We ended up sitting on the beach in the freezing cold for a while, waiting for the clouds to break. The clouds never broke. In fact, it started raining (for the 9th day in a row on our trip). So we picked up our things and walked back into town to do some shopping. Then we showered and headed to Cannes. The Film Festival is happening there now, and its supposed to be loaded with stars. We also should have checked this schedule because we didn’t see anyone we knew from the french film.

Day 2:

It was BEAUTIFUL outside. We got some sun at the beach in the morning and wandered through the market in town. Luckily we ran into it when we did because its only there on Mondays. It was a really cute antique market and had lots of fun things. Good thing I didnt have that much room in my bag because I would’ve gotten a lot. The we went back to the hotel to get ready for round 2 at Cannes. This time, we looked up the movie before hand and it had a good line up. By the end of the night we saw: Gwen Stefani, Rob Lowe, Sean Penn, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Then we headed back to Nice for dinner and some sleep.

Day 3:

Tuesday we tool the 1 euro bus to Monaco. A of all, Monaco is a country… who knew? B of all, it is the most poorly labeled country in the world. Now I’m glad we went, but i have never been sent in the most round-about ways to get places. We still really don’t think anything was that far, but their signs and directions in Monaco did not line up. Anyway, we went there early in the day. We saw the Monte Carlo (a bit anti-climatic), the palace (which was under construction), and the Cathedral (looks like the rest of em). It wasn’t all bad though. Monaco has some great views and is a really pretty town. I think our trip was hindered by the setting up for the Grand Prix. On our way back to Nice we stopped in a town called Eze Village. It’s an old medieval town that’s mostly full of gift shops, but it was beautiful. It had great views and some French Onion Soup Sari and I had been looking for. Then we went back, napped, went for dinner and spent some time at the famous Wayne’s Bar.

Day 4:

We spent Wednesday exploring Nice. We went to Castle Hill to walk around and then to a Museum and the Hotel Negresco. I really didn’t want to go back to Cannes because I’m not as star-crazy as Sari, but she convinced me to go with her. So I brought me book and read a little while we waited. Turns out the schedule changed and some French film was going first, so we waited another couple hours until the movie we came for premiered. In the confusion, we met 2 sisters from Canada who were there expecting the same film. Being Canadian, they spoke fluent french and figured out what the deal was. Even better they talked to the paparazzi and got us their ladders to use that night because they werent coming back! Too bad not all the stars of the show came, but we did see Keith Richards, Jodi Foster and Kirstin Dunst.

Day 5:

Today we woke up and packed then walked around town for a little. We went back to the market area (its a fruit market the other days) and then got some lunch and headed to the airport to go back to BCN for the night….

May 19, 2011

Our last day in Ireland was spent in Dublin. We woke up extra early to get to the Guiness Storehouse as soon as it opened. We did the tour, saw how they make the beer, taste tested, saw all their advertisements through the years (did anyone else not put two and two together that The Guiness Book of World Records is, in fact, Guiness??) After the tour, we did some shopping around town and got some lunch. Then we were off to the airport for the next stop: The French Riviera.

May 14, 2011

1. I can understand Spanish better than an Irish accent.
2. We were in ireland for 8 days. It rained 8 of those days.’
3. To accompany the rain, there were mild hurricane-like wind conditions
4. Sari now understands the issue of Europe vs Food. We searched the entire country for ‘spicy wedges’ after seeing them on our first restaurant’s menu but they didn’t have any. We also went, what i like to call, ‘restaurant hopping’. Eat a little at one place, walk around for a bit, go get more food at another place (real life example: nachos, walk, Chinese).
5. Sari found the greatest chocolate in the world. We stopped at a chocolate shop on the ring of kerry tour and got some treats. She got Wilde Irish Chocolate Buttons… never to be seen again. If found, please return to Sari Freier.

The only song they have in Ireland… Galway Girl

Ring of Kerry

May 12, 2011