Then, on Thursday night, Steph, Cara, Sydney, Korissa, and I had a flight to Barcelona, Spain. It was such a process to get to the airport. We booked our tickets through called Ryan Air which is a low-cost air airline in Europe. We found out that there is definitely a reason it’s low-cost. First of all, it only flies from and to the most obscure and inconvenient airports. The main airport in Rome is Fiumicino, but we had to fly out of Ciampino which is more on the outskirts of the city. We found out that there was a shuttle for 3 euro that took people from Roma Termini, the train station, to Ciampino. To get to Termini, we had to take a very cramped and uncomfortable bus across town and then had to figure out where to buy tickets for the shuttle and then where to actually get on the shuttle. We finally figured it out and got on the bus right before it left for the airport.
The ride from Termini to Ciampino was about a half-hour so it wasn’t that bad. Ryan Air doesn’t assign seats so once we got through security, we saw people lining up at the gate already in order to ensure their first choice on the plane. We were about 30 minutes late in boarding the plane which was a little frustrating but I can’t even remember the last time a flight that I was only wasn’t delayed by at least a little. The flight itself was an hour and 15 minutes, maybe an hour and a half. They don’t give you any snacks or drink but instead hand out menus and sell food, along with random other things that you would probably never think to buy on a plane. Ryan Air seriously is the most bizarre thing ever.
The airport that we flew into in Spain, Girona, is about 90 minutes from the center of Barcelona. We bought a ticket for the “Barcelona Bus” and headed into the city. They dropped us off at “Estación de Autobuses Barcelona Nord” and from there (and in the rain – I just can’t escape it), we caught a taxi to Jenna’s apartment. It was about 2 AM at this point and Jenna had waited for us at home because we said we wanted to go out. Steph, Sydney, and Korissa were too exhausted to go out but Cara and I were ready to experience the infamous Barcelona nightlife! Jenna took us to this club called Opium down by the beach which was awesome. There was an electric violinist who played along with the club music and you could actually dance to it; it was the coolest sound ever.
The next morning we woke up early to start our day as tourists. We checked into our hostel and headed out into the city. Our first stop? Starbucks. Italy doesn’t have Starbucks or Dunkin or anything like that so we were all so excited to get some Café Americano! I’ve been drinking a cappuccino pretty much every morning at the café downstairs from our apartment in Rome which I’ve become absolutely addicted to but I still miss my American coffee! I also noticed a lot of other familiar places in Barcelona that Rome doesn’t have, like Domino’s and Subway. I would probably actually have to go there if I studied abroad in Spain because Spanish food is NOT good; luckily, I’m spoiled with the Italian food here!
Our next stop in Barcelona was the famous Sagrada Familia church. The church was designed by the architect Antoni Gaudi and began construction in 1882. It’s still not finished and isn’t expected to be complete until 2030! There are so many Gaudi designs in Barcelona, and you can definitely pick them out because they are so unique! We went inside of the Sagrada Familia which was basically a construction zone. I think it will be neat to tell my future children that I was there while it was still being built, though.
We then walked to Las Ramblas, a street in Barcelona, known for being a popular tourist destination; it has all these crazy human statues (how do you decide to do that with your life?!), shops, and restaurants. It also is home to the La Boqueria, an amazing market. There was a huge selection of fruits, chocolate, and candy; we got these smoothies for 1 euro that were delicious. I made the mistake of thinking eating plain coconut was good so I bought a little package, also for a euro. Nope. Not good. It didn’t taste like anything so I threw it out. What a disappointment.
We decided that the muffin we each had at Starbucks that morning wasn’t doing a very good job at relieving our hunger so we saw a restaurant on Las Ramblas that said a drink + tapas (a traditional Spanish appetizer) for 4 euro. So, Korissa, Cara, and Sydney (the three out of the five of us who can speak at least a little bit of Spanish) asked the lady that worked there about it, and she said we could do it. We were stuck with a waiter, however, who spoke no English (which I’m not complaining about because, after all, it was Spain), and it was very difficult to communicate exactly what we were trying to get. Apparently, we ordered what was probably the most expensive items on the menu (and also got some stuff that we didn’t think we ordered) because when we got our bill it came out to be 77 euro!! We were like, this is absolutely ridiculous. We were trying to speak to both our waiter and the lady we initially talked to about why we were being charged 77 euro when it should have been 4 for each of us, so it should have been 20 euro, or at least something close to it. They told us that what we ordered wasn’t included in the special so that’s how much we owed. I’m an extremely picky eater, especially with random, gross foreign food (plus it was Good Friday so I refused to eat any meat), so I ended up having about one glass of Sangria and 5 or 6 little balls of some kind of cheese. Korissa, who speaks the best Spanish, managed to get the bill down to 50 euro (ten euro for some cheese and a glass of Sangria?! Not okay). We paid and got out of there – we were not happy at all.
After the miserable “quick and cheap appetizer” experience, we went to the Chocolate Museum (aka Museu de la Xoclata). It cost 3.50 euro to get in and the ticket was a chocolate bar. There were all these statues made completely out of chocolate. I was seriously contemplating breaking through the glass and eating them (eating only a muffin and five tiny balls of cheese all day will do that to you). It wasn’t a very big museum, but it was very cool and very inexpensive to get in so definitely worth it!
We wanted to get some snacks and drinks to bring back to the hostel so we stopped at El Corte Ingles, which Jenna told us was like an upscale Wal-Mart. While in line to pay, I look over to the next cashier and see Megan Ruffini, a girl I was friends with in high school. It was so weird to run into like that; I knew she was abroad in Barcelona but I didn’t think there was any chance of running into her. Earlier that day, Cara bumped into a girl she knows from St. Norbert who is in Valencia for the semester. Small world. I also noticed that I couldn’t find my debit card. I had been using cash for everything since I took money out in Rome and had no idea what happened to it. I know I didn’t get pick pocketed, because I was SO careful especially around all the touristy stops like Las Ramblas that I heard are the worst. I guess it must of fallen out of my wristlet when I was pulling out cash.
That night, Jenna took us to a club called Razzmatazz which has four or five different floors that play different types of music. We had to get there early to ensure that we actually got in so it was kind of empty and not that fun at first. Cara and I were so tired from the night before so we left just as it was picking up (clubs in Barcelona don’t start picking up until like 3 in the morning).
Saturday morning I set my alarm for 8:45 AM, because I wanted to take advantage of the free breakfast that the hostel offers which ends at 10 (I’m becoming more and more like my mother by the day). I tried getting the other four girls up, and all of them but Korissa yelled at me for waking them up and rolled over. The free breakfast consisted of three different kinds of cereal, toast, and espressos. It wasn’t bad – I was glad I got up for it. When we went back up, we dragged the rest of the girls out of bed for another day of sightseeing. It was a beautiful day (something I haven’t seen in a while with all of the rain in Rome), and it was perfect for walking along the pier. This was definitely my favorite part of Barcelona. I had no desire at all to go to Spain, and I only did because Jenna was there. However, I’m so glad I did – I loved it!! We sat along the pier for an hour or two and just enjoyed the great weather.
In the afternoon, we split up – Sydney and Steph & Korissa, Cara, and me – because Steph and Sydney wanted to go on the gondolas that go from mountain to mountain and apparently give a great view of the city, and we wanted to go to Park Güell. The park is on a hill and was designed by, who else but, Gaudi. It was in the north of the city and pretty far so we decided to take the metro to save time and to give our legs a break. I was pretty proud of myself because Korissa is usually the “mother” of the group and knows exactly where to go and how to get there, but I took charge of this one. I figured out what line we needed to take and which train to get on. I guess Europe is just causing me to grow up a little at a time!
After we got off the metro, we had to climb some steep streets, ride up a few escalators, and trek up a lot of stairs to finally get to Park Guell. I didn’t realize how great the view of the city would be from there. We could literally see everything – the beach, Sagrada Familia, the water tower … everything. I got some great pictures. There are also buildings, benches, sculptures, and fountains all designed by Gaudi at the park. Korissa, Cara, and I stopped at a restaurant near Park Guell for a late lunch/ early dinner and of course got some traditional Spanish Sangria with it! So delicious!
We headed back to the hostel because there was a FC Barcelona game that night that Cara really wanted to attend. We were all going to go, but our Australian hostel roommates told us that tickets were up to 50 euro or they could be scalped. European soccer games are cool, but I had just been to the Roma one the week before so I wasn’t ready to spend 50 euro on another one just yet. Cara and Korissa still wanted to go, so I joined Steph and Sydney in a nap at the hostel for a few hours. By the way, they ended up not being able to go on the cable cars due to high winds and they were pretty bummed about that. When we woke up, we wandered around for a bar that we could get a beer or two at and we came across this bar called “Obama”. Inside it had all these decorations pertaining to African people and places. We were debating whether or not we thought it had to do with President Obama and we decided that it was probably just an African term or place. However, we asked our waitress and she said that they just opened about a year ago so it more or less was inspired by Obama – we were shocked! Cara called us later to tell us that they were done with the game and were hanging out at this Irish pub called McCarthy’s with her friend Tommy from high school who is abroad in Barcelona for the semester. We met up with them and hung out for a few hours – until about 2:15 AM – when we decided it was probably time to go home since we had to be up at 4 AM for our 8:30 flight back to Rome.
The next morning, we woke up way before the sunrise and checked out of the hostel. We asked the guy at the front desk to call a taxi for us so we could get back to the bus station to catch the “Barcelona Bus” to the Girona airport. We waited outside when we saw a taxi pull up, so I got into it, but the guy from the front desk came out and was yelling at us that it wasn’t the one he called. How were we supposed to know the exact taxis meant for us?! So, I got out and a van pulled up that could fit all five of us in (this was apparently the taxi that was called for us). BUT, the other cab driver from the one that I got in for about two seconds started the meter and began to bicker with the other driver about who-knows-what. We’re all sitting in the van (whose meter is also running and up to like 7 euro without us even moving) getting so frustrated because we thought we were going to miss our flight. We were screaming at the cab drivers who are just disputing with each other (I guess about who gets to take us) that we need to go. I’m using basically the only Spanish I know: “VAMANOS”. Keep in mind that this was 4:30 in the morning, we’re all running off about 1.5 hours of sleep and we had no patience for anything like this. So we just were like, “we’re not dealing with this”, got out of the cab, walked down the street, and got two different cabs.
After the cab, a bus, a plane, a shuttle, another bus, some walking, and power naps wherever we could fit them, we finally made it back to our apartment!
Here are some things that I noticed that differed between Barcelona and Rome:
• Barcelona seems so much cleaner than Rome. It was great not to have to worry about stepping in dog poop, and there was barely any graffiti.
• I came to the conclusion that Spanish guys are definitely more attractive than Italian guys. I think it’s because they still have the dark hair and skin but they have lighter eyes. They also aren’t even 1/10th as creepy as the Italian men.
• The sidewalks are so much wider than those in Rome – the streets too. In Rome, the streets are made of cobblestone and there are so many little side alleys.
• Barcelona is more contemporary and Rome is more historical (obviously). They give off completely different vibes.
• There is more of an American influence in Barcelona. I was saying this before about there being Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Domino’s, and Subway.
This has definitely been the longest entry I’ve written yet, and it took me SO long. On an ending note: Amsterdam on Friday and Munich next weekend! I’m so excited!
