Rome Sweet Rome

This weekend we planned a spur of the moment trip to Barcelona, Spain.  Unfortunately, since it was such short notice, I didn't get to see my friend Chris who is studying in Barcelona, because he was away on a school planned trip to Madrid.  Overall thoughts on Barcelona...WILD.  From the nightlife to the food, everything is crazy!

Day 1:

We left on Friday night to head out to Barcelona.  Sometimes out weekends are short, so we try and make the most of our time.  We all left straight from Italiaidea (our intensive Italian class).  Two people left at 6:30 p.m. and took a shuttle, while the rest of us left at 7:00 p.m. and drove with Kaleigh's host mom Pat.  We arrived at the airport, met up with our group, and headed on our way!  Adios!  We flew with Ryan Air, where the seats are first come first serve.  Luckily, however, we reserved seats in the exit roll for only a few dollars more.  So worth it!  Hour and a half later and we arrived in Barcelona at 12:30 p.m..  When we hit the ground, the plan blasted the baseball charge song.  Hard to type out...Ba Da Da Na Da Na CHARGE!  Then everyone started clapping.  Very reassuring.  Once we arrived at the airport, we had a shuttle waiting for us to take us to our apartment.  

                  

Our Apartment.

Shortly after, we arrived, dropped off our stuff and headed out to dinner.  Apparently midnight is the prime dinner hour in Spain.  My friend said they ate late, but I didn't believe it until I experienced it.  Dinner was another interesting experience.  Their main food here is Tapas (assorted appetizers), but with an odd twist.  They serve normal dinner items, but then they add a random side ingredient.  After dinner we headed back to our apartment, (which was absolutely adorable), and called it a night.  There were 99 stairs to get to our attic apartment right off of Las Ramblas Street.  So many stairs!  Is Europe trying to tell me something?

Sagrada Familia

Day 2:

Lauren and I got up early to go grocery shopping for food for the weekend.  Unfortunately it was raining extremely hard.  (The first rain we have had all trip, so I can't complain).  We decided to chill in bed and head out when the rain let up.  No progress, so Lauren ran down the street and got the essentials, and I went back with her later to stock up on some more things.  After breakfast we walked around and all met up at Dunkin Donuts.  I ordered completely in Spanish, and although they speak Catalan here, I am still proud that I haven't lost my touch.  Afterwards we bought our Metro passes and headed to Sagrada Familia, one of Gaudi's most famous works.  We walked outside the Metro and there it was; you couldn't miss it!  

The church was absolutely beautiful; it looked almost like a sand castle.  The inside was equally as beautiful.  Unfortunately, since it was raining, we couldn't go to the top of the tower, but we did get audio headsets to learn all about the church. The church was started in the late 1800's by Antonio Gaudi, and it is still being worked on today.  Inside, this church is architecturally unlike any church I have seen before.  From its use of color, to the window shapes, and overall structure, it was absolutely stunning.  We spent almost 4 hrs inside the church.


Let me take you on a tour...

Above the Alter.

Crypt Church.

While in the church, we found someone to take a group photo for us, and ironically they were Americans teaching English in Madrid.  They were super sweet.  We told them that Kaleigh and I wanted to be a teacher abroad and they gave us their information and said that if we were ever in Madrid we had a place to stay.  After, we headed to lunch, and I had my first experience with KFC.  What I thought was a good experience ended badly.  Aaron eventually got very sick and Kaleigh and I didn't feel good as well.  We went back to our apartment and had a siesta...like a fiesta, but with sleep.  I am not one for short naps, so instead I watched "Finding Neverland" in Catalan.  It was just as good in another language.  I put the Catalan subtitles on to help me translate faster.  After the siesta, we went to the beach (La Barceloneta) in search for IceBarcelona (an ice bar near the beach).  We had no luck finding it, so we decided to just sit down and have dinner.  We searched everywhere along the harbor and finally decided on a small place called Martini's.  No one was feeling great, and they forgot Kaleigh's food, so dinner was kind of a bust.  Aaron decided to go for a walk to see if that would help him feel better.  A 30 minute walk later, and throwing up in a bush, Aaron came back with a huge smile on his face.  His first words, "I found the ice bar."  We left our dinner place and headed to the bar.  Included in your bar price was a drink, a jacket, and a pair of gloves.  We headed inside and we had an absolute blast!!

We couldn't stay long, because my fingers were so cold.  Inside it was extremely tiny.  There was a bar, a sculpture of Sagrada Familia, benches, and tables.  Everything was made out of ice...obviously.  Afterwards, we were on such a high that we decided to go to the beach.  After the beach, we headed to another bar and stayed there until 3:30 a.m..  Woof!  The crazy thing is, on our way back to our apartment it was almost 4:00 a.m. and people were still waiting to get into clubs.  Crazy.  I was ready to crash.  

The next day, Aaron and I planned on going on a hike; however, he still wasn't feeling well.  Once Lauren came back from Mass, we headed to the Picasso Museum.  On our way there I had an amazing piece of dark chocolate with rice crispies inside.  

We finished the museum in 45 minutes.  Then we went and met our other friends at Parc Guell.  We agreed to meet at 3:00 in front of the fountain.  Lauren and I waited, but we never saw them, so we decided to head up to the top.  The Mosaic work was so beautiful and the views were just as great!  We waited at the top for a while before heading up even further in hopes that we would find our missing friends.

We began to hike up higher along the park, and while climbing, we ran into an American couple who were teaching English in Florence.  Another America couple teaching abroad...I've always wanted to be a teacher abroad; this is a sign.  Turns out that the girl we met was from Bucks County and went to the same high school as my friend Andrew.  What a small world!  We continued on our hike and who was walking towards us, but our missing friends!  They were running late and got lost on their way to the park.  The six of us began to hike to the top of Parc Guell where the three crosses are located.  We finally made it to the top and we all were standing on this small rock over-looking the city.  Needless to say, the views were once again amazing.   I am not afraid of heights; however, I am afraid of falling off a cliff.  Getting down off the rock was scary, because the stones are so unstable and there is no railing to hold on to.  After the hike we went and got lunch and then headed back to our apartment to relax.  Lauren and I decided to go shopping at the street market and then headed down to the Harbor.  After, she met up with a friend for dinner and I went back to the apartment to sleep.

Day 3:
Wake up at 2:30 a.m. to get ready to head back to Rome.  Our flight wasn't until 6:15 a.m., but 3:00 a.m. was the only time the shuttle could pick us up.  Luckily, I made it through security pat-down free (unlike my arrival here).  This plane ride was one of the only times I have ever had motion sickness.  10:00 a.m. and we arrived in Rome.  All in all, I would say our second trip was a great success.  What was most interesting about this trip was that being in Barcelona made Rome feel like home.  I missed being in Rome.  On our way back to Rome, when we landed, the pilot said, "Welcome home..."

     "That...is Neverland"
            ~J.M. Barrie