Hello everyone!!
Sorry I slacked a bit on the blog. The last 16 days have been busy. My intensive month ended on Sept. 28 and it went really well. I had a mini break from the 28th til Oct. 4th, when my real classes started, so my friend Cynthia and I went to Barcelona! We were supposed to meet up with her friend after we left the airport but when she turned her phone on after the flight, she realized she didn't have the pin to unlock her phone...so we couldn't call her friend Vicki. I was waiting for Lisa to finish school so we could stay at her apartment, so we walked around the Barrio Gotico with our carry-on luggage in tow. Now that I look back, it was funny but at the time...those bags felt really heavy. We took pictures of the old buildings and wandered through random streets near the ayuntamiento (government square). We called our friend Margarite from our intensive month class, and met up with her near La Sagrada Familia. Marg was with 3 other friends, Paula, Gina and Kristen from her school Kalamazoo. We had lunch at this pizza parlor called Pizza Marzano (surprisingly the Italian food in Spain is pretty fantastic). We had a really fun waiter and had a delicious menu of the day, sitting near the window, looking out at La Sagrada Familia.
Afterwards, we went to their hostel to wait for Lisa to call me back and the hostel was in a great location, right on Las Ramblas...which is a huge shopping/tourist district by the Port. Unfortunately things didn't work with Lisa's apartment because she hadn't moved in yet, but that's why you should always have a back-up plan. Cynthia and I got a room with Paula and Margarite for two nights at their hostel and we got a chance to spend the weekend with their group. We walked down Las Ramblas towards the port and took pictures of the different stands and characters. Cynthia and I took some pictures with Edward Scissorhands lol (don't worry I know the pickpocket schemes...I had a tight grip on my purse). Some of the girls bought souvenirs and then we decided to go back to the hostel and chill.
Later that night, our hostel was sponsoring a group outing for 5 euros to a discoteca right on the beach. Normally the cover is like 25 euros but it was such a good deal. It was soo awesome...tons of lights, different lounge levels and tons of dancing. Towards the end of the night, Cynthia and I were waiting to meet up with the girls outside of the discoteca but we ran out and played on the beach for a bit since it was right there.
The next day we woke up mid-morning and hiked up to Parc Guell (yes I know this is my second time but it was just as beautiful as the first). I was the leader of the (wolf)pack (Paula said due to my navigational prowess, I could be a member haha) since my sense of direction is (to be honest) spot on. We climbed to the top, and took pictures from the mountain of stones with the cross on it (see my pics). We went to the mosaic seats for the panoramic view and then there was something I missed last time. The section of the "caves" where they filmed America's Next Top Model was right there and so we took some pictures and made our way out of the park.
We made our way back but we were starving....so Paula told us about this place with really cheap but delicious bocadillos (sandwiches). She was right...they were fantastic. I had a bocadillo catala (sausage, green peppers and onions with some cheese). I can't remember the name of the place but it was right by the government square (where we were the day before) but we had come from the opposite direction on this really cool street with old lanterns, with a gorgeous church, restaurants, shops and ice cream parlors.
After lunch we decided to take a nap, but then a few hours later Cynthia and I were both up and we decided to visit the market (mercado) next to our hostel. It was huge, with tons of food, ranging from chocolates, smoothies and crepes...to seafood, meat and olives. It was pretty cool. After trying some smoothies, we went back to the hostel and met up with the girls and decided to walk up Las Ramblas to Plaza Cataluyna, we walked by the Hard Rock Cafe, El Corte Ingles (the big department store chain here), Sephora and other stores. The plaza itself was huge with tons of pigeons and fountains...classic. After a few hours, we all had dinner at this kebab place and it was soo delicious but then that night Cynthia and I went to sleep and the girls went out to enjoy their last night in Barca.
The next day, Cynthia and I moved to a different hostel (since there was overbooking at ours??) and it was called Equity Point Centric on Passieg de Gracia. We also found an Orange store nearby so Cyn could get her pin number to unlock her phone. Honestly, Passeig de Gracia is the prettiest street in Barcelona. I loved our new location. Our hostel was a block down from Gaudi's Casa Batllo (the really cool, curvy apartment building...see my pics). Our hostel was pretty awesome. I admit to having a preconceived notion about how hostels looked/operated (Judy..you were right), but it was awesome. It all depends on what you pick. We shared a room with 6 other people...some were from Australia (Melbourne...Liz Young!). For a relatively low price, we had a 7 floor hostel, with an internet cafe, multiple meeting rooms, CLEAN bathrooms/showers, and a rooftop lounge/bar area with a sundeck. I took some pics from the top, so you all could see Passeig de Gracia After we moved in, Cynthia and I decided to walk up and down the street to see our new surroundings. It was just beautiful and sunny, the perfect shopping (window-shopping) weather :). It was interesting because basically starting at our corner, the street just got more impressive. Across from us was Cartier, the Burberry, Gucci, Louis Vitton, Salvatore Ferragamo, H&M, and more. There were lots of restaurants with terrazas (outdoor seating) and tons of people out.
We had gotten in contact with Cynthia's friend Vicki and met up with her and her friends from her program in France. We met up in Plaza Cataluyna and chatted for a bit and then decided to meet up at Plaza Espanyol (catalan)...to see fireworks. We all went our separate ways to eat and change clothes, then around 9 we met up at the plaza. We walked to an area where we could watch the fireworks behind this gorgeous building (see pics) but we found out the hard way that the show was finished...and there wouldn't be a water show. That sucked but we just sat around talking for a few hours. Vicki and her friends headed to the train station and Cynthia and I had Chinese food on that pretty street near Las Ramblas near the government plaza. When we went back to our hostel, we met a new roommate Julia, a 30-something year old woman from Australia, whose life basically mirrored Eat, Pray, Love. She was so friendly and extremely interesting. She had recently gone through a bad divorce and decided to take off to Bali and travel around Europe just to find herself again. It was really inspirational...looking at all of her photos, seeing all of the places she had been to and all of the people she had met. We took some pictures in the hallway with Julia, so now Cynthia and I are two more friendly faces in her fascinating collage of life. Our only regret is that we couldn't spend anymore time with her...since it was the last night (and like 1 am). Meeting Julia was definitely a wonderful way to end the day.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip with some hiccups but we handled it with ease. We left the next morning really early and got back to Madrid around 11am. It's moments like these that I realize, I can survive in the real world. It's definitely interesting having to rely just on yourself...using your smarts and language skills to get around.
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Now you are all caught up and I've started my classes for the rest of the year. I'm taking 5 culture classes, one with my professor Juan from September, and other classes such as arte y civilización, gramática, España contemporánea and my fave, Cine Español. This weekend (today is Sunday 10/10/10!) is a holiday weekend. On Tuesday, Spain celebrates it's national day (El Dia de la Hispanidad) and so Monday we have off from school :). I'll go to school Wednesday and Thursday, but I leave Thursday night for Paris (we don't have school on Fridays here). I'm going to stay with Evelyn, Sam's bff from home, who I hung out with during spring break! I'm so excited! I'll take plenty of pictures and I'll be SAFE! I know there are terrorist alerts floating around Europe but I will enjoy my time here in a safe way. My professor Marissa said, "we've been on alert for the past 10 years...don't let this stop you from traveling, just be smart". I completely agree.
Talk to you all soon....and make sure you keep reading. Only 2 more months (and a week or two) to go!
Besos
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