We didn’t arrive into Barcelona till late Sunday night. Luckily, Jenna had stayed at our hostel once before and made friends with Maria and Rafa who work there. They were so welcoming and glad to see us. Maria made us spaghetti and Rafa offered tea. What we had planned on being a fairly early night turned into hanging out with what seemed like old friends.
Monday was all about power touring! My theory is that I was only there for a day and I wanted to see all I could for the money that was spent to get me there. Jenna will say that she is not a fan and that I won’t “stroll” with her, but she secretly likes it since her buns are so in shape now. We hit up Sagrada Familia first, which is just indescribable. It’s a church originally designed by Gaudi but has had many architects as it has been built over the years. It’s actually still under construction, but the exterior is unlike anything you will ever see. It’s weird and cool and gothic-esque and pleasing to the eye but not at all. From the brilliant colored fruit mosaics atop peaks to the turtles on either side of the main doors to the funky windows, nothing really goes together on the exterior. From there we went to Parc Guell, which is a big park with lots of Gaudi stuff in it. It was really cool, but the weather wasn’t the best so not as enjoyable as it could have been. Pretty much anything famous in Barcelona has to do with Gaudi’s architecture and such. He was quite a strange dude, who definitely teetered on the line between brilliance and insanity. Monday night, Jenna and I met up with my friends Alex and Ben, who are studying in Barcelona. We went to a GREAT tapas place where I enjoyed my first tapas meal complete with croquettas, a Spanish omelette and other authentic food. Then we went to a chapitos (sp?) bar. The business plan behind these places is essentially to sell a HUGE variety of cheap shots in mass quantities. I have never seen such a variety of crazy shots. I honestly didn’t know there were so many ways to take shots or cool ways to light a bar on fire. 
I won’t lie and tell you that I didn’t take a few, but no worries, I drank responsibly. From there we went to a crazy discoteca, or club by American standards, called Autozutts. It had multiple floors and bumpin music. A good time to say the least. Before I go on, let me just explain something about the Spanish culture. They do everything late. They get up late. Take siesta from 3-6ish. Eat dinner late (10pm or later is normal). Then they go out late. Nothing starts poppin’ till early morning, which is why people generally take the last subway to go out then the first one in the morning (after 5am) to get home. And that’s just what we did. We actually got to the subway 10 minutes too early (at 4:50am) and had to wait for the first metro. Jenna was done for after our power tour of Barcelona. I think her eyelids felt heavier than hundred pound weights. It was pretty funny! This brings us to Tuesday morning, the morning of our departure for Madrid. Our flight was 11:40am and we planned to wake up at 9:15 after a short nap at the hostel. When I heard Jenna’s voice asking if we should be up at 10:10am, I about lost my head. What!? Our flight was in just over and hour and we still had to pack and get to the airport. We were packed and ready after the most chaotic 10 minutes of my life. The other girls staying in our room thought we were off our rockers, which is often the case with Jenna and I. We ran downstairs and felt a little better after Maria assured us we could make out flight if we hurried. Sprinting to the main drag to hail a cab, I was flippin’ out. It was our luck that we hailed a cab with its gas on empty causing it to be the only cab in the entire city to drive under the speed limit. Awesome! We made it to the check-in counter 40 minutes before departure. I was so relieved until they told Jenna that it was too late to check her back. Standing at the security line, I yell to Jenna to just come on and we’ll check the bag at the gate. She wasn’t having it. Still delusional and not quite awake, she was worried about her liquids being thrown out. Granted it was only an 11 euro ($16) flight, but there went my 11 euro down the drain. After trekking from one information desk to another, we have 3 options: really expensive flight that afternoon, expensive train ride, or bum somewhere for another night in Barcelona and figure it out later. Much to my disgrace, we settled on the expensive train ride. We went through quite a bit to get to the train including amusing some elementary-aged school children who laughed hysterically when I called Jenna “loca,” which means crazy in Spanish. ‘m sure we made a great impression of Americans as Jenna demanded that one boy give her his seat on the bus to the train station. It was fairly entertaining to say the least. Once on the train, it was a nice train, but not worth what we paid in my opinion, especially since we found out later that the not so informational information desk failed to mention the cheap bus option. It’s a sunk cost now, but I’m still a little bitter. This brings us to Madrid, which is basically a cool, new (for Europe), big city that I don’t have much desire to go back to. It’s one of those been there done that feelings. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and even got to rest a little, which was a nice change, but it’s not top of my list. People in Madrid, or Spain in general are certainly not accepting of any American ways. They only speak Spanish and don’t like when you get in their way. Oops. I try not to be that typical tourist, but I just can’t help it. Sometimes I need to whip out my map so I don’t turn the wrong way or go slow so I don’t miss something I’m looking for. I hate these people in Florence with a passion, but I had to be one in Spain. Luckliy we had Liv on our side.
Olivia is Jenna’s best friend and roommate back in the states. She is studying in Madrid this semester and was so kind to act as our personal tour guide. We saw all the big sites including Plaza Real, Prado museum and Sofia Reina, and the Palace Real. We also went on a Teleferic ride (a little gondola ride to see a view of the city), but it was quite a disappointment. We ate at the most authentic places with the best food including the Museo del Jamon and a SUPER authentic tapas place, where we sat on little stumps at a tiny table and ordered octopus which was slimier than expected, and El Tigre, which has the best mojitos and all you can eat tapas. I might have gone overboard on the patatas bravas, but they were good! We also had delicious chocolate with churros. It was just a great food experience all around. We went out one night to a club called Palace where other WashU students (Jenna’s friends) were celebrating a birthday. I met a boy from Knoxville, which just shows what a small world it is! Fun times were had by all. We stayed at Hostel One, which is the same hostel we stayed at in Barcelona and Sevilla, and the hostel workers were so friendly. Jullian, who Jenna was convinced was into her, was always sure to check with us before we left. The quote of the day was “Where you going girls? Watch out for pickpockets. Yea.” He said it every time we left the hostel without fail.Our journey to Sevilla was rather long since we took and overnight bus and arrived at 5 am way before sunrise. We buzzed at the hostel door forever after trekking with our huge backpacks fromt eh station. The half zombie lady was not so glad we woke her up since we “should have known reception wasn’t open till 8.” Oops! However, Sevilla was probably my favorite Spanish city because it was SO authentic. It was exactly how you picture Spain with all the plazas and outdoor seating. No citizens speak English, and the people at the tourist attractions spoke little English if any. It’s a smaller city with not a huge tourist scene. I don’t know how to describe it except by saying that everything is just so Spanish! It was all quaint and great. I would absolutely go back. Jenna and I have decided that all of our travels are like samples of the cities we visit. We are getting a little bit of everything so that when we’re rich and famous with cash to blow and able to support our parents we will know where we want to go. Sevilla will be on that list for sure. We did a lot of relaxing and trying to be Spanish in Sevilla. We went to the Catedral, which is the 3rd largest church in the world. It has 33 ramps to the top to see a beautiful view of the city and beyond. We also went to Alcazar, which is a beautiful palace with Muslim influence that is still used by the royal family to this day. The gardens in the back were gorgeous, but so was half the city.
Out attempt to be Spanish was in general a failure, but at least we tried. We often ordered blindly not knowing what in the world we were about to have served to us and sat and chatted at great lengths after meals, which annoyed those waiting for a table. But hey, Spaniards do it so why can’t we!? We finished off our wonderful time in Sevilla with a a relaxing breakfast at a café in the Plaza de Armas. Our backpacks even joined us. Our backpacks, Tolly and Oigo, were more often than not huge appendages on our backs often knocking over old ladies as we turned around on a crowded subway or bus. Tolly almost took a child out once. Luckily, the kid survived the wrath of the Tolly bag though. After a nice long breakfast in the sun, we headed to the bus station to catch a bus to the airport. After our experience in Barcelona, we were sure to make it to the airport EXTRA early. In fact, you will be glad to know that we made it to the airport before the Ryanair counter even opened. Soon enough we were off to Pisa (outside of Florence) to see MOM!!! I will post soon about my past two weeks. I promise. I am on a kick to get things done since I am more often than not unproductive over here.
Love from Firenze!! Keep me posted on happenings in the states. I feel a little out of touch with reality over here.
Ciao!
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