This past weekend was spent in beautiful Barcelona Spain! After ridiculous amounts of traveling (from dorm to airport, Girona airport to Barcelona, bus station to hostel...) we FINALLY made it to Barcelona and settled into our hostel around midnight. The hostel was... well, a little skeptical, but I just kept telling myself it could possibly have been worst. It was only 55euro for the three nights for each person. There were four of us that went. After we got in we headed right down the street to the Bar/Restaurant... where we ended up spending most of our weekend making friends with the bartenders and owner! Abil was the owner, and main bartender. He was incredibly nice, and hooked us up at the bar every night! He gave us good insights on the city, and fun things to do! We quickly learned the bars closed at 130, but the clubs didn’t get started until 2am, and closed at 6!!! Surprisingly, I only ventured to one club, and only stayed out til 3am! Saturday we woke up bright and early for our “free breakfast”... which we were told was a “GIFT!” from the hostel. Breakfast was quite the continental brunch... white bread for toast, butter, coffee, and orange juice and milk... both of which were room temperature (yes, including the milk). Needless to say, I didn’t get my cold glass of milk in the morning! We ventured off for the day, heading for the Sagrada Familia (Gaudi Church). It was absolutely amazing, but the line was too long to wait to experience the inside. One day I would like to go back, hopefully it will be finished!!! As always, I was obsessed with the intricate detail in every building or statue. This church was beyond amazing. I wouldn’t say beautiful as in aesthetically pleasing, but beautiful as in how incredible it was thought out and designed. After that we wandered around town... for HOUUUURRRRSSSS... in search of the beach. The language barrier wasn’t a huge problem, until we were lost and frustrated. But eventually... after many hours, and miles... we made it to the beach! And later realized how easy it would have been had we stopped to learn the metro for a few more minutes, oh well, it was a Barcelona adventure! That night I had dinner at the bar down the street from the hostel. I ate Paella (but I got my seafood peeled!!) It was amazing!!! We went to a bar called Dow Jones, its concept is based on the stock market and prices for drinks fluctuates, and every now and then the market crashes and drinks were super cheap. It was a fun concept. and a cool place to go, but the place was full of ALL americans, so it felt really touristy! After that we ventured around to some other places, and eventually the club. The club could have been a lot of fun had there been a bigger group of us, but it was just me and Dani who ventured off together! On Sunday we slept through our “breakfast” and ventured to the beach. We wandered around Port Veil, and stopped to get lunch. Once again, I ordered Paella... this time it came with creepy crawlers in it!! It was too fishy for me, which is rare, so I definetely enjoyed it better the night before! What an experience though, tearing the head off my little crawfish looking creature, who STILL had his eyes! The beach was beautiful and I couldn’t have asked for better weather! First time I experienced a topless/nude beach. The topless part wasn’t as bothersome as the old men who seemed to be the only ones participating in the nude part... but it was an experience to say the least. I also met my FIRST great dane in Europe!!!!!!!!!! Hims was black just like Jack, but no where NEAR as big!!! He was super sweet though, I spotted him from across the beach and ran to go see him! His owner was from Sweden, and was super nice, but he said danes are not very popular (at least in Spain). I did see a lot more dogs in Spain though. Dani and I ventured along the beach to get some gelato, and walk along the shore. We eventually ended up falling for some of the random people selling things on the beach (food, drinks, scarves, massages... you name it!) I bartered with the guy for some scarves for a few minutes... I finally got him to agree on 2 for 8 euro! He originally wanted almost 8 for one! After the beach we ventured back to the hostel and got ready for the night. We met our neighbors, who were from France. We partied with them in the hostel before going out, and then took them to our favorite bar down the street. There we ate food, and ended up hanging out there all night! Abil made us really good drinks, and the super sweet french guys paid for everything!! They were a lot of fun, there were a couple girls and a couple guys, and we all had a great time! Monday morning we ventured down Las Ramblas to check out all the shops and stands. After that we ventured around, and Dani and I ended up going off to do our own thing. We went back to the bar by the hostel for a drink, and went to walk around the city a bit more. We walked through the “slums” (what we called it), where tons of people camped out and demolished this plaza for protesting. We haven’t figured out why yet, because we couldn’t read the spanish!! But it was a crazy experience! Afterwards we ate a a little cafe, where we somehow ended up paying 18 euro EACH for a salad and a tapa (small appetizer plate).. we later found out that sitting outside added an additional 20% to your prices!!!! Ridiculous! Overall it was a good trip! Dani and I had a really good time, and spent time getting to know each other, which meant a lot to make a new friend :) Our flight didn’t leave the Girona airport until 10:30pm, and we didn’t get back to the dorms at Trinity until 2am, but it was all worth it! I can’t wait to go back to Spain again someday and experience more. It was definitely a different experience then Dublin has been, but one worth experiencing! This weekend I have a 4 day weekend, and NOTHING to do... two big groups are taking trips, one to Barcelona, and one to Munich. I had originally wanted to spend the weekend traveling around Ireland to other places, but there are only 3 other guys who are staying here for the weekend... as selfish as it seems, I would rather spend my weekend having a good time with my friends. I’ve found that the hardest part about this trip has been experiencing these awesome places without my very best friends, but I’ve been working to make friends here. Dani and I get along very well, unfortunately we’re not roommates, but we have a lot of fun together! She is going to Munich this weekend, and I would ABSOLUTELY love to go, but I’m going to be there for a YEAR so I’m torn... plus, I’m running low on cash... the Irish price inflation along with the currency conversion is KILLING my bank account. No one told me how expensive the price of living was here. Anyways, my next post will be about this long 4 day weekend... hopefully I get to experience something fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment