This post is from May 31st, 2010 11:34am:
Oh my goodness. This weekend/week was incredible. Where to start?
This week entailed a quick visit to the Reales Alcázares, which is this gorgeous Arab palace, with gardens and lanyrinth included. We also got to see some professional flamenco in a beautiful plaza. So stunning. I’ve never seen people’s feet move so fast. And we finished off the week with a big “pescaito frito”, literally a “fish fry” for some much-needed bonding and relaxing.
But the next day our 3-day weekend began as some of our group headed on the bus to Granada and the other half of us awaited our 10PM plane ride to Barcelona. We were pretty proud of ourselves for finding the bus that takes us to the airport, getting all 11 of us through check-in, and finding our gate without getting lost with plenty of time to spare. However, upon arriving to our gate, a sign beneath our flight information flashed the worst word ever created: RETRASADO.
This means delayed for you Americanos out there. And this wouldn’t be a big deal, except for the fact that we were flying into an airport about an hour and a half away from Barcelona, of which the last bus to Barcelona left half an hour before our flight was initially supposed to arrive. RESTRASADO for us meant either (a) paying millions of euros to get enough taxis to take us to barca or (b) sleeping in the airport until the first bus leaves at 6 AM (that is if this tiny spanish airport doesn’t close).
So we held our breaths and waited 4 hours for our plane to FINALLY take off. However, during this 4 hours we were able to sort everyone on our study abroad trip, including profesores, into the 4 Hogwarts Houses. I’m representing Ravenclaw, of course, and have already gained my house plenty of points. As our plane took off, we all took naps, dreaming of ways to gain more House points and worrying about how uncomfortable it would be to sleep on a bench in the airport of Gerona, Spain.
And finally, at 3 AM, we arrived at the Gerona Airport and decided it might be a good idea to ask if there was possibly a bus still going to Barcelona. And praise Jesus there was! 3 in fact, all waiting because they knew our flight was delayed. God is good. So we boarded the bus and arrived to our hostel in Barcelona at 5 AM!
After about 4 hours of sleep in our precious little hostel, we took over the gorgeous city of Barcelona! This place is beautiful. I can’t even express how much. The streets are cobbled, the architecture is stunning, and the people speak Catalán, which is the love child between French and Spanish.
Our first stop was Parque Guell, which is this gorgeous park full of architecture by Antoni Gaudi, who is famous for his creative and fantastical designs. It was so cool to look at and allowed us an aerial view of the city. After this we headed to la Sagrada Familia, which is a cathedral that Gaudi started before his death in 1926, and is still under construction today. After this we walked throughout the city spying some more of Gaudi’s works, and just enjoying the atmosphere of the place.
That night, the whole group dressed up nice and headed to the beach to go to an Ice Bar! I have only heard about these spectacles existing in movies like James Bond, and never imagined I would ever go to one. But this was awesome! The whole room is -5 degrees and the walls, the seats, the bar and even the glasses are made of ice! They even give a ski jacket and gloves before you go in! So awesome! And such a great way to hang out with the group.
The next day we awoke bright and early and headed to tackle the world of Barcelona shopping! There were about 5 million precious little boutiques located right outside of our hostel, as well as big department stores such as Zara and H&M. We shopped til we dropped. After this we headed to this Museo de Barcelona and watched this beautiful fountain show with lights and music. After this we spent a few hours at a cute café to waste time because our bus back to the airport to take us home (a different one, believe or not) didn’t leave until 3:45 AM. At 2 we headed back to the hostel, grabbed our bags, took the metro to the bus station, waited for the bus to leave, rode for another hour and a half, checked-in at the new airport, waited at our gate, and finally, at 6:40AM rode the plane back to Sevilla. Whew.
Needless to say I took a 4 hour nap once I got back to mi casa, which prepared me for the Bullfight yesterday night! And I was prepared for some gore when I arrived at the Bullfight, but goodness there is a lot of blood. I’m glad I witnessed this cultural event, but a warning for the weak at heart: bullfights may not be for you!
Anyways, this weekend was incredible. Jesus kept me safe and showed me over and over again, how present he is here. He is so, so good. Miss you all!
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