Hi all,
sorry it's been such a long time, but everything seems to be blowing by in a whirlwind and I barely have time to breathe. ANyway, I'm gonna do my best to get up Barcelona and Berlin. I'll do them separately :).
I also need to UPDATE ALL OF MY PICTURES FOR YOU GUYS I HAVE SO MANY! Also, just so you know, I'm writing this from my bed in the Aloha Hostel and from the top of my street there's a view of the Eiffel Tower. Just sayin'.
Okay. So. Barcelona. Got there. Muggy. Hair a mess. Just to set the scene.
But it was also beautiful, and warm. There were palm trees EVERYWHERE, and not to make this comparison, but I immediately thought of Florida. Pretty much we made a B line for the airbnb place that we were staying at, but that B line seemed to be an arbitrary assortment of squiggles that took us two hours to find the damn place. And then we got there. Boy oh boy. OH BOY. It was NOT what we signed up for. THe listing that the guy had posted was absolutely, 1000000% not what we got. THere was no wifi, the toilet leaked, the shower head was broken off, the bathroom ceiling was pealing, there was a random bed in the dining room (guess who slept there!) and another one attached to that in an i-don't-even-know-what room. OKay. So we're now all in a bad mood.
Two are in a particularly bad mood, which made everyone in WORSE moods while trying to grocery shop. Me and two other friends ended up going out to find a few more things and then decided to go to a bar because it had wifi (and beer). WHile we were there, we got dragged into this RANDOM but AWESOME tandem thing by this Spanish guy, and he and I spoke french the entire time. So funny, go to Spain, speak French. Haha. But that was just one of those awesome random experiences you get while traveling and when you let yourself just let loose and have fun for a while and not worry, or be stressed, or angry, or shy. It was great. And so was the beer (Estrella, for those of you keeping tabs at home).
We got back to the nasty-nast and everyone was eating dinner in our bedroom (remember it's a freaking dining room), complaining and being miserable. We tried to contact the guy to inform him of our displeasure but, of course, he didn't answer. We decided that with the lack of wifi, we would just all get up and go to the nearest Starbucks the next day, because, yes, Starbucks is EVERYWHERE.
And so that's what we did. I went and worked until my computer died and I realized that I had a "Switzerland charger" and not a "EUrope" charger. So my plugs didn't work. Great. That was just what I needed while being away for four days, 0 access to homework. Nice.
While I was listening to Mozart and trying to do work before I ran out of time, two of my other friends were looking up hostels that we could switch into instead of living in nasty-nast. THey spent the morning doing that. THen, I opted to go with them to try to find the place since my comp was dead anyway, and we literally spent the entire afternoon searching for it, while everyone else went and explored around. We did manage to see the INCREDIBLE cathedral the Sagrada Familia. Turns out it was one block away fromthe airbnb and we had NO idea (well me and my two friends from the night before did, because we got completely lost and ended up walking past it, whoops).
So we found a Hostel. It was way more central than the airbnb place, and yes, it cost 20 USD per night but it was a hell of a lot better than the place we were staying in. So we eventually made it back to everyone and told them about it. We made it very clear what the price was going to be, and said if you don't want to come, you don't need to. THere were 7 of us. So everyone came, and then as we were trying to compose an e-mail to airbnb to try and get everyone's money back, almost everyone else was complaining. I'm sorry. WHat did you do to help? Nothing. So you don't get to complain about it. THe plan had been to go to the beach, and because the e-mail took a while it was like 5 ish by the time it was done and the attitudes were flying. So we broke up 3 and 4. The 3 of us that had found the hostel went out to a dinner and drank sangria and Estrella and had some really good sandwiches, and then we went to meet up with everyone else at the BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL FOUNTAIN that is pretty much a live art show. It was a light show in the fountain, and they timed the changes in the water and color to music. It was Incredibly impressive, and it was at the base of some huge, i don't know, castle thing? Awesome. THen as a group, we drank more Sangria.
It seemed like people were being less attitude-y. Great.
THe next day, a 5 of us went to Old Town, which was really interesting and beautiful. It was warm, and the Spanish churches were striking both on the inside and the outside. We found a little grove to sit in in the courtyard of a beautiful library and got to take some pictures there. THere was also an enormous market selling all sorts of things from meats, to fruits, to candy. It was absolutely bustling with life and people, and you could touch the culture by observing a man buying a giant rack of chili-peppers. It seemed like it was from a movie.
We stumbled upon ANOTHER huge cathedral there, more impressive than the first, i think, and really hit the heart of old town with this strikingly ancient looking Spanish architecture and cobbled streets and open court yards. There was life everywhere.
Then we got back and there were still attitudes flying. How frustrating is it to try to be having a good time and just get frustrated on every single turn? That's what happened, and the breaking point was renting bikes when I actually thought someone might die. Actually. But we got the bikes, and we biked (stressfully) to the beach. Yep. THe beach. In the middle of November. The beach in Barcelona, Spain. It really hit me hard there, that I was on the Spanish coast on a beach. How lucky am I to have this chance? It's then that I was just like, all of the drama needs to stop. Because we were all MISSING OUT ON THE JOY OF THIS INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE. GET OVER YOURSELVES....ALL OF US.
After the trip to the beach, by absolutely nothing of my doing at all, somehow the tension somewhat subsided, and we opted to go to this bar called Makamaka that was by the beach. The atmosphere was awesome, and the burgers that everyone got were AMAZING, as well as the salad that I got that had steak, avocado and pineapple. OMG. THe music was awesome, it was like remixes of old songs (i.e. Ella Fitzgerald). It was so cool, and everyone was actually getting along. This was our last night, and if nothing else, I was glad it ended the way it did. School stress gets to people, 7 women is always hard to deal with, and everyone has been overworked and overstressed. When I look back, I want to remember the good parts and eliminate the bad.
At 4 am the next day we woke up and headed back to cloudy Geneva, but only after seeing the most beautiful spanish sunrise. I'll post the pic....
After getting back (after thinking we were actually going to die on the landing), I slept for five hours straight and then woke up to do homework.
I will post about myh interim weeks next.
For now, it is almost midnight and I am in the glittering Paris.
à tout à l'heure mes amis!
xo E