I have successfully completed my first trip of the month-long spring break! Our bus (which is actually an oversized minivan with awful drivers) was scheduled to leave at approximately 6:45 to arrive at the airport just before our 8:30 flight to Barcelona. Of course, the night before the boys (Eric, Elliot & Paul) had gone to the Arcadia (our study abroad program) end of the semester party and stayed out far too long and drank way too much. I was worried they would sleep through their alarms. But instead, McKenzie was the slacker on this trip. As we were leaving, she was still stuffing clothes into Michelle’s whale-sized backpacking backpack. That thing could fit a small family of five- I kid you not. The bus was 30 minutes late, as usual, and it didn’t look like there were six seats (since the bus only holds about twelve) so that was the first interesting encounter on our journey. The bus was so packed to the point that Paul had to sit in the front, by himself, next to our less than friendly driver-which was pretty entertaining at 7am. We made it to the airport on time- thank goodness- and actually snagged the exit row on the plane for the extra leg room that clearly I need at under 5ft 5″. As we were coming into Barcelona to land, we could see the Mediterranean Sea and beautiful, white sand beaches. We got off the plane and took a cab into the city centre to explore the city and dodge the very ‘friendly’ pigeons. It was so nice to be able to walk around and see blue skies. And the sun for that matter. Since we weren’t able to check into the apartment until 3pm, we made our way to the metro station to figure out the transportation situation. Literally no one in the crowded station spoke a lick of English and we found our way to every help office in the building with people giving us strange looks and trying comprehend our Spanglish. After we got on the metro (which was surprisingly nice) we got off to visit the very famous Parc Guelle that is full of structures designed by the artist, Gaudi. His works that encompass lizards, a melting effect and ceramics are referred to as his pieces that were constructed while he was on acid. That’s a believable statement. At this point we were kind of tired because of the steep streets and our inability to locate the apartment that was a good 45 minute metro ride from the middle of the city. We asked, well tried to ask, for directions from six people-all of which were close to no help. We finally found the check-in building in the middle of a very ghetto/authentic? Spanish neighborhood. I’ve never seen so many bars on windows and dog poop in a single area. Not to mention crazy drivers coming from every direction. Although the location was originally less than desired, the actual apartment was really nice- we had a garage-like shade to separate our balcony from the kitchen and had three rooms + couches between the six of us. Antoinette, our concierge, made sure to warn us that a lost key was a fine of 190€ and that in order to drink the tap water, it had to be boiled first. Probably one of the more frightening things I’ve been told. Didn’t want any weird bacterial infections. We made ourselves at home, slept, bought some very cheap groceries and I played with some pugs (of course). Might I mention that the trip to the store was a trek down the Tetons. So. Many. Hills. However, I found some of the most amazing alcohol I’ve ever had; Caramel- a blend of vodka and ‘other liqueurs’ ..sketchy, but so worth it. Anyway, we ate a nice meal of mini pizzas (yes, I broke my year-long pizza fast) and got ready for a big night out. In the apartment, we were lucky enough to have two bathrooms with two showers. Since my bathroom at uni is an airplane bathroom replica, I have to go into detail with this shower situation. Michelle raved about how nice and hot it was- but of course it was a cascading waterfall of ice sickles for yours truly. We made our way to the club on the beach; Opium (but not before Paul wrote the Finding Nemo address on McKenzie’s arm & the apartment address on my wrist in sharpie. It actually came in handy later).It was so cool to be able to hangout in a club setting and then go shotgun beers on the beach for 1€! The trip back home was an absolute struggle. The first bus (out of two) we were supposed to take back took us to the middle of nowhere. First of all, it was a ripoff because metro tickets were ‘day tickets’ and didn’t work on the night buses (metro closed at midnight) so we had to pay 2€ per person for every bus we got on. You can imagine we weren’t too thrilled to be dropped off ‘one stop after our stop to catch the second bus.’ We backtracked on foot, walked around until about 4am, I fell into a hole in the sidewalk meant for trees, we lost Eric and the girls and I took a cab home. Thank goodness Eric was passed out waiting for us outside our ‘door.’ We tried unlocking the door for a good thirty minutes before realizing that we were actually on the wrong floor- embarrassing. I even had a bobbypin out just in case we had to break in! Paul and Elliot made it back an hour later and we all called it a night. And that closes out trip one, day one of spring break!
So There Was This One Time: 