(Above: The Duomo of Milan)Fall break was a great trip. Zach and I left from Lausanne on the morning of Wednesday, November 5 and took a train to Milan. On the way there was some drama because Zach's Eurail was confiscated and he was charged a fine and a ticket. There was a problem because the travel agency that our school uses made a mistake in printing his Eurail and hadn't given him a valid one. I am not sure of the exact details, but it was a costly mistake on their part, and thankfully Zach was still able to make it to Milan. Soon after getting off the train in Milan we found Derek, Kylie, Haley and Brendan (our 4 friends from Florence who we were traveling with) and bought bus tickets and then went and ate at McDonalds. The McDonalds there was much cheaper than in Switzerland, so it was nice to have some American-style food for a cheaper price. That afternoon we decided to wander around Milan and wanted to find a place to buy some designer or nice clothes for really cheap, since Milan is the fashion capital of the world. After a lot of looking, we didn't find any major outlets, but did see some cool stores and even saw the most expensive piece of clothing on this planet (not really), a 60,000 Euro Jacket in the window of Dolce and Gabbana. A little extreme if you ask me. We saw the Duomo and went to the Galleria where we looked for clothes, but didn't end up buying anything. From Milan we took a bus to Bergamo, which is an hour outside of Milan, to the airport we were leaving from.
(Above: One of the many cool alley ways we walked through in Barcelona, Spain) Ryanair is very cheap, but it can be very inconvenient. The round trip ticket only cost 30 Euro from Milan to Barcelona, which is pretty good! The bus to Bergamo from Milan (Round Trip) = 12 Euro, the bus from Girona (airport 1 hour away from Barcelona) RT = 21 Euro, so the cost of travel quickly added up, but it was still a good deal. When we got into Barcelona that night it was pretty late and we got to the Bus Station in Barcelona after 11pm. From there I lead us toward to the direction in which I thought our hostel was, and thankfully with some help a taxi driver and Zach, we made it there. Sea Point Hostel is where we stayed and it is literally right on the beach. It was not the nicest place ever, but for 16 Euro a night we were all able to deal with it. The only bad part was that I was lead to believe we were staying in a private room, but there was a loft bunk above the bathroom and a temporary cleaning lady was staying there, which seemed strange. Regardless, we made it work.
(Above: Haley, Myself and Kylie with our great fruit smoothies at the St. Josep market) Thursday was our first full day in Barcelona and we got quite a bit done while still relaxing and taking things easy. We first walked to La Rambla, which is the main pedestrian and shopping street in Barcelona with tons of cool shops and a wide variety of street performers. For lunch, Brendan had the idea of finding a place off the main road, so we walked through the alleys and eventually found a cheap and authentic restaurant where we all had some Tapas, which are traditional Spanish food. They are essentially little sandwiches that were originally used to keep flies and bugs out of drinks, so they would be placed on "top" = "tap" = "tapas". They were tasty, nothing too special, but I heard there are much better places in Barcelona for tapas than the place we went. After eating there we ran into some fellow Pepperdine students on our way to Starbucks where we all enjoyed a nice drink. The Cathedral was our next stop and Brendan was the only one to actually pay to go in, but he did enjoy it. We decided to just start walking and see where we ended up and as we were Derek reached into his pocket for his camera and it turned out that he left it at Starbucks. He ran back there for it, but by the time he returned someone had already taken it. As good as a trip Fall Break was, many people lost possessions or money. 
(Above: After their plunge outside our Hostel door, Brendan, Kylie, Haley and Derek) We continued Thursday afternoon by walking to the Arch of Triumph, the park and Zoo area, more cool alley ways, a gelateria, a cool thrift store and later went to some of our favorite stores, H&M and Zara where some people bought some things. The St. Josep market was another really cool place that we went - it is full of many different stalls selling all sorts of things and we even got some fruit smoothies (which are not frequent in Switzerland). That night for dinner we looked for a restaurant that I had read about in the MTV Europe book, but it had closed, so we ended up eating a tourist targeting pub where I had a nice English breakfast. Other Pepperdiners were in Barcelona for Fall Break and Zach and Brendan were going to meet up with them, but we ended up all heading back to the hostel and making a somewhat early night of it. This was after Haley and Brendan decided to face the cool waters of the Mediterranean and went in for a swim.Here is the first Facebook Album of Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001111&l=a3593&id=1534470084
There is more to come, so check back!
- Wade
