(Above: The marina on our walk to the main part of Barcelona)Friday, November 7 was another great day in Barcelona. Our group was comprised of myself, Zach, Derek, Brendan, Haley and Kylie - the latter four coming from the Florence program. We started out the day by walking by the marina towards the main part of the city with our main goal of reaching the St. Josep market around lunch time in order to enjoy a cheap lunch. We visited some interesting thrift stores and candy stores before getting to the market. I had a calzone type thing at the Market and bought a nice chunk of pineapple for only a euro, which I saved and ate on the subway (Metro). (Below: Haley, Brendan, Derek, Kylie and Zach enjoy perusing through the market)
Friday we all purchased 2 day Metro passes for only 10 Euros, which turned out to be a very good purchase.After the market I attempted to get us to Tibidabo, a complex that includes a church and an amusement park that overlooks the city of Barcelona. I thought I was taking us in the right direction, but I was extremely off course. Thankfully, we bought the unlimited Metro passes and eventually we got there.
(Above: The whole gang up at Tibidabo)The view from Tibidabo was great and we enjoyed taking some pictures before taking the gondola back down the steep hill. After Tibidabo we went to Gaudi's famous Sagrada Familia, which is a church he designed. The style of Gaudi is very hard to describe, I would put him in his own genre. (Below: Gaudi's Sagrada Familia)
and some of us ate at McDonald's and some at Burger King, which both offer extreme cultural experiences! I ate a whopper in honor of my dad, every time I can remember going to BK with him (which hasn't been many) he always raves about the whoppers. I ate way too much, it was ridiculous, but very tasty. We shopped some more and then tried to go see the famous fountains near Once we left Sagrada Familia, we went over to the Agbar Tower to see if it was lit up, but it was only about 6:30pm and the tower wasn't lit. We then went to Las Ramblas and Plaza CatalunyaMontjuic park located close to the Plaza Espanya, but it was too late, we had missed them.After missing the fountains, we all back to Plaza Catalunya and saw some of the Florence people at the Hard Rock Cafe. Zach and Brendan eventually went back to the Hostel and got ready to go out with them while Derek, Kylie, Haley and I looked for a spot to enjoy some dessert and coffee. We wanted to find a nice hotel, but we weren't having any luck, so we eventually settled for a small cafe that was not very quaint, but had decent prices and good food. Before that we walked along the nicer streets of Barcelona and did some window shopping. After our deserts and coffee we headed back to the hostel and made an early night of it.
(Above: Zach, Myself and Derek at Park Guell by Gaudi)Saturday was Brendan's 19th birthday, exactly 1 day before my 20th birthday, which was cool. Saturday we set out to go to Gaudi's park (Park Guell), which is very high up in terms of elevation and there we really enjoyed seeing all of the peculiar things Gaudi designed. Saturday was our last day, so after the park we headed over to the Hard Rock Cafe where we enjoyed an incredible American-style meal. It was a little pricey, but well worth it for the good food and free refills. (Below: the chocolate brownie dessert Brendan treated us to was devoured)
Instead of giving a free slice of cake for people's birthdays, they just give a big glob of whip cream, which is pretty weird. Europe needs to jump on the free cake wagon, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon. We had to take a pretty early bus in order to get to Girona and make our flight on time. (Below: Zach, Brenda, Myself, Derek for the last time on Las Ramblas)
After lunch we headed to Las Ramblas one more time and I bought some souvenirs, including my trademark shot glass that I try to get almost everywhere. Haley and I really wanted to try Sangria, also, while we were in Spain (where it is most famous and originates from I believe) so we were on a hunt for a quick fix of it. Sangria is a combination of sweet wine and fruits marinated together. We finally found a bar that would make it, but they would not make it to go, so after paying and waiting impatiently we bought downed the 1.5 Liter pitcher of Sangria in less than 2 minutes. 
(Above: Haley and I waiting to down our Sangria)We didn't get the full effect of the marination and goodness, but it still was a fun and good experience. After that we all ran to Estacio del Nord, the train station and waited to board our bus for the airport. At the airport, it was discovered that Kylie and Haley had bought tickets for the wrong flight and it was believed that there flight was at 11pm instead of our 7 pm flight. They had to wait and try to settle things with the airline while we went ahead and boarded in hopes that they might be allowed on. It turns out that there flight was purchased for 11AM that same morning, so they had missed their flight somehow and had to each pay 75 Euro in order to get onto our flight. Thankfully, they were able to pay and make the flight in time, but there is more bad news. Derek, while sitting next to me on the airplane was looking for his iPod in order to listen to music and after searching and thinking realized that he had set it down at security and did not pick it up. After arriving in Milan we attempted to contact Lost and Found in Girona, but there was not sight of it.
The losses of the trip:
Zach - $100s in fines/ticket to Milan
Derek - Digital Camera/iPod
Kylie - 75 Euro
Haley - 75 Euro
...and those are only the ones that I remember.
Saturday night we did not have any hotel or hostel reservations and planned on just going with the flow. When we got to Milan after 11pm, we first went to McDonald's and after eating there went to an Internet cafe. I had tried to find accommodation in Milan, but I was unlucky and we didn't want to spend money either. When we went to the train station (which we were right next to anyway) we found that the earliest trains to get us all back home were only in the early morning and that we were stranded, which is what we assumed would happen. That night at midnight it switched from Brendan's birthday to my birthday at midnight, which was really fun. Brendan and I took a picture at 11:59pm of him smiling and me frowning and then at 12:00am him frowning and me smiling. That night we slept in the train station!! Did I mention it was freezing? It was so cold outside, it had to have been in the 30s and even though we were inside the train station, the marble floors were like ice and there was no central heating of any kind. We all bundled up with all of our possessions and slept next to each other on the hard floor.
(Above: Sleeping on the cold marble in the Milan train station)That next early morning I was bummed to find out that my 12:25pm ticket was no transferable and I would have to buy a ticket for the 8:30am train if I wanted to take it. This was a pain because my Florence friends were leaving around 7:15am on a train to Florence because they were able to switch their tickets. I have AMAZING friends and they surprised me with a ticket on the earlier train back to LAUSANNE for my birthday! The train ride back was indescribably amazing. Zach and I were alone in a compartment with 3 chairs on each side that folded down, so we were both able to lay completely flat and slept the whole 4 hour train ride besides interruptions from ticket controllers and passport checkers. It was a great trip with great people, but so nice to get back home and enjoy the day!
Enjoy the 2nd facebook album for Barcelona here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001112&l=3a823&id=1534470084
Take care everyone!
- Wade
