Shay's Italia Adventures: Barthelona

Hey hey hey! So this past weekend I traveled to Barcelona with Jessica and 4 other people in my program. We took off on Thursday after class and headed for Milan Malpensa to fly. We were cutting it pretty close on the bus and once again, were forced to sprint through the airport. We show up only to see our plane pulling away!! It was the first time that had ever happened to me and one of the worst feelings. Jess and I became instantly bummed until....we realized that was the flight before ours! We were literally sweating profusely and headed to the bathroom to basically shower in the sink. After gathering ourselves we came out to find that not only was that not our flight, but that our flight was delayed. We had basically just sprinted through the entire Milan airport with 30 lb. children on our backs (we overstuff our backpacks every time). Once our flight arrived we got on and all was well. WE WERE ON OUR WAY TO BARCELONA, ESPANA!!

After taking our typical plane, train, and some sort of automobile (bus) we arrived in the middle of the city in Las Ramblas area. We were so excited and headed down Rambla Blvd. Our hostel was just off of the main street conveniently located next to MCDONALDS! Yahhooo. You know we hit that up and then just hit the hay.

They next morning we woke up and took off. That hostel was probably one of the worst we have had thus far so we wanted to meet up with everyone. We met up with Nick, CJ, Madeline, and Lauren and headed to check out their friends' place that was studying abroad there. Let me tell you, THEY GOT THE HOOK UP. Talk about a sick apartment. We finally decided to go check out us girls' new residence. We ended up renting an apartment for the weekend which turned out to work great. It was a studio with one bedroom, a fold down futon, a kitchen, bathroom, and terrace that was pretty huge. We got settled (naturally popped a bottle of champagne) and headed for the beach. The beach was so beautiful. We were there lounging, playing volleyball, swimming, having a few beverages, and just relaxing all day. It was so cool to actually swim in the Mediterranean Sea! After a day long beach day we went to get some traditional Spanish tapas and sangria. The sangria ended up being a serious fish bowl with so many garnishes, it was spectacular. After a light dinner we headed home to shower and get ready. We met back up with the guys and their friends at their apartment and got ready to go out. We walked around by some bars/clubs by the beach and didn't get home until early morning. In Barcelona people don't even think about going out until two am!! After exploring the night life scene for a while we went home and went to bed. The sun really took a toll on our bodies so we called it a night.

We woke up with urge to eat some sort of American food and promptly found the Hard Rock Barcelona. That was my first Hard Rock ever and I seriously LOVED it. You have no clue how much I have missed cheddar cheese, real life bacon, and ranch to dip fries in....SO GOOOOD. We met back up with everyone and headed to just walk around Barcelona. We wandered along the beach, got lunch, and again just relaxed. This trip was so amazing as we had no schedule and nothing we absolutely HAD to do/see. We went with the flow and our tour guides were amazing. We heard there was a soccer (obviously called futbol here) match and decided to make our way to the amazing arena. This place held 98,000 people and was definitely rockin. We scalped some tickets (in a very stealth way considering its pretty illegal to do so) and walked in. Our seats were literally only a few rows up from the turf and we were just in awe of this amazing place. That game was one of the highlights of not only that trip, but this whole study abroad experience. They love soccer here. All the fans chanted, cheered, jumped around, sang, did the wave, etc. We got hot dogs and watched the game and life literally could not have been better. After the game it was late but we headed home to change and once again go out. It was a Saturday night after all. We headed out with a huge group and went to some more clubs. We stayed at Catwalk until it closed around 7:30 am, (as they do in Barcelona) watched the sun rise, and went home finally.

Our last full day we did our best to see a few sights. We hiked to the top of this park and saw multiple Gaudi houses as well as his famous church Sagrada Familia. This church has been continuously built for the last 100 years. It was absolutely gorg. We also saw the longest bench in the world and sunbathed on it briefly. We got our last dinner all together at an amazing tapas place. We each ordered 3 or 4 and ended up with like 30 on our table. Haha we haven't really been watching our figures....Anyways, it was an incredible, warm, and relaxing trip. We met some great people and ate great food. We did slack a little on the photos but check em out below! Up next....AMSTERDAM tomorrow followed by Brussels from Monday through Wednesday. Our Econ class is meeting in Brussels to meet members of the European Union Commission and Parliament and go to a couple conferences etc. Mainly I am looking forward to eating ten thousand waffles and french fries :) Alrighty well hope everyone is well! I'm so sad all my friends are graduating in like one month. Miss you all tons!!