Wednesday, March 25th 2009: After essentially living in a Michigan-like climate for several months, I was beyond ready to spend five days in Barcelona enjoying the beaches and parks. I got all packed up and made my way to the airport. I waited in line and handed my passport to the woman working the departure check-in area. “I’m sorry, you are not on this flight” she said as she handed my passport back to me. After a brief spaz that she didn’t even understand, I collected myself and made some long distance calls to get everything straightened out. After finally getting through to STA Travel I learned that they booked my flight for April 25th rather than March 25th, even though my flight home was scheduled for March 30th. Lets get this straight, they had me flying home from Spain before I was scheduled to get there? Figure that one out. They refused to change the flight for me, so I headed home and looked for every possible way out there. I bought another ticket for Friday, so much for the $130 STA voucher from my program.
Thursday, March 26th 2009: Spent the day wandering around Prague, saw some cool stuff, but ended up losing my keys.
Friday, March 27th 2009: Alright let’s try this again. Two days and $175 later I was in Barcelona. The only problem, I brought the Prague rain with me. So instead of the long beach vacation I planned it turned into a culture experience, which looking back, I enjoyed much more. The first night, Lauren Scholder and I walked around town, stopping into a few local spots. The first was a tiny champagne bar that was absolutely packed. When we ordered a drink they said we had get a side order of food as well. Since the menu was in Catalan, I resorted to just pointing to something and hoping for the best. The champagne was excellent, as for the mystery meat; let’s just say the two bites I ate will likely be my last. We actually ended up trading plates with a French crew for a much more familiar-looking form of meat. Next we walked to a Tapas bar, where we met this Irish couple. Actually they were siblings… but kind of looked like a couple. That’s awkward. Well either way they were very interesting, we talked for over an hour. It’s true what they say about the Irish, they have great accents and love to drink. They easily looked like they were having the best time of anyone at the bar, talking to a couple kids in college twenty years younger than them. Oh, and the tapas were good too.
The next day, I went to a Spanish restaurant so I could try this Paella stuff. Although, I really only got it because it’s in a Seinfeld episode. What was brought out to me kicked off day two of Michael’s cultural experience in Spain. Here is a description of the plate: some rice at the bottom and four seafood animals (that were likely alive that morning) complete with shell, legs, a face, and eyes that were staring right back at me.
Seafood Paella
Gross. I had no interest in eating it, but I had to at least make an attempt since we went with a couple of 2001 graduates and I wanted to act mature and sophisticated. Paella was definitely an experience, but I can’t say I see it anywhere in my future plans. After lunch we walked down Las Ramblas and stopped in this unreal open-air market. It had everything. One stand had all different types of animal “leftovers” and I don’t think you want any more details than that.
Sunday was the most enjoyable day of trip, highlighted by probably the coolest thing I have done in Europe. Lauren and I took a tour of the city on a go-cart. It was on 3 wheels and was GPS guided telling us where to go and what was what. Besides getting to see the city, riding around on the streets in this little thing was a lot of fun. It was without question the best way I have ever seen a city.
We drove through the 92 Olympic grounds (AKA where the Dream Team wiped the floor with Arvydis Sabonis.) After, I made my way to Park Guell. The park was designed entirely by this Spanish Architect, Antoni Gaudi and was unlike anything I have ever seen before. I don’t even know how to explain it in words so I’ll just leave a few pictures.
Before I knew it, my shortened weekend had come to an end, and I never even made it to the beach. It’s alright though; I am already looking forward to coming back to Spain some day. Barcelona was one of my favorite cities I have ever been to, and there is much more on the Iberian Peninsula I would love to explore. Oh, and one more thing for those of you still reading (besides my parents), the nightlife was pretty wild.
I love that Seinfeld episode and have always wondered what that was