My First Weekend Away From The Basque Country

An interesting float from Carnavales:


Here is a picture from Carnavales (these girls were in front of the Pirate float where they played Pirates of the Caribbean music & had a choreographed dance in their pirate costumes)



Thursday:
In the morning Kelly and I went to look at boots – we were both planning on buying them but didn’t seem to find any good ones. But it was definitely good practice because we didn’t know how to say most of the words we needed to know and neither of us knew our Spanish size, so now when I see some I like I’m ready to try again! Then, I had my usual 4 hours of class. Afterwards Kelly, Tiffany & I tried to buy tickets to Prague for a 4-day weekend we have in March but after sitting there for 30 minutes once we tried to buy them the price went up 300 Euros! It was unbelievable. So now we’re looking into going to Ireland. After that I came home, spent some time with my host mom, her daughter & her granddaughter – Paula. Then my bus to Barcelona left at 11:50pm. I had an aisle seat so that made it a little more difficult to sleep but I still got enough sleep. We stopped twice – once about an hour in to pick up more passengers (the bus was completely full), and once a few hours later at a bus stop for bathrooms, snack, drink, etc. So I arrived in Barcelona around 7:15am on Friday. I was supposed to be at the Barcelona Nord station but they stopped at Barcelona Sants (I didn’t know if it’d go on to the next and I thought everyone got off so I got off). I looked around for a little bit, didn’t feel like getting lost so early in the morning, and couldn’t figure out where to get a taxi so I asked a random guy how to get to my hostel. I ended up taking the metro and there was a stop pretty nearby. So I finally got to the hostel around 8 – but it didn’t seem so early because I was just ecstatic beyond belief to see my friends. It’s a good thing I got my room for Thursday night as well because check-in wasn’t until 11am and the guy at the front desk wasn’t going to let me in. So I got my sheets and went up to our room (which had 14 people in it), woke up Jess & Kyle to say hi and then crashed for an hour and a half.

Friday:
Jess and Kyle woke me up around 9:30am because breakfast stopped at 10 and Elizabeth was going to meet us at 10:15. I decided against a shower (ha, it was kind of gross I’ll admit it but Jess said the water was freezing cold & she could barely stand under it anyways) and had some cereal & coffee. And then we began our day of nonstop walking. First we went to Park Urgull – and it was an amazingly beautiful day outside so it was fun to just walk around and see the different vendors and the pretty view of Barcelona. This is Gaudi’s park and I find his work really different and interesting. So that was fun. Also, it was good to catch up along the way. Then, Elizabeth had to go to class so Kyle, Jess & I went to La Sagrada Familia which is this cathedral that has been under construction since forever and they don’t know when it’ll actually be finished because they only take donations – no one is just paying to have it finished, it’s purely paid for by visitors. So we walked around there, and waited an hour and a half to take the elevator to the top. The view from the top was beautiful. Too bad my camera was broken but Kyle & Jess both took tons of pictures. After that we walked back down the crazy spiral stairs and headed back outside. We ate lunch at this trendy little place with paninis and smoothies – one thing I have missed! Then we met up with Elizabeth at Plaza Catalunya and walked down La Rambla – the busy main street with tons of little stands and performers. We went into this huge market that had everything – tons of fruit (I bought some grapes, of course), 1 Euro cups of juice (I tried the strawberry coconut), chocolate, candy, dried fruit, meat, vegetables, seafood, bread, pastries, everything you could want. I could’ve spent so much time and money in there! It was amazing. Then, we walked down to the port. We just walked around, went out on the bridge, and took tons of pictures. After quite some time we headed back towards the main part of the city for dinner. We all had been talking about food and different things we missed from home so we all agreed on a Mexican restaurant. It was amazing – we had chips, salsa and guacamole and then I had chicken tacos. It was perfect. Then we did a little bit of shopping, but I have all the stores in San Sebastian so I decided I’d save my money for a shopping trip some other time. After that we went back to the hostel and rested for a little bit before Elizabeth took us out to some popular local places. It was a wonderful but long and exhausting day.

Saturday:
The next morning we woke up around 9:30 in time for breakfast, of course, and this day Jess & I got smart and took some of the fruit they put out. We showered and relaxed for a little bit before Elizabeth met us around 11. Then we walked around and shopped some more, of course. I looked at cameras with Kyle, who had the same thing happen to his camera the week before and had bought a camera in Barcelona on Thursday. Then we had lunch at some cheap little place – I had a small kind of stale sandwich but it was cheap and I still had fruit in my purse so it was fine. Then we went up to the castle that’s on top of one of the mountains. I wish it would’ve been as nice as Friday but it was still pretty. We rode a cable car up there and then explored and took more pictures. It was a pretty cool place but we were all just tired and starting to get cold up there. Then we took the cable car back down and walked over to the Olympic Stadium (1992 Olympics if you remember). It was closed for the Real Madrid soccer game that night so we couldn’t go in but it was still cool to see it, the area, and the torch. We also walked around a really cool part of town with fountains and saw the bull fight ring – which is closed and being changed into a mall because they don’t like bull fighting in Barcelona. We also went in some cute little shops – we found one with like 1000000 owls so of course Jess, Elizabeth and I had to look around. They were all so expensive though so I didn’t get one, but Elizabeth bought a really cute, cheaper one. We also got to bargain with some guys in the sports store because I was trying to buy a cheap jersey but they were still too expensive. Then we were all hungry so we went to a cute little tapas place that was actually Basque. We just went up to the bar and picked out what we wanted and then they charged us at the end, BUT we couldn’t tell what most stuff was so we just had to try it. Get ready to be amazed: I ate crab salad, pate (Elizabeth thinks), and tuna. Yes, I ate it. Then, since tapas are just kind of a small meal, Kyle, Jess and I got waffles at a cute little place next door with chocolate on top. They were super sweet but delicious. Then, the three of us rested at our hostel before going to a flamenco show. Oh, and I finally bought a new camera! The flamenco show was pretty cool, at least for 4 Euros and in Barcelona where it isn’t popular at all (it’s much more of a South Spain thing). And that was pretty much our day.

Sunday:
Kyle left the hostel at about 6am so we didn’t go to the airport with him or anything, but I woke up to say bye. I’m planning on seeing him in Florence for a few days during Spring Break. Then Jess & I got up at 9 to pack, check out, and eat breakfast. After breakfast we dropped our stuff off at Elizabeth’s apartment and went to Starbucks (I know we probably shouldn’t have but neither of us has seen or will see another Starbucks for quite some time) and we just hung out there for a while. We bought a postcard to send to the house and worked on that. Also, I got directions to the bus station – it made me nervous though not knowing which one to go to – where I was supposed to or where I had gotten off Friday morning. But we went and got my stuff and headed to the bus station. Jess and I wanted lunch so we got crepes at that same place and Elizabeth got one of the waffles. Our crepes had strawberry jam and nuts on top and were really good. We definitely satisfied our sweet tooth this weekend, haha. Then we went to the bus station which was right by the Arc de Triumph so that was pretty cool. Then I got on the bus at 2:45 and rode back to San Sebastian. They played two movies and since it wasn’t full I got to have my own two seats so I just read my homework and looked at travel stuff. We stopped for dinner at the same truck stop. I ended up getting back to San Sebastian around 10:30pm where it was chilly and rainy. Then I came back to my apartment and crashed.
This week I’m planning on figuring out my 4-day weekend. Kelly and I are hoping to go to Ireland since Tiffany is now going for Spring Break with another friend. But we’ll see how expensive those tickets are – hopefully not as bad as Prague. Ireland is definitely one of my top three places to go so that would be very exciting. Also, I’m going to start working on Spring Break after I get that planned – I have April 3 through April 19. I think I’ll be in Greece for the first four days, then Rome (and some other nearby cities) with Jess and my other friend Claire will be visiting with some friends, and then head up to Florence (and see Venice, Pisa and Cinque Terre) and spend a few days with Kyle. And after I get that figured out I’m going to start working on my south Spain trip with Sara! She gets here Friday, May 1st and leaves Saturday May 9th. I don’t have school Friday and am skipping Monday so we’ll have plenty of time. Then we’ll just hang out in San Sebastian during the week and she gets to explore while I have class. Once again I apologize for the super long entry but I hope some of it’s at least somewhat interesting. Also, I’m working on putting all my pictures on snapfish so when I get that figured out I will post the link. Hope to hear from all of you!

Agur (goodbye in basque),
Jill