SPAIN

Where do I even begin? Spain was absolutely amazing. I loved every part of it and wish I could have stayed longer. I would have been content wandering the streets of Barcelona all day for another week. There is just so much to see and experience. The culture is just so different and it is so interesting to me to see how people live and function in these foreign places. I will definitely be taking another trip to Spain in the next few years though.

Although I absolutely did love the city, we definitely had some interesting things happen to us while we were there. Let me start at the beginning:

I planned to travel in Spain with three of my friends-Tiffany, Rene, and Cassidy. We had booked an apartment to stay in while in Barcelona a few months back. We all had field trips the first day, so once we all got back to the ship on Monday night we left to go explore and find our apartment. The taxi driver told us on the way that we needed to be very careful because we might get knocked out and stolen from. A little harsh right? So with that in mind, we got out of the taxi clinging to our purses and backpacks absolutely paranoid of getting mugged. We finally found the door to the place we were supposed to check in to our apartment, and when we get into the office, we all nearly had a breakdown. The apartment building was very creepy looking and old. The manager spoke no English, and since it was just us 4 girls, we were very nervous to be staying alone in the city. We finally got the keys to our apartment, and found out it was not even in the building with the office, but instead off of a side street from La Ramba. We found the street and after wandering around for 15 minutes, finally found the door to the building. It was covered in graffiti and we were all really anxious at this point. We walked up the stairs to the first door we saw, and tried to open it. Without luck, we decided to go to the next floor and try that door. Again, we could not open it. Finally, we went to the 4th floor (although it was supposedly the 2nd floor) and got the door open. We had one more door to get through, and then we walked into our apartment. To our surprise, the apartment was very large and nice. We were all so relieved to find that it was actually clean and felt safe. We all had our own bed, and plenty of space. Once we got settled in, we decided to go and explore La Ramba.

We had heard that there are a ton of pickpocketers in Barcelona so each of us had purchased money belts so we could hide our cash and credit cards. We walked down the street and just kind of absorbed everything around us. La Rambla is full of restaurants, vendors, clothing stores, and of course gypsies (pickpocketers) and is so interesting to just walk down and people watch. We ended up going to a restaurant that night and trying an authentic Spanish/Catalan dish, called Paella, along with a pitcher of Sangria. It was really, really good! After dinner, we met up with some friends and went out to a few bars, where there was tons of other Semester at Sea students. I had a really good time!

The next morning, after getting only about 3 hours of sleep, we did a bike tour through Fat Tire Bike Tours, of the city. It was a 4-hour tour and we biked about 7 miles. We got to see many beautiful sights, including La Sagrada Familia and the Cathedral. Our tour guide-an Australian man named Buddha- was really wonderful. After the tour, we wandered around in the Gothic Quarter and did some window-shopping. Next, we went to La Boqueria, the famous market on La Rambla. I absolutely loved the market, and enjoyed taking pictures of the delicious foods everywhere. (Pictures to come!). After the market, we went to the apartment and got ready, and then had a really wonderful dinner at a nice Italian restaurant.

The next morning, we had to get up very early to catch our flight to Ibiza. We checked into our hotel in Ibiza and then decided to go find some lunch. We found a small café near the beach, and decided to eat there. The menu was a little strange looking, with a hodgepodge of different foods, so 3 of us just decided to get the lunch special, a hamburger and French fries. You can’t go wrong with a burger right? Wrong. The waitress brought out our food and my first thought was that does not look like a real burger. The meat (we aren’t actually sure if it was in fact meat) had a purple tint to it and resembled rubber. I decided to try it, thinking it wouldn’t possibly be that bad, and boy was I wrong. Lets just say that I will never be ordering a hamburger in Europe again. It is still a mystery to all of us what was in that burger, but it was surely not beef or even turkey. Yuck!

After lunch, we ran into three guys from Semester at Sea, and spent the day with them at the beach near the Bora Bora Beach Club. It is basically a bar on the beach that is a really fun hang out place for all the young people on the island. We didn’t see one other American there, and spent the day and early evening hanging out with people from England and Australia. Once we left the beach club, we headed back to our apartment to get ready for the evening. We then went to a nightclub called Space, which is supposedly one of the top clubs in the world. I had such a great time, and danced and talked to lots of people we met. We finally went back to our hotel around 4 am (which is apparently very early to be going to sleep in Ibiza!) and go at few hours of sleep before having to catch our flight back to Barcelona.

By the time we got back to the ship at 12 pm, I was so exhausted I could barely function. I came to my room and fell asleep for 6 hours! When I woke up, I took a shower, and apparently while I was in the shower, the Dean had come over the loudspeaker that goes throughout the boat and said, “If anyone knows where Alexandra Crowder is, please come to my desk right away.” I didn’t hear this though, so as I was getting dressed, I hear a knock at my door and open it, to find that there are at least 10 people crowded outside my door, looking very concerned. The dean, crewmembers, a steward, and several of my neighbors were all standing there looking at me. I was so confused! Apparently, when I had gotten on the boat, my card didn’t register so they didn’t know I was on the boat. Everyone thought I was still in Ibiza or Barcelona and was missing, when in fact I had been asleep in my room all day! They told me that they had been looking for me for hours! I was so embarrassed, but it was pretty funny. Everyone kept coming up to me on the ship tonight asking where I had been and if I was okay. I guess next time I need to double check that my card is swiped correctly, because I caused quite a scene!

That’s all for now, but I have so many other things to write about Spain. I’m going to try to get some sleep for now, since I need to be well rested for Italy on Saturday!