Back from Barcelona

Hello all,

I've had quite the time of it the last few days--the excitement really hasn't stopped until just now, since I've returned to the ever-peaceful Lugano. Barcelona was a wonderful trip, riddled with little problems (I assure you they didn't dampen our enthusiasm for being in Spain, they were just a bit inconvenient). Where to start, where to start? At the beginning, I suppose.

Wednesday night/Thursday morning:
Following the Thanksgiving dinner up at the North Campus Dining Hall, our little group (Alyssa, Alyssa, Alauna, Marcel, and me) headed down to the train station to catch the 9:48pm train to Milano. The train was late, but that was fine; no big deal. From Milano, we took a bus to Bergamo airport, arriving there around midnight or so. Bergamo does not stay open at all hours to its fliers; instead, they corral all those who need to spend the night at the airport (like ourselves) into a cement, holding tank of sorts. (And just to clarify, we had to spend the night at the airport in order to catch our 8:45am flight to Girona. We took the last train to Milano.)

Now Bergamo was quite the place. We ended up being shut into this cement tank filled with probably near a hundred or more fanatical Portugese football fans, all decked out in team colors, and faintly smelling of both urine and vomit. There were very few women about, and we were the only unaccompanied-by-a-male-companion girls in the place (aside from a few other girls from Franklin, who also had to sleepover). Really, it ended up being quite the adventure. There was a man with thet most enormous belly I've ever seen--he could've been carrying triplets--who was walking around shirtless showing off his football-fanaticism with the tattoo on his back. There were a number of men sleeping on their team flags on the floor, or curling up around their team scarves. At one point, a few of us decided to head over to the vending machine--this was around two or three in the morning--to get a snack and move around, since the floor was so darn cold. The vending machines were where the most lively of the fans had positioned themselves, ready to chat up anyone silly enough to try and purchase something. I think I will summarize this anecdote with the following few lines which were shouted after us after we decided it was time to book it: "Where are you running my prey?! Come to Portugal with me!" Yeah.

At around three-thirty or four they let us into the actual airport, which was really only a slight improvement--we were awarded with metal chairs, but were still freezing. We waited around until finally we were able to check-in, go through security, and wait it out on the other (heated) side, which happened around 7:00am. Not too much interesting happened after that...

Thursday:
Our plane arrived at Girona (about an hour outside of Barcelona) at about ten in the morning. We walked off the plane and to the side Alyssa (Roland) spotted the burnt-out skeleton of an airplane. Comforting, I know. RyanAir is slightly sketchy, admittedly, but cheap, nonetheless. They also have fend-for-yourself-seating, which requires that you sit in any seat that's open. They were actually incredibly efficient, both of our flights with RyanAir ended up coming in at least twenty minutes early. After we arrived in Girona, we took the bus to Barcelona, which took about an hour, and we checked into our hostel. We decided it was naptime after our serious lack of sleep. We met up with Alyssa (Roland)'s dad and his cousin, who had come to meet up with Alyssa and travel back to Lugano with her. We ended up walking around La Rambla for a while, then wandering around the side streets, and eventually ending up at a Mexian bar/restaurant where I had a chicken burrito, and we they had dolls, flip-flops, and garden gloves posted on the walls as decoration. It was more tastefully done than I am sure my description makes it out to be. We also went and saw a really cool opera house from the outside, as well as some palace/castle of some sort, that may have actually been a cathedral (we were tired). We turned in pretty early.

Friday:
We had a pretty late start since everyone was pretty exhausted still. We met Alyssa (Roland)'s dad and cousin at the Templo de la Sagrada Familia at around one in the afternoon, after doing a few hours of browsing and shopping in Jaume, just off La Rambla. We had our first metro ride of the trip on our way to the Templo, and we were not very successful to be quite honest, but we eventually got the hang of it. The Templo was spectacular! We also checked out the Gaudi museum housed underneath it. We then went to lunch, I'm pretty sure, although I don't quite remember where. Then us girls went out and checked out another museum, which had more crucifixes than any of us had ever seen in one place. It was incredible, and a little bit scary... Then we headed over to Barceloneta and visited the beautiful beach at around twilight--it was so wonderful! And there were still surfers out, which was pretty cool. Eventually we went and found dinner at a sketchy little place that served paella, pizza, and pasta... An odd combination to be sure. Alauna couldn't get into the women's restroom because, as we later discovered, one of the waiters was in there smoking. Awkward...

So here's where the real excitement begins. We went to Starbucks around nine, since Alyssa (Roland) had been having a real craving. So we all got something or other, and sat down at a little table that had walls on three sides, with Alyssa (Jeter) and Marcel sitting on the "outside" side. We had been about to get up and go and Alyssa (Jeter) had reached down to pick up her backpack, and it was there. But then we got to talking some more, so we sort of re-situated ourselves and, ten minutes later, her backpack was gone. This struck us all as quite absurd. Alyssa (Jeter) was quite justifiably freaking out a bit, and the rest of us were just trying to figure out exactly what this entailed. We told the people at Starbucks about it and gave them our contact information in case the bag showed up, then Alyssa (Roland) and Marcel went to search for the bag in hopes that someone took the cash and tossed the rest, and Alyssa (Jeter), Alauna, and me went to search for the police station, since I'm the one with Spanish, supposedly. After going up and down La Rambla asking the people at the kiosks where the police station was, I finally found a policeman and asked him and he pointed us in the right direction. It was way far down a very sketch side street. But we found it. They gave us the number to cancel Alyssa (Jeter)'s credit card, and then we had to wait to file the police report. In the meantime, I tried to ask them about the number for the American embassy. There was a fair amount lost in translation however, and it took a while before they figured out what I was talking to--it required the help of an English-speaking policeman. While there is no embassy in Barcelona, there is an American Consulate (thank goodness!). So we picked up those numbers.

By this time, it was way past the time that we were supposed to go back and meet with Alyssa (Roland) and Marcel, who we had agreed to meet back at the Starbucks. So Alauna and I left Alyssa (Jeter) at the police station, and we high-tailed it back to the Starbucks. We found Alyssa (Roland) and Marcel and Alyssa (Jeter)'s backpack--albeit empty. Alyssa (Roland) and Marcel had found two boys, one wearing the backpack and had grabbed it off the kid's back. They tried to question the boys, but it was to little avail, since the girls only spoke limited Spanish. The boys told them they had "found" the bag, and that they had seen the passport and camera a way down some road that they later found had a great number of male prostitutes...

So we all went back to the police station, eventually filed the police report, and got a taxi back to hostel at around two in the morning. Then Alyssa (Jeter) made various phonecalls back home and to the embassy hotline.

Saturday:
We were determined to get this business straightened out as quickly as possible, so we went to the consulate first thing on Saturday morning. It was closed. Consulates, apparently, are generally only open from about 9/10am to 1/2pm, Monday through Friday. Good piece of information to know. Going there on Saturday proved to be invaluable yesterday however, as we were able to pick up the forms that needed to be filled out and find out about getting photos taken, etc. So then we trekked back down to meet Alyssa (Roland)'s dad and cousin at the Plaza Catalunya, near the fountains. Then we headed over to Park Guell, one of Gaudi's many masterpieces (see photos). Had lunch at a quaint little place called El Fornet, which had nice little sandwiches and pastries. Then, I guess, we spent most of the rest of the day wandering about. We had a gelato and met a girl who worked there from Holland, who had spent a number of weeks in Wisconsin this last summer, so she spoke better English than Spanish. Then we walked down La Rambla trying to find a place to eat, and ended up with Chinese food. We also went down to the end of La Rambla, to the port, and poked around at the mall down there, look at the outside of the Aquarium and so on. Just sort of hung out. We ended up getting back pretty early since Alyssa (Roland), Alauna, and Marcel had to take the 3:45am bus to Girona on Sunday morning. We had decided that I would stay with Alyssa (Jeter) until the passport business could be figured out.

Sunday:
Alyssa (Jeter) and I found ourselves stranded in Barcelona on Sunday, but we made the most of it. We meandered along La Rambla and into Jaume. We went to the Textile/Clothing Museum in Jaume, right near the Museu Picasso. It was so cool! Soraya would have loved it. We continue to poke around that area and explore. Eventually we ended up going to the Aquarium, which is supposed to be the biggest in Europe. It was fun. Then we went back to Jaume area and had falafel for dinner and then got a pastry at a cappuccino place. We also went over the little outdoor market that they have on La Rambla on the weekends, and I bought a couple of things. Then we headed back to the hostel. You know, I may have things out of order here...

Monday & thereon:
We went first thing to the American Consulate, and got Alyssa's passport. The whole process was expediated greatly by having all the forms and photos and whatnot ready. That sort of killed our day, though. We got back down to La Rambla area around noon (it was a fairly substantial bus ride up and down to the Consulate). We went back to the hostel directly, and booked our tickets back to Bergamo. Then we went back into town, and we kept getting lost, which didn't make any sense since we'd been getting around just fine. I think we were just a little exhausted and distracted by everything that had happened and all the schoolwork we were missing and needed to get done... We went over to La Boqueria (the big market on La Rambla) for lunch and had some sort of organic burrito, then had a gelato. Then we walked around a whole lot more, found a few things that I had wanted to get before leaving... Eventually had an early dinner on La Rambla, then headed back to the hostel. We met a lot of really nice/interesting people at the hostel, and we talked to them for a long time last night. But we still went to bed early and then got up at 2:45am and left by 3:15am to find the bus station. Of course, we got lost. But I was determined that we would not miss that bus, so I hailed a cab that was going by and we hopped into and took the 3Euro drive to the bus station, and just made the bus with a couple minutes left to spare. (When we got to the station everything was locked up, and we had to go around and down to find the buses, then we hadn't bought a ticket yet so we had to go back up and buy one, etc. etc.--it was quite nerveracking.) But we made the bus, and we made our flight, and now I am safely back in Lugano. And have a ton of work to do. And some sort of dog crap on my shoe that I think I picked up this morning in Barcelona. Pretty much almost anything that could have gone wrong this trip, really did indeed go wrong. Well, not everything. But it was still a wonderful trip and we had an excellent time--and learned a whole lot about travel...

And do check out the photos. I'll write more soon. :-) Smile, Ari

Barcelona Adventure Album: Part One
Barcelona Adventure Album: Part Two

PS If you have e-mailed me and I have not responded in ages, I promise that I will soon! Things have been a tad crazy...