Sorry it's been so long since my last blog :( There wasn't much going on last week and I wanted to wait until I was back from my Barcelona trip so I could share all of my photos with you all!
The day that I left was an absolute nightmare (but a vital lesson). First I woke up with a bad cold but I wasn't going to let that hold me back from Barcelona so I trudged on, packed and made it to the train station to take me to the airport (about 2 hours away from Grenoble). However right as the train embarked, my friend Meagan looked at me and said "you have everything right? You brought your passport?" and in that moment my heart sank...I had just recently taken my passport out of my purse because I was worried if my purse got stolen in Grenoble they would not only have my credit card but my passport as well. For the next 20 minutes I was freaking out and my mind was racing to come up with any type of solution. I ended up getting off at one of the little train stations on the way to Lyon, bought a return ticket to Grenoble, took the tram from the train station to my house, grabbed my passport and grabbed the next tram back to the train station, ran through the train station and bought another ticket to Lyon. Luckily the next train was leaving in 15 minutes. However my flight from Lyon to Barcelona was in 2 hours, so if I was going to make it 1. I needed to make the shuttle from the Lyon train station to the Lyon airport that left every half hour and 2. I needed to sprint through the airport and pray there were no lines. Fortunately Meagan kept going ahead of me when I got off the train to return to Grenoble so she was texting me every little detail about the airport and how to get to the terminal.
I made it to the airport and had 30 minutes to check in, get through security and make it to the gate that was on the other side of the airport. As soon as the doors of the shuttle opened I sprinted with my luggage and all, through the airport to check in, and then on to security...thankfully there were absolutely no lines and I had no trouble with my luggage at security. I continued to sprint to the gate and made it within 5 minutes of them closing the doors. I was sooo happy and so exhausted once I reached my seat. But HEY, I MADE IT!! From now on I am double, even triple checking my bag before I leave my house for trips.
Meagan and I had to take 3 different trams to get to the hostel where we were staying. Neither her nor I had every stayed at a hostel and so we were reluctant and didn't know what to expect when we arrived. However we couldn't have had a better experience. We were greeted by a jolly, middle aged spanish man named Angel. He let us in and there we were met with about 15 other college age students from all over the world. They welcomed us with a plate of food, which we were not expecting at all. After the day we had, had we melted into our chairs and devoured the food within minutes. Angel went over all the hotspots of Barcelona and which places to check out first. After that we headed up to our rooms, changed and came back to socialize with the other people there. I met people from New Zealand, Montreal, South Africa, Australia, New York, Virginia, Germany, Chile, Portugal, China and Lithuania. Even though some people left and others took their place, we all became so close knit within the 5 days we were staying there it was such a wonderful experience meeting such different people from all walks of life, traveling and enjoying life just like we were. Every night after dinner, everyone from the hostel hung out on the patio, chatting, playing games and playing music. It was an incredible experience. We were all vulnerable in a foreign city, living among strangers but that is what forced everyone to bond and become close to each other.
The next few days Meagan and I became very close to the two people from Virginia, Vinod and Laura who are best friends from college. We ended up sight seeing a lot of Barcelona together. One day we rented bikes and rode all over the city. We hiked up Montjuïc to see the Castle, Poble Espanyol, the MNAC, Palau Sant Jordi and the Olympic Stadium. Then we roamed around the main street, La Rambla where they have a thousand vendors, shops and restaurants and THE most amazing open air market, Boqueria Market with fresh fruit, nuts, fish, meat, cheese, basically anything you could possible imagine.
The next day we hit up the Cathedral, St. Maria del Mar, a mini Arc de Triomph, Sagrada Familia and Park Güell and of course the beach. We even got to try Gelato from Barcelona (which I heard is much different from Italian Gelato...I guess we will see when I travel to Italy). One of the times I was ordering Gelato the transition between 3 different languages in such a quick amount of time completely messed me up and so I asked her for a certain flavor in Spanish and when she said "this one?" (in Spanish) I said "yes, that one" (in French) and then I said "oops, I mean Si" (little bit of Spanglish) and then she laughed and in english I said "Sorry" haha. My brain has been so jumbled between French and English everyday, I think it had a melt down while in Spain.
All in all, Barcelona was an absolute beautiful city which I would love to visit again one day. It was great to finally have sunshine and warmth instead of snow and rain all the time (which is basically the Grenoble climate right now). Barcelona actually reminded me a lot of San Diego, a nice big city right next to the beach, so it was a nice little taste of home. However in the heart of the city there were still the eclectic, quaint little European alley ways where you can find the best bars, restaurants and boutiques. We got lost a lot but it was fun exploring the massive city all together.
