Barcelona

In an attempt to finish my spring break updates before I leave for Startford-upon-Avon tomorrow to see Romeo and Juliet (for which, there will be a post and I want to catch up on the last two cities. I can assure you that this whole blogging about 7 cities thing is a difficult task to accomplish, between catching up with laundry and London life, but it is a labour of love for you all, my dear readers. And thus, we continue on with Barcelona.

It was a bit gloomy when we got to Barcelona but we made the most of it. Casey, Liz and Andrea headed to the beach anyway, determined to have more beach time on our break. Sarah and I asked for advice from the guy at our hostel, and he told us about a great area. After figuring out the metro and map, we ended up on the 5^th Avenue of Barcelona. It is so much fun to walk down a street past such stores like Prada, Gucci, Hugo Boss and more.

we also saw some cool Gaudi architecture

We then got to the market/shopping area for normal people where I found an awesome bag from a store called Desigual. We tried to find some Barcelona t shirts, but the vendors were very pushy and intense and made me really annoyed and uncomfortable, plus the shirts were really campy and kind of tacky. I decided my bag was a good enough souvenir and we headed to get some food. Our food of the day included Dulce de Leche waffles, more gelato (not as good as Italy’s of course) and finally some paella! I was dying to try some, and it was pretty good. Not my favourite dish ever, but it was pretty delicious. Like London, apparently the main dish of a country must be served in huge portions, so I couldn’t finish. It was great though. 

How will I ever eat a normal waffle again?

Paella de pollo. Yum!

Then Sarah and I, being dorks, headed to a bookstore we had seen earlier. We had great fun looking for books in Spanish, comparing their titles and covers and just finding things we knew about. I even found a Phantom related book… It is only in Spanish though. Hmmm. Might be time to start practicing Spanish again…

The Hunger Games, one of my favourite books, in Catalan! 

Comparing the Catalan and Spanish versions of Mockingjay, the 3rd book of The Hunger Games trilogy

I might have to just try and read this in Spanish. 

It was a fun but long day so we headed back early to the hostel and hung out in the cool lounge that was downstairs. We decided that the next day was going to be easy so we weren’t going to do anything major before our flight to Paris. This turned out to be a great decision since it was POURING the next day. Literally like rivers of water and sideways rain kind of pouring. So we got food, what else, kebabs, and then chilled around the hostel till it was time to go. I even taught Liz how to play chess, but I don’t know if she remembers how the pieces move. Maybe I’ll quiz her later.

It was literally like a river.

We got to the airport in plenty of time, because Barcelona only has one airport. It was a pretty big airport and we thought it would be busy because it was a Friday afternoon. Nope. Empty. We sat around a bit, bought some chocolate from the duty free and then boarded our next plane to the lovely city of Paris.

What we left in Barcelona

Then we flew above it. So pretty!

Birthday Update

Quick note also, this may be the best birthday I've had. Though I didn't get to share it with Cesca, we did spend lots of time together last week and did get to chat today, so it was not like we were deprived of each other. Though I do wish she could be here... Anyway...

Sofia Escobar from Phantom stopped by my work and wished me a happy birthday and was so nice! I was downstairs and a coworker came down and said "Christina, there's a Sofia here for you?" I was like 'what!?!?', and I walked upstairs, opened the door and there she was. She's got the most brilliant smile and overall sweet demeanor, and she was so friendly. She was like "How's your day!? I didn't know you worked here!" She even gave me a card. I'm so beyond amazed. Sarah had tweeted her and asked her to come. What a great friend!

The card Sofia gave me. Please note my 'Birthday Princess' crown. I did not wear it all day. Maybe I should have?

She's like the nicest person ever

Then my coworkers took me out for a drink at this really classy bar. We got some wine and ordered a British cheese plate, which was totally great and a good experience. I really loved hanging out with them, actually. I'm going to be so sad to leave.

I arrived home to a home cooked meal of chicken parm and garlic bread, made by my lovely flatmate Liz. Delicious. She made me an ice cream cake too!

I feel so lucky today :)

Valencia!!!!!

Valencia is the city I like to refer to as “The City in Which We Reverted to Seven Year Olds.” But we will get to that in a moment.

When we first arrived, we were exhausted. We had been significantly delayed at Rome Ciampino Airport (after almost going to Baden Baden, our gate changed then we had to wait for another 45 minutes. Standing up. With a 20 pound backpack. In a huge crowd) and we really wanted to just get to our hostel and relax. Thankfully, Liz asked for directions in Spanish and we were on our way to the Purple Nest Hostel. We easily found it and were pleasantly surprised at how awesome it was. It had a funky fresh, cool design. Plus the best showers I have ever seen. It was like showering in rain. So cool We got in pretty late so we didn’t really do anything the first night but admire the hostel and the view from our balcony.

The next day, however, we had a blast. Casey had spied an ad for the Valencia Aquarium on a map we had. Now, you’re probably thinking, ‘You didn’t go all the way to Spain to see an Aquarium!’ buuuuuuuuuut Valencia is well known for its City of Arts and Sciences, which is a strip of lie 5 buildings that are all unique and have cool stuff. One of them is the aquarium. I haven’t been in years, so I thought, why not? It wasn’t out of my price range and it would be loads of fun. We asked for directions and were told to walk through a lovely park for a while. The day was warm and sunny, so we were super stoked.

We happened upon some low trees and spent some time climbing them, then we came across a rope playground. We all looked at each other and immediately decided that of course we should play on it! We continued on to find some orange trees (with oranges that were not good to eat, according to some guy who saw us) then continued on, where we happened across another playground. This one was in the shape of Gulliver from Gulliver’s Travels, which was so cool because things like his belt and hat became slides and sandboxes. So much fun. The half hour walk to the Aquarium took us about 2 hours because of these distractions, but it was totally worth it. Andrea decided not to go to the Aquarium, so she hobbled to the beach on her bad foot while we went inside and enjoyed the wonders. Best aquarium I’ve seen. Ever.

I imitate strange drawings on walls. 

tree climbing pros

cool fountain

rope playground!

Gulliver Playground!

so cute!!

Jellyfish!!!

 "Go stand next to that pelican, it is almost as big as you!"

Afterwards, we decided that we were on Spring Break so we should head to the beach. None of us had our swimsuits with us, so we just rolled up our jeans and dipped our toes in. It would have been too cold to swim in anyway, but we had a blast running around in the surf. We met some dutch boys who made some interesting sounds at the mention of ‘Spring Break..."

Churros- our on the way to the beach snack

This is the result of Liz being dumb

So awesome!!!

Later, after much fun, we headed off to a grocery store to get a cheap dinner. I made authentic Spanish pasta.

 We then thought a board game would be fun so we played Trivial Pursuit. However, this version happened to be the British version, making it quite challenging. 

Casey was tired of pictures

We made it through then went for a walk in a nearby park for a bit to enjoy the still warm weather. Then we packed up our stuff so we could get a move on bright and early to the train station to catch a train to our next destination, Barcelona!

The train station!

Roma

I thought I would like Rome more than I did. After a tearful goodbye and a 3 hour train ride from Perugia I wasn’t in the best of spirits. The incredible crowded 2 line metro in Rome didn’t help, especially because, as an experienced traveler now, I know how to use metros. You MOVE IN when you get on so other people can get in. Apparently this was a difficult concept for the citizens and visitors of Rome to grasp. Ridiculous.

We found our hostel with little difficulty, but the rooms weren’t ready. We dropped our stuff off in the kitchen and headed out: first stop, Vatican City and Sistine Chapel.

Pause. First stop amended: FOOD. We found a kebab place near the Vatican (Cesca introduced us to this wonderful food in Perugia the first night and I’ve had like 7 since. So. Good). We also stopped again along the way for, you guessed it, gelato! After following the scenes for the Vatican Museum, we ended up at the exit. How? I have no idea. So we decided the entrance must be close, we should just follow the wall. Bad idea. We ended up walking around the ENTIRE Vatican, which, mind you, is a different country. So we totally walked around a country. How many people can say that? Anyway, we ended up near St. Peter’s Basilica, and after finding out the chapel was closed for the day, decided to go in. It was amazing! I love that kind of architecture because it is so much more decorative than the architecture of most English cathedrals, not that they aren’t cool too. After that, we headed back to the metro to get to the Spanish Steps. Unfortunately, Andrea and Casey got left behind (again, it happened the first time on the metro there too) but we met up there. They were beautiful, but the stupid salespeople were killing me. We were just sitting there and at least half a dozen came up and tried to sell us something. They also take like 10 tries before NO finally gets through to them. Ugh.

Next we tried to head over to the Trevi fountain, but went the wrong way and wandered for a bit. We stopped for some crepes, but I wasn’t feeling well enough to eat so I didn’t. We got directions and kept moving on. After finding it and making a few wishes on coins (I saw yours dad, I’m sure of it!) we headed back to a great gelato place we saw and I got a nutella crepe while Casey and Andrea got their 3^rd serving of gelato of the day. Stuffed, satisfied and exhausted, we returned to our hostel to relax and practice our Spanish, as we were heading to Valencia the next day. We were given flowers at the hostel because it was La Festa Della Donna- Women’s Day! Kind of cool, huh?

The hostel was alright, though sleeping over Liz on a bunk bed isn’t my most preferable sleeping arrangement (you toss a lot Liz, it’s a known fact), and some boys came in late and were a bit loud. Hostels aren’t  my favorite things anyway, but we managed with this one. After a good night’s rest, we were up and at ‘em for day 2.

First dinner in Rome = Kebab

so much nutella

So good!!!

Basilica di San Pietro

inside the basilica

Trevi Fountain

Piles of gelato. so good

saw one. for realz

Flowers for the Festa della Donna

Liz, Sarah and I attempted to return to the Vatican Museum to see the Sistine Chapel, forgetting it was Ash Wednesday. The Pope was making a speech later, so the Vatican was waaaay crowded. We cut out losses and headed to the Coliseum, which was huge, impressive and awesome. It wasn’t quite as big as I thought, but I think that’s cause they make it look so huge in movies. We wandered around enjoying the sun, then headed over to Ancient Rome and wandered there for a few hours, as it is HUGE. We saw some other IC students there, which was kind of comical, then headed back to the hostel, got one last gelato and gathered our stuff and headed off to the airport. I accidentally left my phone on the bus (all is well, I have a new one) and we almost got on a plane to Baden Baden, but the point is we made it safely to Valencia, were yet another crazy adventure was surely awaiting us. Even though our feet where killing us. KILLING US. 

Il Colosseo 

Inside the Colosseum 

Arch of Constantine

Last gelato in Italy =(

Firenze

Florence was another city that I really enjoyed. We took a train there. I love trains, though I’ve never taken a train before Spring Break, so each time was an interesting experience. Armed with my motion sickness medicine for each trip, I was prepared though. I love watching the countryside pass by as we amble along. It doesn’t feel fast, but it gets you there pretty quick!

Anyway, despite the lovely sunshine, it was actually rather chilly in Florence. We tried to find the David, but the gallery was closed on Mondays. Eh. No big deal. We were returing to the Piazza del Duomo to find something else to do when we happened across a street market. We spent hours looking at all the different items each stall had to offer, though I admit I’m not a fan of the pushier salespeople in Europe. They tend to be mean and make comments if you don’t stop at their store. Not cool.

Anyway, I ended up with a really nice t shirt and a cute bracelet, both of which say Firenze on them. We of course decided that we needed to warm up and so we hit up a gelateria. Andrea found it. She finds all of them. Seriously, the girl has a sixth sense for gelato. As usual, it was delicious. I could eat gelato every day and never tire of it. We wandered around and saw a few more sites like the Piazza della Signioria, il Ponte Vecchio, Dante’s House and the Disney Store. We hopped on an earlier train than intended because despite the loveliness, it was really cold and we wanted to be back in Perugia, our home base in Italy. We chilled in Cesca’s flat for a bit, then they headed to the hostel and I stayed with Cesca. I loved sleeping over at her apartment, it was like we were at home again living in the same room. I gathered my things for the coming day: our next stop was Rome!

Firenze:

Casey wanted to find a calzone. She did

More kebabs. SO. GOOD.

"We should get these for all the grand openings we do!"

Awesome shopping market

Carnivale masks

Chocolate and Vanilla gelato

Il Duomo in Firenze

Disney store!

HE SMELLS LIKE STRAWBERRIES!!!!!

Piazza della Signoria

Ponte Vecchio

Amazing sidewalk art