Greetings everyone! I would like you all to prepare yourselves for the mountainous amounts of writing you are about to read, as it will more likely than not be enough writing to enfold into an epic novel.
It has been far too long since I have updated my homeland people about my activities at sea and, for the first time in two weeks, on land.
I guess I have no other choice than to start at the beginning. Since we all last "spoke," much has happened.
As for my activities on the boat, some would say I "have the life." I wake up every morning, go to class from 8-12, go back to my room, get my bathing suit on and go lay outside in the sun.
(I wear sunscreen and I re-apply) Among these activities, I also dabble in some eating of meals, writing of journal entries, studying/reading a bit, working out, and spending time with new friends.
During our 9 day sea venture, there were often times where we would all go look off the boat, from all directions and see nothing in the distance except for more water.
At least until you can't see it anymore...I forget how many miles you can see until the earth's roundness prevents you from seeing further.
Maybe this was how they realized the world wasn't flat way back when.
However, at the hour of high-noon, we came across LAND.
It's a famous spot too, you all may or may not have heard of it.
It goes by the name of the Strait of Gibraltar.
We looked over to the right and saw Africa (Tangier) and to the left we saw Southern Spain.
I liked this.
And so did the entirety of the ships passengers.
I felt like I was at a Michael Jackson (RIP) concert and everyone was pushing to get a good look at the guy.
Or in this case, the land.
Soon enough we were thru the strait and on the Mediterranean Sea.
It was a nice change after being on the Atlantic for what seemed like 6 lifetimes...not that the Med. looked any different, it’s all water, and it’s all "such a pretty deep blue!" As I have heard and said a combined total of 39 times.
Not to many days later, we reached BARCELONA.
Talk about a culture shock!
There was grass, cars, and people walking in a straight line, and sturdy buildings and everything was surrounded by cement.
It definitely was NOT the pretty blue I had been surrounded by over the past 2ish weeks, but I loved it, none the less. In a nutshell, from the moment I stepped foot on this foreign land, I was in love and decided that I must live there for an extended period.
Don't hold your breath though, I may or may not say that about every port.
My 8 years of Spanish definitely paid off, I never would have thought that it would come back so quickly.
But I guess when you're surrounded by people who are nearly incompetent with the language (my fellow travelers); you are nearly forced to use it in order to survive. Once the boat was cleared, (all passports checked), Nicole, two new friends and I got off and immediately took a taxi to the Ramblas (busy street with tons of shopping, locals, and tourists) and from there decided to WALK to La Sagrada Familia.
While this was an "adventure" I will never forget, I may suggest to the next person to take a taxi.
It would be an easier, and much more time efficient way to get to the monument.
This was by far the most spectacular and gargantuan thing I have ever laid my brown eyes upon.
The architecture is one of a kind and the inside is basically a museum, without actually being one.
We wondered to ourselves, how many times are we going to be able to see this in our lives? And without saying anymore, we decided to take the elevator to the top of the church, where you can see the entirety of Barcelona, and possibly more.
While this was the highest up I had ever been in my life, it was also the most beautiful view I have ever seen.
The combined stimuli caused some mild nervousness which I had never experienced before.
I said to myself, when have I ever listened to my body? Why start now? So, like a good little girl, I looked over all the edges, peered down the center of a never ending spiral staircase, and took enough pictures of all of this to last a life time.
Lunch came after this, our first taste of real Spanish food and it was delectable. We decided to take the underground metro back to the Ramblas/our port to save some time. I think it took about 1/15 of the time that it took to walk. I wonder why this was not done the first time? After a bit of shopping, we headed back to the ship, ate dinner, changed, and decided to go out on the town. We decided to wear our, "cute shoes" because it was a night out. Big mistake. For this night out, I needed my serious walking shoes. We must have walked for over an hour with some other people before we got to the clubs. And once we got there, all we found were drinks for nearly $20, old women in dressed to tight, and men wearing white suits. Strange. Needless to say, we didn't stay long.
The next few days were also pretty active. Our group was shaved down to 3 and it was fantastic. Nicole, myself and our new awesomely awesome friend Sophie. The morning and afternoon of the next day we went to the Gothic Quarter, saw the great architecture, the cathedral, Picasso’s museum, and ate some more food. Later that afternoon, we packed for a night and hopped a train to a small beach town about 35 mins away called Sitges. Great little town. Watched the Spain vs. Chile game at a sports bar, relaxed, slept in out 70 euro room with one bed, went to a (1/2) nude beach the next day and came back to the ship. On our way back, one of the girls we were traveling with got her wallet stolen. We followed about 4 kids on the underground metro, who then proceeded to try and get immediately back off. They ran in to her, and for about 5 seconds it was chaos. They rushed of the train, and her wallet was gone. Perfectly orchestrated. Nothing of extreme value was lost, it could have been so much worse.
On our last day, we rented bikes for our form of transportation. We biked to the Park Guell. Which we didn't know at the time, was located pretty much on the top of a mountain...and we still biked the whole thing. Great workout, sweaty pigs, legs hurting, still loved the park. We descended the mountain on our bikes, returned them, spend our last few moments on the Ramblas and boarded the ship. Goodbye Barcelona, Hello Italia!
(p.s. pictures are coming I hope! They are stickler about internet around here, so I have to do it at an internet café when I find one and it’s also convenient, my apologies!)
