Go Barca!

Weekend 2 (September 13 – 15):

For the second weekend, we decided to venture to Barcelona. Again, there was a large group going, but we split up the group. I was extremely excited for the weekend, because two of my best friends from Virginia Tech were going to meet us in Barcelona as well. They are studying abroad in Lugano, Switzerland. We left Friday morning from Prague, and we took a bolt to the airport. Our flight was delayed, as per usual, because of the strikes in the Barcelona airport. However, they kept telling us it had to do with the changing of the food on our airplane. I have experience more flight delays in Europe than in America. It might be bad luck, but when the flights are delayed everyone is much more relaxed as opposed to the United States.

Once we finally landed in Barcelona, we decided to try our luck with the public transportation getting to our hostel. We purchased a 48 hour public transportation ticket, which ended up becoming extremely valuable. Once we got to our hostel, we were instantly impressed and excited. This was going to be my first hostel experience. I was completely shocked and blown away by all the fun events they had going on. They also had more amenities than I was expecting. Finally, I was most pleased by the safety. I felt very safe with the front desk security and all of the restricted areas you had to go through to get to your room. When we checked in, we chatted for a long time with the check-in person. He gave us recommendations for paella and tapas, which are a must in Spain. We went to our rooms to game plan for the rest of the day. We decided we would try out tapas and shopping for the afternoon. We went to the tapas place recommend to us. The tapas were absolutely incredible. The service was a little awkward because we had two different waiters asking us the same question. The restaurant dynamic is the United States is more hands on and polished than I’ve experienced this semester. In addition, we ordered one tapa with steak on it. The steak was the most rare I have ever eaten. It was extremely delicious, but took a moment of courage for me to take a bite. After eating our wonderful tapas, we went to Zara. Zara started in Spain, so we had heard how the Zara in Barcelona was the best and the cheapest. After spending too much money, we went back to the hostel to get ready for the evening. While walking in between these three destinations, we saw a multitude of homeless people, which isn’t abnormal. However, the homeless people in Barcelona were a lot more in your face. After getting ready, we went down to the hostel bar. The hostel bar was jam-packed with other people our age minling. I enjoyed meeting other people from all around the world in Barcelona just to explore. After leaving the hostel bar, we tried to meet up with the other group in Barcelona. However, it ended up going poorly. We put in two different locations, which led us to the wrong side of town. When trying to figure out how to connect with them, the ride share app would not work. We were standing outside of a restaurant trying to figure out our next steps. The owner of the restaurant came out and said he knew we were Americans and lost. He ended up being helpful and giving us directions. However, it did make me nervous how obvious our lostness was to this stranger. We decided to just take the bus back at this point. It was extremely late and we were all frustrated. When we got on the bus, the bus driver was aggressive toward us and we believed he scammed us. When we got back to the hostel, the Lugano people had arrived. I burst into tears when I saw Tara and Maddie. I had been feeling homesick, and seeing Tara (who I lived with last year) just made me feel so at home. We all just went a grabbed pizza and discussed our experience thus far with study abroad.

Saturday morning, we woke up early to explore all of Barcelona. We started by grabbing a quick bite and heading to Park Guell. We had to walk up so many stairs to reach Park Guel. Once at the top, we realized there was an escalator – oh well! We didn’t have tickets, but I still felt like I saw what I wanted to see. A decent amount of the exhibits were under construction, so if we did have tickets we wouldn’t have been able to see that much. After Park Guel, we rushed to Sagrada Familia for our tour. We ran into someone making paella on the street and got to speak with them as well. It was interesting hearing about the traditional paella making. Once at Sagrada Familia, we met up with our tour guide and made our way through security and inside. My breath was taken away. I had never seen such a large building with so much intricate detail. I was very thankful we took the guided tour as well, because he was able to share with us details that I wouldn’t have picked up on. Sagrada Familia is a must see during everyone’s life I believe. It was crazy to me that it was still being built and wouldn’t be done until 2026. 

After Sagrada Familia, we went and tried paella. Paella is worth the hype. It is not just rice and meat. If you go to the right location, there is so much flavor. We went and explored the official Barca store afterwards. I was with Tracey at this point, and she had not been to Zara. We stopped back in Zara. When in Zara, I ended up running into a girl from my hometown who I had gone to school with from 3rd grade to 12th grade. She goes to Wake Forest and is studying abroad in Barcelona! 

When we left Zara, we met up with others at the Market on Las Ramblas street. The market was clearly a prime spot for pickpockets, so we were extra careful. I loved trying all of the authentic dishes. My favorite item was the fresh pomegranate though. It wasn’t too busy, because we went towards the end of the day. Quickly, I rushed back to the hostel and met up with my friends in the hostel. We went to go watch the sunset at the bunkers. It was an adventure getting to the bunkers, because we followed someone else. The someone we followed got off at the wrong stop, so we ended up having to walk a long distance to find the bunkers. The bunkers made everything worth it. Easily, the prettiest thing I’ve seen thus far. We checked our watches, and realized we had the perfect amount of time to get across town to the fountain show. The fountain show was clearly a tourist event, but it was still very enjoyable. I liked getting to look at the street vendors selling knock-off purses. I didn’t buy anything, but their goods were very intriguing. They seemed so sneaky when they were in the metro with their goods. They had their products wrapped up in sheets, and then all ran up at the same time. I am assuming they were trying to get the best locations.

Some of the people we were with at the fountain show hadn’t tried paella yet, so we went to find paella. Paella is best at lunch, but they still wanted the chance to try it. We went to a tapa and paella restaurant. One dish which was the ham croquettes were delectable. However, I didn’t think anything else was that good at the restaurant. It very clearly took advantage of their tourist location, but we fell for it so I can’t complain. After tapas and paella, it was time to get ready to go out for the evening. Again, we started our night at the hostel bar. We met more people Saturday night, but mostly Australians crazy enough! Europe has so much more culture! We met up with everyone at one place Saturday night. As we were in line waiting to go in, I ran into another friend of mine. She goes to SMU, but we went to camp together growing up. It is crazy how much of a small world it is. 

Sunday morning, we went to Brunch and Cake for breakfast. Brunch and Cake lived up to the raving reviews. Everyone who knew I was going to Barcelona told me I had to go. I got a chicken nacho sandwich, and it hit the spot! It was plated so pretty, but tasted even better than it looked. We had to run back to our hostel after brunch for the 11 am check out. We had a few hours before needing to head to the airport, so we went to the beach. We had our backpack with us, so we just explored and looked around. 

At the airport, we were worried about the strikes. However, there was no delay with security at all. However, our flight ended getting delayed 6+ hours. The delay included boarding once and then having to be deplaned. During the delay, I face timed my family which was nice to be able to catch up about our weekends. We finally made it back to Prague around 2 am. It was a good moment to really learn about how you handle crisis moments though. Katie and I made the most of the situation and explored the airport non-stop laughing!