LIVE FROM BARCELONA, SPAIN, ittttttts BLOG TIME!! (insert cheers of applause here.)

Location: Kyle's room having a blog party.
Song stuck in head: justin beiber. the end. my poor brain.


LIVE FROM BARCELONA, SPAIN, ittttttts BLOG TIME!! (insert cheers of applause here.) So after that cheesy moment….  

Yesterday morning we finally made it to the first country on our voyage, Spain.  After staying up way too late the night before, the group woke up bright and early at 0600 to watch the sunrise over beautiful Spain! As I stood there I realized that that was actually the first ever sunrise I’ve seen. Or at least that I remember. Haha I’ve always had plans to watch it, but then me being the night owl I am, I usually just wake up to my alarm, say “no way hose’” and head right back to bed. :]  However, this morning I woke up so excited for the day and witnessed one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.  The sun rose right over the ocean so it looked like the rays just went on forever.  As it rose higher, it shined light on the fog-covered shores of Spain allowing us to glimpse our ship’s current path towards shore.

By 0700, everyone was starting to get anxious about seeing the pilot boat and witnessing the man make the big jump to the ship.  The “voice” (the man who makes all the announcements over the intercom system on the ship) told us all that the pilot would pull up to the left side of the ship.  So of course we all go to the left side and wait patiently. Suddenly, we see the pilot boat, and hes heading to the RIGHT!! Everyone watching witnessed all of us run to the right side of the ship getting there just in time to see the pilot swing around the back of the ship forcing us to run BACK to the left side.  Hahaha I’m sure it was a sight to see… but the morning jog was worth it and we got to see the man take a small hop onto the ship.  After a small cheer, people started heading their own ways, and most of our group got breakfast.  The breakfast was tasty, I snagged an extra yogurt again, and then we headed back out to watch us pull in to port in BARCELONA!!! US ambassadors and Spain customs representatives came onto the ship as soon as we were tied up.  While the customs people were doing their thing, the US ambassador gave a talk in the union and satellite rooms.  Us being the slackers we were just hung around in my room after realizing that our room also picked up the satellite room channel. HAH. So that was pretty sweet. As the ambassador finished speaking and we received our last debriefing, the voice came on and announced our ship was clear and we were good to go!

The group of us decided we would chill out for a little while and let the massive line to get off the ship die down.  After a few prank phone calls that Nina would have been proud of and multiple journeys to each person’s room, we finally got everyone together and off the ship.  As we took that first step onto solid land, we fell to our knees and kissed the ground! Ok, so we didn’t really kiss the ground (or fall to our knees for that matter), but we were definitely happy to have a steady footing! To get back and fort to our ship, we actually have to take a free shuttle service because there is currently construction near our port and we are not allowed to walk through it.  The shuttle drops us off right near the Christopher Columbus statue though, which is pretty much the access point for the main area of the city.  It is located right by Las Ramblas, which is very similar to Market Street in Charleston.  So we decided to explore around there.  Lacey, Heather, and Clark had to be back to the ship in a few hours to go on the SAS City Orientation field program, so the first thing on the agenda was lunch!  

Walking down Las Ramblas, there are all sorts of small shops and cafés on the sides.  In the middle there is another street that, like market street, is open to small venders or extra seating for the cafés. It is just an open stretch of brick road and it looks like there are regular vendors as well as spontaneous venders.  One of the really cool things was that they have these people in the middle that are standing like statues.  Some of them were really serious about it and would not move, but others were messing with people and would go from still to all the sudden moving and scaring whoever was near them.  They were definitely characters, but they looked like they were having fun! It is really hard to describe them, but I took some pictures so I will try and post those too.

A little ways down, we found a cute pizzeria café that we decided to give a try.  Both Kyle and I forgot the name, but I will probably think of it again and let you know!  OH!! It was the Ideal Restaurant. Not feeling very adventurous yet, Lacey and I split a cheese pizza while pretty much everyone else got the Croquettes.  Our pizza was EXCELLENT. We had both been craving pizza really bad on the ship haha so it hit the spot.  It was a lot different then pizza like home. I tried the croquettes and they were really really good!! So there you go Nicole! Already trying something new. :D aren’t you proud??

After lunch, the field program kids took off and headed back to the ship while the rest of us went exploring further.  We walked all along Las Ramblas and then took a side track to walk to La Sagrada Familia.  We stopped at a few small stores along the way and stopped to take tons of pictures of the buildings.  (basically we blended in perfectly. NOT! Haha) We saw tons of Gaudi buildings, which is a completely different type of architecture then we have in the states.  Each of them is so different that pictures really are the best way to describe them, so once again, I will try and put a few up here.  The La Sagrad Familia was BEAUTIFUL.  We did not explore much of the actual building because once we got there we realized ALL of us would want to go.  So we are saving that adventure for Sunday when the whole group can go.  Totally exciting!

We saw this man folding pop cans into little bowls and selling them for 1euro on the street.  They were so cool! We watched him make one, and Kyle and I both got one.  Mine is a Fanta Naranja (orange) can.  It’s pretty awesome.  With our first souvenirs in hand, we headed to the metro.  We found the Flamenco place that Lacey was going to with SAS that night, but it was closed.  So we picked up one of the flyers by the door that had the internet cite on it and made it our mission to find an internet café, which was also already on our list of things to do. 

Back on Las Ramblas, we found a small place that sold internet access: 1 euro for each hour.  Took a little bit of exploring, but now we know where it is! Unfortunately, we discovered that (as is logical) SAS had booked the whole place for the show that Lacey was going to, so we got tickets to the second show instead.  Checked Facebook for a minute, then headed back to the ship to go back and meet the rest of the group coming with us to Flamenco.  (I have discovered that pre-communication is key to successfully planning and following through with group journeys now that we have no phones… never realized exactly how dependent we are on technology until this trip!)

We headed back out, this time with cute shoes because we planned on walking to dinner on Las Ramblas the taking the metro all the way back to Flamenco.  We ate dinner at a place that came highly recommended by David Gies (the man who had been giving us the Spain Explorer seminars)  called the Attic.  It was AMAZING.  The 6 of us each got a different dish, and Kyle, Heather and I shared while the other three shared.  We had meats and they had fish. Kyle, Heather, and I got Croquettes with jamon (ham), veal with baked brie, and hamburger with caramelized onions and a fried egg on top. We were excellent at playing “pass the plate” and we would just each eat a third of the plate haha. All of the dishes were so tasty! Believe it or not, I actually tried all of them with the original ingredients and toppings! So I actually left the egg and onions on top of the hamburger and the brie on the veal! Go me :] I felt so adventurous. Except when it came to trying the octopus. That I was not adventurous enough for… hahaha maybe next time……

The atmosphere of the restaurant was really cool.  It was probably one of the nicest restaurants I have ever been in, like the meals we got would have cost at least 30 to 40 dollars each back home.  But here it was less than 30 euros for all three of our dishes and a bottle of water! (that is one of the weirdest things to get used to: paying for water.  And it’s not that cheap unfortunately!  I have a feeling that will turn into one of our constant expenses.)  so basically it averaged to about 10 euros a person for an amazing meal and a decent size amount of food.  We had good table banter, and the server even told us stories while we were there.  He told us in a mixture of English and Spanish that people who regularly visit Spain stumble upon their restaurant and then frequently return any time they are visiting.  He said they also have a strong group of regulars.  So basically the Attic was equivalent to the diamond in the rough. Thanks for the great advice David!! :]

After an excellent meal, we took our full tummies and hit the street again.  Now this is where it got a little complicated…. Remember our original plan of taking the metro to the Flamenco place because it was a pretty hefty walk? Also remember that Heather and I put on cute, but less functional shoes then the Chacos (thanks gram and pop!!) I had previously been wearing?  Yeahhhhh well Clark and Kyle got the amazing idea to take the longest walk ever through downtown Barcelona instead of the metro… now, we did end up seeing some AWESOME places, but by the end Heather and I’s feet were DYING. And we also were going pretty much the opposite direction that we needed to be going for the Flamenco place… So by the end we are all pretty much running to the Flamenco place in order to make the show on time.  I am writing a paper for my global music class, so I really needed to see the whole show. Was a little frustrating, but looking back on it today, it was definitely worth the walk.  The only problem is that the shoes I was wearing gave me HUGE blisters on the balls of both of my feet :( oh wellllll they will heal :) not letting that stop me from exploring! It just means we are doing a little less walking and a little more metro riding. 

Anyways, we finally made it to the Flamenco show, and it was EXCELLENT. So cool to see everything that we have been talking about in global music in real life.  During global music I was slightly skeptical of the music, but when I saw it live I was enthralled. The entire performance was so full of raw emotion and talent.  I was pretty much speechless the entire time.  I am actually excited to write that paper!

After the show, we tried to run and catch the metro.  But because Heather and I had no luck at all between the two of us, of course we got to the station just as the last metro of the night pulled out… this led us to back track and try and catch a taxi.  Only problem was that there were 5 of us.  Which meant that we couldn’t take a regular sized taxi.  So we attempted to get a van taxi. Did you know that ALL of the van cabs in Barcelona could only take a maximum of 4 people? Well, now we all know! Since it was only our first night in town, we did not want to split up for fear of not being able to find each other later. Thus we began the long walk all the way back to the ship.  Ironically enough, we ran into Lacey and Daniel as we turned back on Las Ramblas.  Since we were tired of walking and still had a good bit of walking to the boat ahead, the two of them just turned around and walked back to the ship with us. 

On the way, we passed a Gelato store and got some.  I got “after hours” which was really just mint chocolate chip. Was quite tasty. They gave me a lot more than the rest of the group because I got the last of the pan! I didn’t even finish half of it before I was crazy full and passed it back to Kyle to finish haha. 

Eventually we made it back to the shuttle stop, took the shuttle and got back on the ship. Everyone was worn out.  The three of us girls had our nightly “girl talk” as we have begun calling it. Aka mission: ditch the boys (even if it means jumping on the elevator and shutting the doors before they get in :] true story lol).  We worked out details of the next few days seeing as Daniel, Clark, and Lacey were all heading to Madrid early the next morning.  Finally, around 2:30 we all passed out of complete and utter exhaustion from an incredible first day in Spain.

Now it is already 1:30 am tonight, and I am yet again tired from another full day! So you will just have to hear about it sometime tomorrow!! This blog keeping up is surprisingly tough business! I don’t want to leave anything out! Hahaha

Goodnight moon!