Donde esta... everything??

The motors just started up and were on the road (on the sea?) again! In some ways it seems like we just got here, but I guess its see ya never Barcelona— and next up Italy! The last 4 days have been such a whirlwind and so much has gone on I don’t even know where to start. I’ve been putting off blogging since we’ve gotten here because A) we’ve had negative spare time and B) so much has gone on that I know it’s going to take me forever to tell. Hopefully I don’t end up writing TOO much of a novel!!
Monday morning we woke up in the Barcelona harbor, FINALLY stopped and getting ready to begin the debarkation process. Breakfast was followed by a speaker from the US embassy here in Barcelona who just told us a little about the situation in the city. It was fine but not super necessary.  They worked with immigration to go through our passports and people started get off around 10. A bunch of us had the Montserrat FDP the first thing so we met and picked up our lunches at the Union before heading to the busses. The drive let us see a ton of the city, and the fact that the busses could even make it up the huge, winding mountain to the monastery and hiking paths at the top.  The weird lunches included mortadella and cheese sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, oreos, chocolate cake, orange Capri Sun and apples. Oh, and chicken drumbsticks? Anyways. We got there and looked around for a while before deciding to stand in line to go up and see the “Black Madonna” Virgin Mary.  For decades people have been making pilgrimages to the church, believing that praying and touching the famous statue would cause their prayers to be answered. We also found out later that if you kiss her you are supposed to get pregnant (needless to say we were all planning on keeping our lips to ourselves).  We met and talked to a nice German family while we were waiting, but I was definitely glad Herr Chaney wasn’t there to hear me butcher my attempts to hold a decent conversation.
The line was huge and not moving very fast so we decided to forget it and walk up one of the first trails instead. It was crazy rocky and prett steep but the views were great. Afterwards we headed to the buses and back to the ship.
The idea of an afternoon nap sounded nice, but we didn’t really end up resting much before going to explore. We started by wandering down the main street of La Rambla, looking for a place to get some tapas. What seemed like hours, miles and more than a few failed attempts at directions later we ended up as lost as when we started. One Italian man got kind of offended when we said we didn’t want to take his map when he offered (he was lost too!) but eventually a guy who introduced himself and told us he was from Temple  came up and offered advice for how to get to a cute neighborhood. Once again, we failed miserably. We wound up stumbling on a cute but slightly expensive tapas place around 9:30 where with the help/pressure/uncomfortable flirting of a borderline creepy waiter we split some great food.
After dinner we wandered around some more, arguing that since we really didn’t have anywhere specific we were headed we technically weren’t lost- right? I mentioned that I since the sun was setting I hoped we weren’t near that bad part of town they told us to avoid. Of course, Alex quickly assured me we were nowhere near that neighborhood and not even to worry about it. And then we saw the women in stilettos, bedazzled mini skirts and lacy tank tops followed closely by the man selling cans of beer and unmarked bags of powder and the little boy holding a gun. (Which, by the way, we’re choosing to believe was fake.)  Needless to say we picked up our pace considerably and breathed a collective sigh of relief when we found ourselves back on Las Ramblas, and also needless to say we were less than shocked when we found our map later with the neighborhood circled and labeled “drugs and prostitutes”. Lovely. 
We found a neat gelato place for a late night snack and later met and hung out with this group of Canadian guys who were enjoying the last city on their European vacation. The one had broken his nose the night before in Paris, which he explained was ironic because even though it’s a common injury in his profession he’s never had it happen before. Did I mention he plays for the Vancouver Canucks? But actually. They were really cool and fun to talk to, and the ten of us wandered around the very much still awake city for a while before heading back to the ship and to sleep by 4 am.
Tuesday we met up at 9 and headed again to La Rambla, finding a cute little café where we had coffee con leche and chocolate croissants for a delicious Spanish breakfast. Armed with our trusty map and determined not to repeat the mistakes of the night before we set off for the amazing Antonio Gaudi houses of Casa Mila and Casa Batillo. The architecture is incredible and we paid to go up and tour Casa Mila’s roof top sculpture gardens too. We may of may not have managed to get a little turned around again looking for a tapas place for lunch, but after a MUCH needed water stop at McDonalds we pushed on and walked the somewhat inefficient trek to La Sagrada Familia. Also designed by Gaudi, the extravagant and impressive church is still under construction and its hoped will be completed in the next 25 of so years. We were quickly sidetracked by some protesters demonstrating against the huge unemployment issue here in Spain, but finally found a local restaurant nearby where the waitress was less than happy to be dealing with a table of American girls with seriously limited Spanish vocabularies. We ended up going with the old close your eyes and point strategy but ended up with some pretty good food! Alex wasn’t quite expecting the giant sausage and unidentified fried dumpling things she got, but it was definitely an experience. We were super worn out and a long way from the dock so we took a cab home to take a siesta, shower, and get ready to go out for the night.
Katie and Megan needed to see a flamenco performance for their music and theater classes so we went to one we heard was good over on the other side of town. The dancers were amazing, the guitar player was GORGEOUS and the main male dancer’s faces were unlike anything we’ve seen someone make before haha. The show was well worth the cost of admission and even included a complimentary pitcher of sangria, but it ran long and we were all anxious to have dinner by the time we left.  We’d spent much of the last 2 days trying to find a tapas place Alex’s friend had insisted we visit, but of course we hadn’t been especially successful up to now. We stopped a cab and when asked the driver said he knew exactly where it was, but he would only take 4 of us leaving one person stuck. Clearly not an option we decided to split up- Candice and I went to Cervesaria Catalana where Alex, Megan and Katie promised they would shortly meet us. A few tense minutes of waiting later we were reunited outside the VERY crowded restaurant, where they informed us it would be an hour wait to even get a table. We couldn’t very well leave now that we found it so we decided to stay- even though that meant we weren’t going to be eating until around midnight. It was absolutely worth the wait!! We got and split 9 or 10 tapas dishes with each being more amazing than the last, topping the night off with more ice cream at the Hagen Daz next door ☺ A short but blissful cab ride later we were once again on the ship- getting to bed “early” by near 2 for the busy day ahead.
Tired of reading yet? I warned you!
Wednesday Megan, Katie and I had a field trip called Sporting Barcelona- an all morning tour of the FC Barcelona soccer stadium and the Barcelona Olympic stadiums. It was really cool to see everything- especially being out on the field at the famous championship winning football club.  We got back later than we were supposed to and grabbed a quick lunch on the ship before meeting Alex and Candice to go to Parc Guell, the ridiculously awesome Gaudi designed park and gated community at the other end of town. The mosaic work, crazy buildings, arches and structures and landscaping… every bit was more impressive than the last. We got home around 6 to grab a snack, shower and get ready to go to dinner and this concert most of the ship bought tickets for down at the beach. The five of us met up with five of our guy friends and got some food off La Rambla before walking to the Barceloneta beach area and the club where the show was held. On the way we stopped and got some dessert at the unlikeliest of places- of a Spanish meat shop!  We made amazing friends in the cute old man owner and his family who all happily waited on and patiently had a pretty successful bilingual conversation with us. Much to our surprise we saw our Canadian hockey playing friends near the front of the extremely long line when we finally made it to the club, so we joined them and made it into the show by about 1 AM or so. Loud, crowded, sweaty and much like a club or concert in the US the show was fun, but we were getting pretty tired and went to leave around 4:30.  Some major miscommunication had gotten us separated from Candice, and after 2 returns to search the club and numerous checks with the boat security 6 AM rolled around with the 4 of us still up and searching. When she finally made it home at about 6:30 she explained that she’d spent the last few hours looking for us too and a few hugs later we all called it a night.  Check staying out until 6 AM in Spain off the bucket list!
I was starving so I showered and went up to breakfast, which starts at 7, before finally heading to sleep near 8, then we all met up by the gangway at 10:30 to get out for our last few hours in the city. A stop for more pastries and much needed coffee later we visited the Barcelona Cathedral, an internet café (hence the earlier post) and the famous La Boqueria market. Delicious snacks of fruit and cheeses and all kinds of Spanish goodies were the perfect end to the trip before we headed back to make sure we weren’t late for “on board time” at 6 PM.
All in all it was an incredible few days in Barcelona, and I absolutely would love to come back and spend more time here. I cant even begin to explain how I’m feeling about Italy- excited, anxious and anticipatorily exhausted are a start to be sure, but I know the week will be unlike anything I can even imagine. I wont be taking my computer since I’m only taking what I can carry in a backpack, but I’ll try to take some notes and post a detailed (but hopefully not much longer!!) report when I’m back on board. I’m excited to be spending my 21st birthday with friends in Rome on Sunday, but I’ll be thinking of everyone I wont be  able to celebrate with at home. Well, its off to bed for me- I need to catch up on some sleep!!