BARCELONA!

Michelle, Phoebe, and Me

Eating at a "Tapas Bar", we weren't sure what we were eating, and it was SOO good, and we figured we probably didnt want to know what was in it, because we might throw up if we did! so we thought it would be funny to take a picture where we are afraid to eat our food! (it turned out being mushrooms, not pig intestines or something gross like that!)

Getting my head massaged by a chinese lady-- I was about to start laughing in this pic!

TONS of people on the beach! ^

Nasty Calamari! ^

Me and Phoebe! ^

I really feel like a world traveler! Paris one weekend, Barcelona the next! 2 places I've only dreamed of going, much less in the same month!

Barcelona was a FABULOUS place to go!... Spain is beautiful! The first half of my trip was amazing... the second half, well-- I will get to that in a minute!

So I get a phone call on Tuesday night, it was my friend Phoebe calling to tell me that I had no choice but to go to Barcelona with her and our other friend Michelle! Phoebe and Michelle were in the 5 week program, so they finished their classes last Thursday-- Barcelona was their "holiday" they were taking before they headed back to the states. They told me they were leaving early Friday morning and coming back late Thursday night.. I told them I couldn't stay until Thursday (though I wished I could have!) but that I would go from Friday to Monday (even though the thought of having to get back to London alone scared me a little bit)! So I booked my flights and we left from our flat to head to the airport at 3:15 am Friday morning... our flight left at 6:10 am-- lets just say I didn't get much sleep at all that day! The plane ride was 2 hours, and then.. we were in beautiful Barcelona! Or so we thought... it turns out, our airport was about an hour and a half from Barcelona. We went up to a taxi driver to see if they would take us, and the LAUGHED at our face! said it would be over 150 euros, then they pointed to a bus, which was only 12 euros-- MUCHHH BETTER! So we get on the bus, and once the bus filled up, it headed to Barcelona.. once we got there we went to our hotel and put our swimsuits on, it was BEACH TIME! Our hotel wasn't 5 stars or anything, but I swear the NICEST people worked there, they were nothing but helpful the 4 days I was there!

The first day we were all tired, so we just decided to hit the beach for a few hours, and then go somewhere for a nice dinner-- we thought the bayside would be a nice place for great seafood... I mean, wouldn't you? EHH WRONG! We had the most expensive TERRIBLE meal ever! And y'all know me-- I will eat just about anything, and I hardly touched my meal! It all started with the apetizers... Phoebe got fried calamari, I got a shrimp coctail, and Michelle got esperagus... I mean, how can you go wrong with those 3 things? Well let me just tell you exactly how you can go wrong with those things!... Phoebes calamari was the worst-- you could see the EYEBALLS on the squid! (there is a picture of it above!) it was the most disguisting thing I have ever seen! Then my shrimp coctail was in a nasty thousand island type dressing, and was COVERED in caviar, ew!... needless to say, the shrimp was mushy! Then there was Michelle's esperagus, that was WHITE and MUSHY and looked like a white vienna sausage, yes-- it looked THAT gross!... nasty jelly stuff around it and everything! (I know all of y'all know EXACTLY what I'm talking about too!) Then we ordered our meals... we should have known to stop after the appetizers! I was going to order the grilled salmon, but after getting our appetizers, I figured the safest thing to get would be spagetti, I mean seriously, how can you mess up spagetti? oh, YOU CAN! It tasted like they made the sauce with an entire bag of sugar-- it was really sweet, and gross! I tried to eat a few bites, because I didn't want to be rude and not eat any of it-- but I just couldn't force that much of it down my throat!.. but yet again, Phoebe's meal was the worst! She wasn't wise like me, and she ordered the grilled salmon-- that still had the skin on it, and wasn't fileted. It looked like they just took a fish, cut a piece of it off, and stuck it on her plate! We looked at every square inch of that salmon, and there was not one bite that didn't have some sort of bone or scale in it! She had half a bite, and spit the rest out because she almost choked on a bone! I haven't even gotten to the best part yet! When we got to the restaurant, the waiter motioned for us to sit wherever we wanted-- so we picked a nice little table in the back corner, not knowing that there is some sort of Harley Davidson convention in Barcelona-- and we ended up RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF A HARLEY DAVIDSON PARTY! Oh my gosh! They were all dressed in leather from their head to their toes, and where there wasn't leather, there were tattoos!... wow, it was terrible-- and one of the most expensive meals I have ever eaten!... Come to find out that "everyone knows not to eat at the restaurants on the bay" WHYYYY didn't anyone tell us that?! Because we sure didn't know now to eat there!... it was one of those situations where we were so mad, all we could do was laugh!

So day 2 was better! We woke up early, had breakfast at our hotel (well if you want to call packaged croissants and a slice of sandwich mean breakfast!) and headed to la playa! We rented beach chairs, and were there all day! I was pretty miserable though, because for some reason my eye was really red and hurting-- I couldn't even open it, but I guess it was a good thing that I didn't need to, since I was laying on a chair with my eyes closed anyways! We left the beach right as the clouds rolled in,and headed back to our hotel to hang out for a little bit-- it started pouring rain, and our hotel lobby FLOODED! We were sitting down there watching TV and playing cards, and the guys came running in with brooms and stuff to clean the floors, it was actually pretty funny-- good thing we were on the 3rd floor! After it quit raining, we headed to a restaurant and had dinner.. we went back home and got ready to go out, but I wasn't feeling well, so I stayed in while the other 2 girls went out, which was fine by me, because I hadn't gotten much rest!

Day 3 we layed out all day long, trying to catch some rays-- though I am still not happy AT ALL with my tan! It still needs a lottt of work! People walk around the beach asking you if you want a massage, and the first day we were like EW THATS GROSS! WHO GETS MASSAGES ON THE BEACH!... well umm WE DO! haha... we alllll got massages! Phoebe and Michelle practically had their entire bodies massaged, and I got my head massaged.. There is a picture of that too!... Day 3 was pretty uneventful, we went out for a little while on Sunday night, but I didn't want to stay out too late, because I had to wake up early enough to get all of my stuff packed, and ready to go-- I thought I was going to go lay out at the beach before I left for the airport-- but its a goooood thing I didn't..........

So this brings us to the WORST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!!... well maybe not of my entire life, but it was TERRIBLE! Time to go home, alone. YIKES! I had told myself all along that it was going to be ok, and that I am a big girl, and I can do it! So I had my hotel get me a taxi, and they told the taxi driver where I was going, and I was thinking "ok, you've got this!you have an hour and a half to get to your bus, and you will be fine!" So I have my self talked in to being ok. Then we pull up at the train/bus station-- it was HUGE! I got a little scared again, but reminded myself that it was going to be ok. So I payed my taxi driver, and started my journey towards the HUGE building. The first little rush of panic was pulling up to the bus station, and not seeing one bus in sight! But I kept walking, and walked straight to a help desk-- where the guy didn't speak English. Of course! He tells me to get on a train, because the only thing I said that he understood was airport, its a gooood thing I didnt get on the train he told me to get on, it would have taken me to the WRONGG airport! So I go find another help desk, where the guy speaks even less English than the first guy! All he did was point at the entrance and tell me "ouside, outside!" So, I go outside... and by this time, I KNOW that I look like a lost tourist target, I was sure I was going to get robbed... but I held my cool, and walked outside to look for the busses-- still none! Then my eyes kind of started to tear up a little bit, because by this time-- I had almost been there for 45 minutes. The bus I thought I was catching was supposed to leave at 6:15... It was 5:50, I was getting nervous! So I go to another counter where the guy wont even open the window to talk to me... jerk! (not that he would have understood me anyways!) By this time, it is all I can do to fight my tears back. I walk back inside, trying to read all of the screens and find another help desk, and it is useless-- so then I start looking for the bathroom-- I had to call my mom. There were no bathrooms in sight, but I was already bawling at this point, so I called in anyways-- I walked to the other side of the train station, and stood in a corner of this busy station with my face in the corner BAWLING on the phone with my mom... I was hysterical-- I know that my mom couldn't understand a word I was saying, neither could LeeAnna, who could hear me crying through my moms cell phone! It was awful... my mom calmed me down, and told me that there had to be SOMEONE who spoke English-- it was now 6:10. So I go back to the first guy, and try to talk to him again, and he points outside and tells me to go out to the left and around the corner-- the busses were hiding from me. So I walk over there, and try to ask a bus driver who didn't speak a lick of English-- I walk past every bus to see if any of them say "Reus Airport"... they didn't. So I start to panic and cry again, and start going in to different offices-- I finally find the right office, along with an English man headed back to London, I practically attached myself to his hip until we got on the plane to come back! He could tell I had been crying, I guess the mascara running down my face gave it away! He told me they were heading the same way-- and just like that.. my heart started beating again! I am pretty sure it was stopped the entire time I was looking for my bus! The bus left at 7, and here I am, alive-- and in London. My dad and I decided that the man was my guardian angel, because there is no way I would have made it without him!

Sorry for the novel I wrote! But I had a lot to write about, and didn't even get to all of it! That just leaves more for another entry soon! Y'all will be hearing from me a lot from now on, because all of my friends are gone and I am here alone-- so I will be doing this to keep myself busy, and not upset! It's now my bedtime... GOODNIGHT EVERYONE!