My Big Italian Adventure, T-Minus 6 Days

So, the last we spoke, we weren’t quite down to single digits on the countdown to my arrival stateside. Well, loyal readers, we have made it. I’m coming on on SATURDAY!

But, of more interesting nature, it’s 11:30 pm here tonight in Rome and I’ve just returned from spending three wonderful, fun days in Barcelona, Spain. I went with the five girls across the hall and a girl I met my first day in Rome from Iowa State.

We left from Trastevere (the part of Rome I live in) on Thursday at 5. It’s a pretty easy metro ride from the station by our apartment to the airport and only costs about 5 euro. It does, however, take about 30 minutes–not including the wait for the train to come. Once we got to the airport, we checked in pretty easily and went through security, all with minimal lines.

I think that as Americans, we all have this idea that flying within Europe to other EU countries will be like hopping a plane to Chicago–simple, quick, and with minimal exhaustion. But, flying to Spain really was an all night affair. We had to be there two hours ahead of time, wait in lines, and then be bused to our plane, and then have a two hour plane ride. After we got off and claimed our baggage, we took yet another metro to our hotel, and then with no map and only an address to help us, we managed to find our way to Hotel 987, a very trendy hotel on Mallorca Street, near the main shopping district. By this time, it was 12:30 and the night was kind of a bust. We were tired and cranky, so we turned in early.

Friday morning, we all woke up around 9 and headed to that very same main shopping street. The street is pretty famous and runs a couple miles, with high end clothing stores on one end and more affordable and college-budget friendly on the other. Although I walked by and swooned over the Chanel bags in the windows, I did manage to find some great deals at Zara, a European chain that I really have grown to love. Unlike Rome, Barcelona is not melt-your-skin hot, nor is it dirty and smelly and, even better, the stores are more organized. As a result, shopping was really fun.

Afterwards, we grabbed lunch, where my body ingested meat for the first time in a long time. I’m pretty sure it went into some kind of red meat shock. Lunch aside, we changed into our swimsuits and headed to Barcelona’s beaches.

The beaches in Barcelona are of the swimsuit top optional variety. While some of my fellow travelers may or may not have taken part in this completely acceptable European ritual, I’m way too much of a scardy cat to join in. It’s probably one too many lifetime movies… you know, the kind where the girl takes her top off, someone takes a pictures, it’s posted on the internet, and then in some random turn of events indirectly but directly related to said topless moment, she dies. I’m keen to avoid that outcome.

The beaches in Barcelona are gorgeous and fun. But, thanks to my fair skin, it was a temporary love affair. I could only handle about two hours before I grabbed a taxi back to the hotel to prepare for dinner.

Dinner was at a place by our hotel, where I ordered calamari and squid with grilled vegetables. The vegetables were amazing, the calamari was good (but weird), and the baby squid were just a whole other experience. They were like mini octupus, with all eight legs still attached. I ate a lot of them, but I couldn’t muster down them all. So, squid in my system, we hung out and took pictures at our hotel until it was late enough to go to the Port of Barcelona and go to their “discotecas.” Mostly what I learned from this night is that I don’t do discotecas. I think I’m more of a sip my diet sprite at a restaurant chatting kind of girl as opposed to shake my butt to techno music kind of girl.

Saturday morning, our group of seven kind of split up. The girl I shared a room with, Katie, and I woke up first and headed to a famous church built by Antonio Gaudi, the famous Spanish architect. While most of our peers and even the other girls on the trip with us mostly traveled by cab, Katie and I did all of our touring by metro. Which was confusing, hot, and drained our energy because it involved just a ton of walking. But, it was cheaper. A lot cheaper. And I think my parents, who know how directionally retarded I am, would be proud to know that we got all around Barcelona via these metros. 

Anyways, we took the metro to the Gaudi Park, which was amazing. The buildings he designed in this area are like gingerbread houses, except instead of candy, there’s tiles, and instead of ice cream cone towers, there’s just real towers. I took pictures to show to my architect someday so he can build me a knock off. We walked around there for a while, before hopping the metro back to our hotel in order to go back to the shopping strip.

There, Katie and I had tapas for lunch. This was kind of more for the experience, because it ended with Katie having to go buy a sandwich and me buy an apple because frankly, they were not filling at all. We’d just walked miles and miles–we needed real food, not tiny little portions! We only ordered two tapas each and had we ordered more, we probably would have been fine. But, they were expensive and we were only willing to pay so much for so little food in return.

After lunch, we went back to Zara to check out some more of their sales, and then hopped a metro to Picasso’s museum. This museum is actually pretty cool because it’s the only one that Picasso himself actually designed, help set up, and donated particular paintings too. Although at this point, Katie and I were pretty exhausted, so I’m not so sure how much we appreciated it. But, it still was a cool thing to do, so I’m pumped we figured out how to get there and it was worthwhile.

With all of that rigerous touring behind us, we took the metro back to the Hotel and napped. Then, we woke up, met up with two other girls, and went to the Magic Fountain, a touristy, free fountain shoe in northwestern Barcelona. It didn’t even start until 9, so dinner didn’t happen until 10. 

For dinner, we went to the Port of Barcelona and picked a seafood restaurant. It was a little pricey, but the vegetable pialla I got was really good. Except, well, to be honest…my mom’s chicken pialla is better. But, I didn’t tell the other girls I was with that. I just let them rave about how fabulous it was. And it was really good. The overall meal was amazing and we left with very full stomachs to roam the beach at night. 

This morning, we woke up and headed to the airport at 11. Like on the way there, it was about a seven hour trip all together, with getting to the airport early, checking baggage, the flight, baggage claim, train ride home. But, it was a really fun weekend trip away and I’m so glad we went!

The differences between Rome and Barcelona?

Barcelona is newer. It’s more modern, so it’s cleaner, there aren’t ancient ruins everywhere, it’s not as hot, it has a more modern public transportation system, and it is more like a town in California–not in the sense that there’s American things everywhere, just that there’s more than just one type of food offered, more variety in what to see, etc. 

Barcelona is also more expensive in terms of meals. While the museums, metros, and cabs are cheaper than in Rome, food in Barcelona does not come cheap. It was almost painful to spend so much money on food–you cannot get dinner for less than 15 and 20 euro–and that was just my cheapest meal because I couldn’t eat any of the shellfish, which runs substantially higher.

Overall?

Barcelona is super cute and super fun. If you can ever go, do it! 

Now, there’s five days left of school, and six days until I’m back in the U.S.! I’m not homesick, but I am excited to see my parents and my puppy :) And of course, have some food that is not pasta, pizza, or sandwiches. I’m off to sleep (it’s already midnight here), but I hope you have fabulous evening, my American friends!