Once the exams finally ended, though, we did get the opportunity to go to a football game. I live practically across the street from the football stadium, so I’ve been wanting to go to one the whole time I’ve been here. One of the professors used to play for the second-string team of Valencia, so he advertised this game for us to go to with the school for only 8 euro and the lure of meeting the players afterwards. Well, you really get what you paid for, and for 8 Euros that gets you the nosebleed section of the biggest soccer stadium I’ve ever seen in my life. Aside from the fact that the game looked like a bunch of ants kicking around a rice grain, we all really enjoyed it. Valencia beat Brussels in an important game 3-0, so the whole city was in an uproar. We went around the stadium afterwards to wait for the players to come out so we could meet them, but after an hour my friends were getting annoyed so I finally decided it wasn’t worth it and we left. So now I will always remember it as the night I almost met the Valencia soccer players. Although, turns out I don’t think the other students got to meet them, either, so I’m kind of glad we left when we did.
After the game I was exhausted and really just ready to call it a night because I hadn’t packed for Barcelona yet, but everyone else had this energy that I could not understand where it came from. I sucked it up and went out for a little bit, but when they all sat down on the sidewalk to play some weird game I really had to get out of there. So Pree and I grabbed a cab and I made it home at the reasonable hour of 2:30 in order to pack my bag before waking up again at 6 am. I wasn’t really a happy camper about it, but I kept telling myself I could sleep on the bus.
Well, boy was I wrong. Some weird guy with an Arabic soundtrack felt the need to serenade the whole bus for the four-hour trip to Barcelona. Even after Pree handed him her headphones, he kindly told her he already had some, but did NOT take the hint to use them. Pree and I were really ready to kill him. Things only got better when he whipped out his charger to ensure the battery life of whatever obnoxious gadget he was using to supply us with the lovely soundtrack.
When we got to Barça, we checked into our hostel in the Gothic quarter, which was actually pretty nice considering how cheap it was. We decided to head into the city in the 65-degree, sunny weather. After a café stop to boost our energy, we went to the Picasso museum to get some culture. I’m actually taking a Picasso class this semester so it was pretty interesting to be able to see all the paintings I’d been learning about. The only thing is, I just got my midterm back that I’d studied a lot for only to develop a passionate hatred for the subject based on the absurd number my professor tried to pass off for a real grade.
We called our friend Viktor from the campo to meet up with us because he lives in Barcelona, so he came and met us and we went to la Parque Ciudadella. It was a really pretty park full of people enjoying the nice weather, so we hung out and chatted it up for a while with Nico’s brother Max, as well. Viktor just got a job working for a cycling tourist company and will be leading bike trips through the south of Europe and northern Africa, and was leaving the next day for London for a week of training. We felt bad detaining him since he hadn’t packed at all, so we said good-bye and then headed to get some tapas. Afterwards, we went back to the hostel for a descanso and then went to a bar where we hung out for the night.
Saturday we went to Parc Guell and Sagrada Familia which were really far apart so they took up a good bit of time. That night, we went to see a fountain show at the Plaza de Espanya and then out to Japanese because I had been craving sushi for months. It was delicious, but the highlight was the crepes we had at a little shop right down the street. Probably the best food I’ve had in Spain, despite the fact that it was Japanese and French cuisine. I’m ok with it, though, because Barcelona is a pretty international city, so that would be expected.
Yours truly at Parc Guell
Sagrada Familia - over 100 years of construction
I was really hoping to go out to the discoteca afterwards to experience how awesome Barcelona nightlife is, but everyone was feeling really worn out. We just hung out at the same bar again before heading back to the hostel. At least it will give me a reason to try and come back to Barcelona sometime in the future.
Sunday we woke up and trekked over to the site of the 1992 summer Olympics. We got to see the old stadium and some pretty parks, but it was kind of a ghost town and definitely nothing more than a tourist attraction. We went to get some lunch afterwards and in the grand tradition we had of international food, we got Chinese stir-fry. I stopped to pick up a few souvenirs afterwards and then we went to catch the bus. It was much quieter on the way back, even though I still couldn’t sleep much. It’s really a shame I’m not much of a bus sleeper. Hopefully I’ll be able to pass out on the plane this weekend when I head to the Canary Islands. I am really excited about this trip because I need a tan more than anything. Oh, and I might be a little excited about a few people I’m going to see.
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