Fall break in Barcelona and Ireland!

Nov. 6-Nov. 11

So the night before I was supposed to leave for vacation, I had completely forgotten that I had to be at the metro stop Port Maillot by 6:00 to catch a bus to the Beauvais airport to catch my plane for Barcelona. The metro stop was probably a 30 minute metro ride and 1.5 hours by foot (aka impossible, plus I would get lost). Well, guess what time the metro opened? Either 6 or 6:30... I don't even know. Either way, I was freaking out that I wouldn't make it to the bus, then I wouldn't make it to the airport, then I would miss my plane, and everything would go wrong. Luckily, my host mom helped me reserve a taxi for the next day, which was terribly frustrating, but obviously as I am back safe and sound, everything worked out.

I didn't get much sleep the night before, but I had no real problems getting to Barcelona. Just be forewarned: if you think you're getting a good deal on a flight, I'm sure you are, but what they DON'T tell you is how much time and money the transportation to and from your flight will be. That adds a significant amount. I had to take a taxi to the bus (30 mins), then the bus to the Beauvais airport (1 hour), the the flight itself (2.5 hours), then the bus from the Girona airport in Spain to Barcelona itself (1 hour 15 mins). So yeah, it all SOUNDS easy... just hop a flight! It's not. It's not a big deal, and I'm now fully prepared to go to Rome because I know exactly what to expect, but you really need to be relaxed for this sort of thing. I brought along my literature book, and it really worked out because I was forced to read it because I had nothing else to do, so now I am actually ahead on my reading. Plus people thought I was French! It was cool.

So in Barcelona I met up with my friend from IU, Lexi, who's studying abroad there. I had a great time! We did TONS of walking, though. The Spanish metro is a lot like the French one, really... it was easy to use. I saw the touristy sights, such as Parc Guell and Sagrada Familia, which were both designed by this big deal Spanish man named Gaudi. There's a Barcelona Arc de Triomf and then this really nice park called Parc de la Ciutadella, and then this building called La Pedrera, which was designed by Gaudi. We also went to La Rambla, which is sort of like the Spanish Champs-Elysees... aka a really big-deal street.