Darwin Would Love It Here! (June 27)

One thing I forgot to mention in my last pouch was HOW awkward my money pouch is. Yes, it is under my clothes strapped around my waist. Yes, if it gets too full it looks bulky. And no, there is no graceful way of getting things out—ESPECIALLY in a dress. Now think about it for a second. Dress. Money belt. HOW can you get anything out? I wasn’t sure either, so this made the first day quite awkward/entertaining. I eventually learned to keep all the important things in my bra, and keep the rest in my money pouch. Okay, back to where I left off!

Well, after lunch and visiting the high-security bank to get money out, it was past time to leave and walking would make us late for our SAS trip. We decided this would be a good time learn how to take the taxis here. How do we do that? Not..quite sure. We were told it’s not like NYC and not like the Bahamas, and sometimes you have to call them (on the phone), but since we’d all heard different things we were just confused. We started walking toward the bridge, crunched for time, and finally saw a stopped taxi. We got back just in time to run to our rooms, grab some water, and run back out to get to the bus on time.

Guess what kind of bus we rode on our tour of Barcelona? A Julia bus! Julia is a huge line of coach buses that are all over the city. It was so cool to see my name all over!

Anyway, our tour was on a Julia bus for 4 hours. Our tour guide, Joseph, was born and raised in Barcelona and is now well up in his years giving tours in both English and Spanish. First, we drove over that lovely bridge and saw the Columbus Statue. Then we headed to Mont Juic and saw the beautiful view of the city (Mirador Del Alcalde), and passed by the Olympic Stadium that was built for the 1992 Olympics held in Barcelona. Then we saw a bull fighting stadium! We then drove down Passeig de Gracia and saw much of Gaudi’s architecture, including the two houses Casa Amatller and Casa Batllo, along with La Pedrera. There are really no words for his architecture. Our tour guide describes it by saying that Gaudi wasn’t an amazing architect. I agree! We drove past Placa de Catalunya, which is currently taken over by unemployed people who are living and protesting there. After all that driving, we went to La Sagrada Familia and got out for a stretch and to see it up close. It. Is. Amazing! Seriously, one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Most of it was designed by Gaudi, but after he died (in 1929 I believe) his plans got burned and the angels on it were broken. Since there was no way to recover the plans, another architect took over and designed the backside of it. There is honestly no way to explain it, so you’ll have to look at my pictures when I get internet! Oh, and we also got a walking tour of a Spanish village, which is a remake of many different parts of ancient Spain all in one small area. It was interesting to see the different styles, but it wasn’t as cool as the other places because it wasn’t authentic at all- it was all replicas. The best part was seeing a real glass-blowing shop. Considering that I wanted to be a glassblower for a portion of my life, it was neat to see what they actually do. And Dad, you were right! It’s not as fun and easy as it looks. Later, we got a walking tour of Barri Gotic (the Gothic Quarter). That was amazing too! We even got to go into Cathedral of Barcelona. Again- amazing! It was so gorgeous inside! My pictures will explain much better than I can.

 Kelsey and I in front of La Sagrada Familia. Too bad you can't see it! 

La Sagrada Familia

 Bull Fighting Stadium

 Olympic Stadium

Spanish Village

 Inside Cathedral of Barcelona

Inside Cathedral of Barcelona

 

The second we stepped back onto the ship after the bus tour, we made a run for our rooms to change into sweats and grab some dinner. No more dresses and money belts…not even close to comfortable! I don’t know why, but after the tour I was EXHAUSTED. And starving! I ate the portions of 2 dinners. Then I went back to my room and took a nap. When my alarm went off, I decided I would make my nap even longer. And longer. Then finally the other girls got back from their trips and we started getting ready to go out.

The nightlife of Barcelona is a huge part of their culture. We were told that we had to dress up every night if we were planning on going anywhere at all. All of us girls were packed into one room as we got ready. I curled my hair, then Katie’s, then Kristin’s, then had Brittany do my make-up! We all share our skills and help each other out. It’s fun! Then we got dressed and were on our way!

We took the shuttle over the bridge to the Columbus statue. That shuttle was definitely worth the 2 Euros each way so we didn’t have to walk. SO worth it. We got to Las Ramblas and walked up and down it looking for tapas at 11 pm. Yes, that late. The nightlife in Barcelona doesn’t start until 1 am! Remember, I am talking about Las Ramblas. That crowded, touristy, sketchy place I didn’t really like earlier in the day. As I learned on my tour, the locals don’t like Las Ramblas. It isn’t Barcelona. It is its own thing. In order to experience the real Barcelona, we were advised to wander away from Las Ramblas where the local hole-in-the-wall tapas places are. Well, after walking and walking and walking and not being able to stop without being approached by multiple people trying to convince us to go somewhere, we decided to just eat on Las Ramblas in a tapas place. For all my fellow UCSD students, Las Ramblas is like the busiest part of Library Walk at noon, on steroids.
On the way to tapas, someone tried to pickpocket me. Thank goodness for my woman’s sixth sense of gut feelings. As our group was walking, I noticed up ahead a man standing sideways, like many of the other people trying to sell things and advertise their clubs. For some reason, I got a weird feeling/vibe about this guy. As I walked by, I swung my hips to the left as much as I could (without creating a domino effect with the other girls) and watched the man I was walking by. As I passed, he snuck his hand behind him and reached out to touch what would have been my back end. So either he was trying to slying grab my butt, or he was trying to pickpocket me. Most likely the second since he was trying to be so sly about it, but either one wasn’t okay! In case I somehow was imagining it, I turned around to see if of the girls behind me had seen. Katie looked like she was going to attack the guy- she saw it too! Crisis averted, thanks to my gut feeling. I believe it now!

After tapas, we left to hunt for a club to go to. After walking up and down Las Ramblas and getting creeped out by all the creepers, everyone was ready to go home without doing anything else. We got a taxi and made our way back to the ship. All the girls were feeding off of everyone else’s nervousness, and we were still all adjusting to our first day in a foreign country on our own. And after this night, we decided we needed a phrase that means ‘I don’t feel comfortable- let’s get out of here’ without outright saying it. We decided on “Darwin would love it here!” If I haven’t already said anything about Darwin, he’s our busboy at dinner.

When we got back, we met in the Piano Lounge to hang out. We ended up playing the Laughing Game…and getting an ab workout! We all laid on each other’s stomachs with our heads, and in a row we each had to say ‘HA’ then the next person would say ‘HA HA’ and so on. Each time you said HA you had to puff out your tummy. The goal is to get through everyone without anyone laughing. Well, we failed. It was so fun and soo funny! You wouldn’t think it’s hard…but try it. It’s so fun! Then it was time to go to sleep. :)