SPAIN

Bacelona

Finally, we are in Spain. It has been a blast and a whirlwind adventure at that. We arrive at 8 AM Monday morning. We got off the ship around 10:30 AM and were off to our hotel. A 30 Euro cab ride later and we were there (damn expensive Barcelona). After flustering about because we were a little further from La Rambla than we wanted to be (that is city center) we decided to head that way.

With our money necklace wrapped under my clothes and my camera gripped tight as possible we sat off by foot. Last year 62 SAS students were pick pocketed the first day in Barcelona (the pick pocketing capital of the World). We encountered a serious riot on the way to Las Ramblas. There is a large amount of people camping out in a square in Barcelona right now because of their economic crisis. I know, USA is not the only one struggling. In fact, thier situation may be worse than ours. Fights broke out just all of the sudden so fast. People started yelling and the next thing I knew something out of a movie happened. Little European cop cars came flying down the road not stopping until they were so close they had to slam on their breaks and their cars turned at angle as they left rubber on the small Spanish streets. They proceeded to roll out of their vehicles waiving batons and swatting at people. I realized quickly this was my cue to get the hell out of there!

Upon leaving the square we arrived on Las Ramblas (finally). Now 1:00 PM and we were starving. But I remembered they do not eat lunch until around 2, so we waited around a little bit. We ended up at Attic for lunch, a little place over looking Las Ramblas. This was pretty delicious!

After this we went to Gaudi’s famous La Sagrada Familia. A truly amazing church and even more amazing architecture.

Then we returned to the hotel and took the metro back to ship for Flamenco with Dinner. Although, we had a bit of an ordeal. When we told the Cab driver “Port Terminal A” and showed him the paper he somehow accidently took us to the airport. I know you are thinking how did we not notice? Well everything is pretty close in Barcelona, so the Airport was about the same distance. When we realized this we told him and were freaking out because it was 5:45 and we were supposed to be at port by then because the bus was to leave at 6! After a crazy cab ride and a very stressful one at that we managed to get there at 6:06 and the bus had not pulled away yet. Thank goodness. The Flamenco was a spectacle, like nothing I had ever experienced. I ate paella, drank Spanish red wine, and found myself in love with the Spanish culture.

Then we had amazing shots at this bar called Chupitos.

San Sebastian

Awoken at 6:00 AM by my hotel wake up call. We got ready in a hurry and headed for the train station. With no dilemmas arising we got on our train around 7 AM. Fast forward six hours and we were in lovely San Sebastian.

A town like nothing I had ever seen. Something out of a storybook. Classical architecture surrounding me wherever I went, with the sea as a backdrop to this quaint little town that clearly knows the word relax. Sort of like everything becomes slow motion. No more hustle and bustle guard your belongings for dear life like in Barcelona. We arrived to our hotel, Villa Soro, a mansion right of the street with around 40ish rooms. Seriously, I felt like I was in a fairy tail. All white marble bathroom complete with a bidet. Funny story there! I used that thing and of course there is a little towel there to dry off your bottom when you are done. And Samantha did not know I used this little towel, and mistakenly used it as a washcloth for her face. Now, that is funny.

We explored the town and enjoyed many different PINXTO’S (the basque form of tapas) and boy were they amazing…