It’s a good thing I pre-booked my ticket to Peru before I
arrived in Barcelona or I still would’ve been there. It is also a good thing that Peru is for a
job or I might’ve skipped the fligh. I
did not want to leave Barcelona, just like my whole of Europe trip it, I was
having such a perfect time.
The first day I got there I didn’t really do much. It was a
bit of a mission to get to the hostel from the airport but I am always so proud
of myself when I find my way around a foreign country. I smile and mentally give everyone out there
the middle finger who says I am bad with direction. I was pretty tired and wasn’t up for much so I went grocery shopping – 12 euros for 4 days
worth of food – because I was finally able to cook which I was super stoked about. However it is a little difficult as I speak
no Spanish whatsoever. I went to a
little vegetable market and I couldn’t even name the vegetables as I know them
in Italian but not Spanish. The guy who
worked there spoke no English but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have a full blown
conversation about vegetables, where the bank was and where I was from. It amazes me how you can have a full
conversation with someone without have a language in common. It’s one of my favourite things about
traveling.
I went to go for a nap around 7:30pm. I wanted to head downstairs for the concert
and have a few drinks but I didn’t wake up till 2am so I went back to sleep
till 10am the next morning. I needed it
though, I was still trying to catch up
on the crazy bender I had the past few weeks.
The next day I went with Marion – one of the receptionists
from the hostel – to Barcelonata. The
famous beach in Barcelona. I was so
excited…the beach!!! Man I was dying for some sunshine on my winter white skin
plus I was in Barcelona…beach + Barcelona can only equal a great day.
To be honest I have seen prettier beaches, but, there were
quite a few people, heaps of sailboats
out on the water, The W way down to the
right, beach bars, mountains off to the
left and the sun was shining…there is no way I was complaining. Marion went and grabbed two beers – for 2
euros – popped on her mp3 player with some Spanish singer and we basked in the
sun for a few hours.
The rest of the afternoon I spent on the awesome rooftop
patio at the hostel. Marion had to start
her shift at 3:30 so I decided to enjoy the rest of the sunshine on the
roof. I popped on my ipod, put in my
earbuds and had an awesome time. I was
moving my toes and bobbing my head to the music…I must’ve looked really silly
when someone came up to the roof lol. Oh
well, I was enjoying myself.
This is the night I met Cordelia. I was in the kitchen preparing dinner and she
came in and we just started talking…as you do when you travel. I told her that because it was Saturday the
museums were open all night and they
were free and then I was gonna head down to the beach and have a couple beers. “Do you wanna come?” We were friends from there on. She even cooked my dinner as I was trying to
get my coke out of the vending machine lol.
We wanted to get some beers for the beach so we went to the
market and bought six for like 2 euros…so amazingly cheap. Then I need to buy smokes but we couldn’t
find a tabacchi anywhere. We went into
another supermarket. I asked the security
in there…well actually made the smoking gesture…and I believe he thought I was
asking if I could smoke in there so he told me know at a restaurant or
bar. So we left and I asked someone
else where I could buy them once again giving them the smoking gesture. They looked at me like I was made. I honestly thought that the two fingers up to
your lips was a worldwide gesture for
smoking but I guess I was wrong. It was
getting really annoying at this point. I
finally found a little bar that had a cigarette machine, but that became a
mission as they barely spoke English and the machine doesn’t work unless you
have exact change and blah blah blah blah.
I finally did get my pack though.
We had to quickly duck back to the hostel as I forgot to ask
which metro line we were taking and to where.
This is where we met Sarah. This
solo girl looked at us as we were just about to go in the hostel door and said
“are you guys in room two? Im in there
by myself and am hoping you guys have checked in there.” “No, but do you want to come with us?” Without even knowing where we were going we
had a new addition.
We totally skipped the museums but just sat down on the
beach for a few hours, enjoying the cool sand, and the crazy huge orange moon
that hung over the black water as we
drank our beer. We didn’t get back till
about 3am, but it was such a great night…and yes we were sober.
The next morning (I slept in) we headed out into the city to
do a free walking tour. We didn’t last
longer than a half hour. We wanted to do it but the tour group was 20
people. It started about 20 minutes
late and within half an hour we barely saw anything, plus the tour was supposed
to be three hours. We were at the back
of the group so we just ducked out and did our own thing.
The first thing we did was go to Dunkin Donuts – Dunkin
Coffee – and got donuts…I know right…all the way to Barcelona for Dunkin
Donuts. We then decided to make our way
to the beach which took us forever. We
kept stopping, going into shops and watching
the locals which are the entertainment of the city. There was an older guy (maybe sixties) on
rollerblades who clearly was just starting out,
legs wider than his shoulders, hands out to the side, feet barely
leaving the ground dressed in shorts, a bright pink shirt underneath a zip up
sweater of the same bright pink with curly silver hair decorated by a bright
pink exercise head band. He was
definitely a keeper. Older woman
dressed up to the nines with layers of make-up dressed like they are in their
twenties. The day before when Marion and
I were on the beach we saw a guy running along the path in just a speedo. Man I love this city. We just laughed and enjoyed the local entertainment as we
enjoyed our bags of chips and made our way to the beach.
We ended up at this market that pretty much only sold
jewellery. “Let’s go there quickly”
Cordelia said but quickly turned into an hour, but a great hour. I mean come on we all love markets, but a
jewellery market?!? It doesn’t get much
better than that.
About 2 hours after we ducked out of the tour we finally go
to the beach. On the beach there are
men walking around selling cerveza and mojitos, and women selling henna,
massages and hair braiding. Literally
every 5 minutes someone is coming up to you trying to sell something but at
least when you say no they walk away and leave you alone, but there are so many
of them that it is just so constant and can get pretty annoying. At one point I look behind me – towards the
water – at a group of German guys. One of them had his back slathered in
sunscreen…I stared as there was something written in it. His one friend looks at me “It says No
Mojito, No Massage” OMG how funny is that.
We peed ourselves laughing.
That night (because it was my last night) us girls –
including Marion – were going to make Paella but because it was Sunday
everything was closed. We decided to get
dressed up really nice, make some homemade backpacker sangria and then head out
for dinner.
Now for those of you who know me I am not a girly girl but
the inner girly me came out that night.
We took over the (shared common) bathroom to get ready. We had the 80’s music pumping, make up
everywhere, singing at the top of our
lungs…my goddess it was soo much fun, being a girl can be so great sometimes.
Our homemade backpacker sangria was super yummy. We enjoyed it on the rooftop for about 3
hours. We were waiting for Leo – the
hostel manager – to finish work as he wanted to come to dinner with us. He said he knew a great place and then was
gonna take us somewhere we could get our grove on…and boy did we ever.
We went downtown to this square that is all
restaurants. The restaurant Leo wanted
to go to was full and had a line up…however, he used to work there….we walked
in within five minutes!!! He honestly
must’ve looked like a pimp walking in with us lol, we were all dressed up, hair
done, make up done, we all looked pretty hot and he was the only guy…he was so
killing it. Dinner was amazing…they
paella was so yummy and the homemade rose wine was so yummy plus everything was
super cheap. 3 appetizers, 2 litres of
wine, two orders of (shared) paella and a meal for Leo (he doesn’t like paella)
was 15 euros each. So cheap but so
delicious, my taste buds are watering just
thinking about it. Plus before we left
the manager sent over a round of shots.
From here Leo took us to a little bar just out of the square
and down one of the small European alleyways that seem to be everywhere in
Europe. The bar was small, maybe three
tables, dark and cozy with good music and cheap drinks. It was ladies night so we were only paying 4
euros a drink. The place closed at 2 am
and we wanted to go dancing but everything had a cover charge. We weren’t ready to go home yet, we didn’t even
finish dinner till midnight and the night was still young. We ended up meeting this fantastic Irish
couple who had done heaps of traveling themselves and when Leo – the sweetheart that he is- went and
found a nightclub with no cover so we could go dancing they asked if they could
come.
When we are far enough in the alleyway and out of the bar
the Irish guy says “wait!” So we all
stop. I do not know how he did
this, the Irish are a different
folk, he pulls out not one, not two, but
3 cocktails, almost full out of his jacket!!!
He didn’t finish them and wanted to bring them with him!!! OMG!!! We
couldn’t stop laughing. Sad though,
that’s where we lost them, we never saw them after that.
The nightclub was alright.
It was a huge sausage fest with really seedy guys that danced so close
to you but didn’t get the hint when you wouldn’t reciprocate. The music was good and Sarah was in her zone
on that dance floor. The girl was
getting down, she was ready to shake her thang on the dance floor and man did
she ever. I had to get out at one
point, it was so crowded and the guys
just didn’t stop I needed some air so Cordy – pretty tipsy at this point – came
out for a breather. When we went back
inside I spent my night at the bar area (with a couple British Rugby Players)
instead of the dance floor. You know me
I am a sucker for accent’s especially the British one. Plus they were rugby players and quite easy
on the eyes I might add.
We didn’t get back till probably 6am. We missed the last night bus and the metro
didn’t start running till 5am. The club
closed at 430 but we just hung around outside, talking and finishing our
drinks. The bouncers were amazingly
sweet. They had been joking around with
us earlier and when we left they were giving us hugs and kisses as if we were
long time friends.
I was hurting a little bit the next morning when I woke up
but it didn’t last too long. We had
planned on going sight seeing first thing but our late night festivities kind
of made it unattainable. I checked out
by twelve. Put my stuff in Sarahs room
and then we cooked up a nice pasta lunch with all our food. Then me and Cordy went and sunbathed on the
rooftop patio. Sarah went for a nap as
she was unable to function and we had no idea where Marion was, we hadn’t seen
her all day.
At 530 it was time to leave.
I really didn’t want to. I really
wanted to stay a few more days. I
hadn’t done any sightseeing, don’t ask
me what I saw while I was there because literally I only saw the beach and a
few bars – though that was my plan for the weekend, to hang out at the
beach. Plus, I didn’t want to leave the
girls. After having a down time last
weekend and getting depressed, and then
saying goodbye to Benny in Italy I really felt that my time, well, my high time
in Europe was done. But having met the
girls and literally have 2 incredibly awesome days and of course getting a new
little family I really wasn’t ready to leave and say goodbye and when we said
goodbye at the airport (I didn’t let them see) but I was crying. We had a group hug and I really fought back
the tears. Like I said, it’s a good
thing my flight to Peru was already booked because I would still be there with
them.
Now here I am in Lima, at the airport on an 11 hour layover
waiting for my 1.5 hour flight to Arequipa to start the next big step of my
life and I am a little terrified. This
is a huge step for me and it seems surreal.
I know I have picked up and moved overseas before but this is
different. I am a TEFL teacher now,
something I have wanted for a couple years and I just can’t believe I am
finally doing it. It’s all so strange
and weir. Plus I can’t believe that my
random Europtrip was only 4 weeks, it
literally feels like months not weeks.
I can’t believe my Europe trip has come to an end. Europe has been absolutely epic in so many
ways. It has probably been one of my
best travel journies. It has by far, surpassed anything I could
ever have imagined backpacking Europe could be and am so glad I met Ben and
decided to skip my flight.
Ben, Hayla, Jess, Ricky and Dylan…I love you guys so
much. To Kings Day, space cakes, making
me go places I never considered, me refusing to book a flight home, carnivals, bumper cars, sketchy Romanians, family dinners,
feltching, “Mom they’re doctors, he’s a
feltchologist”, the beach, Ed the
coolest guy at the hostel – I miss that guy, jager bombs, bike rides, chalk
pen, queen of the pool table, sorority pose, canal rides, “do we get a discount
if we are a couple?” , Amsterbayum, being
drowned rats, “wow your arms are really big”, Mr. Handshake, Berlin, train hoping, beer, jager bombs, doner kebabs, Ricky’s obsession with german
sausage, making Ben sign a drunk
contract, glow in the dark mini golf, drinks on the roof at the Wombar, pingpong
bar, 80’s night and being the only
people there, Billy, me not getting my
steak dinner, my sex bell, Prague, chairs out the window, Czech police, popcorn at the bar, Dylan trying to sell me
to the Scandinavian guy, Tinder bus
trips, late nights/early mornings, snapchat, liquid breakfast, 3 hours lost, me losing
everything all the time, Florence, table dancing, aparantly Texans do it
right, good times, good friends and
incredible memories.Thank you for everything guys, seriously, my time with “y’all” has been epic and am so
glad I got to experience the things I did with you. You are all amazing people as well as friends
and I will keep you in my heart forever x.
To my Barcelona sisters.
It was only two days and we rocked it.
To Oh my goddess, pash and dash, sangria, paella, banana hammocks (what
did Cordy call it?), Oh Micky your so fine…, Journey, singing in the shower, "oh my god a hippie!", taking over the bathroom, being girly,
Sarah eating her ham on the beach, backpacker Sangria, “did everyone see us making out?” “yes all of
Barcelona saw it!”, making 3am movies in
the metro station, No massage no mojitos,
never getting to sightsee,
karaCoke, British rugby players
with abs of steel, my Marilyn getting
molested, Fernando – wait not me my
friend…spin, spin, spin – side show Bob,
“where is my receptionist?”, rooftop patio, Oh My God it’s Emma Stone, Emma your manager wants us to leave, checking
Spain off the list, how we were all from
different countries, minesweeping –
Cordy you are gonna get a venereal disease, “This is so spiritual’, Mother Hen, he looked even better the next
morning. Do you girls have any idea how
much I love you? It was short lived but
it was so epic. I had been at such a low
and didn’t think I could end my Eurotrip as high as it had started, but meeting
you girls really let me end it on such a high.
Please send me a snapchat with abs of steel ;)…I do hope you run into
him. Sarah, don’t go home, just be a feather on the wind. Marion come see me in Peru and Cordy we are
doing India next year. Thanks for the
sisterhood ladies, I miss you so much already.
Don’t stop believing. BARTHELONA
BITCHES X
