Puente

Mar 2 mar (23:00)

This past weekend was our Puente weekend. Yesterday was Día de Andalucía and in addition los estudiantes extranjeros had Thursday off of classes as well. So we had a five day weekend. Sooo I went to Paris and Barcelona with some ISA peeps (Ankur, Jessica, Heather, Chris, and Shane)! We flew from Sevilla to Barcelona Wednesday night, then we camped out and slept on the floor of the Barcelona airport because our Barcelona-Paris flight wasn’t until about 7 that morning. That was an adventure. We weren’t the only ones though—there were sleeping people all over the floor. Pretty hilarious actually.

So we arrived in Paris Thursday morning. When our plane landed people actually started applauding. Un poco extraño. We flew through this airline called RyanAir. Oh my goodness, RyanAir is so… ghetto. The seats were black and bright yellow, they were hard uncomfortable plastic and didn’t even recline! RyanAir is known for being a very cheap European airline (It only cost me 20 euro to fly to Paris—no complaints), and I guess you get what you pay for. But, if you ever travel with them, watch out—they get you. With these surprise fees and policies. Por ejemplo, when you buy your ticket online, they ask how many bags you want to check, and it’s a ten euro fee to check a bag. BUT, if you say you’re not checking any bags but the carry-on you bring ends up being too big, they charge you 35 euro to check it. They also say, in fine print, that they are not a connecting airline, and if you miss a flight because one previous was late, they’ll do nothing for you. Just little tricks like that. Those bastards.

But okay. Off the RyanAir rant. Get to Paris, check into our hostel, freshen up, then go explore Paris. We went inside Notre Dame. Precioso. Then during the evening we kind of just had a relaxing stroll, exploring the streets. We ended up at the Eiffel Tower (appropriate, ¿no?), which is amazing at night. Took some gorgeous pictures. Then we met up with some of Chris’s friends who were living in the city for dinner. The restaurant we went to was… a bit expensive… but I mean, we got legit French food (I had some casserole thing with duck in it… Mmmm), so it was justified. You need to really experience things when you travel, yah? So even though travelling is expensive, I think the money’s worth it, as long as you don’t go crazy. Anyway. After dinner we got dessert at little shops on the street.

Friday THE BOYS ABANDONED US so the girls had the day all to ourselves. We. Did. SO. Much. We went to the Catacombs, which, wow… It was just an experience. Then back to the Eiffel Tower to see it in the daytime, to the Arc de Triomphe, and the Louvre... The Louvre was… everything it needed to be.

Saturday visited Musée D’Orsay. I can’t say I prefer that or the Louvre, because I love them for different reasons. Then the girls got quiche for lunch before I left with Shane and Chris for our flight to Barcelona (Ankur, Jessica, and Heather decided to come on the trip after we had planned/booked it, so their travel plans ended up being a little bit different). As soon as we arrived, we booked it to our hostel then to the stadium for the BARCELONA-MALAGA fútbol game!!! SO incredibly fantastically amazing!!!

The others arrived at the hostel around 2 in the morning, then we went out until 6. Ay ay.

The next day was busy busy busy exploring Barcelona with Heather, Jessica, and Ankur (Shane and Chris were still sleeping when we left, so we just… let them). We went to the beach, las casas de Gaudi, Sagrada Familia, el parque Güell… Un buen día.

Sunday Shane, Chris, and I had a 12 hour train ride to Sevilla… Needless to say, it was nice to finally get home.

Overall it was a really AMAZING trip!!! I knew before I came to Spain that I wanted to take a trip to Paris. I’d been there before, on the DHS marching band trip to Europe, but I had a bad experience… It was the end of our trip, people were tired and bitchy, it was hot, and honestly it wasn’t planned very well… We had a group trip to the Eiffel Tower, which was pretty sweet, but afterwards we only had like two hours of free time, which is NOT sufficient for Paris, and I didn’t get to go to the Louvre (which I really wanted to) OR see the city at night… Pues, I just wanted to take a trip back and see Paris the right way. And I’d say there was much success :) Barcelona was great too. It really is a beautiful city, even though it’s fricken huge!!! With the mountains, and the beach, and el parque Güell… ay, precioso. I thought about studying there because I’d heard what a great city it was, but to be honest, I’m glad I didn’t. First of all, I love Sevilla. I really do. Every time I travel anywhere Sevilla seems more and more like home to me. But todo el mundo speaks Catalan in Barcelona. And they’re so proud. They think higher of themselves because of it. It’s also a very touristy town, so many people speak English too. And castellano? So not cool. Got the boot. Whenever I tried to speak Spanish there, they’d just ask if I spoke English and speak in that instead. Imagine if I had studied there! I don’t think I would’ve improved my Spanish much at all. I’d just speak in English or learn Catalan. Blagh.

Anyway, that was my casual weekend vacation in Paris and Barcelona! Be jealous!