A Little Piece Of Home (part 1): Barcelona

     I had been waiting basically the entire year for my parents to come see me in Spain. It was something I had been looking forward to since I said goodbye before leaving. In the end, my dad couldn't make it, but my mom did. I finally got to see her after 9 months of being away.

     On Thursday June 11, I had to wake up at 5 AM to get ready and head to the airport to catch the plane at 7. It was no big deal because the airport is right by my house and the plane ride from Bilbao to Barcelona is only 1 hour long. However, when I got to the airport in Barcelona, I started freaking out. I couldn't get ahold of my mom and I had no idea where she was in the airport, considering it's a pretty huge airport. I looked all over the airport, thoroughly searched the baggage claim, and finally went to the exit. I don't know why I didn't just do that from the beginning...I walked out and looked around and I finally saw her. The moment I saw her, I started running toward her and I just grabbed onto her. I almost cried I was so excited to see her. You don't realize how much you've missed someone until you see them again.

First pic with the mamiii in 9 months

     So we went to our hostal which is basically in the center of Barcelona. We had a cute little room with a balcony on one of the main streets, which was absolutely beautiful. After checking in, we walked to the University and got Starbucks...might I remind you that this was my FIRST Starbucks in 9 months, as they don't have Starbucks in Bilbao...it was incredible.

 cute little hostal

Gotta love those balconies

YAY FOR STARBUCKS

     That day we met up with two of my AFS friends who happen to live in Barcelona and they showed us around. The first thing we did was walk to the Sagrada Familia, one of the most famous churches in Spain. It was GORGEOUS!! The outside is so ornate and intricate, it's hard to imagine how someone could have designed and built that. It would have been even better if they hadn't have been doing construction work on it. The inside is very different. It's a lot more modern than I thought it would be. We even got to go up in one of the towers where we got a beautiful view of the city.

en la Sagrada Familia

     Next we went to lunch and got...what do you know...Mexican food in Spain...they had some delicious tacos though! After lunch, we went to Barceloneta, one of the beaches in Barcelona. It was gorgeous and the water was nice and it was a lot of fun. After hanging out on the beach for a while, we were exhausted from travel and from a long day of going going going so mom and I went back to the hostal, showered, went out to eat, and then went to bed. We got some crazy amazing tapas for dinner. Mom loooooved the Spanish food..how could you not?

We love tacos!

 My Barcelona babes

 Barceloneta

My absolute love

     The next day, we got up and went to the Plaza de Catalunya, which is one of the main parts of Barcelona. We walked around, did some shopping, and then took a tour bus! We saw pretty much all of Barcelona on that tour bus! It was great because it took you around to all the cool places, the audio guide explained to you what it was and why it was significant, and you could get off at any stop because another tour bus came every 10 minutes. We got off at las Ramblas, which is a giant market. One part of the market was filled with jewelry, paintings, antiques, etc. The other part of the market was full of tents with interesting foods, cold wine, and lots of people. We also stopped in a little town more up in the mountain to get some lunch where we had probably the most delicious pizza I've ever had and then continued touring.

 Plaza de Catalunya

 Port of Barcelona

 Mama and I on the tourbus

 Such good pizza omg

Mercado

     That night, we had to go get the rental car we were going to drive up to Bilbao. The paper said it was at Sants Train Station, which apparently is in the center of Barcelona, pretty much right by where we were staying. However, we had no idea, and when we asked, the bus driver told us it was at the airport. I thought that was a little weird so I called the company to see if that was right and the woman I was talking to said yes of course. So we get to the airport, about 30 minutes away from the hostal and we have to take ANOTHER bus to a different terminal which was like 8 minutes away. So we finally get there and go to the "train station" where there is absolutely NO rental car station inside. The man working in the station said that we had to be at the train station that's in the center of Barcelona, which was another 30 minutes either in the train or in a taxi...it was already 9:45 ish and the place closed at 11 so we were freaking out and had to call them back and figure out what to do. But in the end, the man who I talked to was very nice and he just switched our reservation to the airport we were at and we were able to pick up our car there. It was quite hectic...

     The next morning was an EARLY morning. I had to take the ACT on the outskirts of Barcelona at 8 AM...gross, I know. I had taken the SAT the weekend before in Madrid, which also started at 8 AM, so I pretty much knew what to expect. They're more or less the same exam. The SAT was 10 sections with math, reading, writing, and an essay, and the longest section was 25 minutes. There was a break after every 2 sections. The ACT was 5 sections with math, reading, writing, science, and an essay, and the longest section was 1 hour. They only gave us one break after 1 hr 45 minutes... But after both exams, I finished at about 1 PM. 

     After the test, I didn't have a day to relax or to go exploring the city...nope. We immediately started our VERY LONG trek back up to Bilbao. It was about a 7 hour drive in total. It's funny to see here that along the highway, there is basically NOTHING. There are hardly any towns, there are no fast food places, and there are hardly any pit stops. It's also so crazy to see the difference between Northern Spain and the rest. Basically all of Spain is either dry and brown or full of vineyards. Once you get up to Northern Spain, it's all forests and mountains. That's what I love so much about where I live... it kind of reminds me of home, but with more mountains. Even Mom agreed that it was the most beautiful place she'd seen. 

     That night, we arrived in Bilbao and picked up the boyf. Mom finally got to see his house, which is basically a castle. Okay I'm over-exaggerating, but it's really big and has AT LEAST 15 bedrooms... Then we went and checked into our Casa Rural, which is like a little bitty hotel in the middle of nowhere. We had some serious trouble finding it because it's genuinely on an invisible little dirt path. But it was beautiful. The room was spacious and nice, the owner was so friendly and kind, and the view from the balcony was spectacular.

Boyf's house

     After settling in, we went to a restaurant right down the street which served typical basque food and had an amazing dinner, the three of us. Mom meeting my boyfriend was a little scary, as it always is when you introduce your significant other to your family...but turns out...she loves him!!! That was very reassuring! 

     Our first couple days of vacation were amazing. It was so nice to finally be able to spend time with my mom after not being able to actually see her face to face in almost 10 months. It's so weird to finally see your family again. It's like you live this little recluse life in another country, and then when you see somebody from back home again, it becomes something so much different. It really feels like you've got two lives, like you're two people, but it's great because you finally get to share that with someone.

     To hear about our time up in Bilbao, go check out my other blog post!!