Hi Everyone!
Wow, what a trip! Right of the bat this was a trip to remember! We left to catch a bus to take us to the Nice airport around noon. Once we arrived at the airport we checked in and after going through security found out that our plane was delayed forty minutes. This seems to happen where ever we go! Our plane was very small with only twelve rows. It was so small that we weren’t even allowed to carry our carry-ons on because the overhead compartments were too tiny. Thankfully it was a short ride, less than an hour, and we even got a cheese sandwich and a drink for free! We had to take a bus from the airport about a half hour to a town called Catalunya where we had to get on the metro to take us to our hostel. We had a hard time finding the bus and an even harder time on the metro! We couldn’t find anyone who spoke English to help us, but no need to worry, two guys found us! We accidentally got off at the wrong stop and they grabbed our hands and our bags and lead us to the right train. They wanted to get to know us better over coffee the next day, but after finding out they didn’t have mopeds we told them we were busy! Uni-brows aren’t really our type. Even after they pointed us in the right direction we once again got lost after we got off at the correct stop. We eventually found our hostel and by this point it was already dark out and we were exhausted!
We had never stayed at a hostel before and had no idea what to expect. We were horrified to see the size of our room and the four other people staying with us. The first night we shared a room with two girls from Brazil, a girl from Germany and a guy from Australia. We grabbed dinner at Carrefour and headed back to go to bed early. The nice thing about this town is that everything is open until at least nine at night, unlike Antibes where everything is closed by six or earlier. We didn’t get much sleep thanks to the Australian guy’s snoring and early alarm for his flight. We got our first full day in Barcelona started early with a quick breakfast at the hostel which was included in our stay and then headed back to get the metro to take it back to Catalunya. (We were pros by this point!) We first walked down Las Ramblas which is famous for its vendors selling flowers, pets, and souvenirs and street entertainers including human status and magicians. It is one of the liveliest streets in the world! After realizing that there was no way we would be able to see everything by foot we gave in and decided to buy a pass for the Barcelona City Bus Tour. This allowed us to use the bus all day and get on and off when ever we wanted.
From the bus we saw all of Barcelona including many of Gaudi’s works, the Olympic stadium and swimming pool, Barri Gotic (the Gothic Quarter), Camp Nou (Barcelona’s famous football stadium), the Barcelona Palace, the school where Picasso studied, the Arc Del Triomf, Port Vell, the World Trade Center, and Placa d’Espanya (the gateway to the 1992 Olympics). Our favorites were getting to see Gaudi’s beautiful church that we never got to finish called Sagrada Familia and the Olympic stadium. After getting off and on the bus for over eight hours and seeing the entire tour we were pretty tired and hungry so we took the metro back to our hostel. The town was very pretty and clean and we loved being able to get to see everything. It was nice also being with other tourists! We made PB&J sandwiches for dinner, used the computers for a little bit and then headed to our room to get ready for bed and to meet our new roommates. The two girls from Brazil were already in bed because they were getting up at four in the morning to catch their flights and our two new roommates, a couple, were just getting ready to head out for the night. They weren’t very friendly and we quickly found out they made a bad decision to go out when the guy woke us up in the middle of the night throwing up. Shortly after that the girls’ alarm clock went off so once again we didn’t get much sleep.
After breakfast on Sunday, our second full day in Spain, we took a bus to Gaudi’s park. His park was beautiful with flowers and trees and mosaic tiles everywhere. In the park is the longest park bench in the world covered entirely in mosaics. We walked around there for a while and then took the metro back to Catalunya and from there we walked a little bit more down Las Ramblas and then decided to walk to Mercat de Sant Antoni, which we read was a market that sold everything including shoes, clothes, and all kinds of different foods. Unfortunately, when we arrived it was just closing and the only things we saw for sale were old books and magazines. It was a nice walk though, getting to see the different styles of houses away from the main streets. After that we were tired from walking and once again decided to head back to our hostel for PB&J. On our way back we stopped for some ice cream. We noticed how popular bikes are in Spain. On roads there is a lane just for bikes that was recently created around most of Barcelona. You can rent bikes so they are parked all over the city.
That night we were pleasantly surprised to not have any other roommates. We assume a group of six people were coming the next day- this worked out great for us! We woke up early Monday morning, grabbed breakfast and packed. We had to leave for the airport by 10:00 so we walked around the town for a little bit before checking out. We took a direct train to the airport and once again discovered that our plane was delayed over an hour. The flight was smooth despite bad weather back in Antibes. Overall it was a great trip and we are so happy to have seen so many amazing things! We feel like we have mastered the public transportation system of Spain! It feels weird having to switch between so many languages when we travel to different places.
We are counting down the hours until we see Mom, Dad and Jul! Their flight leaves tomorrow night and we fly out very early Thursday morning. We should arrive in Paris about two hours before them. We have been hearing all about the snow you are getting back home and are so jealous, we love and miss the snow!! Hope everything is going well with all of you; we miss you and love you! Talk to you soon!
Love, Em and Jen
** The first picture is of us on our way back from Barcelona to Antibes. The second picture is of one of the streets near our hostels- all of the trees are starting to bloom! The third picture is of one of the street performing on Las Ramblas. The next few pictures are all from Gaudi's park. You can see all the mosaic work. The entire area behind us in the fifth picture is his bench that is covered in mosaic. The ninth picture is of our room in the hostel, six people staying in one tiny room! The next picture is of the Olympic pools where the swimming and the diving took place during the Olympics. The eleventh picture is of the Olympic Stadium which is used for sporting events today. The next picture is of Em in front of the palace and the thirteenth picture is of us in front of Gaudi's church. The fourteenth picture is in front of a bus that we saw and loved since it is always hard to find Jul's name spelled correctly! We were thinking of you Jul! The next picture is the building where Picasso studied and the sixteenth picture is of Jen on the tour bus. The seventeenth picture is of the bikes that were everywhere! You could rent them and then park then at any post when you were done with them, they were very popular especially with the tourists! The eighteenth picture is of the street of Las Ramblas and the final picture is of the towers that where used as the entrance to the Olympic Games!
We had never stayed at a hostel before and had no idea what to expect. We were horrified to see the size of our room and the four other people staying with us. The first night we shared a room with two girls from Brazil, a girl from Germany and a guy from Australia. We grabbed dinner at Carrefour and headed back to go to bed early. The nice thing about this town is that everything is open until at least nine at night, unlike Antibes where everything is closed by six or earlier. We didn’t get much sleep thanks to the Australian guy’s snoring and early alarm for his flight. We got our first full day in Barcelona started early with a quick breakfast at the hostel which was included in our stay and then headed back to get the metro to take it back to Catalunya. (We were pros by this point!) We first walked down Las Ramblas which is famous for its vendors selling flowers, pets, and souvenirs and street entertainers including human status and magicians. It is one of the liveliest streets in the world! After realizing that there was no way we would be able to see everything by foot we gave in and decided to buy a pass for the Barcelona City Bus Tour. This allowed us to use the bus all day and get on and off when ever we wanted.
From the bus we saw all of Barcelona including many of Gaudi’s works, the Olympic stadium and swimming pool, Barri Gotic (the Gothic Quarter), Camp Nou (Barcelona’s famous football stadium), the Barcelona Palace, the school where Picasso studied, the Arc Del Triomf, Port Vell, the World Trade Center, and Placa d’Espanya (the gateway to the 1992 Olympics). Our favorites were getting to see Gaudi’s beautiful church that we never got to finish called Sagrada Familia and the Olympic stadium. After getting off and on the bus for over eight hours and seeing the entire tour we were pretty tired and hungry so we took the metro back to our hostel. The town was very pretty and clean and we loved being able to get to see everything. It was nice also being with other tourists! We made PB&J sandwiches for dinner, used the computers for a little bit and then headed to our room to get ready for bed and to meet our new roommates. The two girls from Brazil were already in bed because they were getting up at four in the morning to catch their flights and our two new roommates, a couple, were just getting ready to head out for the night. They weren’t very friendly and we quickly found out they made a bad decision to go out when the guy woke us up in the middle of the night throwing up. Shortly after that the girls’ alarm clock went off so once again we didn’t get much sleep.
After breakfast on Sunday, our second full day in Spain, we took a bus to Gaudi’s park. His park was beautiful with flowers and trees and mosaic tiles everywhere. In the park is the longest park bench in the world covered entirely in mosaics. We walked around there for a while and then took the metro back to Catalunya and from there we walked a little bit more down Las Ramblas and then decided to walk to Mercat de Sant Antoni, which we read was a market that sold everything including shoes, clothes, and all kinds of different foods. Unfortunately, when we arrived it was just closing and the only things we saw for sale were old books and magazines. It was a nice walk though, getting to see the different styles of houses away from the main streets. After that we were tired from walking and once again decided to head back to our hostel for PB&J. On our way back we stopped for some ice cream. We noticed how popular bikes are in Spain. On roads there is a lane just for bikes that was recently created around most of Barcelona. You can rent bikes so they are parked all over the city.
That night we were pleasantly surprised to not have any other roommates. We assume a group of six people were coming the next day- this worked out great for us! We woke up early Monday morning, grabbed breakfast and packed. We had to leave for the airport by 10:00 so we walked around the town for a little bit before checking out. We took a direct train to the airport and once again discovered that our plane was delayed over an hour. The flight was smooth despite bad weather back in Antibes. Overall it was a great trip and we are so happy to have seen so many amazing things! We feel like we have mastered the public transportation system of Spain! It feels weird having to switch between so many languages when we travel to different places.
We are counting down the hours until we see Mom, Dad and Jul! Their flight leaves tomorrow night and we fly out very early Thursday morning. We should arrive in Paris about two hours before them. We have been hearing all about the snow you are getting back home and are so jealous, we love and miss the snow!! Hope everything is going well with all of you; we miss you and love you! Talk to you soon!
Love, Em and Jen
** The first picture is of us on our way back from Barcelona to Antibes. The second picture is of one of the streets near our hostels- all of the trees are starting to bloom! The third picture is of one of the street performing on Las Ramblas. The next few pictures are all from Gaudi's park. You can see all the mosaic work. The entire area behind us in the fifth picture is his bench that is covered in mosaic. The ninth picture is of our room in the hostel, six people staying in one tiny room! The next picture is of the Olympic pools where the swimming and the diving took place during the Olympics. The eleventh picture is of the Olympic Stadium which is used for sporting events today. The next picture is of Em in front of the palace and the thirteenth picture is of us in front of Gaudi's church. The fourteenth picture is in front of a bus that we saw and loved since it is always hard to find Jul's name spelled correctly! We were thinking of you Jul! The next picture is the building where Picasso studied and the sixteenth picture is of Jen on the tour bus. The seventeenth picture is of the bikes that were everywhere! You could rent them and then park then at any post when you were done with them, they were very popular especially with the tourists! The eighteenth picture is of the street of Las Ramblas and the final picture is of the towers that where used as the entrance to the Olympic Games!
Your trip to Spain sounds like quite an adventure. I'm wondering about your impressions of the different countries you've been to. You're building up quite a lot of expierience?. By now your family must be quite anxcious to see you and you to see them. Have a good time! We'll be looking forward to a report soon.
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