Things in the Sky

Parts:

1. Introduction/BOS-CDG
2. CDG-BCN and First Day in Barcelona
3. Figueres and Girona (and Some Barcelona)
4. Barcelona
5. Montserrat and Valencia
6. Valencia and Madrid
7. Madrid
8. Segovia, El Escorial, and Madrid
9. MAD-CDG and CDG-BOS

I awoke on Sunday morning feeling very rested, which was great. I had neglected to describe how tired I was in the last installment of the trip report. We took the metro to dinner, and due to a lack of seating I was standing. Due to my exhaustion, I would fall asleep standing up, then wake up when the train would slow down, then freak out, scared that I had missed the stop and the group had left the train. This happened on numerous occasions. Eventually, I found a seat and continued to fall asleep and wake up, and at this point a few passengers picked up on this and began laughing at me. It was fun, in retrospect!

Anyway, I awoke to find that my hotel room had a pretty nice view!

Soon, I headed down to get some of the complimentary breakfast, which was the same selection of meats, cheeses, and breads every morning. It was very good, and a few of us (I think after our Spanish teacher suggested it) enjoyed making some toasted sandwiches.

After that yummy breakfast, it was time to board our bus and go to Figueres, and I really enjoyed just watching the world pass by on the bus. Eventually, we arrived. The main attraction in Figueres is the Salvador Dali museum. To say that some of the pieces were “interesting” is kind of an understatement, but like I said earlier, I’m not a huge fan of art.

The museum had a beautiful dome.

But I did really enjoy walking around through town. Since it was a Sunday morning things were pretty quiet, but I think that made me enjoy it more – it almost felt that I had the town to myself. Then a few of my friends and I found a nice little cafe.

Awkwardly drinking ginger ale at aforementioned cafe.

Soon, it was time to head off to Girona, which I found to just be beautiful. We started off by grabbing lunch, which was great. The scene was pretty much picturesque – I was on vacation, eating lunch outside with friends on the main street of an old European city. Heck, there was even a street musician to add to the mood.

Gorgeous.

Walking around town.

After our free time ended, we walked to main attraction, St. Mary’s Cathedral, which was very impressive to say the least.

Cool-looking house near the cathedral.

A Ryanair 737 flies overhead.

The cathedral…that’s a lot of steps…

Now, the cathedral happened to have a courtyard with a dried-up well. So, most of my friends and I were taking high school physics at the time, so we decided to “apply our knowledge” and figure out how deep it is. After sacrificing some change and with the help of the calculator on the iPhone, we estimated it was approximately 208 feet deep ( we didn’t account for air resistance, though). I took a picture of our work and gave it to my physics teacher, who said she would consider giving us extra credit for it (she never did, though, I think ).

Then, it was time to head back to the bus to Barcelona, but I got a few pictures on the walk back.

So, we bid farewell to Girona (sadly), and we were back on the road again, though the trip had some nice views.

We arrived back in Barcelona and took our first walk down Las Ramblas to get some shopping done. I didn’t buy anything, but it was very nice to walk around, despite how crowded it was.

After that we headed to a shopping mall. I really wanted to buy an official soccer jersey, but alas, it was 80 Euros. So, I ended up getting an FC Barcelona t-shirt at another store late in the trip.

Anyway, it was time to head to dinner, but on the way out of the mall I snapped this (what I think is) cool picture of the Columbus statue pointing to the New World.

After dinner, it was time to hop on the metro to get back to the hotel. I loved the fact that we didn’t take a bus when we were just staying in the city and took mass transit instead. While aviation is definitely my first love, subway systems really interest me as well.

They’re everywhere! (Though I guess the word “Donuts” only works in the States.)

The subway experience, however, took a turn for the worse, however. We were walking back to the hotel when my friend Alex started running towards us. Er, apparently he took the wrong train and no one noticed. But, now that everything turned out fine, this is definitely one of the funnier memories of the trip.

So, we got back to the hotel and hung around at the hotel restaurant/bar. We didn’t order much but the staff didn’t mind a group of us playing Uno (yes, it’s a theme).

After that, it was time to sleep, and get ready for our first full day in Barcelona.

Stay tuned for part four!