The day I got back from Dublin, a breath of fresh air was awaiting my arrival. A piece of home, a friendship that I have had since elementary school, an adventure buddy… Sarah Ishikawa flew all the way across the sea to visit ME for her spring break, and boy I could not be more thankful. At a time when I was missing home more and more, a time when I needed to be reminded of how lucky I am, a time after hearing something // experiencing something that crushed my heart. I needed those moments to be spent with someone from home that I could trust with anything and everything.
Right when i got back to Madrid, I skipped taking the train and went straight to the taxi line to save me from about thirty extra minutes of sitting in a car and not seeing Sarah. I arrived at the hotel, knocked on the door, and screamed when I was reconnected with one of my best friends. That evening we went to get a din {at my go-to Thai restaurant just down the street from my apartment} where we got caught up with EVERYTHING: school, boys, friends, roomies, heartbreaks, family, etc… Following dinner, we went to get some of my stuff so that we could spend one night at the hotel, before we were going to leave for our spontaneous trip to Valencia that we planned just moments after getting home after din. We purchased train tickets to // from Madrid and a hotel that was supposedly near the festival we were going to.
On Sunday morning, we woke up {after snoozing our alarms a multitude of times}, and headed to get some acai bowls to take to go for our two hour train ride to Valencia. Everything was moving smoothly… at first… and then when we were waiting in line to get our tickets scanned from my phone, everything went downhill. Online it had told me that we could scan our tickets from our phone, little did we know the scanner wasn't going to work once it was our turn SO the lade was extremely rude to me and yelling at me in Spanish to go to the ticket center to get them printed. At that time, there was only fifteen minutes until our train ride. We ran, SPRINTED even, to get to the ticket center, where once again we had to wait in line. I even talked to a police man while I was waiting and he was telling me how weird it was that the lady would not accept the tickets from my phone, but whatever. By the time we FINALLY got our tickets, it was too late!! I had to deal with the rude lady AGAIN who wasn't even going to let us in the main train loading area; however, another man came up to me and told me that I should talk to the information desk and see about switching our departure train, considering we missed our train BY FIVE MINUTES. We were able to get on the next train to Valencia, but we were required to wait two and a half hours
Hours after our expected arrival in Valencia, we finally made it. With no taxi in sight, we walked about four miles to our hotel… Thank goodness all we had were backpacks though because the streets were PACKED with people and kids throwing little fire bombs // crackers all around the city. After checking into our hotel, we were on our way out to the noisy and bustling streets of Valencia. In hopes of figuring out what Las Fallas de Valencia was, and finding food, we just started to wander. To our surprise, there were ABSOLUTELY no restaurants that were open; that being said, we ended up at Dominos Pizza which was PACKED!! After eating tons, we walked around, experienced what war looked like {considering there were designated areas cleared for peoples fire things}, and we walked aimlessly until we stumbled upon things that intrigued us. Not understanding the schedule or the meaning, we managed to end up at a HUGE parade, consisting of SOLELY fire. People were dressed up, there was fire being thrown, there was fire being spun around apparatuses, and the one place we found to watch all the hustle and bustle was a slightly elevated window lip. After about an hour and a half of watching the main celebration and making conversation with the sweetest Spanish family, we headed to find a somewhat normal dinner… It wasn't normal though {I have NO idea what we ate}. Following dinner, we were headed back to our hotel, and came across MORE FIRE!! This time though, it was not small little things that people were setting off, this time it was bigger. Sculptures that were put up at every corner of every street were being lit on fire!! This went on until about four in the morning, with fireworks going off before each and every sculpture; we were asleep around two though which was nice after an extremely long day of walking and exploring.
The next day we had to check out of the hotel, so we decided to spend the day at the beach. We walked a couple of miles, in hopes of seeing a cute place for brunch; however, we did not come across anything until we were finally at the beach. Even upon our arrival, there was no food except for ONE cafe that only had croissants and coffee, so we each indulged ourselves in a croissant and water and then walked out onto the sand from the boardwalk. THIS is another thing a needed: A BEACH. Something that does not exist in Madrid, something that I was not planning on seeing until spring break, and something that would enable me to soak up some vitamin D {that does not include walking to // from the train station and class}. It was SUCH a relaxing day, until the time got the best of me and I freaked out that we were going to be late for our train back to Madrid… I was wrong though because my brain has not yet gotten acquainted with the military time on my phone {something I am trying out in hopes of getting used to Spain}. We arrived at the station about four hours earlier than our departure, so we decided to walk around. Hanging out in El Corte Ingles, walking around a shopping center, and grabbing food and water. Following our lunch, we decided to sit in the sun and just catch up on more of each other’s lives.
Monday night we made it home and then it was time for me get ready for school and head to bed. When I went to class on Tuesday, Sarah had the opportunity to continue sleeping in order to rejuvenate herself for the day, and when I came back home we headed out to La Platea for lunch and then we walked around Retiro for a couple hours and rented a rowboat. We made it back home in time for me to do about an hour of school work and study for an exam, and then we got dressed up to go to Tepic for din {and the infamous mango margs}. When we got back to the apartment that night, we were planning on going out and everybody else in the apartment was on a completely other level {in comparison to Sarah, Megan, and me}. We hung out, I got us all on the guest list to a karaoke bar with VIP service, and when other people were drinking the three of us decided to get there a little bit before midnight. When we arrived it was NOT bumpin, so we made our rounds and then headed home, and JUST as we walked in, I got a text from one of my roomies asking me to get them into the bar, but it was too late… I didn't hear from anybody until I was just about to shut my eyes and I heard screaming and laughing from outside my room, and everything went downhill from there.
After pulling almost an all nighter {running on less than two hours of sleep}, I went to class and Wednesday we took it pretty easy, until we found out one of the guys who went out did not make it home and nobody had heard from him {but that’s another story to tell}. Long story short, we spent the day hanging out until the news, Sarah and I went to Ten Con Ten to treat ourselves to a yummy din, and then right when we got back we joined the rest of my friends in search for the guy. He was found eventually…
After all the chaos, luckily Sarah and I had Barcelona to look forward to. Prior to her arrival, I had surprised Sarah by purchasing us flights to // from Barcelona and a hotel for a night. Upon arrival {after my two morning classes on Thursday}, we headed to the hotel and decided to explore the new city that will soon become my home in the Summer. I definitely fell in love.
Our first day we walked all around the city {finding little places to grab some food}, we went to the shopping center and did some damage, and then following dinner, we went to the beach. ALSO!! I forgot to mention that the hotel I booked was only TWO STREETS away from where my office is going to be. This being said; MY OFFICE IS LITERALLY A TEN MINUTE WALK FROM THE BEAUTIFUL BEACHES OF BARCELONA. That night, in hopes of having a decently early night, Sarah’s boyfriend came over for me to meet him and when they went to go on a walk I fell asleep {in the matching jammies we got}.
On Friday it was extremely gloomy and a pretty damp day. We wanted to see a little bit more of Barcelona before our flight back to Madrid that night, so we decided to get an early start and head to Park Güell. Little did we know, it costs money {and you need to reserve a time} in order to get into the infamous section of the park with all of the mosaics. To say the least, we didn't make it into that area because the times were booked until later in the day and we were STARVING, so we decided to just walk the park where we were allowed to. It was absolutely beautiful, with the most amazing view at a peak of a mountain… You could see the entirety of Barcelona, and I can only imagine how beautiful it looks during the summer when the skies are clear and the sun is out. After our exploration, and listening to some true Spanish music in the park {CD coming to you soon dad!!}, we headed to a DELICIOUS breakfast place that was along the water. The food was AMAZING and it was so nice because SO many people were talking English, which made it feel more like home. We walked around a little bit more and shopped a little more than we should have, but then it was time to head to the airport because Sarah was leaving the next day for the United States and my flight to Rome was at six in the morning!!
After spending so much time with Sarah, getting to explore some new places in Spain, and having the chance to see where I am working this summer, I canNOT wait for what the future holds for me. I can’t wait to call Barcelona “home,” in just a couple short months. I cant wait for more adventures abroad, more food {and yes I need to get back to running}, and I canNOT wait to be reconnected with some more friends // family in the months to come!! Stay tuned for some more updates and posts of food.
xoxo v
