This week is Semana Santa, or as we college students know it, spring break! As expected, it's been a bit of a crazy week, but probably not crazy the way most spring breaks are.
My friends Kristen and Courtney and I have been in Barcelona for the last three days. The first two days were lovely. We surprised my sister, who was in Barcelona with her high school Spanish class and didn't know I was on spring break, and spent most of the afternoon in the downtown shopping area with her and her friends. In the morning while they were on a school tour we had a Gaudi day -- Casa Mila and the Sagrada Familia. The Sagrada Familia was genuinely the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I actually had to stop to breathe for a moment when I walked in. The use of light in the architecture is incredible. Combined with the sculpting of the stone to make it look fluid and living, it's really an amazing sight.
We also went to lunch at the most awful place -- Trabucaire. That restaurant and its sister restaurant, Bar Picasso, are truly dreadful. They are right across the street from the Sagrada Familia and they are the most expensive, low-quality tourist traps I've ever seen. I say stay away.
On the second day we had a ton of fun. We started our day off at the Chocolate Museum, which I highly recommend. It's equal parts history of chocolate and massive sculptures made of chocolate, and in a bit of real marketing genius, the ticket is a tiny chocolate bar. We bought some truffles and went to sit in the botanical gardens to relax and eat them. Later on we went to the Picasso Museum, where we got in for free with our student IDs. They also had a special exhibit that juxtaposed Picasso and Dali, two of my favorite artists, and I loved it. My favorites were the two authors' takes on the famous Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez. I bought some prints, including one of Mujer con Mantilla, to decorate the apartment I'm living in this fall. We also ran into my sister there by sheer coincidence, although I don't think she was as starstruck as we were.
We had dinner at the most amazing little gem of a restaurant way out in the boonies by our hostel. It was called El Nou de Sarria, and we went because we got 40% off for making reservations online, but I'd be willing to pay full price. They had amazing appetizers, including creamy hummus, delicious sweet potato soup, and the best Parmesan risotto I've ever had. They are also famous for their burgers, but I'd barely call them burgers. It was a large cube of high-grade beef cooked to perfection and accompanied by sweet caramelized onions. It comes plain or with a choice of gourmet toppings -- I had goat cheese on mine and I think it was the best meal I've ever had. For desert, we shared a little dish of delightful mojito sorbet. If you're in Barcelona, you absolutely must track this place down. It is worth all the trouble, by far.
It was on Day 3 that everything went horribly wrong. I should have known it would be a bad day when the shower head fell off the wall and onto my face at 8:00 am. We had free breakfast at our hostel as usual and packed up our room to make the 12:00 pm checkout time. We had planned to bring our bags with us for the day since our flight wasn't until 7:30 pm, and our bags weren't too big. How much trouble could they be?
Lots.
We had decided days earlier that our last day we would go to Parc Guell, designed by Gaudi and located on the outer edge of Barcelona. At some point in the planning process we completely missed the fact that Parc Guell is ON A MOUNTAIN. We dragged our suitcases through the metro and up the side of a mountain via stairs, insanely steep ramps, and the occasional outdoor escalator (which was nothing short of a gift from god). I ended up picking up my little roller suitcase and carrying it like a baby all the way up this freaking mountain and then dragging it around on the dirt paths of the park in sheer defeat. We didn't even get to see the monument area of the park because the only available ticket time was less than one hour before we had to be at the airport. We sadly dragged our baggage (physical and emotional) back down the mountain and boarded the metro in search of Barça's best ice cream to cheer us up. After a long metro ride punctuated by a very enthusiastic accordion player we arrived at what was said to be the best heladeria and horchateria in Barcelona.
It was closed.
So we got even more pathetic and went to the world's worst Burger King, where our order took 30 minutes, was all wrong, and tasted awful. We schlepped ourselves back onto the metro whereupon we gave up on life and showed up at the airport four and a half hours early. We thought it would all be ok when we saw a couple eating a whole box of Dunkin' Donuts, only to find out that they had somehow brought them through security and there was no Dunkin' and no donuts in the airport. We boarded our flight to Rome and hoped for the best.
We arrived without incident -- ten minutes early in fact. We headed out in search of taxis eager to get settled in our hotel and found a private shuttle that would take us to any hotel in the city for only 15 euro per person, which is less that the train or a taxi costs by far. But halfway across the city when our driver asked to repeat the address, he kindly informed us that the hotel we had booked was not actually in Rome. It was in Marino, 25 miles outside the city.
It may be April Fools Day, but this was no joke. We were really in a bad situation.
At this point it was 11 pm and we were legitimately considering going back to sleep in the airport. That's when Stefano the Car Whit Driver made a miracle. He pulled into a gas station and informed us that he could not only get us a hotel for tonight, but he could get us a 4-star hotel in the heart of the city at a 3-star price. That man is an angel. He took us to the Hotel Palladium Palace, where they checked us in at midnight and got us a reservation for the full three days we are staying in Rome plus a free buffet breakfast. I can't say enough good things about these people. Stefano and the Hotel Palladium Palace saved our bacon, and made our terrible day not so terrible after all!