Rome, Madrid & Barcelona: The Full Report

We’re heading back to Freiberg right now by bus, and it’s making me think about how I feel about the city. It’s very pretty, and I truly enjoy it… but it’s not home. I don’t even think of Freiberg as home the way I refer to hotels on vacation. Pretty weird. I really miss home a great deal. It’s going to be great to be home in a month and a half.

Anyway, the past 9 days have been a pretty great adventure. There was a lot of chaos in the beginning as a girl of the trip was diagnosed with the Swine (I was pleased to use my newly acquired invincibility!!), and then everyone, including myself, was sick for a few days with a nasty cold. Thus far, no one else has any of the symptoms, which is a small miracle. It was a great trip!

Rome:

We took a night train to Rome, which was something. I can’t say I enjoyed it, but it was quite an experience. The first train we took broke down, which was confusing. Somehow there was another regional train going to the exact same place at the same time, so we really REALLY lucked out! The first day in Rome was pretty rough since no one really slept but after that night it was so much fun. One night we bought a few bottles of wine and shared them around the Trevi Fountain. We just sort of explored around and saw tons of really cool fountains and Piazzas. We took a long tour of the Roman Forums, which was basically a repeat of the tour I took with RIG, only with educated questions. OH! And we saw what is supposedly the ancient ruin of the hut of Romulus and Remus (the founders of Rome). I was thrilled to get to visit the Pantheon this time around, and it was every bit as cool as I expected it to be. It was raining pretty hard while we were inside, and it was truly beautiful watching the rain fall through the hole in the dome. We also went outside the city limits to the Catacombs, which were actually really cool. I guess I didn’t know very much about them at all. I think the guide said that the word catacombs actually comes from the location of the burial site we visited. It was gigantic though. Like… maybe 8 graves deep? Most of the tombs were broken into, and all the bones were gone. So, naturally, I wanted to know where the bones went. DUMB QUESTION!!!!!! The catacombs were used 1,500 years ago, so the bones have disintegrated. I felt so sschtooopid. We ate lots and lots of pasta and pizza, and of course gelato. Oooh, and we had a really cool meeting where we discussed the ecomafia in Southern Italy. It was fascinating!

Madrid:

Madrid was alright. I was feeling kinda sick while we were there, so I may not have given it a fair chance. Tapas were so yummy! The first night we had these potatoes and aioli. Mmmm. And the Sangria was pretty delicious as well. Also, they have these things called tortillas, which are really omelets with potatoes in them. It was silly though, in Madrid and Barcelona they sort of use the ‘th’ sound instead of ‘s’ so it sounded like everyone was wildly lisping. We had a lot of fun with that. I was extremely frustrated though, as almost all of my Spanish is gone. I would recognize words and have absolutely no idea what they meant. I wanted to remember so badly, but couldn’t. And then on our last night, we all went to a Real Madrid game. We all wetn early to pick up our tickets and buy jerseys and then we headed over to a bar. I was feeling sick still so I wasn’t going to get a drink. And then at the last second, I decided I was going to share one. So we went inside to order and were being jostled around as we pushed towards the bar. All of a sudden Lindsay turns to me and says ‘someone just tried to pickpocket me!!’ so I automatically check all my pockets and my phone is gone. She saw the guy, who was leaving the bar, so we ran outside to where the group was standing to get a Spanish speaker, couldn’t find one so four of us girls run after this guy. He was wearing denim on denim. Who does that!? Anyway, that made him easy to spot. So we confront him and he kept telling us to f off. Well… he didn’t say f. And he walks away and I’m starting to panic. We could see him speed walking away, and he keeps looking back so we know it was him. And then, all of a sudden we see four policemen! Unfortunately by the time we were able to pantomime and simply explain what happened and describe the guy, he was long gone. So I was pickpockted- but it could have been SO SO SO much worse. Since there was nothing else to do, we all found the group and went back into the game. We had seats that were SO close to the field, but none of us had seats together. This wasn’t so bad except the people next to me chain smoked the entire game. The Argentina national soccer team was there to watch, and I guess the coach is one of the 5 best players ever. They were sitting a few rows behind us, so the entire section freaked out. I was pretty confused. So Real Madrid one the game, but had to win by 4 to stay in the Copa something-or-other. So they fake-won! The Real Madrid fans weren’t pleased. And like I said, the good looking superstar didn’t play. I did enjoy myself, though I was annoyed about my phone. It was only pay as you go, so it wasn’t the end of the world. It really could have been much much worse.

Barcelona / Barthelona:

I actually enjoyed Barcelona a lot. We stayed in a hostel, which I didn’t entirely enjoy. I’ll be honest- I could have done without the experience. There was a pretty cool rooftop bar though… but seriously. I’m not into the whole hostel thing. The city was great though. As a group we had SO much fun, especially at the IceBarcelona. They left us in there for 30 minutes alone without a bartender so we really played around. It was a blast. AND they had polar express playing in the background. Mmm. Christmas. It was pretty cold in there, only 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Nothin we can’t deal with in Minnesota, but it was a drastic change from the outside air temperature! Other than that the Gaudi buildings were pretty neat! The Melting church looked very melty! But seriously, I liked the Gaudi. Last night we went to see the Magic Fountain that was used for the 92 olympics. IT WAS SO MAGICAL. Hands down the coolest thing I saw in Barcelona.

I picked a few pictures in addition to the ones I already posted. In no particular order, they are the Parthenon, me behind the Icebar bar, the palace where Columbus was received by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand after 'discovering' the new world, and lots of pictures of the magic fountain. I'm obsessed.

The trip was great but now I've got to focus. The coming weeks are going to be crazy. I have over 30 pages of papers to write, and to be honest; I’m a little intimidated. Wish me luck?!?!