BARCELONA, SPAIN

Barcelona is a m a z i n g.

I’m lucky to have Shayna and Mike who already know their way around. I’ve done so much over the past few days it would take forever to explain it all.

I explored Park Güell, went to the beach, ate at Bo de B (maybe the best sandwich I’ve ever had in my life), ate my fair share of patatas bravas, drank locally brewed beers, and tried allll the Spanish tapas and pinchos. I also found out that sangria isn’t actually what Barcelona is known for, that’s just what tourists think. They’re actually known for cava which is like a sparkling wine. I wandered the area near the beach while Shayna had classes, celebrated our friend Abby’s 21st birthday, practiced my Spanish speaking, and somewhat figured out the metro system. Getting from Mike to Shayna or vice versa was an absolute experience. I can only use my cellphone via WiFi, so while I was out navigating the streets and the metro I had nothing to rely on but myself. Intimidating at first but a huge confidence booster in the end.

Last night we went out to watch the FC Barcelona game at a bar, and from there we got talked into going to a bar with the most interesting shots I’ve ever seen.

• Boy Scout shot – light a marshmallow on fire, dip it in the shot, eat the marshmallow, take the shot
• Harry Potter shot – covered in whip cream with a candy on top
• Georgia shot – stick your thumb in the shot, light your thumb on fire (literally), suck your thumb, take the shot. *don’t be like Mike and burn your thumb off. Actually suck your thumb*
• Spicy shot – shot with a Pringle and hot sauce on top

Those are the few we tried but there must have been 15+ more. Definitely geared towards tourists, but it was fun nonetheless.

The one slight negative about Barcelona is just adjusting to their timing. It’s the norm here to take a siesta during the middle of day, eat dinner at 9pm or later, and get back from the bar/clubs between 4am-7am. It’s about as fun as it gets but damn, it’s killing my sleep schedule.

In a couple of hours I’m leaving for Paris with Mike and his roommates while Shayna goes to the south of France with her program. So next blog post: Paris. Keep ya eyes peeled.

The road to Spain

Trip to Madrid/Barcelona

Today was weird. We left our hostel in London at 5 am, had a nightmare checking in our bags because mine was obviously over the weight limit, then had to run to our terminal to make our flight on time. But eventually we made it to Madrid relatively unscathed. Unfortunately for us, that was just the beginning.

I’m very thankful for my Spanish minor right about now because I had to completely rely on my Spanish speaking skills to navigate us both to our separate bus terminals. Lauren was headed to Salamanca where she’ll be studying for the semester, and I was heading to Barcelona to visit another USC roommate of mine, Shayna. Navigating my way around in Spanish was difficult… but I’m writing this post so obviously I made it! After an 8-hour bus ride from Madrid to Barcelona, arriving at a bus station with no WiFi in the middle of the night with no real idea of where to meet Shayna, somehow I managed to find her. Phew.

Today I met up with another friend of mine, Mike, who was also studying in Barcelona this semester. Once Shayna finished her classes she joined us and we got to explore the city a bit. It’s much warmer and sunnier than London which was a pleasant change. Today we saw Barceloneta, the Arc de Triomf, Las Ramblas, Plaça d’Espanya, and the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya.

I’m staying in Barcelona until Thursday, so I will soon have more to write. Hasta entonces!

LONDON, ENGLAND

I made it to Europe!!!

If you’re new here, welcome! Today marks the first day of a full semester studying in Europe. My semester in Prague starts mid-February, but being anxious to travel I decided to come to Europe a little early and travel around for a few weeks. One of my USC roommates, Lauren, was on board to do the same so after finding an incredibly cheap flight from NYC to London, our starting point was decided.

Figuring out the trains from the London Heathrow airport to downtown was actually pretty easy, just expensive. I had to drag my 300 pound suitcase around a lot of places and up some stairs. I think I almost died trying to get from the train to the platform over a substantial gap, but we made it.

We found our accommodations at the Horse and Stables Hostel. It’s an adorable little hostel in a great location for exploring the city!

Day 1: 

We decided to start by exploring Waterloo, the area near our hostel. This brought us to the Imperial War Museum, Riverside restaurant for lunch, and Cubana where we enjoyed some fun cocktails. We also stumbled upon The Leake Street graffiti tunnel, which we later found out is a public part of The Vaults. The Vaults as a whole are art galleries found underneath the railway arches of the Waterloo Train Station. I know its early on, but this was definitely a favorite discovery thus far.

It was a long day of walking after getting maybe three hours of sleep on the plane (the melatonin and cocktails did not work in our favor), and I’m sure part of our exhaustion was just pure jet lag so we got to bed early tonight.

Day 2:

Today we crossed the bridge and explored the more well-known parts of London. We saw Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, the Buckingham Palace, the Horse Guards Parade, Westminster Abbey, and explored a bit of Trafalgar Square. We also came across an adorable charity-based café inside The Abbey Community Centre. This is where we stopped to look over our map and figure out where in the world we were after walking around aimlessly. Thankfully, a woman saw us and sat down with us to explain the area better. She even talked about some of the history of London -like the fact that Buckingham Palace was expanded for the Queen and King to live in, and that Hyde and Kensington parks used to be the “hunting grounds” of the Queen and King.

We spent about 2.5 hours searching for food today… we wanted to have a late, bigger lunch that would count as both dinner and lunch. But unfortunately, waiting until about 3 to start looking was the wrong move. Everywhere we found was closed between lunch and dinner hours, so we spent a long time aimlessly walking around before finding a place to eat. We walked for a while longer before settling for a sweet treat to hold us over, and luckily Konditor and Cook answered our prayers on that front.

Day 3: Our last day in London.

We ended up befriending the 7 French students who were staying in the hostel room with us, so on our last day we decided to explore as a group of 9. We ventured towards Camden where we found the well-known Camden market which was massive and so cool! Unfortunately for Lauren and I this was a cash-only market so we couldn’t actually buy anything but it was still great.

At some point we separated from our French friends and took a metro to the other side of London where we saw the London Bridge, the Tower Bridge, and the London Tower Prison which was SO cool. The Tower Bridge was probably my favorite thing we saw the entire weekend. From here we started back towards our hostel and stumbled upon the Borough Market on our way. This market was INCREDIBLE. It was more like a farmers market with a huge selection of fresh juices, cheeses, sandwiches, etc. and it was so fun to wander around. Finally, we stopped at dinner at a highly-recommended restaurant called Masters Super Fish where we tried their famous fish and chips. The rest of the night we spent re-packing our luggage before our early morning trip to Madrid.

The Last Supper

Finally the day has come. I leave for my semester in Europe in two days, but today is my last day at home in New Hampshire.

In the first few days of August I found out that I would be spending my entire spring semester studying at the University of Economics in Prague, Czech Republic. It was my first choice in schools (see my last post) so I was beyond thrilled. Despite how excited I was, the day seemed like it would never come. And now here it is.

Today, I’m spending the day with my family. In about an hour we’re headed out to a goodbye dinner, hence the title of this post, at my favorite restaurant, Angelina’s. It’s a super cute, authentic, Italian restaurant about 20 minutes from us.

Then tomorrow, I leave! First I’m headed to Boston to pick up my roommate Lauren M from the airport. From there we are driving to Connecticut to spend the night at my cousins’ house. Then on Wednesday we’re off to the airport where we will fly to London. A 7-hour flight will bring us to our destination. Lauren and I will spend the next four days exploring London. From there, we fly into Madrid, Spain and take busses to our next locations. I’ll be heading to Barcelona to stay with another roommate of mine, Shayna, while Lauren heads to Salamanca to move into her new apartment. It’s unbelievably convenient that all of us are studying abroad this semester – it makes traveling and visiting people very, very easy. I’ll be in Spain for about a week and a half before I head to Prague and get settled into the city that I’ll call home this semester.

So in total I have about 50 hours until my 5-month adventure officially begins. I’ll use this blog to keep all my family and friends updated on my journey. See ya on the other side!