Vacation Pt. 4

Hello all. Katie here.
Our final leg of our vacation journey was to Barcelona. Barcelona is in Spain so the cheapest way to get there was via plane. We found tickets through RyanAir, a European air service, about two weeks beforehand. We'd been talking to Katie and at one point we must have told her that we were leaving form the same airport as her (maybe we thought there was only one international airport in Venice), so she was assured that we were leaving from Marco Polo Airport. We made all of our plans for the morning, Katie walked us to the bus depot to catch the airport shuttle, and we boarded the bus to go toward Marco Polo. However the other airport, Treviso, had a bus as well and we noticed as we were sitting down in the shuttle that the Treviso bus said RyanAir on it. So I pulled the tickets out of my purse and finally noticed, amidst all of the advertisements (RyanAir is really bad about that; they advertise literally any chance they possibly can) that our airport was Treviso. But the bus was already moving at that point so we had no choice to sit tight.

We figured by the time we arrived there would be no time to actually get to Treviso to make our flight so we immediately found a ticket counter and enquired about tickets to Barcelona. The next one that we could feasibly board, the nice ticket man told us, was through SuisseAir and would cost 300 something euro a piece. After I choked a bit and Rachael thanked him, we walked away and Rachael looked at the Treviso airport to see if there were any other Barcelona flights through there. The only one was our flight, but we noticed that the time had been moved up by about 20 or 30 minutes. So I look at Rachael and say, I think we should go for it. Let's see if we can find a cab.

We found a cab. It was expensive. But by golly he got us there in time and we were appreciative. We ran from the cab through the security gates. They looked at us with disbelief in their eyes but they let us through with one word of advice: Run. So we ran. First to the actual security scanners to throw our things on the belt. My boot got stuck and I think I nearly had a panic attack , but the scanner man got it for me. Rachael took off, expecting that I would catch up to her which I did. Then we scaled about three flights of stairs to reach the gate and the lady looks at me and asks if I have our boarding passes. So I yell back at Rachael to have them ready, and she arrives and flings them at the lady. This lady looks at us and simply says, "You're lucky." Another lady escorts us out there and points us to another man in a bright jacket in front of a RyanAir plane, telling us to be careful and not to rush. But as soon as she turns her back, we're trotting to the man and he waves us on the plane.

I have no idea really how we managed to make it in time, other than pure luck.
 

So we’re physically on the plane, the conductor is saying hello, and we’re trying to find seats. They’re not assigned and the plane is packed, so Rachael and I start to search for any seats anywhere. I find a seat next to a nice couple who offers me gum when I’m still trying to regain my breath—I couldn’t tell if they were just offering to be nice because gum helps with pressure, or if they thought I was about to have a panic attack, but either way the gesture was nice. Rachael ended up between a Portuguese lady and a Spanish man named Favio (Yes, I am not making this up) who started up a little romance with Rachael as their witness. There were no other complications with the flight, just seemingly endless advertising over the intercom. We landed and departed. Found the tourist office easy enough and they provided us with a map and directions to reach our hotel. From there we had walked toward the train which would take us to the city center and on the way there, a nice man on his way off the train handed us a 10 journey ticket with some trips still on it, so we didn’t have to pay for any sort of public transport for almost the whole trip. From the train we took the metro, and then we walked to our hotel, which started to seem a little sketchy as it was situated in a back alley.

 We had to wait for about 15 minutes before a man came to unlock the front door. It was a bed and beach house, with the office on the first floor and then multi-room apartments on the other floors. He gave us more helpful information for the metro and the bus, as well as good places to find groceries.

 After settling in, we found the store and bought all of the groceries! Well not all, but a good amount. With the setup of the room, we had access to a fully equipped kitchen and we took advantage of that to cook our meals in and save some money. They were also pretty delicious and all American. The first night we ate hot dogs, pre-prepared fried rice in a microwave container and canned corn, with pickles and Fanta. Our last breakfast there we ate the remainder of Dunkin Doughnuts and fruit. It was a beautiful food experience, ironically enough because we never once actually ate any Spanish food. But we did have gelati :D

 The first full day in Barcelona we wandered through the main streets and pretty much went sightseeing. And I mean literally. While walking toward the city centre, a Flemenca dancer or someone associated with them tried to offer us carnations for sale and when we didn’t respond positively she popped the carnation into Rachael’s shirt. Right down the collar, all the while speaking rapid Spanish. We tried to explain that we didn’t understand what she was saying, but I don’t think she understood us. Double whammy. Eventually Rachael detangled herself from the flower lady and we continued on. I think flower salespeople have a thing for putting their merchandise in inappropriate places so you feel compelled to buy them to make the salespeople go away faster…

This was a random statue in the park near the Bed and Beach House

This was a fountain on the walk to the city center

 

And this is a pigeon who decided the head of one of the fountain sculptures was the perfect place to rest for a while. I love it when they do that.

 

We visited a fortress-mansion from way back when, the gothic cathedral, one of the monument houses by Gaudi, and several museums. However they either charged more than we were willing to pay to go inside or (in the case of the museums) they were closing as we reached them. So we took in a lot of the street life and tired ourselves out. For lunch we found a great Asian place called Wok to Walk.

We came back a little early, feeling a little flattened from our day (this was the moment that gelati happened again, as well as doughnuts and coffee) or as the French would say “je suis crevé.” Rachael was also having random stabbing pains in her temple so we figured that it would be better for her to lay down and repose. We wandered back toward the guesthouse and hung out for the rest of the evening, spending a good chunk of time on the rooftop terrace, which offered great views of the city. (Rachael will have to add pictures of that because I forgot my camera.) We’d passed a zoo earlier in the day that was literally right down the block from where we were staying, and due to our lack of expenses the premier day, we decided to spring for it. Woke up early the next day, packed up our things, had the beautiful breakfast, and we went to the zoo.

And it was good.

 It was a fairly large zoo, larger than we’d thought it would be as it was tucked right into the city. They had a huge collection of animals, including gorillas and monkeys of all kinds, big cats, birds, safari grazers, elephants and giraffes, and various pygmy varieties. You can view the whole list on the website:  http://www.zoobarcelona.com/en/home/our-animals/index.html

But I figured I could give you some of the more unique photos we managed to capture that the zoo probably won’t have.

Tapir and her baby!

The lion den, which happened to be right next to the tiger's enclosure. He did not seem pleased with that when we went by, pacing right by the fence behind the bushes.

This would be a derpy little antelope thing. We watched him try to eat that leaf for a good ten minutes, and if that is not the face of victory, I do not know what is.

This was a bird who really wanted to tell us all about life and the strange devices we were holding in our hands. He was a great angry model for us.

Rachael and I nearly had a heart attack with the hyenas. We came up by the fence but we didn't expect to see one about a foot away from us, because most of that side was covered in shrubbery for privacy. So we both had a "holy crap" moment before taking our opportunity to snap a picture.

This would be the derpy llama we saw who just seems pleased with life.

Rachael was about as pleased when we found the elephants

Another bird who seemed highly intrigued in the cameras.

And probably the most adorable sheepish expression ever. But sea lions are experts at these.

Another mama and her baby. It was baby season at the zoo!

Mexican Grey Wolves, there were about four of them I think in the enclosure

The hippo! He was the last one we saw on our way out of the zoo

We walked by the bear enclosure before, but they were not in these positions before. Sometimes life is too much when you're a bear and you need to hide your head and sleep. I feel ya bear.

We left the zoo around one, collected our bags, and walked toward the metro. By the time we got off the metro, it was around 1:45-1:50, but by the time we actually made it to the train platform we had just missed that one at 2 (those tunnels are much longer then they let on), so we had to wait until 2:30. But that was fine, because we actually accounted for all of the possible setbacks and our plain didn’t leave until 5:30. So we got on the train to the airport, took an airport shuttle to get to the right terminal, and then we waited around until our information showed up on the board. Sat down for a little bit at the gate, but after 20 minutes or so, they started loading the plane, so we hopped on and made our way back to Paris.

We landed sometime around 9 pm, and after a bit of confusion with finding the Orly bus that would take us from the Orly airport to the interior of Paris, and the intervention of a nice Parisian ticket salesman, we found our way again. From the bus we took the metro back to our respective homestays, thoroughly exhausted but glad to have made it in one piece. We had school the next morning and a bit of catching up to do, seeing as how we technically missed the first day of classes back from fall break. But that went smoothly and now at the time of writing this blog entry we’ve got a little over a month until our return to the states. Yay America! :D

 

Also, a bit of extra happiness for me: Parvatie, Madame Mella's kitty finally returned from her vacation in the country! She is so adorable and affectionate it's not even funny. Maybe a little. Mostly I just want to pet her all the time, but then her hair gets up my nose, I sneeze, and she darts away wondering what that awful noise was. And the cycle repeats. <3