I thought things couldn´t get any worse about 5 hours ago. I called my parents freaking out, freaking out about who knows what? Nothing I was saying was even making sense and I definitely was letting my emotions take control of me in the wrong way. All I can say is thanks mom and dad (and Nicole cuz i´m sure you would have helped if you were at the office with them at the time). You really talked to some sense into me.
After my nervous freakout breakdown attack, I realized that things are ok. They are just ok. And maybe I´m superready to come home and be normal again, but I took a long walk and I´m seeing some things that, of course, I´m going to miss about Pamplona. That´s just inevitable. I don´t know if you can go anywhere and not take part of it home with you... and not have some regrets... and not have some things that you miss. That would just be impossible. So maybe I have been sitting here mourning my lonliness and frustrations a bit too much. I look at my overall outlook at this experience as positive. Of course, there have been times when I think I could not be more unhappy if I tried. And there have been times when I want to cry out of joy because I realize that life is just so amazing. There has been a huge range of emotions. Just because I have been going crazy lately DOES NOT mean that I am not glad I came. Times get tough, and I gotta get goin. I just have to be reminded of that every once in a while. So thanks to all you folks who have been there for me this whole time. It means the world to me.
Now that my mind is more clear, I can talk about my day and my weekend trip that I have been meaning to write about but have not had the concentration for.
Today: woke up super-early to resume studying for my exam that I had. The exam went well and I had my last dialectologia (bilingualism) class this morning where we reviewed for the exam. I need to study a bit, but I think I´ll be alright. I ate some lunch, felt bloated again and was a bit unhappy. So I get home, ready to hurl some serious weights across the room. I can´t tell you what I was even thinking. It was too much hurt and fear and frustration and stress and everything combined. So that´s where the phone call to the parents came in, and then it was all ok.
I went to the eye doctor for the last time... kinda sad... they know me by name easy by now and even smile at my little spanish faux-paus (can´t spell that) and comfort me in their little spanish ways (¨hombre claro¨ y ¨no te preocupes, no es nada¨). They made this appointment free... the doctor said the inflamation is almost non-existent once again (but who knows what will happen within a week, this has happened before and i don´t wanna get my hopes up)... and they gave me a little note to give to the english-speaking doctors when i get home. it was pleasant, and i survived without any professors by my side.
after, I walked through three of the parks in pamplona. i wanted to get some pictures to remember them by. first the tacoñera - it´s like a little zoo with birds and antelopes just sitting there and it´s freakin weird and pretty amazing. there´s a great view over the city and a fun playground that i climbed and some nice little mazes. next was yamaguchi, a park with a nice pond that didn´t excite me too much cuz it isn´t a place i frequent. i ended my park tour with the ciudadela, my favorite park of all. i have spent some major time walking around there and trying to run on the uneven ground and mosquito-filled paths. it´s wonderful... shaped like a star, lots of history there cuz it was built for defensive purposes back in the day. i like it a lot. i´m gonna miss my ciudadela.. it´s by my house and it´s always full of people.
i decided to buy a spanish tour guide book of the u.s. to give to my host family. it´s hard to pick out a gift that the whole family will like, but here´s my philosophy. they have tour guides of all these places in spain and seem to collect them. they are really interested in other cultures and places. and i´m gonna highlight and write little notes in it about the places in ohio that i will take them if they ever visit and tell them they will always have someone to stay with if they ever want to come. i´m gonna make it personal. they will never come visit, but it´s a nice thought, right?
then i went shopping at the corte ingles, the upscale wal-mart here. it´s pretty much the same and the exact opposite of wal-mart. all the main cities in spain have one and it´s huge. it has everything you could possibly want. however, it´s very different from wal-mart cuz it´s really super expensive and carries all this designer stuff. it´s fun to look around though. i found a cute blousy dress and a fun shirt but i couldn´t convince myself to by them. i have enough clothes and i just can´t seem to splurge.. even if it´s only a $30 splurge. i did buy a sweet pair of tights because tights are the coolest thing ever in spain and i´m bringing it back. they don´t wear them like they do in the states... you will all just have to wait and see how they do it when i bring them back... but i will probably be the only american freak trying to act like a spaniard. heh. i got more gifts to bring back home, and this concludes my search for gifts!! finally! i felt like it would never end.
i´m home now, transferring all the cd´s of amaia that i like to bring back home.
time to describe the weekend.
Game plan was bus rides all the way-
*Pamplona-Barcelona (Thursday night 1:30 am - Friday morn 6:00 am)
*Barcelona-Girona (Friday morn 8 am - Friday morn 10:30)
*Girona-Figueres (Friday night 11 pm - Friday night 11:30 pm.. ended up being 8-8:30 pm)
*Figueres-Roses (Saturday 2 pm - Saturday 2:30 pm)
*Roses-Barcelona (Saturday 4 pm - Saturday 6:30 pm)
*Barcelona-Pamplona (Sunday 8 am - Sunday 2 pm)
It all happened, don´t ask me how because catching that many buses and figuring out that many tickets and bus stations and changes and waking up early and going to sleep late and being crazy tourists... that´s a rough combination, I´ll tell you. I have never been so exhausted! And adventurous.
Here´s justification for the trip, we wanted to get to Girona to see The Call and the charming river that the city is on. We had to get to Barcelona to get there. We had to go to Figueres to see the Salvador Dalí Museum, the second most famous in Spain, which came highly regarded by Aunt Fran and Sanford. We then had to see a city on the Costa Brava, supposedly the most beautiful coast of Spain because we were so close to it! So we searched for hours and found bus schedules that would fit.
So, we get to Barcelona, tired as always because, of course, it is casi (almost) impossible to sleep on the night bus. We catch our bus to Girona. Girona is bonita bonita bonita. A beautiful city. The river runs right through the middle, all the buildings and houses are along the river, and it´s a sight to see. It´s a cute little town, but the most fascinating part was The Call. It´s a section of the city that had a significant Jewish population back in the day, and they have presevered the long and winding streets and staircases. We checked out the museum and it was great. I learned so much about the history, something I felt was mine. After all the trips to churches and cathedrals, it was a nice little switch-a-roo and a nice change.
We spent the rest of the day shopping around, found an amazing Irish pub/cafe that reminded me of the Donkey and it make me super-happy. They served our hot chocolate in these steaming huge vase glasses and there were english books and even board games. I felt like I was at home and it was a good feeling, even though i was in the midst of a great trip. We eventually had to say goodbye to our beloved Girona and head to Figueres.
It was late by the time we arrived, so we checked into our hotel (50 bucks a night! woo-wee with free breakfast!) and it was heaven. After hostels and night buses, a hotel is the sweetest thing ever. I think I slept better than I have in 3 months, seriously. We got dinner at the restaurant owned by the hotel and it was fabulous! It was a little homey place with just two old spanish men and we had the whole place to ourself. It was pretty empty in the city that night. We got a big plate of pasta (yea, we are so spanish, huh?) but we can justify it by the fact that we ordered a small pitcher of sangria and that was spanish of us. Yum yum yum. We got strawberries for dessert and it was expensive but what do we care? We are only in Figueres once. We then slept our wonderful hotel sleep.
We woke up early to get to the Dalí museum, and boy oh boy, it was worth the trip. There were 22 rooms, all filled with different types of his work. The man is incredible, not one period of his art looks a thing like the last. Everything is distinct. The museum was genious... arranged in a maze of three floors, different types of his art at every corner, paintings on the ceilings, just so much to see. It was packed full of French kids and hard to move around, but it was just fantastic. We loved it.
Sadly, we then had to leave the city. There isn´t much else there, so it was ok. We made it to Roses in time for lunch and walked around trying to find the main bus station so we knew where to go to catch the next bus to Barcelona. A random man on the street helped us out and it´s just crazy. People here are so helpful and we made it around all these cities with maps (and sometimes without maps) and just the help of people. We made our way to the beach, gorgeous, lined with palm trees and hotels, little cafes and restaurants with patios, the whole vacation scene. It isn´t known to be the best on the costa brava, but it was the only one we could squeeze into our trip. We finally found a cafe to order bocadillas (long sandwiches) and went to the beach to eat them. It might have possibly been the windiest day of they year and we nearly got blown into the water and had several thousand pounds of sand in our ears by the time we left. But I don´t regret that trip. We had to see the beach while we had the chance. I have been to three beaches in three months. That´s gotta be a record, I think.
We left, headed back to Barcelona, the city of life. I love that city. Not as much as Granada, but it´s different. It´s the crazy city and Granada is the peaceful city. We checked into our hostel (seventeen thousand times superior to the last one we stayed at) and met some crazy american kids. Practically the whole hostel was American and it was pretty interesting. The owner joked that the only American left to come was Bush. And we almost puked at the thought of it.
So we went out for our night on the town, our last night in Barcelona (though I hope to be back there at some point in my life because it´s just the sweetest thing ever). We got another delicious dinner and headed off to find a bar. Everywhere was packed because there was a Barcelona-Madrid game on tv. We just walked around the city and got to know it once again and loved it more and more. It was just bursting full of people, full of life, full of energy. I got some gelato. Then we found a bar. We walked in, eventually got seats at the bar and that´s when the fun began. You see, we decided to try something other than sangria because it was a bit costly at that bar. We got mojitos. I didn´t know what a mojito was, but I guess Kristen did. I don´t even like mint or lime, so what was I thinking? Just trust the underage american girl to go to a bar and get some kinda crazy drink. We got the bill for the drinks, 8 euro a piece. 10 dollars for a drink! i almost peed myself. so we sat there for a half hour trying to justify how we could possibly spend 10 dollars on a drink. and we came up with a few things... it´s our last weekend trip and our last real night out in spain... we´re being classy and sipping on a sophisticated drink at a sophisticated bar... we only did this once... we haven´t really drank much since we got to spain... and it went on and on.
then we met the bachelor party. and this made it all worthwhile. you see, it was a bachelor party for a british 30 year old, and his friends were from ireland and scotland and all over. we ended up cracking up while talking to them all night. it wasn´t like a ¨hi i´m a creepy old man trying to pick you up¨ thing. they were having a good old time celebrating the party in barcelona, we were trying to understand their fun terminology that they were teaching us (bollocks, etc.) and they just kept telling us how much they loved the united states. and we kept saying how it´s crazy that they can just take a cheap weekend trip to barcelona to celebrate a bachelor´s party! i don´t know if i have laughed so hard or met anyone so funny in spain. and they bought us more mojitos (oh geez).
the bachelor party eventually left, and the bar was closing. the bartenders struck up a conversation with us (and kristen was obsessed and still is obsessed with pablo, the sexy argentinian bartender). we were enjoying practicing our spanish skills for a change (after all that english speaking with the bachelor party ha) and kristen was enjoying staring at pablo´s mohawk. they gave us free shots. then we left back for our hostel. it was a pretty fun night. i guess i can´t regret the two hours of sleep i had to go on for the rest of the day.
we headed back to pamplona in the morning, and there you go. my weekend. the last weekend of travel, and i can´t say i held back. 4 cities in 3 days is pretty darn good.
thats the story, that´s all there is.
4 more days in Spain. is life crazy or what?
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