Last 3 days of Spring break

Chapter 6: Barcelona: Lots of seeing, but we never went in

Ariana is going to Unversity of Barcelona for the semester - taking classes in pure Spanish and living in a "residencia". Its 20 people in suites/singles with little shower rooms and house maid that cooks and cleans. But no visitors are allowed! So I became her little Anne Frank. Immediatly upon my arrival her house maid was making sweeps around the house so she put my stuff in the room and we began our day in BcN (I still havent changed or showerd since before the train ride to Milan at this point..told you it was the dirtiest day of my life).
Oh. And it was Easter. So everythign was closed. Still..as she explained the city's layout to me she explained Gaudi - who was a very very intersting and brilliant architect who sprinkled beauty around BCN. His designs feel like the piccasso version of architecture to me. I decided that after being uber-tourist in Italy, I wanted to be relaxed, local in BCN. We toured the city center with another cool church and all these windy streets with funky cafes and shops. We decided to stop in an offbeat Tapas restaurant and wound up hanging out there for like 2 hours. We split potatoes with spicy sauce and an omlettle bocadillo. I tried cafe con leche at the end and we just chatted and caught up. Finally as it got later, we snuck me back into her dorm, took a shower and got some much needed rest.
In the morning I was on hididng duty. Luckily Ariana's dormmates are really cool and dont like the residencia rules either and helped sneak me around. Because of the Easter holiday, there were so many tourists around Barca! We started off with a sushi buffet lunch..OMG soo cool and good..sushi and the like come by on a rolling tray (staright out of movies) in the center and you just take what you want. I tried diff sushi, ate fruit, salmon, fried veggies, all diff kinds of asian food. soo fantastic. Then we were off to do mini sight seeing. We saw the Sangrada Familia a very pretty castle/ church. It was the last thing Gaudi was working on but is still unfinished. I refused to go in alone since Ariana didnt really wanna pay to go in again..I'm so over churches anyway. Then we went to Parc Guell - a huge famously designed park in Bcn and took lots of goofy, non-touristy pics. haha. Our legs were still sore from the Cinque and the babiest of stairs were hard to take. I learned pretty quickly how to navigate the BCN bus/ train system..it goes so many places its very well organized. I can see why so many ppl like to study there - its very urban but friendly to Americans. The city is very clean and very organized. Its just kinda..easy. At night, I went to visit my friend Ari in his nice apt by the ocean and we caught for a while. Then we checked out a local BCN club and met up with some U of Iers downtown. Called it an early night for BcN standards (those siestas make everythign so late - dinner is at 9!)
My last day we ran into some trouble in the residencia. I always had to be super quite whenev we were hanging out in her dorm so her maid didnt suspect a visitor. But every day she takes out the trash. So she knocked to take out the trash while I was there! Luckily one of ARiana's dormmates were there too and I ran and hid UNDER HER DESK! I really was a little hidden girl. After the maid took out the trash we all burst out laughing.
The day was spent visiting Ariana's campus - very grand old fashioned Harry Potter styled buildings, flying kites on the Barceloneta beach, trying veggie paella, visiting Ari's campus which used to house prisoners and seeing the old 1880s World's Fair grounds followed by the Olympic's areas flags and the Arc de Triumph. We attempted to go to Gaudis very famous house to wach the sunset, but we missed the closing by 10 minutes :( AT nighttime I met up wiht even more Uof Iers who I was soo happy to see! Imagine 3 months wihtout seeing anyone..they were so surprised and happy to see me. BCN clubs are very funny..while techno music plays, they have these violin players come out on stages and rock out. Everyone goes crazy...as if they were pole dancers..but theyre just playing the violin. Its very funny.

Chapter 7: the Return
My flight to TLV (connecting in Rome) left at 5 so by 3 am I gave Ariana a very sad and rushed goodbye and hopped on a night bus; collected my bags and was off. My layover in Rome sucked!
First of all, obviously I was exhausted. The Roman airport IS cool and there is soo much shopping! Like Lamborghini, Gucci and other designer stores just right in the airport. I had lots of fun going through the tourist shops looking at shotglasses, calendars and other memorablia. THEN our flight was delayed. For like 40 minutes while we waited in an awful gate with no seats. AND they changed the airplane so our seats were invalid and it was a "free for all" seating..awkward. Since they got a bigger plane (cuz the other one wasnt worrking, freaky) you could just sit anywhere. Uh this isnt a cheap flight! Whatever, I secured a window seat and all was ok.
However, by the time I got back I had forgotten that it was the last day of Passover and therefore a holy day and therefore no public transportation. Cabs were trying to charge an extra 20 shex for the holiday which I didnt want to pay and I just wandered around really lost on what to do. My exhaustion was totally breaking me down. Finally 2 nice Americans returning from Istanbul were going to Ramat Aviv cuz they were med students and said I got hitch a ride. Thank goodness people in Israel are so nice! That made everything better.
Finally I was home and ready to see what Israel had in store for the next 6 weeks

:)

Amaazing break..had so much fun and was so happy to see freinds from home! Though even better was the reunoin with TLV kids...more cooming soon. Sorry its taken soo long!