Weekend in Barcelona

Well,

we arrived back from Sicilia very early monday morning, having just taken a 12 hour train ride back to Rome. That night of travel was followed by a very long day of travel and an equally long week of walking.

I'm sure I've mentioned it but I'll say it again. The program I'm in focuses on walks around the city. Rather than lectures in a classroom, we go to the actual sites we're learning about. Its a really cool system but it makes for extremely tiring days. Somehow, while in Sicily, I injured my foot. I say injured because I have NO IDEA whats wrong with it. It actually started in my left foot and then, I think because I was putting all my weight on my right, transfered to my right foot. It feels like I may have pulled a muscle in the top of my foot. Its very painful and not easy to walk. Let alone the fact that I look like a completely idiot. I have to walk with my butt kind of sticking out, with my left foot rotated out wards, and with a very heavy limp. Haha. I am relentlessly made fun of by my classmates. And I know some of you may be guessing that this casualty happened while I was intoxicated but thats far from the truth. It happened gradually and is getting worse. I know I should go and see a doctor but its a long process and I'm kind of just hoping it will go away. I am going on a run tomorrow (I can't bare to add another day to my 4 weeks of no working out) so we'll see how that goes....Probably not the best idea but oh well.

Anyway, now that you know the entire history of my foot injury, I'll tell you about the rest of my week. Like I said, we had about 16 hours of walking in 3 days. And on Friday afternoon, me and six girlfriends left for Barcelona. This friday was one of the few that we don't have design class until 5pm, so we took advantage and went away. We arrived in Barcelona at 5.30 pm and uneventfully found our way to the hostel. I was in charge of finding accommodation for this trip and I have to say that I did a pretty awesome job. We got a really clean (rare in hostels) private room on Las Ramblas for 13 euro a night per person. Not bad eh?

That night, we got ready for going out and began exploring the city. Within a few hours of being there, I knew that a weekend in Barcelona definitely wasn't enough. We got roped in to a pub crawl by a guy passing out flyers on the street. 3 pubs and 1 discoteca for 7.50 euro! Can't beat that. With ten minutes, we met two really cool Australian guys (gorgeous and with an accent) and roamed Barcelona with them for the rest of the night. Spanish night life starts and ends late. We began the pub crawl at 10.30pm and didn't fall into bed until 4am.

Somehow we managed to be out of the apartment by 10am the next morning and had a really full day of sigh seeing. For an architecture student, Barcelona is one of the many places you have to see before you die. Antonio Gaudi (a really outrageous architect from the 1900's) has several buildings there and we went to see them all. The most immpressive one was definitely Sagrada Familia. It has been under construction for over 100 years and is not projected to be ready until 2025. We walked around the unfinished cathedral for hours. We also managed to find a really short line for one of the elevators to the top of the towers. There is a bridge perched between them that you walk out on to and you have an incredible view of all of Barcelona. For a person with a fear of heights, like me, it was a mixture between pure torture and absolute awe. I stood up there to appreciate the view for as long as I could and ended up having to sprint down the tiny spiral staircase all the way to the ground floor. We also went to Casa Mila and Parc Guell. Both were really awesome.

By 6pm, I was ready to keel over. A combination of hangover, hurt foot, and lack of sleep made for a very interesting afternoon. I went back to the apartment for a nap while the other 5 girls went to another architectural site. It ended up being closed and I was really happy for not going. We all got ready for another night on the town. Didn't get to dinner until 10pm. It was Valentines Day so we all decided to treat ourselves to something nice. We ate at this restaurant that overlooked Las Ramblas. It was incredible food and actually not very expensive at all. We curtailed the price by drinking wine in the apartment before we went out and dinner was only about 25 euro per person. We are getting better at doing long meal times and ended up eating and drinking at the restaurant until 12.30 at night. At that point, all of us were falling asleep at the table. We crashed into bed around 1 am. An early night!

This morning we packed up our stuff and went to Starbucks for breakfast. There aren't any American chains in Roma and some of the girls were gagging for a larger than one sip coffee. We all sat with our pastries and coffee/tea and enjoyed conversation for about a half hour. At that point, one of us got up to get another coffee and was told that the man sitting behind me was about to mug me. Indeed, the man behind me was wearing a jacket with a hood on and was sitting about a foot from me, the jacket hanging on my chair, my backpack, and my purse. Stupidly, we thought we could get comfortable in a tourist trap like Starbucks. All of us gathered our things on our laps and continued to eat, scared that if we left, he would follow. It was then that we noticed an even scarier man sitting across the room staring at us while moving in on another group's stuff. Two of my friends felt it necessary to warn them before their stuff was stolen. She walked over and told them to keep their things on their laps. It must be said that the employees of Starbucks knew these men and we also walking around the restaurant telling people to watch their things. When my two friends returned to their seats, the man sitting behind me started SPITTING on them. Yes, spitting. We all jumped up within 10 seconds and sprinted out of the shop. I can honestly say that I have never been so genuinely terrified in my life. We will be keeping our belongings very close from now on.

We flew back in to Roma around 5pm. Got a cab back in to town and then headed to the studio to do some work. I left after three hours of building a ridiculous site model and went grocery shopping. Now I'm sitting in my apartment, about to go to bed after a long day and weekend. Hopefully I can get a hold of my parents, haven't spoken to them in at least 3 days. I'm going through withdrawals.

I hope everyone is well. Love you and miss you all.

Ash