THE FIRST 10 DAY TRIP! Going into this long trip, I had no idea what to expect. However, it turned out to be a lot of things that even in my non-expectations, I wouldn’t have seen coming.
BARCELONA: Our stay in Barcelona was roughly four days which was great because it gave us a significant amount of time to explore the city. We stayed right near La Sagrada Familia, a beautiful cathedral that is still in the making! We arrived late at night due to a late flight and a hefty commute from the airport to ou
r Airbnb and ended up eating dinner at 1 am. During our stay here, we spent a lot of time walking around the city and exploring local markets and shops. Some of the special experiences we planned were going in La Sagrada Familia and the Park de Guell. We also managed to find fun in the nightlife of Barcelona, despite the fact that its customary to stay out from 2 am until 5 am! My favorite night of going out was to the club, Opium, which is the premiere club in Barcelona. When we were there, I hung out primarily with some guys from the University of Chicago basketball team that were staying in Barcelona for the week! It was really fun and I now feel like I’m a fan of their team. They were also super cool and nice/protective because when I dropped my purse, they helped me find my wallet and phone and keys. (Sadly, I did lose 70 US dollars because I forgot it was in there). Then at the end of the night, they helped me find the friends that I had come with and wouldn’t leave me until they knew I was good to go. I forgot to mention that I got to use my Spanish here and my friends were impressed so that was cool.
LISBON: Our next excursion was to Lisbon, Portugal. Here, we found ourselves wanting to relax and explore the beach towns around the area. For three of the days we were there, we bounced around on the trains and spent time on some nice sandy beaches. Unfortunately for me, the beach towns did not accept card and I had no Euros so I had no towel which led to some pretty uncomfortable, sandy train trips home. Study abroad life is SO difficult (laugh laugh). We also roamed the Lisbon and Sintra areas, seeing castles and riding in Tuk Tuks! While in Sintra, I had my first little outburst of anger/sadness. I felt like a lot of that trip my plan ideas or requests were just disregarded. Especially when it comes to money, I tended to have a different idea of things and it was pretty frustrating because some people I was with just did not care at all that I wasn’t willing to drop stacks on a breakfast, lunch, and dinner every night. If I have to hear, “I just want good food” again in the context of passing a quality restaurant to eat a 5 star, $30 meal again, I may lose my mind. I also could see one of the girls who I was with being lowkey bullied in a sense that girls were rolling their eyes at her situation and requests and I had had enough of that. Sorry for that little rant, but that was just the low of my trip. Overall, I did have a great time and made some solid memories.
Caroline on the Euroline 