Barcelona, Spain, December 2007, Day 3

The next morning I got up early (at 8) took a shower and went to the Aquarium. To get there I had to cross the bridge in the harbour. The area overthere was very nice. It had a nice shoppingcentre and it took my quite a while to get across the bridge since it was so pretty there! I took a lot of pictures of the harbour and the boats as u can see. It was still very quiet everywhere because it was early so everything was very peaceful. I sat on the bridge for a while and after that I went to see the stores at the shopping centre. At around 10.00 I went to the Aquarium. There was a school there at the time so the place was very crowded with kids who were all very excited (Read: LOUD) But still it was very nice. I saw some very funny animals I had never seen before.

Like the ones u can see on the pictures. The Leafy SeaDragon and the Weedy SeaDragon. They were just mutated SeaDragons who had adapted to their environment like Cameleons. They were so fascinating to look at! I stayed at the Aquarium untill around 12.00 and then I had to go Plaza de Catalunya because I was meeting up with Ted for lunch at 12.30. It wasn’t that easy since the bridge was open because the Museum Boat had to go trough. The bridge system was very funny. One half of the bridge just stayed in place so all the people where standing on it, the other half just moved back and forth to let the ships pass. It was very funny to see.

 

I met up with Ted on the same spot as the first time.

We went to a real nice place to have lunch. He told me it was a pretty populair place wich I completely understood. It looked really nice and the food was great. By the time we were almost done with lunch there was a big line of people waiting to have lunch there. We had a plate with different kinds of tapas and also had desserts after that. After a nice lunch Ted took me to see the university wich was really pretty! Like I told him: It was very Hogwarts :) I really liked it! If my school looked like that it would be more interesting for me to go! It was a very pretty old building. There were several courtyards wich looked so beautiful in the sunlight. I really loved the orange trees in the courtyard. Ted told me about those trees and that the oranges were just for decoration and could not be eaten. I didn't even know u had oranges that were just for decoration! I thought an orange was just an orange! Ted had planned to study some in the afternoon but that plan just failed pretty much. . Haha. He showed me a very nice library wich used to be a hospital. It was a great place! Very calm and and pretty! It was nice to see the old pictures from the time it was still used as a hospital! After that we did some more sightseeing and just had a great time. He took me to all these pretty places wich I would've never seen otherwise. Everything was so pretty and interesting to me! All the things he showed me were pretty close to the citycentre but when I was walking around in the area it seemed like we were a long way from the busy citycentre!

After seeing that area we went back to the centre and walked around some more. Then we saw a synagoge and we went over to see it. The guy who was working there was really friendly and told us everything about the history of the synagoge.

After a very serious conversation Ted and the guy started talking about the US and about music from the US. This part was so funny to me. I can't really explain why but just trust me.. It was funny! All I thought was.. We're standing in a Synagoge talking about how in history the Jewish people were treated so unfair and the next thing I heard the guy say was " BritPop sucks" and I had no clue about how we had gotten to that point. And talking about the political ideas of ZZ Top and how Ted did not about them since he "Didn't ask". When we left the synagoge Ted said: Well that was unexpected. Wich was a huge understatement really..

On the way back to Ted's metrostation we saw a church that was also very pretty. This third day I just saw the most amazing buildings! It was already getting pretty late, so after that we said goodbye.

I had a really great time with Ted and I hope to see him again!

 

I went back to the hostel and packed my bag. I didn't know what to do next. I could stay up and wait untill 2/3 wich was the time I had to take a taxi to the busstation. I had to be at the busstation at 3.30 to catch the bus back to Girona Airport and from there catch my flight of 6.20 back to the Netherlands, or I could try and sleep some. I tried that first, but that just didn't work out. I still had too much energy left. I went downstairs with my music and my notebook and found X sitting at the reception.

I sat with him during the rest of his shift and we just talked about pretty much everything! We talked about his country and about my country and we had a lot of fun. He asked me if I wanted to get a drink after his shift ended and since I had to stay up anyway I decided to go with him. Before that a girl arrived at the hostel. I felt so sorry for her, her name was Ludovica and she was just the nicest person! She was from Rome and had missed her flight back to Rome. She was just sitting somewhere in the street crying and some spanish guy helped her out and brought her to the hostel. She had already arranged to book a flight for the next morning and was in need of a place to stay for the night. She was really cool and we exchanged e-mail adressess. X was done with work at 11 and he went home for a bit and came to pick me up later. In the meantime I talked to Kumar who had to work the next shift. He was from Nepal and since I learned a lot about Nepal in the days before we just talked about his country and I learned a lot from him. After X came to pick me up we went to a really nice place. Im soooo glad he took me to this place. It was a real spanish place and there was no music by cd players or other equipment but just 2 guys and their guitars making music. All the people at the bar were just singing and dancing. It was such a happy sight! I loved it! I also had a great time with X he is just the coolest person. Time just went too fast at that point I must say. We headed back to the hostel around 2 since I had to get my stuff and take a taxi to the busstation. I met a guy from the Netherlands at the hostel and he was soooo funny hahaha unbelievable. It was nice to hear some Dutch :) I also talked with a girl from Israel and she was really cool too. So u can say that in the last moments there I met some really cool people and at that point I just didn't want to leave :( I went up to my room to get my bag and Ludovica was now in that room that made it even worse to leave! I said goodbye to her and after that I had to say goodbye to X since my taxi was already there!!! That was not very cool :( . .but Shit happens.. I will visit Ludovica in Rome for sure.. and I am at all not worried about not seeing X again. I am very sure I will! I got in the taxi who brought me to the bus. As soon as I found a place in the bus it started driving so I was just in time. It actually left early so it was a good thing I went there a little earlier then I was supposed to. I wondered how many people had missed that bus because of the early departure!

After 1 hour I arrived at the airport. From there it was just very hard for me to stay awake! I was soooo tired but I had to stay awake otherwise I would miss my flight or something like that! I arrived back in the Netherlands at 8.40 and I was so happy to see my father at the airport waiting for me.

I managed to stay awake untill we got home but after that I just fell asleep immediatley. I didn't even sent my teacher an e-mail saying I would not be there. Normally he is very easy with stuff like that as long as u let him know about it. Luckily he didn't say anything about it afterwards. I woke up at 14.00, just in time to go to work :) So the conclusion is: I had a great time and learned that travelling on ur own is not that bad. I made a lot of new friends and can't wait to meet them all again! Barcelona is a great city!!