WHERE'S ALYSSA?

I just came back from my weekend in Paris and thought to, “Ok, so that’s what the fuss is about”. Paris was amazing.  The commute was a little long, but we finally got to our hostel which was near the Moulin Rouge in Paris. I soon learned this was the “ghetto” area of Paris. The area was really dirty and full of sex shops, but you have to laugh and realize it’s the fun of traveling as a backpacker. We were waiting for another friend to arrive so we found a local café near our hostel to get some French food. Although I heard the French don’t like Americans, our waiter was maybe even a little too happy to serve American girls. None the less we had croque misour and crepes. YUM! I could of sat in that little café and munched on French food all day. But being good tourists e than made our way over to the Louvre, and we took a guided tour. Everyone always says the Louvre is so big you can get lost in it. Now I know exactly what there talking about, the Louvre is gigantic, but it is oh so beautiful. The guide took us to see the most famous sights. If I did not have the guide there is no doubt that I would off gotten completely lost. I got to see the Mona Lisa, which was really exiting. People were surronding the painting and taking pictures, some had there own pastels and were drawing the painting. After we walked to the Arc de Triomf and climbed the many stairs to the top. From the top I got my first view of the Eiffel Tower. The phrase “breath-taking” I can fully understand now, but it is the only way I can describe seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time, was that when I first saw the view of all of Paris I might have stopped breathing for a few moments. The view from the top of the Arc de Triomf was great I could see over all the streets and the parisians strolling around. We walked around and had a French dinner under the Eiffel tower. I had Escargo and I surprisingly really liked it. I could not get enough of strolling the streets of Pari and just taking in the amazing atmosphere, what a city.

The next morning I had breakfest at my hostel and it was so yummy, as many croissants as I wanted and coffee. You cannot get fresh croissants anywhere else that taste like this. The bread is so fresh and when you bite into a croissant it melts in your mouth. I went to sarahs hotel and it was soooo good to see her. It had been almost three months! Sarah, Steve and I went and walked around the parc around the Eiffel tower and took some great great pictures. We walked around the outside Louvre and over the siene river. This is the best part of Paris; just walking around and just taking in the beautiful city. We walked over the bridge of locks. This place was really special and I don’t think I would of found it if it hadn’t been for a friend who recommended it. All along the bridge are million of locks with peoples names on it. Couples write there names on a lock, lock there lock on the bridge, than throw there keys into the water, locking there love forever. We spent the rest of the day taking the double decker all around Paris so we could just see everything. We had the whole top of the bus to ourselves and we just had the best time with the crazy driver throwing us all around the top the bus, falling everywhere but getting to see all of Paris. After at night we took the Siene river although a bit chili it was so beautiful. We got to see many bridges and the view of the Eiffel Tower was incredible. So pari! Later that night I went out to a bar called Café Oz and I met a lot of local Parisians who were supper friendly unlike there reputation. From the bar there was a view of the Moulin Rouge, and I could not help thinking but how cool is this im at a bar drinking with Parisians looking at the Moulin Rouge!

My last day in Paris; Sarah, Steve, and I went to Versailles. Unfortunatly we become extremely lost for 2 hours and ended up at the same metro stop three times. Eventually we found it and it was gorgeous! The mansions were huge and covered with gold. We were lucky enough to be in Paris the first Sunday of the month so every museum was free. We also went to the D’Orsay and I got to see some beautiful Monet and Degas. Before my departure I had to sit in a café and have crème brulee just one last time.

Although sad to leave Paris, I always am happy to come back to my home in Barcelona. I was lucky enough to have Sarah and Steve come to Barcelona for the next few days and it felt great to be able to show them around and to also see some of the main attractions again. Sometimes when you live in a city you could walk past the same thing everyday so its nice when you have someone to remind you how special it is. I also tried some food ive been wanting to but waiting for the occasion like gofres. Gofres is every womens dream; it’s a waffle drenched in chocolate sauce with ice cream.

This weekend I went to a really fun bar called Le Cryanos in English it translates to the black out bar. At this bar you pay only four euros and tell the bar tender what type of alcohol you want, the bartender than hands you the bottle and you fill up your drink with as much alcohol as you want. The bar was filled with students from all over the world. I also tried a new place on loco lunes called Apolo. This club plays all old rock and was the “underground” place of Barcelona. The place was really cool and fun, it was entertaining to see Spanish people hum along to the songs but they had no idea what there actually saying. I just cant get enough of Barcelona everyday is something new, theres always a new place to go and another neighborhood to explore. Even with all my time here I don’t think I would ever run out of surprises in this city.

I cannot believe I’ve almost been here for almost two months it feels as if no time has passed but everyday I fall more in love with the city. Since ive been here I have noticed differences within myself, ive become more of a “city girl”. I really enjoy walking and taking the metro everywhere (even though I get lost a lot). The city is getting warmer its about 70 degrees during the day here. The warmer it gets the more packed it seems the city is. Everyone sits outside and the beaches are pretty packed. Some people swim most just lie out on a blanket and read. There is also “the naked man” as my friends and I call him that is ALWAYS at the beach. Apparently his story is that he is protesting that Barcelona made certain areas of the beach areas were you cannot be naked. So the naked man, who is really old and fat, strolls around completely naked in and out of the water. The other day he stood and watched a volley ball game. I’ve also become street smart literally because I am learning what streets to avoiding at certain times and the cab drivers no longer try to rip me off by driving in circles (happened a lot the first few weeks here). My Spanish is slowly improving; I realize I can understand more and more everyday. I am finally getting the hang of grocery shopping and reading a menu in Spanish. Although the other day my roommate and I saw tacos on the menu and were exited, while we were waiting for them they brought over blocks of cheese. When I asked where our tacos were after a little while, they explained that tacos are blocks of cheese. Oh well!

This past week was Carnival in Sitges. Sitges is a small village on the beach about thirty minutes from Barcelona. Carnival is a huge party right before Lent so before everyone gives up something than can get out all there fun. My friends and I dressed up really crazy. I had rainbow wings, a feather red boa, and crazy colorful make up. We booked a bus to and from Sitges that was inexpensive and included free Sangria. When we got to Sitges a felt as if I was in a movie. The city itself is small but pretty, all cobblestone, and small little streets. Imagine an entire city throwing a huge party and everyone is invited and everyone is in a crazy colorful costume; than you should get idea of what Carnival at Sitges is like. The streets were so packed of people it was like a colorful Halloween, everyone was in costume. We walked up to the strip by the beach to watch the parade. This parade was different than any other parade I have ever seen before. It was kind of like an x-rated Halloween parade. Every float had some different theme but everyone on the float was um wasted, they all had drinks and cigarettes in there hand you could not help but laugh because the people in the floats just want to party too. As the night continued on so did the fiesta. Anywhere you walked was a party. The streets were just packed with fun and dancing and drinking. My friends and I stayed really late until it got a little too wild and than we realized it was time to go at about 4 a.m. The night was one of the craziest ever, but the Resaca or hangover the next day was not fun!

The next few nights my roommates family was here so we spent some time with them showed them around the city, and took her brothers out to see the fun night life of Barcelona which they loved but come on, how could you not. On Saturday I went to the Spanish flea market. It was huge and packed! There were many stands and lot of really interesting things and also a lot of people selling their junk. What I did notice about the “junk” was it was really really old, like things that looked like they were from hundreds of years ago. I think that the Spanish take over the homes of the elders and probably own things that date back to hundreds of years ago. I did find some pretty vintage jewelry and some Spanish fans. I later went to this hole in the wall place I would of never noticed if my friend did not know about it. It was an Argentian place, and everything was made form scratch. I had an empanada and ravioli. Just writing about it makes my mouth water it was so delicious. It was also very cheap so defiantly a place I will visit again, the hole in the places seem to always be the best. Later that night I went to a salsa bar called “Mojitos”. In this bar there were people of all different ages and they really new how to salsa. At first I watched and than we someone asked me to dance I told him I didn’t know how to salsa, and he taught me. Salsa is sooooo much fun and is actually a lot of easier than I thought. We salsaed the night away. The past few days I have had midterms so I spent a lot of studying. Studying in a city vs. a college is much different. There are many more places to study but it is a lot louder. I spent some time studying at the beach, but my favorite is a new café my friend showed me a few streets from my apartment. Its open till three am and has wifi, perfect. I really like this café it’s not busy, but it had a steady flow of customers throughout the night. The people that work there are really friendly and asked a lot of questions. What I like the most about the cafes here is that I sat at the same table for about three hours or so, only bought one coffee, and they were more than happy that I was there. I think part of it is that the waiters here don’t get tipped so it’s not as important so get another table, but more it’s the culture. The people here are just so much more relaxed and they take there time. Sitting in a café for a few hoursa felt like a European. The best thing happened this morning; I have been getting coffee at the café next to my apartment every now and than. But this morning when I came in and sat down they already knew my order. For me this is exactly what I wanted, to be somewhat of a local (or maybe someone who drinks to much coffee).

It has been a crazy past two weeks! The week after London went by so quick and than I was in Amsterdam! I cannot believe I have almost been in Barcelona for six weeks. A little recap the Sunday we got back we got to watch the super bowl at an Irish-American bar. The next night my roommates and I went out for Loco Lunes. Loco Lunes is a huge night in Barca, every club has some kind of event every Monday night. Why a Monday night? No idea but it is really fun! The few nights I got some rest and got ready for my trip to Amsterdam. This time it was just myself and my roommate Lindsay who went. The flight was really short and the Dutch women next to me on airline gave me plenty of suggestions of what to eat when we got there.

            When we finally got to our hostel at 2 A.M., I was so tired, but we got out of the cab and across the street there were prostitutes in the window. I thought, “Wow I can not believe I am actually Amsterdam! It is a little surreal to go to the places you have seen in movies your whole life and than to actually be there. The next morning we woke up early, the city was VERY cold. We ate a Dutch breakfast, which was toast, ham, cheese, and a fried egg on top yum! The owner of the restaurant was very nice and sat down with us with a map and showed us where everything was. Amsterdam is a really small city and you can pretty much walk everywhere. The morning we went on a walking tour. Our tour guide was great, she started of the tour with giving us a brief history of Amsterdam, explaining how the city was built on water. While we were walking I noticed the architecture, all of the buildings kind of fall onto each other and are very crooked. Also all of the canals were frozen over and people where walking on them. Our tour guide than took us to the famous red light district. Even at eleven in the morning a lot of prostitutes had already started there day. Our tour guide warned us not to take pictures of the girls because they will come out and throw pee in your face. Our tour guide explained to us how the whole prostitution thing works and the whole Dutch ideology behind it. So pretty much prostituting is these women’s full time job, there are day cares set up around the red light district. Pimping is illegal. So the women rent the window and the room for about an eight-hour shift. They charge 50 Euros for 15 minutes. The reason this is legal is because after World War II, to deal with the devastation and they put policies in place to make Amsterdam a place where everyone would want to come visit. What I like about the Dutch is they kind of had the attitude that if it doesn’t hurt anyone its okay. It is also supposed to be anonymous, both the worker and the client.  Also very interesting was there is a church right in the center of Amsterdam. Kind of an oxymoron, but everyone can repent before they leave. We continued our walk and learned of the devastation of WW II on Amsterdam and what happened to the Jewish community there, it was very sad. We walked through the old Jewish quarters and ended at the Anne Frank house. Going inside the Anne Frank house was very sad but interesting. I had read the book many times and to actually be there was surreal. The museum is set up very well. You go behind the staircase and climb up into the attic just as Anne did.

            After an informative afternoon, we went to walk on the frozen canals. All of the Dutch were out on the ice, ice-skating and walking around. While walking I accidently slipped in a crack in the ice, the Dutch laughed “like I should of known better”, but helped me step out. All of the Dutch speak English and are extremely friendly. We than went to the Erotic museum which was amusing. I learned that John Lennon drew some “interesting” pictures in his career. After we went to a pub were we met people from all over and we got to walk through the red light district at night which is wild! Every section of the street had its own “genre” of women, there were all different shapes, colors, sizes, and um genders?

            The next day we walked to the Heineken Factory that was kind of far but it was the most beautiful walk. I’m not going to lie, when I first thought of Amsterdam, a beautiful city is not what came to my mind, but more “a city of sin”. Boy was I wrong. Amsterdam is so beautiful especially in the winter. How could it not be its built all on canals that were frozen and snow covered. The city is so old and I love the imperfections in the architecture. The Heineken factory was really fun and we got to brew beer. Than after you get free Heineken at the bar downstairs, I am not a huge beer person but it was really good! The rest of the day we dedicated to walking around shopping, and eating Dutch food. If I could bring one thing home it would be Dutch cheese, it was amazing! We also tried Dutch pancakes, and Dutch croquettes, which were my favorite. I really enjoyed walking around the city it was very overcrowded in the best way. EVERYONE travels by bike there, when you hear a bicycle bell its sounds cute and friendly but it really means get out of the way before I run you over with my bike. We got some hot chocolate it tasted a little different there but it was really good, even on the frozen ice people had set up stands with hot chocolate. That night we went to another pub and ran into a “stag” party, which is what they call a bachelor party in Ireland. They were all Irish and really crazy! The next day we had to head back and I really wish I had more time there. Amsterdam is defiantly a city I would make a second trip to J.

This past week in Barcelona was great. It has been getting pretty warm outside and I have been able to walk a lot more and see a lot more of the city. After a really crazy week my roommate and I had a pretty relaxing week, catching up with schoolwork. I joined a Spanish gym, which is a little different. I think next week I’m going to take a yoga class in Spanish, so well see how that goes! It was a good thing we rested because we had a crazy weekend. On Thursday my Spanish class went to the market instead of class to practice using some of the Spanish we have learned. After everyone from my class went to the bar to get Sangria, only in Spain! We all ended up missing our next class but we had a really good time. I like how the bars are always busy no matter what time of day. Later that night we all decided to meet up at a bar called Chupitos. The bar was really cool with over 200 different kinds of shots. The place is really loud and the bartenders will not tell you what’s in the shots so don’t bother asking. I had one shot called a Georgia, where the bartender told me to dip my thumb in the shot and than she preceded to set my thumb on fire and than put my thumb in my mouth to put out the fire. There were a lot of really fun shots like that, one is called a Monika Lewinsky, it is too x-rated to discuss but you could look it up for yourself if you really want! My roommate’s friends from Grenada were here so we took them to Sutton, the number one club in Barcelona. This time it was all locals and the music was all-Spanish. Barcelona is a very metro-Politian city so if you want to its very easy to live in “American Bubble”. My goal for the reminder of my time here is try to do more local things and try to find some locals to hang out with! A lot of locals don’t like to hang out with Americans but were tourists and it’s not cool, but hopefully I will be able to show them that not all Americans are bad!

On Thursday there was a possible threat of a little bit of snow in Barcelona which is unusual, so the metros shut down and all of my classes were cancelled… got to love the lazy Spanish. It actually worked out perfectly because it gave my roommates and I plenty of time to pack for London. I went with two of my roommates; Ana and Lindsay. Going on to this airplane was a new experience, the plane was extremely inexpensive, and there was a bus that took you right to the front of the airplane. The airline is called RYANAIR and is famous for students to fly very cheap. Unfortunately someone passed out on the bus, which caused a little panic and a delay, but soon we were on our way to London. Once we got to London we took a bus than a taxi to our hostel. The taxi was really cool, an old fashioned car from the 1940’s. It was very weird for everything to be English. I was also not used to how polite and mannered everyone was compared to Spain! This was my first hostel experience and boy was I in for a surprise. When we checked in and got to our room my first words were “Oh, my gd”. We were staying in a twenty-four-person co-ed room. They were kind of like bunk beds expect three beds were stacked. At that point my two roommates and I were exhausted and passed out. There was least a curtain around my bed.

When I woke up I found a half naked Australian man in the bed across saying “Good Morning!” and than I met an Argentinean couple that were sleeping underneath me. We all went for breakfast in the hostel, which was free. The place was packed! I sat at a table with people from Holland, Canada, Scotland, and Australia. Everyone was really interesting and very nice, we all talked for a while about where we were going that day, and I received plenty of recommendations of where to go. The half-naked Australian guy whose name is Stephen, actually was a huge help because he had been to London a few times before so he showed us the ropes. First we went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. Walking around London I felt like the little girl in the parent trap seeing the beautiful streets in London for the first time. It was a little hard to believe the sights ive seen in movies and have seen royalty on TV in these places and being there. I almost laughed a little when I saw the guards. They’re really funny looking with the big furry hats. But boy was London cold; I now understand why they were them. We watched the ceremony as the new guards came and the other guards could end their shifts. The ceremony was fun to watch they had a routine that was executed perfectly. I really like how traditional it was. I don’t think you could see that anywhere else in the world.

We than went to the tower of London. This place was amazing! It was built in 1076, and the castles were incredible. It’s amazing to see things this old when the US is only a few hundred years old. We spent most of the day there, so much to see. There were different towers that had different history and a lot of history of violence! We saw a torture chamber, and the crown jewels that were the most ornate, decorative pieces ive ever seen in my life, talk about bling bling. The governor still lives there, and there were a lot of guards so we took plenty of pictures with them until we got in trouble! We then crossed the London Bridge and went to the London Dungeons. The London Dungeons I think were my favorite part, recalling all the gruesome and gory history of London in a fun way with scare tactics and rides. It starts of with “a survivor” of the bubonic plague explaining what has happened to the city as she collects dead bodies and puts in the pit saying it was her job to go house to house to collect all of the dead. The scenery and the acting was very very realistic and a little scary! Then we went through interactive scenes learning about the great fire of London, and the different torture devices used on prisoners in London in the 17^th century yikes, glad I didn’t live in that time. We also had a fake trial and were all condemned to death, and were killed by Sweeny Todd. Than we saw the deaths of Jack the Ripper, and went a ride were we are elevated there’s a drum roll nooses drop in front of us and then the ride drops. Kind of disturbing but really fun.

We walked past the parliament buildings and the Big Ben. We later went to a club called The Ministry of Sound; the club was very high tech there was about six different rooms all playing different music. I wasn’t accustomed to difference though, in London people go to the clubs around 11 and leave by 3 where in Barcelona you go to the clubs around 2 and leave around 6. It was still a good time. By the time I got back to hostel I was tired from the day I passed out and woke up the next morning entangled in the chain from my purse lol!

The next morning we had an English breakfast yum! We than went to the Camden Market. I felt there were two worlds of London. The beautiful parts with old towers, palaces, and history of London. Then the second part is a punk kind of scene with lots of racy t-shirts, tattoo & piercings shops and of course A LOT of pubs. Camden Market was really fun. I bought a sweatshirt was a girl with lips of London (the picture is posted).  Later we were on the tube when we saw millions of people drunk in costume getting off and walking somewhere, so of course we followed. Apparently it was some kind of New Zealand national holiday. There was a square with millions of people in all sorts of costumes, so were in colors, some in cows, some just dressed crazy. These people were NUTS and very drunk. The crowd was very noisy and routy; people were climbing the street posts. Mind you this was about three in the afternoon. So after staying a little and watching the very entertaining crowd, we continued our walk to West Minster Abbey. It was very beautiful. After we went on the eye, which is kind of a very high tech Ferris wheel. While rotating there are touch screens where you can touch the buildings and it will explain what you are seeing. I could see all of London and how beautiful at night. When we got off it was starting to snow heavily so we went back to the hostel and than out to some pubs, which I thought, was way more fun than the club. Our plane was leaving at 6 am so we were planning on leaving the pubs at 2, which was fine because they closed at 1. As soon as we left we realized the snow had gotten even heavier and all public transportation had shut down and no cabs were running! Long story short, we couldn’t get to the airport that our plane was leaving from which was two hours away. So we stayed in the casino for a little while and had some more fun J. We than went the other airport in London and booked another flight that were leaving from a 3^rd airport and only had two hours to get there. So after a hectic morning and almost missing our second flight we finally made it back to Barca!

While on the tube in London a drunk women told me to step back and really look at my life and take it all in. Which I did. I realized I don’t think ive ever been happier. I am so fortunate that at 19 I am traveling the world, which I have always wanted to do. If it wasn’t from the support from all my family to do this I would not be where I am today and I just feel like the luckiest girl alive. Although loving London I do admit that it made appreciate Barcelona a little more, especially the weather! Coming back to Barcelona felt like coming back to home.