Barcelona Part Three

Barcelona Part Three (Saturday)
We woke up Saturday morning, hit up the breakfast buffet, checked-out, and headed out to get some last minute sight seeing in before leaving at 2pm to start our traveling. We really wanted to see La Casa Mila “La Pedrera” by Gaudi. It is a house that Gaudi designed and lived in. So cool. Look at the pictures. On the way to La Casa Mila we may or may not have gotten lost…haha. It was ok though because we just asked directions. Apparently, my Spanish is very mumbled because I would say a sentence regularly and no one would understand me. Then, I would say the same sentence clearly, and they would know exactly what I was saying. Ehh….
So we found La Casa Mila, after stopping in a few shops and buying some chocolate, and stared at it in awe for a few minutes. Then we hit up the gift shop. By the time we finished, there was only one more thing that we wanted to do in Barcelona that weekend before we left. We wanted Paella!! We only had two hours before we had to leave for the airport journey (literally) and so we decided to take a taxi to the ocean front where we knew we would find some delicious paella. After checking out a few restaurants we decided on one and ordered some fish paella. SO DELICIOUS! It is like a risotto with red peppers and mushrooms and deliciousness haha.
After that we headed back to the hostel, but not before stopping at a smoothie place that we found the day before. They make completely fresh smoothies! They were so fresh tasting and it was just what I needed! We grabbed a smoothie for the walk back to the hostel and started on our way.
We met up with the other girls and started the trek back to Ascoli Piceno. Taxi to bus to air plane to bus to train station….where our train never showed up. We waited for our train for two hours when a man came up to us and told us that we needed to go and talk to someone at the customer service desk. When we went to the desk they told us that the train wasn’t coming because…get this… THE BRIDGE BROKE! Apparently there was water and broken bridges and such involved and that is why our train wasn’t coming.
This put us in a bit of a spot (as our Irish friends would say) since it was 11:30pm and we had no way of getting to San Benedetto to catch our 12:40am bus back to Ascoli Piceno. We have friends in San Benedetto that said we could stay with them, but we still had to actually make it to San Benedetto.
Left with no other choice (and filled up with free pizza from the nice man in the train station), my roommate Christine and I went out front to ask a taxi driver how much it would cost for a ride from Pescara to San Benedetto (50 mins). He told us 150 euro for the six of us (the 7th girl with the messed up ticket flew back through Rome with the other two Rome girls). We said ok figuring 25 euro per person. It was a little more costly then the 3.50 euro train ticket but what were we supposed to do? Hang out with the homeless guys that were setting up their beds for the night?
So we smushed 7 (including the driver) people in a taxi and were on our way. I was in the front with Christine on my lap, and there were four girls in the back seat. We made it to San Benedetto at 12:32 and literally bought our bus tickets and got on the bus and left! If we had taken the train, we would have missed our bus because it would have left early….maybe that bridge broke for a reason???
We got on the bus and relaxed for the last hour leg of our journey. When we got dropped off in Ascoli Piceno, we were walking back to our apartment (passing Murphy’s) when one of the bartenders ran up to us and was like “I MISSED YOU GIRLS!” it was so funny!
Finally, when I thought my day was over as I was taking a shower, I happened to kick the bottles away from the drain. We have razors mixed in with our bottles and when I kicked the bottles I sliced the tip of my toe off. Talk about ending the day haha. It was actually morning by this point.
All in all, I loved Barcelona and all the traveling was totally worth it. The only thing that was disappointing was that we didn’t really meet any Spanish people. We met our Irish friends and some Italians, and our Texan tour guide. I just wished I could have used my Spanish a little more. The other really weird thing that happened was that, when I tried to speak Spanish at first, Italian came out. I was so surprised! I guess it’s a good and bad thing. It shows that I am learning Italian!