First Night in Barcelona
This morning around 12:30 local time [and 6:30 am
Rhode Island time] I arrived in Barcelona for the
start of my grand adventure, 6 months in Barcelona for
study abroad. The hardest part of a trip is always
the traveling to get somewhere, but luckily airports
are all well-labeled and it's basically impossible to
mess up these days. Both my flight to London and my
connecting flight to Barcelona were uneventful and
relaxing. Getting through customs was incredibly easy
[one man in a booth, checking passports and waving
people on. No questions. weird.]
When I got through customs in Barcelona I decided to
follow a man I recognized from my flight to the
baggage claim. He was a fast walker! I was power
walking to keep up with speedy mcspeederson in khakis
and a white shirt with a briefcase, which is basically
required attire for all middle aged men traveling. If
only I had been following someone with a mohawk. We
basically walked the length of the airport before I
got scared that he wasn't going to the right baggage
claim [there were two on opposite sides of the
airport]. However, we ended up at the baggage claim.
Phew! As I was taking the escalator down, some crazy
dude [very Eurotrash] started asking me in Spanish if
I knew if this was the way to the baggage claim.
Apparently, I looked like I knew what I was doing. I
told, "Si, creo" [which means, "yes, I think so."] and
he said, "gracias." and I thought, "sweet! My first
interaction in Spain!" Living in New York City has
taught me to always appear like you know what you are
doing, walk purposefully, even if inside you have no
idea what you're doing. The appearance of competence
serves one well.
I got my baggage easily [I'm proud of myself for
packing light-ish] and hopped in a taxi. "Necesito ir
al gran hotel Havana, por favor," I said to the
cabbie. And we were off!! Today was kind of
overcast. But it's cool out, perfect walking weather.
I got to the hotel, checked in with the nice hotel
man, who insisted on speaking in English with me.
Then I wandered around the streets looking for a place
to grab some food. Needless to say, Sundays after 2
pm in Spain are not the time to be out and about. The
side streets were like a ghost town. And very few
places were open. When I got back to hotel, I asked
if restaurants would be open tonight. The hotel man
told me some restaurants would be open in a nicer,
hipper section of Barcelona a few blocks away. Phew!
I took a three hour nap, showered, talked to my mom on
skype, and I'm feeling good. I'm meeting up with some
people from my program who also arrived early. We are
going to go to dinner together.
Here's to a grand adventure!
Rhode Island time] I arrived in Barcelona for the
start of my grand adventure, 6 months in Barcelona for
study abroad. The hardest part of a trip is always
the traveling to get somewhere, but luckily airports
are all well-labeled and it's basically impossible to
mess up these days. Both my flight to London and my
connecting flight to Barcelona were uneventful and
relaxing. Getting through customs was incredibly easy
[one man in a booth, checking passports and waving
people on. No questions. weird.]
When I got through customs in Barcelona I decided to
follow a man I recognized from my flight to the
baggage claim. He was a fast walker! I was power
walking to keep up with speedy mcspeederson in khakis
and a white shirt with a briefcase, which is basically
required attire for all middle aged men traveling. If
only I had been following someone with a mohawk. We
basically walked the length of the airport before I
got scared that he wasn't going to the right baggage
claim [there were two on opposite sides of the
airport]. However, we ended up at the baggage claim.
Phew! As I was taking the escalator down, some crazy
dude [very Eurotrash] started asking me in Spanish if
I knew if this was the way to the baggage claim.
Apparently, I looked like I knew what I was doing. I
told, "Si, creo" [which means, "yes, I think so."] and
he said, "gracias." and I thought, "sweet! My first
interaction in Spain!" Living in New York City has
taught me to always appear like you know what you are
doing, walk purposefully, even if inside you have no
idea what you're doing. The appearance of competence
serves one well.
I got my baggage easily [I'm proud of myself for
packing light-ish] and hopped in a taxi. "Necesito ir
al gran hotel Havana, por favor," I said to the
cabbie. And we were off!! Today was kind of
overcast. But it's cool out, perfect walking weather.
I got to the hotel, checked in with the nice hotel
man, who insisted on speaking in English with me.
Then I wandered around the streets looking for a place
to grab some food. Needless to say, Sundays after 2
pm in Spain are not the time to be out and about. The
side streets were like a ghost town. And very few
places were open. When I got back to hotel, I asked
if restaurants would be open tonight. The hotel man
told me some restaurants would be open in a nicer,
hipper section of Barcelona a few blocks away. Phew!
I took a three hour nap, showered, talked to my mom on
skype, and I'm feeling good. I'm meeting up with some
people from my program who also arrived early. We are
going to go to dinner together.
Here's to a grand adventure!