June 26-29 2010: Barcelona
Jacqueline and I just arrived home from our first trip: Barcelona! A few days prior to our trip, the still-jet-lagged-Jacqueline woke up in the wee hours of the morning and explored the idea of “Blind Booking” on German Wings, a German airline. Basically, you pick a genre of city: beach, party, western or eastern metropolitan, etc. and it is more or less a raffle for your vacation spot, for the price of 40 euro round trip (a bargin!). There are about 5-7 choices of various cities throughout Europe in each of these categories. Next, you put in the dates you’re interested in and then the amount of people in the party and enter your credit card information. The next webpage will give you your trip’s confirmation, and let you know where you will be going out of the 5-7 locations listed in each category. Jacqueline did this when I was sleeping and she was bored, and woke me up by screaming: “We’re going to Barcelona!!!” This was phenomenal, as I spent a week in Barcelona last year with five friends from Amsterdam and absolutely loved it.
Our three days in Barcelona were full of great weather, beautiful beach visits, and lots of water to avoid dehydration. Although we noticed the hot weather in Heilbronn, it was confirmed when it was also in the high 90s in Barcelona that Europe in general was having a massive heat wave. We first arrived and eventually made it to Las Ramblas, which is the “main drag” of Barcelona. I contacted a friend of mine that I met last time in Barcelona, named Dean, who offered to put us up for our few nights in his friend’s apartment, where he also lives. Although it was called an apartment, it was indeed a mini hostel, as there were 10 bunk beds inside, some of which were rented on a night-to-night basis by the friends of the people who lived there. In this case, Jacqueline and I chose to stay here, as the others living here full time were young and fun – and also in charge of the bar crawl that took place in the evenings on Monday-Saturday. Because of their hospitality, we were also guaranteed a good time in the evenings.
And indeed this was true. After spending the afternoon at the beach (about a twenty minute walk from the apartment), and having a nap (since we had gotten very little sleep before our departure), we followed Dean and the others to the first stop on the Bar Crawl. For those of you who don’t know, a Bar crawl is run by maybe 10-15 young people who take a group of paying tourists/visitors to 4 or 5 different bars around the city, each with an appealing drink-special menu, and then to a club to conclude the night. It is dubbed a bar crawl, from the implication that one might enjoy the drink specials to such a high degree that they would need to crawl to the next bar, unable to walk. You can use your imagination, but most of the kids end up having a great time, as Jacqueline and I did. Just for the record and clarification, Jacqueline and I had no such problem walking from place to place.
Something that may surprise you is that as opposed to the States where young people go out at 10 pm or so and return home after the bars close at 2:00 am… in Europe, and Barcelona especially, the clubs do not fill up until 3:00 am, if that. Needless to say, all of us in the apartment appreciated being able to sleep in through the morning. Once Jacqueline and I woke up (finally), we grabbed a snack and a few bottles of cold water (it was almost 90 degrees!) and headed to the beach. A friend of mine that just graduated from Chico University that I met in Mexico during Spring Break happened to be traveling in Barcelona at this time as well, and so we decided to meet up with us for lunch at Heaven. Heaven is not the actual name of this establishment, but the five companions I had while visiting Barcelona last year during our study abroad in Amsterdam dubbed this place as “Heaven.” This was because of its wonderful location, right on the boardwalk with a great beach view. In addition, instead of only having normal table and chairs, there were bed-like cushions to sit/lay/lounge on for as long as you like – while enjoying lunch and sangria, of course.
Jacqueline and I ventured back to Heaven for a late lunch the next day also. Along with some more beach and some shopping, as well as wandering the streets (day and night!), we had a fabulous time. Our second night, one of the girls who is from Sweden visiting for the summer working the Bar crawl took us out to a bar her friend worked at and then to a club called Opium. Our final night we went on the Bar Crawl again, and made friends with people from all over the world: the States, Australia, Germany and England. Jacqueline and I had intended to make it home on the earlier side, since we had to get up at 7:00 am to get the bus to the airport and then our flight. Just to clarify, when I say “earlier side,” I mean more like 1:30 am or 2:00 instead of 4:30 am (Sorry, Mom!). However, it seems our intentions misled us, and we were sadly not in bed at this “intended” time. Thus, the morning was rather rough. However, we got to the bus, which took us to the airport. Our flight left on time, and we arrived back in Stuttgart safe and sound. Needless to say we had a great nap once we returned to the house!
June 30, 2010: Heilbronn
Two days to recuperate from Barcelona before Amsterdam was well needed. After a great nap yesterday afternoon and an even better night’s sleep, Jacqueline and I woke up this morning excited and ready to pack for Amsterdam. After lounging, taking care of laundry, and reading a bit while waiting for our clothes to dry, I decided some exercise was needed and took a jog through the fields and vineyards, as I have a few times already (so I kind of know my way around, surprisingly enough). We will look forward to another home made and wonderful dinner, and J. and I secretly hoped Little Albert wouldn’t convince us to go out, as rest would probably do us good.
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