Granada

"Umm guys the door won't un-lock!?" Gail said laughing nervously. After each one of us tried to unlock the door we found out that yes we were definitely locked in our room. Ten minutes later after yelling out the window for help, the same annoyed hostel manager who had to help us the night before when our power went out came up to let us out. "Yeah guess you guys won't be able to lock your room while your in there" Oooo the joys of hostels....

This was how our first full day in Granada started, foreshadowing how the rest of the trip would go. First we went to see the Alhambra ( A palace constructed during the mid 14th century by the Moors) since that was the thing "we had to see" while in Granada. After the visit to the Alhambra we had the afternoon free to walk around and explore. This is when the third incident happened. While in a shoe store one of my friends got her wallet stolen right out of her purse. After all that drama we decided to make our way back to our hostel where the 4th incident occured. We stopped at this little shop really close to the hostel, and we were all looking at these tapestries. The man who owned the shop was really friendly and spoke a lot of English. After a couple of us had made some purchases the man comes out of the shop and says "Me Has Robado!" (I have been robbed). I understood what he was saying right away but no one else did so I figured maybe I heard him wrong, after all we had just bought a bunch of stuff from him. He pulled out his phone and threatened to call the police. We all looked at each other the confused. He then pointed to a display of earrings (none where missing) saying that he knew we had all robbed him. We didn't, we protested offering to empty our purses, pockets and bags. No he shook his head saying he was going to give us one last chance to give him back his stuff or he was calling the police. So he called the police while we stood around in shock, not sure what to do. After calling (or pretending to call) the police he told us to get out of his shop and to never come back and that we were a disgrace to our country. After escaping from our almost run in with the law we decided to shower and take the beloved siesta. I somehow fell asleep even though my mattress was in the middle of the central walk way between our two rooms...and my pillow was a misshapen piece of foam (actually the most comfortable pillow I have ever had) and woke up in the middle of somebody talking about how their dad had a gun to their head...but thats another story. That night we ended up going to a discoteca that was inside a series of caves up on a mountain, which had a lovely view of the Alhambra all lit up at night. If only I had brought my camera. The rest of the trip went smoothly except for when Noelle and I noticed that we had bought our bus tickets back for 3 a.m not 3 p.m. Whooops.

Barcelona

On the beach in Barcelona!

Inside the Sagrada Family

Step 1: Pack as lightly as possible. Step 2: Figure out how to get to the airport. Step 3: Figure out how to get to the hostel. Step 1 was pretty easy for me from all the traveling I have done with my dad. Malawi also taught me how little you need when my suitcase got lost, and I had to wear the same shirt for week. Getting to the airport proved to be a little more difficult. We arrived a hour early to the bus stop where the airport bus was supposibly suppose to stop. One passed, but it went right on by us. After watching the people around us we realized that we were suppose to wave them down, but at this point it was too late and and the next airport bus wasn't for another hour. So after waiting an hour and a half we had to take a taxi. We arrived in Barcelona a little before midnight, thankfully Noelle knew how to get us to the Hostel. The hostel was actually really nice; 12 stories high with CLEAN sheets (you never know with hostels) and a nice common room for everyone to hang out it. We hadn't booked together so we got split up. Luckily Jenessa and I where in the same room with 6 other girls from Hungry. They had taken over the room before we got there and their stuff was everywhere. It was very interesting talking to them though, meeting different people is one of my favorite pars about staying in hostels. Friday we visited La Sagrada family a temple designed by Gaudi and was started in 1882 and still in the process of being completed. I have gotten a little tired of visiting building after building but this was one was by far the coolest I have seen so far. The inside took my breath away, and I could have stood in the middle staring up at the ceilings and stained glass for hours. After this we decided to make our way to the beach along Las Rambalas (It is the central most Boulevard which cuts through the heart of the city centre which ends at a port.) We ended up getting very distracted by the shops and food and didn't make it to the port until sunset. After the sunset we decided to make our way home. An hour later we limped into the hostel thankful to sit down. My feet have never hurt so bad in my life! That night our hostel took us out clubbing for pretty cheap so we decided to tag along. I met a kid who went to Annandale High School! It's such a small world! Then Lauren got her blackberry and a diamond necklace stolen hence having to spend the next morning in the police station. Because of this little incident we didn't get as early of a start on our day as we wanted but we still ended up going everywhere we had planned. First we went to Parque Guell, also designed by Gaudi! It has a long winding bench covered in mosaics. We then met up with a really good family friend of my cousin from Venezuela that now lives in Barcelona. His name was Alexander and at one point he had lived with my grandmother in. It was so strange meeting this random guy in Barcelona who knew my entire family in Venezuela. He took us to a magic fountain show and the place where the 2000 Olympics where held. That night despite how exhausted we were we decided to give Barcelona every last bit of energy we had. We went clubbing and then at 5 in the morning we ran back to our hostel to change quickly and grab our bags and then headed to the airport. I have never been so exhausted in my life. I can't sleep on planes very well but I was out before the plane even took off. I'm not quite sure how I made it home with all my stuff. I have never been more thankful to climb into my bed in Sevilla where I passed out for 9 hours straight.