These are the Moments That I am Going to Remember

Sunday February 20, Day 3

Well the amazing weather can’t last forever – we woke up to gray overcast skies and a light drizzle… at which point I realized that I had managed to leave my umbrella in Luxembourg. Considering today’s weather I am glad that we figured out bus 82 yesterday instead of doing it today. After eating breakfast at the hostel, and dropping our bags off at the train station we went exploring the market/ older part of Nice. The flower market/fruit/produce was amazing and the entire way down the street were dozens of people selling anything that you could think of. The colors and vibrancy were breathtaking. After a little shopping we purchased lunch – focacia bread and the freshest most delicious strawberries of my life. We then crossed the street and had a picnic lunch while sitting on the pebbled beach.. the sea gently lapping onto the shore (while still overcast it had stopped raining).  It is these quiet undisturbed moments that I will inevitably remember most and will have the fondest memories of. 

Street Market in Nice France

Enjoying lunch on the beach in Nice France. Left to Right: Annie, Me, Caroline, Megan

After perfect lunch we had to start heading back to the train station. Stopping along the carnaval route to marvel and the scope and size. The train to Barcelona was confusing… the French liking to be different and difficult actually make you make a seat reservation when traveling with eurorail (although it doesn’t tell you this anywhere) we decided that it is the French just deciding to be difficult. Either way we got charged 10 Eros, which again isn’t that expensive. However several stops after purchasing our tickets a couple men got on the train and apparently we were sitting in their seats… so we had to get up, however at this point the train was extremely crowded so we had to sit on the floor. Sitting on the floor of a train for over 3 hours makes you really feel like a student traveling through Europe but again is the type of experiences that you can only have while traveling with 4 friends and will probably be a memory that I will always cherish. 

Sitting on the floor on the train and journaling & blogging

 We arrived in Montpellier at 17:45 and had about an hour till kill before our next train, we decided that we would check this time to ee if we needed a reservation. Unfortunately my French really isn’t strong enough for this, which is what is starting to become annoying about being in Europe for such a prolonged period of time – simple task are so difficult. The woman who would only speak to me in French and in the process of making fun of my high school French managed to communicate that it was obligatory. 10 euro later we had our seats.

After sitting down on our rain to Figures the girl sitting across the aisle started speaking to us. She was originally from California had gone to school at Indiana University and was now working in Barcelona as a journalist. She was really friendly and started asking us about our travels and plans. She then started giving us all of these recommendations of places to eat, types of food to try, things to see, clubs to go to. She basically became our personal travel agent. She ended up drawing us a map of the city (although as we learned the following day really wasn’t drawn to scale).  After sitting next to her on the train we decided that it was fate that the woman had made us make reservations (no one checked this time) and that she had sat us there.

After a quick transfer in Figures we were finally almost to Barcelona at around 22:45. We then took the metro to our hostel (I absolutely hate getting into crowed confined spaces subways, trams, busses) with my hiking backpack as I inevitably end up taking people out with it.) I was shocked by how crowded the subway was given it was after 11.

Our Hostel Sant Jordi was only a couple block from the subway and we made it there with limited problems. The first thing that we saw hen we exited the subway station was a building in Gaudi architecture Perhaps it was because I was schlepping all of my things but I wasn’t that interested or in love with the architecture. The hostel is actually very small. Three bedrooms, two showers, tow bathrooms a kitchen and a tv room. Because there were only 18 people it had a really homey feel, as we discovered over the course of our stay we absolutely loved this hostel the staff was amazing and the place had a great vibe. 

Kitchen of our favorite hostel St Jordi, Barcelona Spain

Cozy living room in hostel

 Because the hostel was so small, and the staff was so great the organized evening outings. They were taking everyone to a bar and club, we said that we would meet up with everyone as we needed to freshen up a bit first. The club was really cool after going through a small front room it emptied into a large bar with dark mahogany wood. There was also a balcony around the perimeter of the room. Sunday nigh was also Karoke night which meant that it was mostly drunk Spanish students singing American songs (literally it ranged from the Lion King, to Shout, to Michel Jackson) Around 2 everyone from the hostel headed to the club where the hostel had a relation so we didn’t have to pay the cover. When we got there was a live band playing music which was more local so it was really interesting and good although difficult to dance to however after they ended their set and went on a break around 3 the club started playing mostly American music at which point we decided that it would be better to head home and get a good night sleep before our insanely busy world wind day of sight seeing. 

Fun night out in Barcelona Spain