The Little Ging and The Tall One in Spain

The final trip... Where was I headed? To meet Kate Arnold. What was our destination? Barcelona.
Side note: Kate is one of my friends from WOU that is studying in Oviedo, Spain this semester.

We both flew into Barcelona on Friday and had quite the adventure trying to find each other. We had plans to meet at either my gate or at baggage claim. Well I sat at my gate for a little while. There was no Kate. I went to baggage claim. No Kate. I went outside the secured area, a risky move, and looked among all the people that were meeting long lost friends and lovers. No Kate. I sat and waited there for a while thinking she would eventually find me. When I began losing hope in her I decided to walk to the other baggage claim area. In the middle of this long walk, in a big open area, I saw my little ginger friend, with a frantic and worried look on her face. I ran up to her with my arms in the air! It was a joyous moment.

After getting on a bus into town and wandering to find our hostel, we decided to go walk around a little bit. We walked all over but to be honest, I can't tell you where we went or what we saw because we were just talking and catching up after so long apart.

Saturday morning we tried to find a walking tour but failed. Instead we made our own. We wanted to see Gaudi, so Gaudi we saw! We went to Palau Guell which was some of his early work. Not that awesome but free. Then we went to the port and saw the boats and wandered around there. We decided after this that it was time for some lunch. We found some seafood paella that was pretty freaking delicious! After lunch we went to La Sagrada Familia (The Sacred Family) which is Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece. It is meant to be a cathedral but is still unfinished. I think it is supposed to be done in a year or so. I don't know. It was pretty sweet looking though. After this we went down to Casa Batllo, also a product of Gaudi. This place was freaking sweet. It is this house that Gaudi renovated and designed everything after the sea. VERY cool. I really enjoyed it. After exploring this house, Kate decided it was time for another Spanish delicacy. Churros and chocolate. Imagine a plate of churros served with a small sized coffee mug filled with melted, hot pudding. There you go. They were pretty bomb. After churros we went to rest at our hostel for later when we met up with some guys from CouchSurfing. It was very awkward meeting.

Sunday we went to the Picasso museum with some people from Kate's program in Oviedo. Since it was the first Sunday of the month, the museum was free. It was interesting but there was not alot of well known pieces. Or even pieces that you look at and think "That is Picasso." But It was still very cool. After the museum we went to Park Guell, out last Gaudi destination of the weekend. This is a big park that had pretty views of the city. It also has two houses, by Gaudi of course, that were modeled after gingerbread houses. The other amazing thing about Park Guell, and the true reason I wanted to go- ANTM was there! That is right folks- Tyra Banks and the America’s Next Top Model crew went to Barcelona one season and the final runway challenge was at Park Guell. Pretty freaking sweet. We had a little catwalk session and took some pictures. We made Tyra proud. It was just like my Sundays back in Monmouth when I would sit and watch ANTM all day, but it was in real life! It was fun. After Park Guell we headed back in towards the main part of Barcelona and decided to hit up the beach. Well whenever you take Anna for foreign waters she will, of course, have to go in them. So the second we hit the sand I started kicking off my shoes and rolled up pants and ran right into the Mediterranean Sea. I only went in knee deep, but I went in! After splashing around for a little while we decided to just sit and enjoy an evening on the beach. It was nice to just sit by the sea and listen to the waves. Later in the evening we went and got some more Spanish food. We enjoyed some delicious sangria and tapas. It was quite delicious.

Monday morning Kate and I decided we were going to spend some time popping in and out of shops near La Rambla. Later on we met up with two of Kate’s friends and decided to go to “The most beautiful man made thing ever.” This was in the words of one of Kate’s friends. It was this big and pretty beautiful fountain. And as if being told it was beautiful wasn’t enough, it was another ANTM spot. I was sold, we were going. It was pretty sweet. ANTM filmed a mock commercial there so we of course did an ANTM photo shoot. We got some pretty awesome pictures too. We sat and had some café con leche at a small outdoor café by the fountain and then made our way back to La Rambla. We had one last stroll down La Rambla and got our fill of the performers on the street. We then got our bags from the hostel and headed to Plaza Catalunya for me to catch the bus back to the airport. Kate and I said our farewells to each other and parted ways.

It was a very nice weekend. I really enjoyed Spain and the Spanish culture. I think I would enjoy spending more time there someday.

The King of All Fests...

I spent this past weekend in Munich, Germany. Why? One simple answer. Oktoberfest! Never in my life did the thought occur to me that one day I would go to Oktoberfest. But let me tell ya folks- it was AMAZING! I am going back someday. You can count on that!

Our trip to Munich started early on Friday morning. I, along with three of my roommates and some other members of my program, got on a bus at 7:30am and headed out of town. This was possibly the best travelling bus ride I have ever had. Granted the only comparisons I have are the Greyhound I took to Ellensburg and the bus I took from Salem to Portland, neither of which were that great. This bus was comfortable, had leg room, gave you free coffee and tea, AND played movies. And the movie selection was FANTASTIC! I was going to listen to my own music and sleep the way there, but I looked up at the screen shortly after leaving Prague and what do I see? Some slow motion grinding in a sepia tone. That's right people- they were showing Dirty Dancing! I, of course, took the opportunity to watch one of my all time favorite movies. After watching Patrick and Jennifer I thought, "Ok, now it would make me day if they showed Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights right now." I knew this was wishful thinking so I put my iPod back in and was contemplating sleeping again. As I was talking to Hailey who was sitting across the aisle from me, she asked me if I knew what movie they were showing. I looked to the screen as the film was starting and knew I recognized it but just couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then after a few more minutes I realized exactly what movie it was. Not Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, but Mamma Mia! I was ecstatic! Another one of my favorites! By the time that movie had ended and they started showing another movie I decided that the three hours of sleep I had the night before would not be adequate for the weekend ahead so I decided to skip the third movie and sleep. It wasn't a musical anyways so it couldn't have been that good.

Once we got into Munich we had to go find where we were staying and drop our bags off. There was glitch number one. We were staying with some girl we had found on CouchSurfing and she had called us to let us know that she had left to go to Oktoberfest so we wouldn't be able to get into her apartment. Although she did tell us we would be able to store our bags, for free, at a hostel down the street. We weren't so sure about this plan so we decided to go with our friends to their CouchSurfing apartment and drop our stuff there. That was glitch number two. After going on a mini journey to find this place we decided it was too far out of our way to keep it there so we went to the hostel. And then came glitch number three. The hostel told us we couldn't keep our stuff there since we weren't guests at the hostel. However they did tell us that if we went back to the Metro station we would be able to keep our bags there. So that is what we did.

After dropping our bags we met up with our friends and wandered about the city. We didn't really have a map or any ideas of what there was to see so it was alot of wandering down streets and guessing what things might be. But still, the parts of Munich we did see were quite nice. We found a small pub where we had dinner. Afterwards we found a gelato stand and got some dessert. I love ice cream a bit too much. We then all went our separate ways and headed home. My roommates and I went to grab our bags and got onto the tram to find our apartment. We started talking to people on the tram and then realized we had missed our stop. But the guys we had been talking to told us about this hostel they were staying at and said we should come hang out. So we did. The "hostel" was really a giant tent with about 160 bunk beds set up. Next to that tent was a slightly smaller one that was empty. And then there was a big field for people to pitch tents at. We decided to see if they had room since it would be cheaper than where we would be staying and it turned out they had a little bit of room in the smaller empty tent. So they gave each of us a sleeping mat (that was rainbow colored) and a few thick blankets and we joined the group of people sleeping on the floor! It was very fun and everyone at this place was extremely nice.

We got up early on Saturday and headed to Oktoberfest. We ended up meeting this mom and her two daughters while we were in line to get into the Hofbräu Tent. The mom ended up getting all seven of us in through a kitchen door and then we found a table full of Italians that let us all squeeze in with them. We were set! They had just started serving the first steins of beer at at 9.30am we were served ours! We had an amazing time standing and dancing on the tables and benches, making friends with people that had come from all over, and drinking beer! I really loved it. The most memorable moment for me came in the afternoon. At about noon we went to see a few friends that were on the upper level of the tent. Shortly after going up there the security gaurds were clearing out the entire section and not allowing anyone to go downstairs. We all had to go outside. We then were put back into a line to get back in. We begged the gaurds to let us in since our purses were all at the table with the other people in our program but they refused to believe us. After a little while of waiting in line I had to pee. I thought I would try to hold it until I got inside so I didn't lose my spot in line but it got to an urgency level. So I got out of line and found the restroom in the Hofbräu beer garden. As in all women's restrooms there was a line that was extremely long. So I decided to go find another one. This meant I would have to leave the Hofbräu altogether and would likely have to fight to get back inside the beergarden alone. This was not acceptable since my purse was still inside the tent. So I went to a security gaurd and explained my situation and he let me out to use the restroom. Well I couldn't find the women's room and I was about to die so I ran into the men's room. This consisted of 4 long rows of urinals. And not individual ones. They resembled a metal industrial sink, but lower to the ground and stretching for a few meters. So I decided to pop a squat at the urinal and hope that the place didn't fill up. I had a few guests come and go as I was there. Most made comments in other languages but one spoke English and simply said "Well that is a solution." And that it was. I went back to the friendly security gaurd and he let me slip back in and I was left to fight my way into the tent. I decided to go try to find another entrance which is when I found another nice security gaurd who spoke English and I explained to him that my purse, wallet, ID, passport, and everything I had was inside the tent and I had been kicked out. He asked nothing more and let me in through a kitchen door. So I was reunited with my friends and my belongings! The rest of Oktoberfest was spent hanging out with people, attempting to sing the German drinking songs that were playing, and making friends. It was an awesome giant party!

We took an overnight bus back to Prague that night and got back to our apartment around 6am on Sunday. It gave us plenty of time to recover and relax and get ready for the week ahead!