Barcelona and Canary Islands

Well these last couple weeks have been pretty darn full and I obviously haven’t done a very good job keeping up with the ol blog. So here we go….this is my last couple of weeks in a nut shell. Sorry it is soooo late.


The week after my birthday (April 20th) I flew to Barcelona for a couple days to see my friend Chris who is studying in the Checkz Republic but was on Spring break. It was the first time I have flown alone, but it went very smoothly. While waiting for my delayed plane in the Bilbao airport that Tuesday night I met a couple that were probably in their late 50’s who were from Ohio and were on my flight to Barcelona as well. The man, a University professor, was on sabbatical and so they were living in Barcelona for a couple of months. They were very nice and we talked for quite a while waiting for our plane. I then asked them if they knew where my hostel was because all I had was an address and I wasn’t quite sure how to get there once I got off the plane. The guy pulled out his blackberry, google-maped it, and then they gave me very good details on how to take the bus from the airport to a certain plaza and then they said there would be taxi’s there…and by doing this it would save me about 20 euros….it sure did….everything went very smoothly….what a blessing that couple was!


Getting to the hostel it was very good to see Chris….always nice to see someone from home when you haven’t been there for so long. That night we went to a club….it was decent....hung out for awhile and then headed back to the hostel. Being the only one who could speak Spanish I was the one directing the Taxi’s for that weekend…I assume I did ok considering we always made it back to the hostel. But to be honest it felt good to be the only one cause it made me speak up.


The next day we headed to the beach. It was sunny but windy so it was blazing hot. Chris was super smart the day before and got fried and looked like a lobster but he said that he wanted to go anyway…(I know im safe putting that in here because he put it in his…  ). We laid at the beach for awhile but then it began to get to cold because Chris was burnt so badly so we went and got something to eat at a Chinese Restaurant and then went back to the hostel. We then tried watching a movie but failed and fell asleep for awhile. After waking up Chris and I wanted to cook supper so we found a tiny grocery store and bought stuff to make pasta and cheese bread. After supper Chris and I headed to a club which I thought was the best one of the week.


The next day we did the same relaxing thing and just hung out and what not. Then for supper we did the cooking thing again and so we went to a better grocery store and bought stuff for steak tacos. We cooked….which I can thank Chris for considering I don’t like to touch raw meat….and then we got ready to go out that night with the whole group (all of Chris’s friends that were with him). We started off at one club and then half way through the night we went to the Catwalk which is supposed to be one of the best clubs in Barcelona. It was pretty good…..but the best thing about going out for the night life we got in free to every place because of the hostel we were staying at….pretty nice.

The next day was our last day in Barcelona….Chris and I walked around outside for awhile, got lunch, and then headed back because his flight was a couple hours earlier than mine and at an airport that was outside the city. I then chilled alone for awhile and then headed to the Barcelona airport to head back to Bilbao. Over all it was a great couple of days…thanks Chris for having Spring break in Barcelona!!

The next day (Saturday) was one of my friend’s 21st birthday….so of course we had a good ol American celebration for that. During the day a group of us went to the beach for the day. It was such a nice day to lay in the sand. Then Catherine, Ali, and I decided that we would test out the waters….it was a solid 40-45 degrees, but we went in anyway….I mean after you are completely numb you cant really feel much. Then after the beach, Carmina and Mo (friends from Cali) made a good Mexican dinner for a group of us and then we went out. Good night!


That next week we all wanted to pass by quickly because on Thursday we were heading to the Canary Islands for the weekend. It was by far one of my favorite trips! We took the bus on Thursday night from Bilbao to Madrid and then early Friday morning we flew from Madrid to the Canaries. Getting to our hotel we really didn’t know what to expect but it was very nice…each room had two single beds and a little mini kitchen and a bathroom….and it was cheap which was surprising for as nice as it was. It also had a really nice pool area. So the first day we spent some time by the pool while we ate lunch and then headed to the beach. All of the beached on this particular island are black except one. We laid on the beach for a couple hours and of course swam as well…the water was a little chilly but not nearly as cold as Bilbao’s Bay of Biscay. After the beach we headed back to the hotel and took a nap considering the night before was pretty much sleepless between being on the bus and in the Madrid airport. After our nap we …well Catherine and Mo cooked dinner….quesadillas and veggies….perfecto. Then that night we all sat around in one of the rooms and played games and just hung out with the intentions on going out later considering Ali was going to turn 21 at midnight….(this weekend we celebrated two 21st birthday….Ali’s on May 1st and Morgan’s on May 2nd).

While in the room a couple of the girls had left to go get something out of their rooms and they came back saying that they had been robbed and that we needed to go check our rooms. So we went down to our rooms and sure enough other rooms had been touched. We had four rooms on the 2nd room but each were conjoined with one so we left the dividing doors open so we basically had two big rooms. In one pair of the conjoined rooms a I-touch (ipod) and an American cell phone had been stolen and in the other conjoined room (which was mine) a total of 300 euros and a returning bus ticket from Madrid to Bilbao had been stolen. Luckily enough that was only in one of the rooms…which happened to be the room I wasn’t in. Plus I had all my important stuff with me so the only thing they could have taken of mine were my clothes or shampoo haha…..they apparently didn’t want either. This was a pretty much the ultimate party killer so we all decided to go to bed and sleep it off and get up and start the morning fresh.


The next day four of us girls (out of 13 total) wanted to rent a car so we could take our time and be on our own schedule to go see all of the historical stuff. So Ali, Gracie, Catherine, and I headed to a car rental place that was near our hotel and asked them if this would be possible. They told us that you needed to be 25 to rent a car and that all the cars are stick. We then told them that our only person who knew how to drive stick was only 20 and they said that there was one car that they could let us rent because of our age. We were shocked that they were allowing us to do this considering we were “of age” but we decided to have a look at the car. I think we all maybe burst out laughing…it was one of the smallest cars I have ever seen…but we did some contemplating and we decided to do it. The other funny thing about this was that Catherine (the only one who knew how to drive stick) has never driven on a highway or interstate (because she is from St. Thomas…a small island in the Virgin Islands...and so she has never needed too) but she was our only option. It took a little convincing of me that this would work…but we decided to do it and I am so glad we did.


So we were shown were to go by the guy at the rental place and then we hit the road. We wanted to first go to Teide the Volcano on the island. It takes about an hour and a half to two hours to get there but its all driving up in the mountains and it is sooo gorgeous. At times we would just pull over along the side of the road and get out, take pictures, and then just sit in the silence. It was wonderful! I felt like my family for doing this, because I know that if I was with my mom we would have done the same thing….get out of the car….take pictures….and just take in the beauty of it all.


Once we got to the Volcano we called Mo, Megan, and Carmina to see where they were at because they had taken the bus to get there instead of renting a car. They happened to be at the Volcano at the same time so we met up with them. After the Volcano we decided to drive around for awhile and then go to The Cliffs. It was crazy to see how much volcanic rock was everywhere and also to see random trees and flowers growing up in between the piles and piles of rock. Seeing The Cliffs was amazing…pictures do not do them justice on how beautiful they really are. We decided to eat at a restaurant by the cliffs since it was about 4 and we hadn’t had any lunch. After the cliffs we decided to head back to the hotel. A little over half way back we became a little distracted and stopped at a beach. It was the most beautiful black sand beach I have ever seen. The sand was verrrry black. Ali and Gracie got in the water to swim and Catherine and I just laid in the sand and soaked up some sun.
After the beach we then headed back to the hotel.

We got cleaned up and then headed to one of the rooms were everyone else was. That night we had decided that we wanted to do Karaoke. This was by far one of the funniest parts of the weekend. We sang everything from Spice Girls to Jackson Five. It was very entertaining. After Karaoke we headed to a different club and stayed there until they closed. Then after that Gracie, Mo, Ali, and I wanted to go walk along the beach. There was nobody out there and it was so peaceful. We stayed out there for about an hour and a half and walked up and down the beach in the water. Great ending to a great night.


The next day was our last full day and Gracie’s last day…she had to get back to Rome to take finals. Us girls loaded up in the car again and did so touring before we had to drop her off at the airport. Our touring of course happened to get us lost….we missed our exit because we were talking….imagine that. BUT we were thankful because getting lost led us to see the only white sand beach on the island. It was gorgeous! Then before heading to the airport we stopped at this little family owned restaurant that was packed full of families (because it was Mother’s day in Spain) but there was a small table open so we sat down and ordered some oysters and bread. The food was amazing and the service was sooo good. The guys who owned it were very friendly and talked with us as if they had known us for years.


After dropping Gracie off at the airport we went and met up with Carmina, Mo, and Megan and they joined us in our little but hearty car. We did some more touring…went to see the natural pools which were soooo gorgeous and we stayed there until the sun went down. We then went back to our hotel to pack and get ready to leave early for the airport. We got back into Bilbao at about 8 that night.