Vino o cerveza o cola o agua mineral?

Well, it seems that I have a few days to catch up on my latest adventure. New Years morning I woke up bright and early according to my standards (yes, 6:30am is much too early after partying the night before....well, everyone knows me and realizes that just dripped of sarcasm as partying is not in my nature and I was in bed by 11 although the sound of fireworks scared the crudola out of Shae and she thought bombs were being set off....but, I digress). So, back to 7am on Sunday morning. The girls insisted that they needed to get on the plane with me and I calmly explained that they did not have passports and I couldn't reasonably pack them away in a suitcase and allow them to fly such a long distance, right? Right, we all conclude! So, they did want to go to the airport with us to ensure a proper good-bye. By a tad after eight we arrived at the United terminal and I was properly ejected from the van at the curb with quick kisses all around so there were no time for cries of anguish and a flood of tears (totally on my part as I am sure the girls could not wait to get away with all the stuff I tell them no about when I am around). Within 30 minutes the rest of the group arrived from Rockhurst and we began the cumbersome

 process of checking in. At this point I realized that I did not pack appropriately for this 2 1/2 week trip as I had to pay the extra $50 fee to check that extra piece of luggage that I just had to have to pack all of these unnecessary items of clothing that I thought I needed (the concept of washing clothes and rewearing them was very far away in my mind at the time of the packing process). Now, to shorten this story up some, we boarded our plane and headed to Chicago where we had a 2 1/2 hour layover. Nicki and I jetted over (like my pun there?) to Garrett's popcorn stand in Terminal B (from C, mind you) to grab some delicious popcorn for our trip and then headed back to C to grab some lunch. Then began the process of loading the plane for Frankfurt. Nicki and I did some finangling so that we could try to sit together, but the best they could do were aisle seats one behind the other so we jumped on it....after all, aisle seats....on a 7 hour flight....heck ya! As we are sitting a mother and her child are in the other two seats and politely requested that I switch seats with her husband as he was across the aisle from them...okay,

 no big deal, still an aisle. Just started to get comfie in this new seat when one of my classmates requested that I switch seats with another girl in our group so she could sit by her friend...okay, still not a big deal because....IT WAS STILL AN AISLE SEAT :) After my muscial chairs routine had finally found an end I settled in for my nice long flight. Due to the time of the day I found the recommendation to sleep a bit difficult and found that I could occupy myself with two movies provided by the airline, a couple of games of Sudoku, finished a book, made it halfway through another book and watched two episodes of Friends along with a 30 minute nap. Needless to say, I knew I had a challenge ahead as we arrived at Frankfurt at 5:30am local time with our next connection to Barcelona at 7:15am. It was this next stretch of air space that finally did me in and upon trying to read some more my body finally gave in and took in a nice hour long nap. At 9:30am local time (2:30am KC time...so, approximately 20 hours since I had woken up on

 New Years morning) we finally reached our destination to the eclectic city of Barcelona!

Oh, I must go back and reflect on a moment in the Frankfurt airport as I had to chuckle when I saw two men ride past me on their bicycles...in the airport...not something I am used to, so I grabbed a quick picture with the lyrics of Bicycle Race humming through
 my head.

Okay, out of Frankfurt and back to Barcelona. We all managed to obtain all of our luggage with no lost pieces (amazing in my book with as many individuals in our party) and loaded up on the big bus to our hotel. We were only 20 minutes or so from our hotel and arrived around 11ish and since our rooms were not available yet, we loaded up a storage room with all of our luggage and headed to the metro station to purchase our rail tickets and ventured out to La Rambla to acclimate ourselves to the local population and to grab a bite to eat.  A little history about La Rambla:  originally a watercourse, it was transformed in to a tourist's fantasy as it stretches through the heart of Barcelona forming an essential artery for this bustling city.  Along this walkway, safely nestled between a busy thoroughfare, one can find street performers, musicians, pedistrians galore, boutiques, street vendors, vagrants, restaurants, historic buildings, etc.  From La Rambla, you can veer off onto side

 streets and find hidden wonders of a shoppers dream with so many choices of unique items for sale.  Once we safely made it to La Rambla our professors cut the string and gave the go ahead to explore the city, so Nicki (my roommate) and I began angling down the side roads in search of tapas.  After an hour or so of roaming the roads we finally found a cute little cafe where we ordered a small fare of potato bravas (roasted potatoes with a spicy sauce) and a plate of bread smeared with a ground tomato.  We then decided it was time to find our way back to the hotel and drop for a much needed rest to re-energize and start all over.  On our way back, after exiting the subway station, we became completely disoriented and finally a nice gentleman noticed our distress as we were poring over our map hopelessly and kindly guided us the two blocks that we had strayed off course.  Truly a gift as we just wanted to sleep!  We woke around 6:30 in the evening and after showering decided that we were ready to tackle the city again so we found some of the other students travelling with us and hopped the metro for a trip back to La Rambla.  We were in search for the recommended restaurant Tapas 24, but after 2 hours of searching with no luck and gawking at the many sites along the way.  Picutred below are one of the many street performers that will come to life with donations.

Another treasure discovered on this little trek is one of Gaudi's famous buildings, Casa Batllo, where Gaudi captured Barcelona in her Middle Ages time by alluding to her chivalry and high religious atmosphere with symbols of the Great Dragon (the scaly roof) slayed by the cross of St. George and the skeleton like structure depicting the bodies of those who were killed by the dragon.

We never did find the restaurant we were seeking and finally setltled on a place called Divinus.  I kind of went American at this site and Nicki and I shared a Margherrita pizza and an appetizer of calamari.  While everyone else ordered the house wine I settled on a coke and was dismayed to find at the time we received the bill that my coke cost more than a glass of wine at a crazy price of 3.50 Euro (the equivelant of a tad over $5).  While the rest of the group decided to stick to La Ramba and find a nightcap, Nicki and I chose to head back to the hotel to drop off to sleep, but as we had not watched the time we entered the subway at the strike of the Cinderella hour to discover that the metro had just closed for the evening and we had to seek out a cab and shell out another $12 so we could arrive safely back to the hotel.

Another insert, as I forgot to mention earlier was that our hotel room actually came equipped with a bidet!  Now, I can honestly say I have never used a bidet, nor had I ever seen one in person and found this to be quite the giggling moment.  Was it an over-glorified water fountain?  A place to soak my feet while I used the restroom?  Or, a place to wash my hair if I chose not to take a shower?  Since I really know that is not any of its uses it was fun to wonder what other foreigners thought of this little contraption when they came across this new addition to their restroom, but I guess I will never know, but my little thoughts above would probably cover the gamit of my children's reactions if they stumbled on this and that made me smile even more so.

And, now on to today.  We met this morning at 7:30 for breakfast in the lobby.  Cold cuts, toast and cafe con leche started the morning off beautifully and we were ready to head out to IQS (our host school for this trip) by 8:40am.  The walk to the school took approximately 15 minutes and although the morning was overcasat and a tad on the chilly side (I would estimate in the 40s) it was still a pleasant walk and just felt wonderful to stretch the legs instead of climbing in to my car for the normal 20 minute drive to work.  We spent the first few hours learning about Spain's role in the EU and then headed back to La Rambla to visit the city hall.  This seat of the city government plays a very important role for the city of Barcelona and is located in a place where the city was founded at the end of the first centery B.C., but was not formed as the city government until the 14th century.  While there we visited the rooms of the Hall of Chronicles, the Room of the Queen Regent which is used plenary meetings, and the Salo de Cent which was built to be a meeting room for the Council of One Hundred Jurors.  The artwork and style of the city hall was quite astonishing and was truly a pleasure to visit. Below is a picture from the doorway of the Room of the Queen Regent:

After our completion of the tour we were set loose to explore the city some more.  I probably shouldn't mention, but my roomie truly chose the wrong type of shoe today and her feet exploded with some very painful blisters so we went in search of a brand new pair of shoes for her so she could survive the rest of the afternoon and be able to make it back to the hotel in one piece, but I guess I really shouldn't mention that....Once a new pair of shoes were secured we headed to the Barri Gotic, or the Gothic quarter, to try to find some new views.  In one alleyway we found some very interesting gargoyles hanging from the side of the building:

We then located a few other interesting pieces of architecture such as Catedral de la Seu that was built between 1298 and 1450, the Palau de la Musica Catalana or Music Palace designed in 1908, and the Plaza Ramon Berenguer which is the remnants of a large section of the Roman walls with three of the seven original towers still intact.



We then decided to call it an afternoon and head back to the hotel for a lovely siesta (which I never took and it is now 2:30am and I have to be at breakfast at 8am....sleep where are you?).  Nicki spent some time soaking her ravaged feet and I my professors allowed me to attend dinner with them at Taller de Tapas where we dined on mussels, clams, sauteed mushrooms, the spicy potatoes and a yummy salad along with a bottle of red wine that I hate to admit after one glass really did this light-weight in.  After checking the bottle and finding it contained 13.5% alcohol I didn't feel so bad since the alcohol content is so much higher than what I am used to, but it truly changes my game plan for when we hit the Torres Winery on Saturday and I doubt I will be doing too much "tasting", but instead rely on the other students' recommendations for the gifts I should purchase.  So, for those who receive a bottle of wine for me, sorry up front that I probably did not personally taste test it myself.

With this, I must bid all a good night as I must grab some shut-eye so that I can begin another day in the morniing.  Night all!