Kelly à Paris!: Barthelona

Buenos dias todos!

I apologize for the hiatus from posting in this blog, but the above Spanish is a wee bit of a clue as to why I have been a little absent.

However, before I explain the Spanish, I thought that I would give you (dedicated blog reader slash my Mom) a little more insight into la vie quotdienne of Parisiens. Prior to my cross-Europe exchange, I experienced my first ever ‘manifestation’ or rally. It is a common saying here that manifestations are the Parisians’ favorite past time. Lord knows what these massive group of people were hooting and hollering about in front of my apartment building, but it was still neat to get to experience something authentically Parisian that goes beyond trying fois grae for the first time. Let it be noted that I also saw a man walking a cat in the park that very same day—yes, a completely irrelevant tangent—but made my day nonetheless.

This past weekend I made a hop, skip and a jump down to Barcelona, Spain for a quick 48-hour visit. This trip was especially memorable as I was surprising my good friend Marni for her 21^st birthday. I had several friends helping me organize my well-executed surprise, which made the final reveal run without a hitch. After checking into my hostel, I walked to Las Ramblas open-air market, (which I highly recommend, but be cognizant of pickpockets), with several Lehigh friends to meet Marni and her friends. As I hid behind a pole, Marni greeted the rest of the group. Finally it was showtime and I popped out from behind the pole—and her reaction was PRICELESS. After surviving a football tackle hug and a whole lot of shrieking, we finished walking through Las Ramblas and headed to La Playa, Barcelona’s beach.

Our trip to the beach was accompanied with a stop at a beach restaurant where we indulged in sangria and paella. After trying to order my meal in what seemed like a unusual combination of English-French-and-Spanish (or Frangnish as I like to call it) I came to the realization that I was having a very very tough time transitioning between languages. While trying to locate my hostel earlier that day, I began asking a local in French, then tried to spit out what I remembered from high school Spanish, to which the man replied to me in Catalan, to which I just replied to in English—only to figure out he spoke English the whole time, oy vey.

After the beach we bussed to an old bunker the overlooks the entire city. The following day (after imbibing in the Barcelona culture the previous night) we treated ourselves to brunch at a place called ‘Brunch & Cake’ where they served, you guessed it, brunch and cake. After brunch we explored a little bit more but, unfortunately, I was off to Paris on an early evening flight. That's all for now--adios!