Spring Break!

Friday April 10th 

I got up and took the train to the airport to meet the rest of the girls for spring break!  The girls included me and my friends, Natalie, Meghan, Anndel, Liz, Kellyn and Brittany.  My friends Anndel and Liz dont have small suitcases so they had to bring one of their big ones and both of their suitcases ended up being overweight.  Also, my friend Kellyn, had the wrong last name for her ticket reservation so we had to wait for about 45 minutes to get everything figured out.  We had to sprint through the airport to catch our flight on time!  But luckily we ended up making it with time to spare.  Once we got on the actually plane, we ended up sitting there for about 45 minutes before they even started to move to the take-off and landing strip.  We landed in Nice, France around noon to beautiful weather!  We checked into our hostel, Hotel Baccarat.  It was a nice room that consisted on 2 lights on the wall, one plug for the entire room, a broken shutter in our room, and we had to steal toilet paper for the closet in the hall.  

We changed in our swimming suits and headed to the beach.  We bought french baguettes and cheese and found a really cute wine store and bought wine.  There was the most beautiful french man (that we named Geston, from Beauty and the Beast) who worked there and helped us pick out wine.  We sat on the beach, which was a rock beach, and ate and drank.  After that we went back to our hostel and got ready for dinner.  We went to a place close to our hostel called Woody's Tex Mex.  We should have figured that mexican food in France might not be that good... It wasn't the best meal and the drinks were extremely expensive so we stuck to water.  After dinner, we were all exhausted so we decided to go to sleep early.

Saturday, April 11th

We woke up at 10am.  It wasnt a pretty day, so we decided to get dressed and walk around Nice.  We got coffee and chocolate croissants on the street, which were delicious.  While shopping, I passed a store that I had been to when I traveled to Nice after my sophomore year of high school.  It was crazy deja vu.  We decided that since it wasnt a pretty day that we should go to Monoco.  We saw the prince's palace and took lots of pictures and then headed to Monte Carlo to gamble.  When I walked into the first casino, I was asked how old I was to make sure that I was allowed to gamble...  It was my first time gambling and I lost 5 euros in the slots.  We took the train home, napped and showered and got ready for dinner.  We went to a restaurant called Milo's.  The waiter wasnt very nice, but I got a cheeseburger and it was delicious!  After dinner we went to a club/bar called Wayne's Bar.  It was really crowded the drinks were pretty expensive but it was a nice relaxing night.

Sunday, April 12th

It was Easter Sunday so all of us girls got up early, put on our dresses and went to church.  The mass was in french, I could understand a little but it was still hard to understand.  We stuck out like sore thumbs in our bright colored dresses but it was a nice mass.  After church, we went back to our hostel to change and then went to get lunch.  My friends, Liz and Anndel, and I went to the grocery store and bought baguettes and cheese and the other girls went to a little cafe and had croque monsiers, which are basically grilled cheeses but with ham too.  After lunch, we hiked to a castle and on the way there was a beautiful waterfall that we took lots of pictures infront.  There was also a park at the top of the mountain so we walked around there too.  We went to the beach after that and relaxed.  We had baguettes with ham and cheese for dinner and we pregamed with lots of wine.  We wanted to go to a bar called Karlsbrau but it ended up being closed so we walked to the beach and found a bar called McNolans.  There was a life band there that played great music.  Anndel and I were tired so we went home early and ended up having to run to catch the tram to get back to our hostel!

Monday, April 13th

We woke up and met Meghan and went to the beach for the day.  The beach we were on was a nude beach a couple of the girls decided to go topless for a little for the fun of it.  We stayed at the beach all day but we had to catch our flight to Spain that night so we had to end our time at the beach a little early.  We took the bus to the airport and got there 4 hours early so we just sat around and talked and ate dinner.  The airport had barely anyone in.  Our flight took off around 11:30 pm so we didnt land in Barcelona until around 1 am.  Our flight landed in Terminal C, but the train that we need to take the next morning was in Terminal A so we had to find our way to Terminal A at 3:20 am.  The earliest train to take to Costa Brava was at 6 am so instead of paying for a hostel for 4 hours we decided to save money and sleep in the airport.

Tuesday, April 14th

We got up from sleeping on the floor in the airport and got the train around 6 am.  The train ride took about an 1 and then we got on a bus to get to Costa Brava, Spain.  It took us about a half to walk from the bus station to our hostel.  We checked into our hostel, named Hotel  around noon, put on our swimsuits and got lunch.  We went to a restaurant named Carmens.  The food was really good and really cheap.  After lunch, we headed to the beach.  We decided to go to an outside bar for happy hour and we ordered wine and champagne sangria.  After that we went home and napped and ordered pizza from downstairs.  That night we went out around 12 am.  The roads were bare so we were afraid the we werent going to be able to find anywhere to go.  But after walking for about a half hour we found the strip of clubs.  We went to a club called Temptation because it had all you could drink for 5 euros.  We were basically the only girls and people in the club.  There was a group of 17 year old German boys who were playing soccer came and thought I was 16 but when I told them I was 21 they said I was too old for them hahahah!  We danced for awhile but we decided that the drinks really didnt have alcohol in them so we left.  We went to an arcade and did bumper cars which was so much and after that we went to Burger King for some food.  They kicked us all out cause they were closing so we decided to call it a night and headed home.

Wednesday, April 15th

We woke up around 10 am.  We had breakfast at the hostel and headed to the beach.  The weather wasnt very nice so we decided to have a photo shoot of the cheesiest poses we could think of.  While doing this, the weather cleared up and it turned out to be a beautiful day so we laid out all day.  My friend Brittany had to leave and head back to Rome because her family was coming in, but after she left the rest of us got ready and went out to eat.  The dinner was really nice and we decided to order dessert.  I had some crazy chocolate ice cream thing and it was delicious.  We were really full and tired so we decided to call it an early night and save up our energy for Barcelona, so we went to bed.

Thursday, April 16th

We woke up at 8:30 and checked out of our hostel and got breakfast and headed back to the bus station to head to Barcelona.  It was a beautiful day in Costa Brava so we wanted to get to Barcelona for the weather... atleast that was our idea.  As we got closer and closer to Barcelona, it looked like we were heading into a tornado.  When we first got to Barcelona, it was raining but the day ended up clearing up.  We went to the church Familia Sagra.  It's a church that has been being built for close to a hundred years.  After that, we met up with our guy friends and went to Park Guil.  Park Guil was really cool.  All of the building made you feel as if you were in a fairytale.  It also has the longest park bench in the world, called the Serpent that Guil designed himself.   After walking around Barcelona for awhile, we headed back to our hostel to relax.  We got ready and Kellyn's friend who was studying in Barcelona took us to this really nice tapas restaurant.  Tapas are spanish appetizers.  The food and drinks were delicious!  People in Barcelona dont go out until around 2 am, so since we finished dinner around midnight, we decided to go to a bar before we went to the club.  I was so tired by 2 am that instead of going to the club, I went home and slept.

Friday, April 17th.

We ended up sleeping until around noon since we didnt get home until 3 or so.  But we put on our bathing suits and walked about 20 minutes to the beach.  We met up with our guy friends and laid out and played on the beach all day.  The weather in Barcelona is really funny because it will be beautiful forever and then within 2 minutes it will drop 10 degrees and start down pouring, which is what happened to us.  We headed back to the hostel, walking 40 minutes in the rain and put in a movie and hung out.  We went out to a late dinner and then headed to a club called Catwalk on the beach.  It was really cool and played different music on different floors.  We ended up dancing til really late at night and finally decided to go home after our feet started to hurt too much to dance.

Saturday, April 18th

Today we kind of split up and all decided to do our own thing.  So my friend Liz and I decided to head to the beach and soak up as much sun as possible.  It was a beautiful day and I ended up getting really sunburned because I didnt realize how hot it was since the wind was blowing.  On our way home, we passed a band playing outside and sat and watched them for awhile.  We went back to our hostel and packed up our suitcases since our flight left the next morning at 7 am.  After that we got ready and headed out to eat.  We went to a restaurant recommended by our friends and it was amazing!  I had duck with a sauce that had apples and had the most delicious dessert of my life called, Chocolate is for Lovers.  It had all different kind of chocolate treats which were amazing!  We decided that since we had to get up at 4 to get to the airport on time that we shouldnt go out so we went back to our hostel and put in a movie and hung out with kids in our hostel.

Sunday, April 19th

We got up at 4 am and got a taxi to the airport.  Our flight left Barcelona at 7 am so we got back to Rome around 10 am and once I got back to my apartment, I immediately jumped in my bed and slept basically the rest of the day and night!  It was an amazing spring break! We really lucked out with weather and I had a great time with all my friends!