Post-Break Adventures

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Hola Todos!


So now that I've finally finished with the total update from Spring Break (check the Italy picture entry again, I added another 150ish pics since first publishing it), I figured I'd update you all on what I've been doing in the few weeks since then.


Just as all of Barcelona returned from break, it seemed like everywhere else in Europe was just beginning theirs. The evening that I returned from Italy I already had a group of friends in town, and so I played tour guide for the next few days. That ended up being really fun, not only because I got to see people from back home and meet their friends from their programs, but because I had been away from Barca for so long that I was just happy to be checking out all the familiar sights again - plus, I just like showing people around because it makes me realize just how well I've gotten to know the city. Just as somebody left to go explore another part of Europe a new friend would arrive, so I had my hands full for the whole week showing people the things you only know from living in a city instead of reading a guide book. That, plus work, but whatever we always have work to do.

The weekend after break (March 28-30) our program had a bunch of activities for us. On Saturday we had to meet at 8:30am to take buses to the wine producing region Penedes, which was 45 minutes or so outside the city. We spent the morning at the Codorniu vineyard, which is one of the largest producers of cava (Spanish champagne) in Europe. We learned how until the 1970s it was just called champagne because it was produced exactly like champagne, fermenting in the bottle and then adding sugars that would ferment again(creating the bubbles). It was around that time, though, that the French officials declared champagne could only come from Champagne, so Codorniu had to re-name its product - they chose cava, which means cave, because of the facility's extensive wine cellars. These are the largest in the world - we had a little motorized train tour of them and didn't see nearly the whole thing. Below the production equipment on the ground level, there are 4 levels of wine cellars that were excavated way back in the 1850s. Some of the rows are literally half a kilometer long - the tour guide told us there are over 30 km of corridors total. Many of them were lined with old bottles in racks, showing how they used to prepare the bottles before removing the sediment inside. It was really enlightening to see how making cava is so different than producing normal wine. Of course, the tour ended with a tasting - I bought a bottle that I'm bringing home, because that stuff was really good and I usually hate champagne.

From there we went to Sitges, which is the coastal town I wrote about earlier when we went down for a night for Carnaval. We hung out there for a few hours, wandering around the town and taking naps on the beach. Not much to tell from there.

After Sitges, we boarded the bus and headed further into Penedes to go to a more traditional wine tasting. This was at a small vineyard, where we saw how the grapes were grown and harvested, and then saw how they were turned into wine. The guide (who owned the vineyard) then showed us how the way they produce red wine is different from the process for white, which in turn are both different from a rosado. After that we finally got to the tasting part, where we learned the differences between younger and older wines for red and white, and what we should be trying to taste and smell when we uncork a new bottle. It was really fun, and now that I'm finally 21 I can't wait to put it to use at a restaurant back home.

The next morning our program sponsored a boat cruise off the the Costa Brava (north of Barcelona). The bad thing about this was the time - 8:30am again, but also the first day of daylight savings time for us so it really felt like 7:30. We sailed up the coast a bit in a big catamaran and stopped at a couple of small harbors. It was nice in the sun but a little cold when it was windy, but that didn't stop us from jumping in the water... which we soon found out was 58 degrees F. Needless to say, most of us were not in that long. Everyone had a great time - they gave us complete control over the stereo, so we had 8 or 9 iPods to choose from to provide our soundtracks for the day. That, plus a few of us brought drinks with us to share - not really sure if we were supposed to do that or not, but c'mon, it was a big group of 21 year olds out on a boat in the sun all day, they had to know we'd plan something.

The next week passed by with not much going on... another friend was in town for a night so we got dinner, coupla presentations here and there for classes... and then came this past weekend (April 4-6). We had been trying to figure out what to do for this weekend for a long time, because it was basically our last chance to travel outside of the city before the program ends (which is just an awful, disgusting fact that I still refuse to recognize). A group of us were thinking a trip down to Malaga, but it ended up looking expensive so we decided not to go. Instead, a group of 17 of us went to this campsite right next to a mountain called Pedraforca in the Pyrennees, about 2 hours north-northwest of the city. We booked three cabins (none of us really have the gear to "rough it" like we normally would) and at the time we were under the impression that we could take a bus from Barca to this town called Baga, and from there take another bus to the campsite. However, we found out that this was not true. Instead of forsaking the whole weekend, though, we decided to rent cars. I know, I know, driving in a foreign country has its risks, but it turned out to be no problem at all - our vans came with GPS devices, so we didn't need to worry about taking wrong turns or anything like that. We got up there around 3pm or so on Friday - while some people went to the store to pick up burgers, hot dogs, chicken, other food and drinks (the cabins had charcoal grills!), others of us stayed behind and just chilled by the cabins (the 3 they gave us were all right next to each other). That ended up being a very fun night, because everyone was loose and having a good time, and the weather was great. I was happy to play a couple games of beirut and then work the grill for the rest of the night, eventually cooking up some chicken for which I had to whip up a marinade out of red wine, oregano and salt - I love just experimenting cooking with what's available, especially when it turns out delicious like the chicken did haha.

The next morning we drove the short distance over to the mountain and began our climb - check out the pics that'll follow because the scenery is truly breathtaking. We were right in the middle of the mountain range, so we were surrounded by snow-capped peaks and deep green valleys. We started to go up the mountain on one trail and actually needed to turn around at one point because the path was blocked by a frozen river/iced rocks, and we really didn't feel like slipping and falling 100 feet. Eventually though we made it around the other side of the mountain and climbed almost all the way to the top - I'll see if I can photo-shop an arrow into a pic of the mountain so that you can see just how high we were. I had an absolute blast doing this - for the final phase of our ascent, we were climbing up a big area that was mostly all rubble and little stones, but then at times we were climbing almost vertically up some of the bigger rocks. The views were spectacular, and I just love climbing like that. Even the trip down was fun, because we were pretty much just skiing down the stones (think pebbles like in a playground, only with 2-3 inch big rocks). We partied again at the cabins that night, and then headed back to Barcelona in the morning. Sunday was a necessary relaxation day, and the weather complied (70 and sunny) so I spent the day down by the beach or in the park. What a great place to live. I'm gonna miss it a ton.

Well, that catches you up with everything. I hope everyone's taking full advantage of watching the Celts dominate everyone (thank God I'm back in time for the playoffs), and that you got to see what evidently was one of the greatest NCAA finals ever (3am start time here, figures). I'm about to start watching the Sox Opening Day celebration (thank you, MLBtv) - hope this finds everyone well, miss you all, and I'll be seeing you soon (yikes).

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