Barcelona

The story of Barcelona really begins with me trying to get there. Which also happens to be the next segment on my bus disasters. So I go to the bus station in Granada to get a ticket to go to Barcelona and my credit card was declined. This wouldn't have been such a problem if any of my other cards had worked or if I'd had enough cash on me to pay for it. Neither was the case. A bit upset, I then went to the Granada airport to see if I could get a cheap flight. The flights were twice the amount of a bus ticket. More upset now than before, given that my flight back to Denmark was leaving from Barcelona, I returned to the bus station and tried calling the numbers on the back of my card. None of those numbers worked. That is when I had a breakdown and called mom. Mom called the credit card office from home and we got it all sorted out thankfully. So I left Barcelona at 11:30pm. The bus ride ended up being 11 and a half hours. Which was not so much fun. So finally it's morning and the bus stops. The bus driver announces Barcelona Tarragona. I assume Tarragona is a reference to the station we're stopped at. It's not. Tarragona is a whole other town 5 valleys over from Barcelona. I got off. Then, when I finally found out that I wasn't in Barcelona, I had to take a train. Finally I got to Barcelona and after getting lost a couple of times, I found my hostel. Though I did have one funnt thing happen on the bus ride to Barcelona. This woman sitting across from me asked me, in Spanish, at one of our stops if I was travelling with a man. When I said no, I was travelling by myself, she was shocked. Apparently this is not done.
Not knowing any of the tourist attraction in Barcelona, I ended up just wandering the city. I found this one main strip that, had I had any money on me, would have bankrupted me. It was full of cool little stores, street performers and outdoor pet shops. The pet shops sold, among other pets, duckling and chicks as well as full grown chickens and ducks. Also a lot of turtles. I had a ton of fun. One of the street performers, the on dressed in the Greco-Roman style, was awesome. He asked me where I was from and when I said Canada he remarked that it's cold there. I agreed. Then he reached into his little bowl-thing and pulled out a glass-rock thing that had a snowflake engraved into it and gave it to me. It's my Barcelona souvenir.
The weather in Barcelona was beautiful. The day I had to wander it it was +16 and sunny. So naturally I was wearing a tank top. Apparently this is not natural in Spain. I got strange looks all day and there were people wearing winter coats. Heavy winter coats. I was sweating. On the plus side I got a little bit of a tan.
One of the girls who was staying in the room with me was from Chile but she's been living in Paris for the last couple of years so she speaks French. I spent the afternoon with her, where I spoke French because she spoke very little English, and we went up to the old Olympic Stadium and giant castley museum. I got some great pictures from there and we had a lot of fun.
So on my way back to the hostel, I had to get up at 4am so I wanted to get some sleep beforehand, I get off the Metro at my station. As I'm walking I notice 2 familiar figures. Bella and Monique, 2 Australian girls who'd stayed in the same hostel as me in Granada. The last time I'd seen them they'd been on a bus for Valencia. The three of us were shocked and amused at the coincidence of us meeting up in a city the size of Barcelona. I asked them which hostel they're staying in, saying it can't be Graffitti, which is the hostel I was staying in. Yes it was. So I led the way back to our hostel. As we go, they tell me how they had just spent the last 4 hours in a Spanish Police Station. Apparently while they were eating, some guys stole their bags but Bella managed to stop them. Which was a good thing because their passports were in there. So when an undercover cop arrested the guys who'd tried to steal their backpacks, Monique and Bella had been forced to go down to the station to fill out an incidence report. The only problem was that neither of them speaks Spanish.
So the next day I woke up early to head back to Denmark. I had to catch a bus from Barcelona to Girona to catch my flight. What I didn't know, but soon found out, was that the Metro doesn't run that early. So I tried to walk since it was only a few Metro stops from where I was staying. I managed not to get lost but when it was 25 minutes until my bus, the last one that would get me to the airport before my flight was due to leave, was supposed to depart, I flagged down a taxi since I didn't know how far away the bus station was. It was a good thing I did. I'd never have made it on time on foot. So after panicking and thinking I was going to miss the bus and thus miss my flight, I finally got to the airport and was able to get back to Denmark. Other than a mild misadventure with, yes, a bus, I got back to RUC without much difficulty. And I'm glad to be back. Here at least I know how things work.

Granada

And so here is the story of my adventures in Granada and the first of my bus disasters. I caught my flight out of London and got to Malaga no problem. It was trying to get from Malaga to Granada that the problems started. So I missed the first city bus from the airport to Malaga proper as it came early. The next one came late and so I ended up missing the 9pm bus to Granada. And the next one ended up leaving the bus station at 12:30am. So I ended up stuck in the bus station for a couple hours. During my stay I actually ended up having this huge converstaion with this one guy who spoke English. Well first he spoke Spanish to me. I was reading one of my books, thank god I'm a bibliophile and bought 2 in England or I'd have gone crazy from boredom, and he asked me in Spanish what language my book was in. I actually understood this as the Spanish I learned from my one class in Grade 10 was slowly coming back and so I replied English in Spanish. Apparently when I say English in Spanish I say it was a Malagian accent, or at least that's what the guy said because he assumed I was from Malaga and started spouting off Spanish. I had no idea whta he said and just told him I didn't speak Spanish. Then we started talking about learning French in Canada and being bilingual. It was random but fun.
Anyway so I finally get to Granada at 2:30am. Fun fact about Granada, the city buses don't start running again until 6am. The bus I needed didn't show up until 6:30am. So I spent 4 hours in the Granada bus station. Lucky I had my books. So I finally find my hostel, after getting lost and eventually just taking a taxi cause I was tired and frustrated. I got 3 hours sleep and then went out to go find Shannon.
After wandering the city and being unable to find the number of Shannon's friend, I decided to head to the museum we were supposed to be going to. I got lost. I ended up climbing halfway up and a quarter of the way around this one mountain because I thought that's where I had been given directions. It was not. On the plus side I got some awesome pictures of the surrounding mountains. I only realized my mistake when I found the hippy camps up there. I climbed down and it was then that Shannon phoned me and we were able to meet up, which was good.
So finally together we headed to the Centero de Ciences. A giant science centre. It was really cool. And see, I did something educational so I get bonus points. Me and Shan went around to a bunch of the exhibits. My favourite was the birds of prey. They had so many of them! I also found the Antartica one funny, mostly due to the fact they had this special freezer room to test how you handle cold. So me and Shannon go in and the thing's only -10. I started laughing. I mean -10? Really? For Antartica? So we proved we are Canadian through and through by laughing at their puny attempt at cold.
After that we went for dinner at this cool buffet place and the out for tapas. Tapas is this Spanish thing where you buy a drink and get food with it. Every time you buy a drink you get different food. We went to this really cheap place. Tapas was only 2 euros. And you get like 3 kinds of food. It was really cool. Then we went shopping and eventually Shan went back home and I went back to my hostel. Granada was a lot of fun and so pretty!
Tomorrow Barecelona, so tune in next day, same exchange blog, same exchange girl.

London

So I'm finally back in Denmark after the bus ordeal from hell. But I'll come to that later as it wasn't until I got to Spain that the ordeal began. Anyway I'm doing a post a city so that it's at least demi-organized. That and it's easier for people to read. No sense in forcing you people to wade through a post the size of short novel.
I got into London at night and went immediately to my hostel. At least I tried to. I got lost. 3 times. I spent over an hour wandering around the neighbourhood that my hostel was in. Fun fact, it may have been called Prince's Square but it was in no way a square. And half-way down several of the streets that made up the so-called square the name would change. Eventually I did find it. Since it was late all I did was buy some food to make for dinner and went to bed. I have pictures of the hostel. It was the middle of the three for niceness. While it was sketchy it wasn't too bad.
So I really only had one full day in London so I decided to actually be a tourist for once and hit up all the attractions. So the first place I went was Buckingham Palace. It was pretty cool. I couldn't go in as there was a an event of some sort going on. All these Man in dress uniforms and women with the big fancy hats kept showing up in cars and there were cops all over the place. So I only took some pictures from outside.
Since it was morning and after Buckingham Palace I was actually hungry I got back on the Tube and got off at a station that I though would be a shopping district so I could grab something to eat. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it, I end up near Big Ben. So I took some pictures and kept going since I was still hungry. Then I found the Parliament buildings. And then Westminster Abbey. At this point I just gave up on food and wandered around taking pictures of all the attractions. At one point I ended up behind a French school tour group which I found kind of funny.
Finished with that part of London I went off to find London Bridge. And yes I was singing London Bridge is falling down to myself during my search. I found it and the Tower of London. Also food. And since I'm cool, and I love it, I got fish and chips. Because, come on, I'm in England. So after lunch, it was around 12 at this point, I went into the Tower. It was the only tourist place I went in to. And man was it ever cool!
They had a special kids' program on while I was there, all about knights. So there were a bunch of kids running around completeing 'quests' which was adorable. As an added plus there were guards at the Tower so I finally got a proper picture of one.
I saw pretty much everything in the Tower, even the Crown Jewels despite the psychotically huge line. The knight that I took a picture of called my milady when I asked if I could. They also had guides dressed up as Yeomen. I didn't go on a tour though. I prefer looking at things at my own pace. It was near the end that I found the worst place for me. I found the place where you could dress up. So in a style reminiscent of the Viking Ship Museum I dressed up Tudor style. The best part was that my clothes matched the colours of the dress. Clearly I was meant to wear it.
So after I was done being all touristy I decided to wander around. Then I came up with the brilliant idea of finding Charles a Doctor Who toy. 3 hours. I spent 3 hours looking for one. I went to the 5-story toy store and they had no good ones. Well no good ones that would fit in my luggage. The Dalek voice changing helmet looked pretty cool. I even went to Harrod's. No luck. Though I did find a book for myself. I ended up buying 2 books in England and it was a good thing I did. I needed them during all my bus misadventures in Spain. I did eventually find some good Doctor Who toys in the airport on my way to Malaga. But they were way too expensive. I love Charles but I'm not spending 80$ on a toy for him. So I came back Doctor Who-less.
The first picture is a picture of the hostel room I was in. There were 6 of us in it. There was barely enough room to stand. That night I discovered something that's a lot of fun to do and I preceded to do in every hostel afterwards. Tell the other guests, most of whom are European, what winter's like in Canada. They are horrified and have great difficulty imagining that it can be like that. I always find their reactions hilarious. Mind you I was talking to a guy from Australia and he described their summer. Ergh. I couldn't take that kind of heat. So I guess it works both ways. Anyway that's an account of my London adventures. Either later tonight or tomorrow I'll post the section on Granada.
Oh, all the pictures of me in London and Barcelona, with the exception of the Tudor dress-up one, are for mom. Because she got upset after I came back from France the first time with no pictures of me in France. There you go mom. Pictures of me overseas.

Lack of RAs, the Satanic Verses and Travelling

So I have to say, one of the things I've really noticed since I've been here has been that fact that there are no RAs in our residence. All we have is the one Custodian/Handyman. Other than that we're left to our own devices. It gives a certain sense of lawlessness. I mean we had a party in one of the kitchens and it could be heard throughout the building. There was a good 50 people there at all times and more came and left during the night. That kind of thing couldn't happen at Bishop's. The RAs or Security would break it up. That was another thing. You can totally drink outside which is awesome. I'm so used to Security watching for you drinking and even in town the cops don't care if you're drinking. Which is good. Because booze in the bars is ridiculously expensive. Especially when beer's so cheap in the grocery stores.
Today was the first meeting of my group for out project on the Satanic Verses. The book's snot bad just incredibly dense. It took me 2 and a half hours to read 90 pages. It's kind of interesting but you have to be prepared to wade through the damn thing. Oh well. I suppose it'll just make doing a project on it easier. Our supervisor, who I have yet to meet, apparently said we could compare it to the movie the 12 Monkeys. I have heard of this movie but never seen it. I'm not going to lie, when I heard 12 Monkeys I thought of Iron Monkey which is a kung-fu comedy movie. Which made me laugh.
Well next week I'm going travelling for the first time. I'm supposed to meet up with Shannon in Spain but that may not work out after all. I did find a flight from Billun in Denmark to London for a total of about $20 Canadian and so I figured even if I don't go to Spain I'll still go to London as I've never been. I mean how could I pass up a $20 flight? And if Spain doesn't work out I may also head down to Venice because I found a cheap flight there from London. I might just airport hop my way back to Denmark. We'll see. I'll be missing a class or two but that's no big deal. The work is ridiculously easy. I have 2 or 4 4oo word essay-things for the one class and that's it. That's my entire workload for the class. I'm pretty excited about going away though this does mean I desperately need to do a couple of loads of laundry as well as clean up my room. Oh well. LONDON!

Sickness, USA Night and School Starts

Alright, first off I need to apologize for not updating for a while. To be honest I forgot about the blog. That and I've been pretty sick the last week. I'm getting better though. Hurray for cough medicine!
So the international club had USA night at this bar/concert hall/cafe called Gimle and since Marie and Katelynn signed up I decided to sign up to help out as well. It was actually a lot of fun. Me and Trang picked out the music and I ended up DJing all night. I would have danced but no one came to relieve me, damn them! But it was still a lot of fun. I got a bunch of requests and I got to pick out the music so it was good music for dancing. After the food, I played Baby Got Back, Hey Ya and Stand Up to get everyone to start dancing and man did it ever work well. We had a good turnout and even though Barrett forgot most of the decorations in her office it was still cool. The fact that the powerpoint slideshow wouldn't work was a bonus in my books though Barrett had a flip out about it. I wouldn't mind DJing another one of those parties!
This Monday school started which was fun. Not. It seems RUC screwed up my admittance nicely. I ended up in Cultural Encounters for the first part of the morning, which I soon realized was not where I was supposed to be. So I went to the international office and they sent me to Building 3 with the names of 2 secretaries. The secretaries, Gette and Dorthea, were both very nice and everntually found out where I was supposed to be. I'm in the Humanities Basic Studies level. I was then asked if I wanted to stay there because it's at the 1st year level. I was like, BONUS easier work. I already made friends with one of the girls in my program. Her name's Isolde but her nickname's Oly. She's really nice. Gave me a list of people I don't want to have in the same group as me for my group project. We're both in the same group. It's going to be a project on a book called the Satanic Verses. I also looked into the project on Brave New World. Actually the teacher said I could do an independent project if I wanted but I decided I'd rather do a group project instead. It'll be more fun this way. So I finally have my school stuff somewhat organized. Hurray for me! Anyway I've got to go to class now. I'll post more later. Including pictures of USA Night and my aborted trip to Copenhagen.