el puente

December 6, 1978. A day to be remembered, and definitely is remembered as well as celebrated here in Spain. On this day the new constitution was signed, and Spain officially became a democracy. This was, of course, shortly following the death of the dictator Francisco Franco who had turned the country on itself and made itself weak. This holiday is known as "El Puente", or "The Bridge", from old Spain to new Spain and results in 2 days off of school and work for the country of Spain.

For MY puente I took quite a half-baked plan of visiting Barcelona and made it a reality with my friend Alex from Boston. We got bus tickets and decided we would figure it out when we got there. I attempted to book a hostel, but these ignorant bastards would not answer their phone neither when I called from Logrono nor while in Barcelona. This resulted in much walking about the city to find what was apparently the sister hostel of the ignorant ones who had either changed their phone, or just refused to answer it. Alex and I had a brief run in with 2 other girls from our program who took the same bus as us to Barcelona. Rowyna and Sarah, whom we did not see outside of the bus because they hate our guts, or because I just simply don't use my phone enough.

The hostel was a monster of a place, with 7 floors, a bar and cool art on the walls of each floor. However, it was a bit capitalist as you had to pay for most everything there, and pushed it's facilities and bar on the people rather than allowing people to communally congregate for drinks and such. This seemed to irk some of the people, and I understood it, but after waking up in a confused panic to reserve myself another nights' stay after a long night before, I just reserved the rest of my nights there. Starting things off nice, we were greeted in our room of 12 by a large group of American students playing some drinking games (illegally according to the rules of the hostel) and stuck together all night. This cute young group of Spanish girls convinced us to buy passes to a club from them as they were cheaper from them than at the door, and the cause was to help them have their graduation trip. Safe, as my friend Ed would say.

I spent the second day in the Catalunian city ambling about Las Ramblas and went to the large fresh food market known as La Boqueria. Anything and everything you can imagine is sold here in vast quantity as you squeeze in and out of shoulder-to-shoulder crowds. Next was a cathedral that has some similar spires to those of the Sagrada Familia. The beach followed, and amazingly enough the weather was magnificent for December. I found Alex, who had been on the beach for a long while, took my shirt off (it was indeed that warm) and relaxed. We watched these two dogs fight over a frisbee forever which was absolutely hilarious and at least 15 other people within a 40 meter radius were watching a laughing as well. We had a quite another long night after going to a Franz Ferdinand concert. Running into a group of randoms, I found a girl from North Carolina, Durham to be exact, and the rest from other states, Australia and England. They were pretty wild and we walked in circles for hours trying to find a party.

I saw the Sagrada Familia Cathedral the next day, and the Gaudi parks before Alex and I found our way to the bus station to catch the Logrono bus. The 6 hour ride back went by reasonably quick, and ultimately it felt great to be back in Logrono again. Barcelona is so big and full of energy, and I enjoy this, but I truly enjoy the simplicity of Logrono and knowing where I like to go. I also find it much more fun to visit a place where I have someone to take me in and show me around. Barcelona is beautiful, the weather was nicely out of season, and the fiesta was ever present, but comfort is something that I have learned to appreciate.