Adventures in Spain…Otra Vez

Barcelona is one of my favorite cities in Spain, perhaps the favorite. Well, I take that back. I think at the very least it’s tied with San Sebastian, which I’m sure you’re all sick of me raving about. Well, just wait until it actually gets nice outside and I visit more often! Haha.

But I digress.

This weekend was a long weekend in my comunidad autonoma of Castilla y Leon because this weekend was the celebration of Carnaval, the Latin version of Mardi Gras and basically the celebration of gluttony and sinfulness before Lent begins. So for whatever reason Castilla y Leon decided that we needed a few days off to celebrate this, so I had a good long weekend – five days! – and I took advantage of it to head to Barcelona. My friend Jennis’s father owns an apartment in Barca (imagine that with the little curly-cue thing below the “c”, like you might see in some French word), which she graciously let us stay in, and I got really cheap train tickets bought in advance.

We all arrived in our various ways on Friday – me by overnight train, Jennis in an airplane from the States, and Lucy on an early train from Logrono – and just spent the weekend wandering around the city and exploring its many neighborhoods. We never got far enough away from Jennis’s place to need to use the Metro, but we walked around her neighborhood (Born), as well as the Raval, along the Barceloneta beach and up and down the Passeig de Gracia and las Ramblas, two major streets in the city. And I have to say, the weather cooperated beautifully, allowing for us to spend a few meals and some coffee-time on sidewalk patios, SUCH a lovely luxury and hopefully a sign that spring is coming soon!

I’d like to say that I can remember exactly what we did or that it was overwhelmingly interesting, but there’s something about just leisurely spending your time exploring a city without any real plans that is really pleasant. I’d already seen a lot of really touristy, museum-y things in Barcelona, so this weekend plan was perfect. And to that point, I’ll share with you some of my favorite pictures of the weekend. I don’t have many, but I hope you enjoy them! Oh, and actually if you want to see more, go visit Lucy’s blog, as she is always way better at taking photos than I am!

Barcelona streetlight

Me and Jennis in front of Barcelona's Arc du Triomphe

Lucy and Me preparing to go out

Catedral de Santa Maria del Mar

Narrow street in El Raval

And the next time that I write, it will probably be to tell you about my mom and aunts’ visit here and all the exciting and crazy things that we did – I AM SO EXCITED!! I hope you all have a wonderful last week of February.

I think it’s fully legit to say that I have no earthly clue where my life is heading at the moment. Sounds pretty dramatic, no? Well, probably. I guess I have a general earthly clue: I like Spain, it’s nice, and I could see myself staying here for awhile longer, but ultimately I am still enamored with the idea of moving to SF soon and living a kickin’ 20-something life with some of my favorite people. But in terms of the details and specifics that get me back to that point, I’m pretty much winging it.

Case in point: my flight back to the States. Originally, I was coming home in late June. Then, over Christmas break, I changed it to be coming home in early September in order to spend more time here and potentially see where things were going with The Boy, only to be told by said Boy that he really wished I could have talked to him first because he’d like to come visit me in the States and the only time he can do that is in August. So then I tried changing my frequent flyer-mile ticket to the end of July, thought I would be successful, and ended up effed by frequent-flyer-mile lameness. And just as I was getting used to the idea of staying for the summer, miraculously more flights opened up and I was able to change it for the end of July. Success! Except The Boy isn’t sure if he can come anymore due to la crisis. Awesome. I clearly do not fault him for this or believe that he’s doing it to purposely make my life a little more crazy, but it’s just inconvienent.

New thing I am learning #1: even in a relationship, particularly one in which you don’t know how things are going to work out logistically in six months, do the things that will make you happy regardless of the outcome and work around the details when you get there.

So, I’m home this summer! While this makes me really happy and it makes me even happier that The Boy will possibly be able to come visit me in August, this is just one of many things I have going on in my brain these days. I’m pretty sure my boyfriend thinks I am a little insane for how much I plan in advance (ha, pretty sure; no, try being told “estas loca” when you think two weeks in advance or more is an okay time to start thinking about lodging in a place, for example), and I am definitely the first to admit to you that I like my cosas in order for my personal sanity. If that means planning an Easter-weekend place to stay two months in advance, then so be it! If that means I want to know where I’m going to be spending the weekend after next in order to mentally prepare, I am all for it!

Thing #2 I am learning: live in the moment, person who loves to plan things!  My life as it stands right now has no real easy way of working itself out. It’s going to require a lot of thinking and organizing at some point, assuming I stay with this boyfriend of mine, figuring out how I stay here for awhile longer or how he gets there in a legal way, all of which hurts my head just in theory. Plus, who really makes those decisions after 4 months of knowing someone? That seems a bit insane to me; hence, live in the moment. It is incredibly challenging for me, enjoying what I have now without worrying about the consequences or decisions that have to be made in the future, but I’m learning. And it’s kind of liberating at times – I am being the procrastinator I never was!

And even though she may not know this (actually, lies, she probably does), my Santiago-dwelling friend is certainly providing a lot of inspiration for me: it CAN be done, this international relationship thing, but you have to think creatively and be committed to making it happen. I like that thought, assuming that I have to make a similar decision come summertime.  And as she keeps reminding me, I’ll try not to count those chickens before it’s time to see how they hatch.

For right now, I think my new education is keeping me quite busy enough. No sense worrying about what may or may not happen in the future, right? And just to show how much I’ve learned, I’m off to take advantage of the surprisingly gorgeous February weather, because who knows what’ll happen tomorrow?