Planes, trains, buses, taxis, metros...

Going with the flow is the name of the game. No matter how much planning you do, there are some things you just can't control. Like an airport completely shutting down from a few measly inches of snow and hour before your flight takes off.


We had all of our stuff packed and ready to go. After taking a bus and a train, we finally got to the airport 1.5 hours early, practically skipping with excitement. Just as we were walking up to have our boarding passes stamped, my friend, Ron, received an email on his iPhone saying that our flight had been cancelled due to snow. Girona, the airport we were flying into, has a similar climate as Florida. So when they were hit with a whomping 4 inches of snow, all hell broke lose. They closed the airport overnight for all incoming and outgoing flights. I wonder if Tampa would have been prepared for a little frozen rain but can you imagine if they closed every airport for a few inches of snow?! CHAOS.

The rain just added to our patheticness.

So we waited in line for 2 hours to reschedule our flight. Unfortunately, the only flight they had available the next day wasn't until 1 PM. We probably would have opted to reschedule our trip all together if our friend, Harley, hadn't already been in Barcelona since that morning! Her credit card wouldn't work online so she had to book an earlier flight Monday morning. I thought she was going to cry when I called her with the bad news! But she was such a trooper, staying in a hostel in an unfamiliar city for over 24 hours by herself. I would have curled up in a ball and waited right there until my friends came!

But our flight finally made it on Tuesday - and we were welcomed by a fresh blanket of snow in Girona. SNOW! As a born-and-raised Floridian, snow is a big deal for me. While the other 3 Northeners in my group looked at it with disdain, I had to go play in it!


We finally got to Barcelona and worked our way around the Metros until we arrived at Las Ramblas, a huge central road in Barcelona filled with shops, restaraunts and people. We checked into our hostel and finally reunited with Harley, who looked like she was going to cry from happiness at seeing some familiar faces.

Las Ramblas. I can only imagine how pretty it would look any other time of the year: spring with flowers, summer with green, fall with foliage, and Christmas time with lights. Not so pretty now, though.

Since it was already almost 7 PM, we decided to do some exploring while we had some sunlight.

The first cathedral designed by the legendary Gaudi.

CANDY!!!

We didn't make it far so we headed back to the hostel to hang out until it was time for our reservations at the Ice Bar!

It was so cool! (Get it? Just checkin'!) Everything was made of ice, from the walls, to the bar, to the chairs, all ice. It was also -10° C which translates to about 14°F! Thank goodness they suit you up in a parka and gloves before you enter! We also got a free drink served in a glass made of ice! Strawberry daiquiri for me? Yes, please!


The bar was right on the beach so we frolicked in the wavces and got to enjoy the beautiful Barcelona skyline before taking taxis back to the hostel. But not before we found a Burger King!



4 of us may have eaten 2 Whoppers, 2 double cheeseburgers, 2 chicken sandwiches, 16 chicken fingers, and 4 wings in the course of 15 minutes.

It's pretty unlikely.

Maybe.

It's a possibility.

No, it definitely happened.

With our bellies stuffed, we crashed back in the hostel to rest up for our short and sweet hours the next day.

34 days! Woo!