Spain and Beyond

Daily Drena: His Gaudiness

Waking up to a bright sunny morning at 8am was brutal, but I had lots to do today. First was making a list for I needed for my trip to Switzerland. “Hold on”, you say, “I thought you were visiting Spain?” Well, basically, Cory, a friend of ours from back home was planning a hut trip along the Haute Route of France and Switzerland. And he invited me along at the last minute about a week ago; did I mention he was flying out the next morning? So, after initially dismissing the possibility, it took root in my mind as we hadn’t made plans for the following week and I thought, “I can do this…”. So within the next 8 hours, Lorena and I figured out how to pull it off: first, ask my boss for the next week off (a vacation from my vacation), then figure out what gear I need and organize a friend at home to perform a scavenger hunt for all of it (thanks Chris!!!), pack it up, and leave it at the door for Cory to pick up on his way home that night. Luckily, I’m organized enough that I knew where almost everything was, minus my ski bag, which I had Chris crawl all around under the house, but then he found it in the garage, whoops! I was up until 4am to make sure everything was organized and found so hopefully this trip is worth the lost sleep! Okay, so back to the list: That took a little while as I had to compile what I knew Cory was bringing for me, what I had in my possession in Spain, and what was leftover. Thankfully it was a small list, mostly consisting of things I could grab at the grocery store, but we needed to hit a sports store for some odds and ends.

The list completed, it was time to tackle the shower over the toilet oddity. Yes, the shower is literally on top of the toilet. After some contortions (I’m thankful I am a skinny guy), I was able to mostly shower, only bruising my shin on the toilet and turning the water off once. However, after drying off, the bathroom floor is still super wet, so if you need to use the toilet you better be wearing some footwear! Oh, not to mention the accidental turning on of the shower with my elbow while using the toilet with clothes on … An interesting experience, but I think I prefer having enough space in the bathroom to allow a separate shower stall…

So we went shopping and wandered around the city next. We stopped by the Sagrada Familia (Gaudi’s famous church that has been under construction for over 100 years) on the way to the sports store. I had a few things to get here, one of which was a hat/cap for when it was hot out. After trying on the same cap multiple times and Lorena bursting into laughter every time, I decided to purchase it anyway – it was lightweight and functional, albeit not too fashionable. Next we just wandered at random, looking for interesting things in the city. As part of this journey, we came across a number of pelequrias (haircut shops), and I decided to get a much-needed haircut. No English, two shampoos (they shampoo, then cut, then shampoo, then dry as part of a standard haircut), some brief interaction in Spanish, and I emerged sans most of my hair. Both of us slowly getting over the shock of me having such short hair, we headed off to Gaudi’s Park Guell next. We were surprised that part of the gardens (a UNESCO world heritage site) weren’t free, but walked through the section that was free. There were a billion people in the area, and it definitely wasn’t a park to relax in. But there were some interesting cavelike structures made of rock with listeria growing up them.

Having spent the entire afternoon exploring Barcelona, we went to the grocery before home to pack, eat a quick spaghetti dinner, and rush out of the apartment at the last second to head to the airport via metro & train. I arrived with plenty of time (the airport was super dead) for my flight on Swiss airlines. Now, not only was my ticket fairly cheap, but onboard I was given a sandwich made of cheese produced in northeast Switzerland (it was delicious), a handful of Swiss chocolates, and a drink. All on a flight that was only an hour and ten minutes long, left early, and arrived early. Color me impressed. I arrived in Geneva around 10:00 pm and found my hostel for the night after wandering around lost for a little while.