Nov 3rd
This week started on our last day in Spain. The moment I got on the boat I missed Barcelona. I missed the beach, the skate spots, the people and just the overall city. I was leaving the city I had grown to love the most. I felt as if I was leaving home, but I was off for adventure, due back in a couple of years.
Friday was my last day. I went to my Spanish class as normal, went home like normal and ate lunch like normal. It was a pretty normal day until we got to the ferry terminal. We waited there an hour and then got on the boat. We had a room on the boat, just like a hotel room, it was very cool. I sat outside for about 3 hours after the boat was supposed to leave, the where still unloading and loading trucks on the boat. My mom and step-father came and told me to watch the kids. So I went back and ate a little while they were sleeping. I got up to go to the bathroom and something nearly knocked me down, I knew the boat had left (four hours late). Mom and James came back and James and I went out and watched us sail away from Barcelona. We went in and went to bed in the room that wouldn’t stop vibrating and rocking back and forth.
With no window in our room we couldn’t tell what time it was. Well it was ten in the morning so we all got up and got ready. Showering on the rocking boat was a little bit of a challenge. After we were all ready we went up on deck. I was scared for a second not seeing any land, after all I’ve never not seen land, but I quickly got over that and realized the beauty of it. It was all just blue. It’s indescribable. The boat then announced that we would be arriving at 20 instead of 15. We were freaking out, we would miss our train and our hostel would probably cancel us. Mom sent out several e-mails to our friends, and thankfully someone called our hostel and told them we would be arriving late. We calmed down and spent our time wondering around, looking out at Corsica and Sardinia the islands that we were passing. There was a play area that the kids played in whenever it was open. The kids made friends with some other kids that must have been Hindu or Muslim. They had a lot of fun. At 19 hundred we were kicked out of our cabin and had to wait in the lobby. We got off and waited for our bus. When we got to the train station us and three other English speaking people tried to figure out which train we should get on, there were two trains to the same place. The one we were waiting for was 15 minuets late so we got on the other one. It ended up that the one we were on had to let the late one pass. One of the people we were talking to left the train to look at the schedule and the train left without him. After the train we followed the directions to our hostel but the office was not in the same place as the hostel, someone drove us to the hostel from the office after we paid. We went right to bed.
We got up fairly early I’m not sure what time and went straight to the Vatican. When I walked in I was thinking about it being the smallest country in the world. We walked around and finally settle town to see the pope. He gave a speech in Latin and then greeted everyone in English Germen Italian and Spanish. We left and ate at a restaurant we ate outside and almost froze. But the food was amazing. We then left for the coliseum; unfortunately it was closed so we just walked around it and around the other ruins. I saw some ruins that I wanted to go to the next day so I refused to go to the Sistine chapel.
We got up early found out that the coliseum was 8 euros and left. My family went to the chapel and I went to the coliseum. When I got there I found out it was 11 euros. I was so sad that I couldn’t go in. but I walked along the road and found an entrance to the other ruins. It was so, so, so amazing. The random pillars the still standing buildings and even the almost completely destroyed ones all of it was so amazing. There were large tablets with writing, sculptures, carvings, arches, houses, everything. I made friends with a cat that was there. It followed me around after I pet it, but it didn’t leave with me. When I got home we carried our entire luggage to the train and got on a train to Venice. On the train we got free soft drinks and “biscuits” or cookies. We were so confused, nothings free in Europe. The kids also met a friend from Colorado on the train. We got into Venice at night. We got lost I Venice trying to find our hostel. It took us at least two hours. When we finally found it we had to stay outside while mom got us checked in. the hostel ended up being across the square. We spent a couple of minuets trying the key; it ended up being the wrong one even though mom was sure it was right. The room was all wood with four beds, nice and comfortable. We were hungry so we went and tried to find a restaurant. We ate at a bar/restaurant and I got a nice, big, tasty cheese pizza. We went back to our room and went to sleep.
The next day we just wondered around Venice. We rode boat busses, and just hopped around the city. Venice has taxi boats, police boats, ambulance boats and pretty much every kind of car you could think of the had as a boat, limos, semi boats, everything. When we ate lunch I tried the things called potato pancakes, there’s no way to describe them, just delicious. We wondered around a bit more and got into a debate on weather mom and James should ride the gondola boats, they were 80 euros. They decided not to go because it wouldn’t be romantic worrying about the money. So we got 20 euros off of mom and ran off to buy her a present. We got her earrings and a necklace. We went back to get our stuff and ate at the same restaurant as the night before. I had the same pizza and it was equally delicious. We left and got on a “sleeper train” as the kids called it, to Vienna (Wein), Austria.
When we got into Vienna we put our stuff in lockers and took the metro to a museum. At the museum was my mom’s and James’s favorite painting, The Kiss by Gustav Klimpt. Then when we were leaving to find a tram someone walked up behind us and in English said the next train wasn’t for 20 minuets and he had a nice restaurant that we could eat at. We gave in but told the guy we were vegans. No problem, I make you something vegan!” he said, and he did. We let him order for us and we got many salads, soups and other vegan Greek dishes. Then at the en just to fill us up even more we got a large desert plate and tea, it was so good. But when we got the bill it was 80 euros. “There’s your gondola ride” I said, but my mom said it was much better. We wondered around Vienna until dark. We felt perfectly safe in the ark for some reason. We decided to leave a little early for the train station to get on another sleeper to Romania.
We woke up two stops away from Segesvár, our stop. We got ready and when we got off we were greeted by a freezing cold wind and a warm welcome from Eva. On the way to the village we stopped in a town and got some winter gear: gloves, and hats. We got to the village but our house was to cols and we accidentally smoked it up. So we went to Eva’s for the rest of the day. It was nice and warm when we got back.
It was so nice to be back home.
Friday was my last day. I went to my Spanish class as normal, went home like normal and ate lunch like normal. It was a pretty normal day until we got to the ferry terminal. We waited there an hour and then got on the boat. We had a room on the boat, just like a hotel room, it was very cool. I sat outside for about 3 hours after the boat was supposed to leave, the where still unloading and loading trucks on the boat. My mom and step-father came and told me to watch the kids. So I went back and ate a little while they were sleeping. I got up to go to the bathroom and something nearly knocked me down, I knew the boat had left (four hours late). Mom and James came back and James and I went out and watched us sail away from Barcelona. We went in and went to bed in the room that wouldn’t stop vibrating and rocking back and forth.
With no window in our room we couldn’t tell what time it was. Well it was ten in the morning so we all got up and got ready. Showering on the rocking boat was a little bit of a challenge. After we were all ready we went up on deck. I was scared for a second not seeing any land, after all I’ve never not seen land, but I quickly got over that and realized the beauty of it. It was all just blue. It’s indescribable. The boat then announced that we would be arriving at 20 instead of 15. We were freaking out, we would miss our train and our hostel would probably cancel us. Mom sent out several e-mails to our friends, and thankfully someone called our hostel and told them we would be arriving late. We calmed down and spent our time wondering around, looking out at Corsica and Sardinia the islands that we were passing. There was a play area that the kids played in whenever it was open. The kids made friends with some other kids that must have been Hindu or Muslim. They had a lot of fun. At 19 hundred we were kicked out of our cabin and had to wait in the lobby. We got off and waited for our bus. When we got to the train station us and three other English speaking people tried to figure out which train we should get on, there were two trains to the same place. The one we were waiting for was 15 minuets late so we got on the other one. It ended up that the one we were on had to let the late one pass. One of the people we were talking to left the train to look at the schedule and the train left without him. After the train we followed the directions to our hostel but the office was not in the same place as the hostel, someone drove us to the hostel from the office after we paid. We went right to bed.
We got up fairly early I’m not sure what time and went straight to the Vatican. When I walked in I was thinking about it being the smallest country in the world. We walked around and finally settle town to see the pope. He gave a speech in Latin and then greeted everyone in English Germen Italian and Spanish. We left and ate at a restaurant we ate outside and almost froze. But the food was amazing. We then left for the coliseum; unfortunately it was closed so we just walked around it and around the other ruins. I saw some ruins that I wanted to go to the next day so I refused to go to the Sistine chapel.
We got up early found out that the coliseum was 8 euros and left. My family went to the chapel and I went to the coliseum. When I got there I found out it was 11 euros. I was so sad that I couldn’t go in. but I walked along the road and found an entrance to the other ruins. It was so, so, so amazing. The random pillars the still standing buildings and even the almost completely destroyed ones all of it was so amazing. There were large tablets with writing, sculptures, carvings, arches, houses, everything. I made friends with a cat that was there. It followed me around after I pet it, but it didn’t leave with me. When I got home we carried our entire luggage to the train and got on a train to Venice. On the train we got free soft drinks and “biscuits” or cookies. We were so confused, nothings free in Europe. The kids also met a friend from Colorado on the train. We got into Venice at night. We got lost I Venice trying to find our hostel. It took us at least two hours. When we finally found it we had to stay outside while mom got us checked in. the hostel ended up being across the square. We spent a couple of minuets trying the key; it ended up being the wrong one even though mom was sure it was right. The room was all wood with four beds, nice and comfortable. We were hungry so we went and tried to find a restaurant. We ate at a bar/restaurant and I got a nice, big, tasty cheese pizza. We went back to our room and went to sleep.
The next day we just wondered around Venice. We rode boat busses, and just hopped around the city. Venice has taxi boats, police boats, ambulance boats and pretty much every kind of car you could think of the had as a boat, limos, semi boats, everything. When we ate lunch I tried the things called potato pancakes, there’s no way to describe them, just delicious. We wondered around a bit more and got into a debate on weather mom and James should ride the gondola boats, they were 80 euros. They decided not to go because it wouldn’t be romantic worrying about the money. So we got 20 euros off of mom and ran off to buy her a present. We got her earrings and a necklace. We went back to get our stuff and ate at the same restaurant as the night before. I had the same pizza and it was equally delicious. We left and got on a “sleeper train” as the kids called it, to Vienna (Wein), Austria.
When we got into Vienna we put our stuff in lockers and took the metro to a museum. At the museum was my mom’s and James’s favorite painting, The Kiss by Gustav Klimpt. Then when we were leaving to find a tram someone walked up behind us and in English said the next train wasn’t for 20 minuets and he had a nice restaurant that we could eat at. We gave in but told the guy we were vegans. No problem, I make you something vegan!” he said, and he did. We let him order for us and we got many salads, soups and other vegan Greek dishes. Then at the en just to fill us up even more we got a large desert plate and tea, it was so good. But when we got the bill it was 80 euros. “There’s your gondola ride” I said, but my mom said it was much better. We wondered around Vienna until dark. We felt perfectly safe in the ark for some reason. We decided to leave a little early for the train station to get on another sleeper to Romania.
We woke up two stops away from Segesvár, our stop. We got ready and when we got off we were greeted by a freezing cold wind and a warm welcome from Eva. On the way to the village we stopped in a town and got some winter gear: gloves, and hats. We got to the village but our house was to cols and we accidentally smoked it up. So we went to Eva’s for the rest of the day. It was nice and warm when we got back.
It was so nice to be back home.
posted by gooddogandie at 2:09 AM
1 Comments:
What a great account of our journey ofrm Spain to Romania! It was so detailed yet concise. I liked your experience on the boat surrounded by water.
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