Okay, so I realize I am extremely late with this, but March has been quite the hectic month. It seems like we've had visitors every week, and trips on the weekends-not to mention a birthday celebration here and there. So March 5-7 the brave people in charge of IES Barcelona loaded 500+ college kids on 9 coach buses and crossed their fingers for the best. We were headed to the city of Pamplona and Navarra region in the North of central Spain- almost directly above Madrid near the French border. For all of you that don't know your Spanish cities, Pamplona is most famous for its tradition of the running of the bulls. We'll get to that later though :)
Thursday
So we all board the buses bright and early in Plaza Catalunya and went on our way. 8 hours and 2 dirty Spanish gas stations later bus 9 (my bus) is very crabby and ready to get to our hotel. The teachers on our bus string us along with the promise of wine tasting at our next stop at the Irache Vineyard and Monastery. When we finally arrive, we find out that the vineyard had in fact been turned into a museum and the only wine we got to taste was the watered down wine in the "wine drinking fountain". I'm not joking, you walk out to the back of the building and there is a faucet in this little courtyard and when turned on, wine comes out. Now bus 9 had some troublemakers who saw this and raced back to the bus to grab waterbottles to fillup with this free (really gross) wine. This didn't fly with the IES leaders. We all reboard the bus and drive another hour until we finally reach our hotel in Pamplona- where it is now snowing. The buses are all scattered between different hotels and bus 9 is the only at Hotel Leyre. I am introduced to my random, pre-assigned roommate (who actaully ended up being really cool) and we headed to dinner. IES took us to a restaurant down the street where we were served a set menu of spaghetti, chicken fingers, french fries and ice cream cake. By far the best part of the entire meal was the "free" water IES was paying for. I literally downed probably 10 glasses on my own, as did everyone around me. I'm sure the bill for the night was outrageous. After dinner bus 9 hung out in the pub under our hotel for a little bit and crashed pretty early due to our 7:30am wake up the next morning.
Friday
So we all roll out of bed the next morning and onto the bus where we immediately fall back asleep. An hour later, we wake up in Puente la Reina. Here we take a guided tour through the small town which is an important stop on the Camino de Santiago. Our guide tells us about the Camino de Santiago which was an extremely famous pilgrimage through Spain and parts of France. The bridge (which you can see in my pictures) is one of the most recognizable parts of the journey. After about an hour of strolling around this old town, we reload the bus and head towards the Castle of Javier. Its another hour and a half bus ride/nap to the castle but when we get there we are surrounded by snow capped moutains/hills with a lone castle standing in the middle. Though the tour of the castle wasn't all that interesting, climbing to the top tier of the castle was absolutely beautiful. We head back towards Pamplona for lunch and a walking tour of the city. Interestingly enough, I ended up eating at an Australian restaurant and it was one of the best meals I've had here so far- sad I know. So we were hesitant to go on the walking tour, because it was snowy and FREEZING outside, but it ended up being the best part of the entire trip. To start, we got a brief introduction to the layout of the city and basic info. Then we walked around the places that Ernest Hemingway made famous in his visits to Pamplona. It was in Pamplona that Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises. We visited the cafe he wrote in, as well as the hotel he stayed in and bars where he hung out. After the Hemingway portion of the tour, our guide walked up through the path of the running of the bulls: from the capitol down through the narrow streets to the bull ring. We were actually able to go into the bull ring and practice waving around the little flag. The little old Spanish caretaker of the ring was too cute and took the flag-waving very seriously. At the end of the tour, we met up with people on the other buses and walked around a little bit, shopping and wandering the city. We went back to the hotel for a bit before dinner (Salad with tuna, roast beef and mashed potatoes with gravy and yogurt). Not as good as the night before, but still, there was free water. I think half of the IES program all went to the same irish bar that night called O'Connell's and closed them down around 3am. My roommate and I then went into another club down the street. Soon after we entered we realized we were the ONLY non-Spanish people and not one other person in the bar spoke English. This was an issue because we are both in Beginner Spanish. We decided to call it a night a trudged back to our hotel in the pouring rain.
Saturday
So we wake up early on Saturday to board the bus to go home and as we are all loading the bus, it comes to the attention of our IES leaders that we are missing 2 kids. We will later find out that both are in the hospital for severe dehydration. About an hour into the drive we stop in Olite, a small town that used to be the capitol of the Navarra region. There we take an awesome tour of the Montasary and Castles there. They were both beautiful and by far one of the best tours I've taken since I've been here. The queen of the city insisted on the king building her a garden right outside her window- the only issue with this was that her bedroom was on the second story. So the kind hired some workers to construct a building with a courtyard on top of it to be built right next door to the queen's room. It was revolutionary for its time. So we load back on the bus after our tour and drive the 7 hours straight back to Barcelona. Its fair to say that I have never slept so much on a bus in my entire life. We literally spent half of the trip on the bus (in other words, sleeping).
The trip ended up not being as awful as we were all expecting it to be. The cold, snowy weather was a bummer, but if IES hadn't taken us to Pamplona, I probably wouldn't have gone on my own. The running of the bulls is such a famous event in Spain and it was really neat to see where it all takes place. Stay tuned for updates on Dublin!
xoxo molly
So we all board the buses bright and early in Plaza Catalunya and went on our way. 8 hours and 2 dirty Spanish gas stations later bus 9 (my bus) is very crabby and ready to get to our hotel. The teachers on our bus string us along with the promise of wine tasting at our next stop at the Irache Vineyard and Monastery. When we finally arrive, we find out that the vineyard had in fact been turned into a museum and the only wine we got to taste was the watered down wine in the "wine drinking fountain". I'm not joking, you walk out to the back of the building and there is a faucet in this little courtyard and when turned on, wine comes out. Now bus 9 had some troublemakers who saw this and raced back to the bus to grab waterbottles to fillup with this free (really gross) wine. This didn't fly with the IES leaders. We all reboard the bus and drive another hour until we finally reach our hotel in Pamplona- where it is now snowing. The buses are all scattered between different hotels and bus 9 is the only at Hotel Leyre. I am introduced to my random, pre-assigned roommate (who actaully ended up being really cool) and we headed to dinner. IES took us to a restaurant down the street where we were served a set menu of spaghetti, chicken fingers, french fries and ice cream cake. By far the best part of the entire meal was the "free" water IES was paying for. I literally downed probably 10 glasses on my own, as did everyone around me. I'm sure the bill for the night was outrageous. After dinner bus 9 hung out in the pub under our hotel for a little bit and crashed pretty early due to our 7:30am wake up the next morning.
Friday
So we all roll out of bed the next morning and onto the bus where we immediately fall back asleep. An hour later, we wake up in Puente la Reina. Here we take a guided tour through the small town which is an important stop on the Camino de Santiago. Our guide tells us about the Camino de Santiago which was an extremely famous pilgrimage through Spain and parts of France. The bridge (which you can see in my pictures) is one of the most recognizable parts of the journey. After about an hour of strolling around this old town, we reload the bus and head towards the Castle of Javier. Its another hour and a half bus ride/nap to the castle but when we get there we are surrounded by snow capped moutains/hills with a lone castle standing in the middle. Though the tour of the castle wasn't all that interesting, climbing to the top tier of the castle was absolutely beautiful. We head back towards Pamplona for lunch and a walking tour of the city. Interestingly enough, I ended up eating at an Australian restaurant and it was one of the best meals I've had here so far- sad I know. So we were hesitant to go on the walking tour, because it was snowy and FREEZING outside, but it ended up being the best part of the entire trip. To start, we got a brief introduction to the layout of the city and basic info. Then we walked around the places that Ernest Hemingway made famous in his visits to Pamplona. It was in Pamplona that Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises. We visited the cafe he wrote in, as well as the hotel he stayed in and bars where he hung out. After the Hemingway portion of the tour, our guide walked up through the path of the running of the bulls: from the capitol down through the narrow streets to the bull ring. We were actually able to go into the bull ring and practice waving around the little flag. The little old Spanish caretaker of the ring was too cute and took the flag-waving very seriously. At the end of the tour, we met up with people on the other buses and walked around a little bit, shopping and wandering the city. We went back to the hotel for a bit before dinner (Salad with tuna, roast beef and mashed potatoes with gravy and yogurt). Not as good as the night before, but still, there was free water. I think half of the IES program all went to the same irish bar that night called O'Connell's and closed them down around 3am. My roommate and I then went into another club down the street. Soon after we entered we realized we were the ONLY non-Spanish people and not one other person in the bar spoke English. This was an issue because we are both in Beginner Spanish. We decided to call it a night a trudged back to our hotel in the pouring rain.
Saturday
So we wake up early on Saturday to board the bus to go home and as we are all loading the bus, it comes to the attention of our IES leaders that we are missing 2 kids. We will later find out that both are in the hospital for severe dehydration. About an hour into the drive we stop in Olite, a small town that used to be the capitol of the Navarra region. There we take an awesome tour of the Montasary and Castles there. They were both beautiful and by far one of the best tours I've taken since I've been here. The queen of the city insisted on the king building her a garden right outside her window- the only issue with this was that her bedroom was on the second story. So the kind hired some workers to construct a building with a courtyard on top of it to be built right next door to the queen's room. It was revolutionary for its time. So we load back on the bus after our tour and drive the 7 hours straight back to Barcelona. Its fair to say that I have never slept so much on a bus in my entire life. We literally spent half of the trip on the bus (in other words, sleeping).
The trip ended up not being as awful as we were all expecting it to be. The cold, snowy weather was a bummer, but if IES hadn't taken us to Pamplona, I probably wouldn't have gone on my own. The running of the bulls is such a famous event in Spain and it was really neat to see where it all takes place. Stay tuned for updates on Dublin!
xoxo molly
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