My most recent addition to the list of things I will miss about France is the ability to travel to other countries on a whim, and for a relatively low cost at that...which brings me to the story of one of the most unbelievable weekends I'll ever experience.
Some of my friends here met a couple guys from the area who have a house in the Alps. They planned to spend this past weekend there, and asked if we wanted to join. We decided to rent a car and drive the hour and a half to get to there and spend the weekend in Quentin's 5 bedroom house, skiing and snowboarding during the day, and hanging out in the house at night.
Friday, when the time came to go pick up the car, we got a text from the boys saying that there was a massive snow storm in the Alps, and they didn't think we'd be able to get to the house without chains on our tires (apparently my Minnesota winters don't compare to snowfalls in the French Alps...who would've thought). So now we have 2 cars rented for the weekend, and nowhere to go. So we researched.
We wanted to find someplace close enough so we could get there easily and quickly, since dusk was approaching quickly, so we chose Montpellier (1.5 hours from Aix) and Perpignan (3 hours from Aix). The plan was to spend the night in Montpellier, sightsee the following day, head to Perpignan Saturday night, and then come back to Aix on Sunday. We found a hostel, contacted the boys, and suggested the plan. They were in. 7 French boys. 7 American girls. Driving to Montpellier and Perpignan for the weekend. On a whim.
The 5 of the boys couldn't leave until around 8:30, so the girls and 2 of the boys left Aix at around 7:30, got to Montpellier at around 9:30. We found out, when the boys (who had a GPA...not bitter...) informed us that our hostel wasn't even IN Montpellier, but was in a city outside of it...which posed slight problems considering we wanted to experience the nightlife. The plan was to meet at the hostel, and decide if we wanted to stay there or find a different place closer to town. However, we could not - for the life of us - find the hostel. We spent an 45 minutes driving in circles. If I ever see another roundabout, I will scream.
FINALLY, we got to the hostel. at around 10:30...but it was locked. You couldn't get in. And there was no one sitting at the front desk.
There was, however, this little ATM-machine-looking thing that seemed promising. Apparently, you had to type in your reservation number and then pay for the hostel, and it would give you a code to get into the building.
But it couldn't read my card.
So we couldn't get in.
We're almost 2 hours from home. 14 people. With no place to stay.
We re-grouped and debated going into the center of Montpellier to find a different hostel...and then one of the boys chirped up and said "Barcelone?!" ("Barcelona?!" in French). We all looked at him to see if he was actually serious. He was. So we looked at each other, and said "Why. The Hell. Not."
(Cheering on the boys part)
Everyone got back in their cars, and we were off to Spain for the weekend! 14 people. No place to stay. No internet connection to find a place to stay. But we were going to Barcelona!
Luckily, we had friends in staying in Barcelona for the weekend, so we texted them, and they were kind enough to find and reserve a hostel for the 14 of us for Friday and Saturday nights. Now we just had to get there. It was going to be about 3 or 4 hours until we got there (with an ETA of 2 or 3 in the morning). Which was fine, because people in Barcelona don't even go out until after 1.
(approx. 2:30 am): 30 km outside of Barcelona, we had somehow lost the boys far behind us.
Very important side note: A French GPS won't work in Spain
They told us to just keep going and that they would find the hostel themselves (I think they FAR overestimated their navigation abilities, but we'll save that for later).
So the 2 girls cars were on their own. Luckily, we had a girl who's half Peruvian with us (fluent in Spanish, of course), so we called the hostel, and had the man give us directions. He told us to follow signs for downtown Barcelona and then call him.
So we did.
Meanwhile, as we were going downtown Barcelona, we took an exit ramp.
The other car did not.
So all 3 cars were now completely separated from each other. Downtown Barcelona.
When we called the man at the hostel back, we got directions. Then got lost. Then asked somebody. Then got lost. Then asked somebody else. And got lost. So we asked a taxi driver to help us find the landmark the hostel-man told us to look for. And we found it. But then got lost again. So we called the hostel-man back and just had him stay with us on the phone while he kept track of where we were on a map; giving us directions the whole time.
Things were looking up until we got to a roundabout (I was serious about those roundabouts). I was supposed to stay in the roundabout, but a bus pushed me off onto a side street (side note: this side street was a one-way street). So, because that it's nearly 4 o'clock in the morning, we were desperate. I did something very very illegal (sorry Mom...). I checked to make sure the coast was clear before gunning it back (the wrong way) to the roundabout. We were back on track! And then a cop pulled up along side me and looked at me like "What the hell do you think you're doing?" He told me to pull over.
So I did.
(We're still on the phone with hostel-man)
Hostel-man said to absolutely not to speak a word of English and to just hand the phone to the police officer. So I did. I don't know what he said to the cop, but it worked. The police officer explained to my friend (the Spanish speaking one) that he was going to accompany us to the hostel.
So we got a police escort to the hostel. At 4 o'clock in the morning. In Barcelona.
We went to check into the hostel and to somehow get the other two cars to find us. When we checked in, the hostel-man kept asking us why we had brought 3 cars, and we told him that the 2 other cars were lost...and he asked how many people were in the other cars...we said there are 10 more..."TEN?!"
"...yes...?"
Apparently our friends made the reservation for 3 people. Not 14.
So not only do we still have 2 cars lost in Barcelona, but we don't even know if we're going to have beds available to them once they get to the hostel.
Finally, the other girls' car arrived (meanwhile, the hostel-man is frantically trying to figure out how he's going to fit all of us WHILE he's trying to clean the hostel and prepare for the breakfast that's about to happen in 2 hours).
About 15 minutes later, the boys arrived. So we all survived. It's 5 o'clock in the morning by this point. 10 hours after we left Aix. And it's STILL not guaranteed we even have somewhere to sleep.
Somehow, the hostel-man pulled through and found places for us, so we paid and finally got to sleep.
I got to bed at 6:30 am.
I woke up at 10:30 am.
We went a did touristy things the next day (went to a Market where you can actually buy pigs feet or an entire cow's head, went to the Barcelona Cathedral, and even saw the Barcelona Hard Rock Cafe!) before napping and then going to the COOLEST bar I've ever seen! L'Ovella Negra (The Black Sheep). I don't even know how to describe it, but here's a picture of it:
It has cafeteria-styled wooden tables, and you can buy beer or sangria in enormous vats with about 6 spigots that can easily quench 10-15 people.
We missed the window of free cover for the discotecas, and since I wasn't about to drop 20€ at this discoteca for only about an hour inside it (I had to wake up early and drive home in the morning), a group of us took the metro back to the hostel - teaching the French boys English the entire way. I got into bed at 4 o'clock in the morning.
Needless to say: One of the most unforgettable weekends of my entire life.
However, I WILL be coming back to spend more quality time in the city. And to see Gaudi's architecture, of course.
Hasta pronto!
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