The Sun Will Come Out, Tomorrow!

It never rains in Barcelona… until it does!

We just had our second travel week, which means that we got 10 full days off of school to explore Europe.  Along with two friends, I spent days planning out every last detail of my trip.  We had it all figured out; we were starting in Paris, then going to Barcelona, and finally off for some relaxation on the Spanish island of Ibiza!

A few days before the trip I started to notice that the weather was looking less than ideal.  By that I mean it was supposed to rain about half of the trip!  I however decided to be optimistic and assume that the rain predictions would be wrong, so I refused to pack my raincoat or my umbrella.  Not one of my better ideas.

On our first full day in Paris, in the middle of a walking tour, it started pouring rain and even hailing a little!  Our tour group had to take shelter for about 15 minutes before we could even continue walking.  Luckily the weather ended up clearing up pretty quickly.  Our guide told us that this was typical of Paris, crazy rain (or even hail) for a few minutes and then it will clear right up.  This is the day that I learned the value of wearing cotton leggings instead of jeans when it might rain since my pants took about 10 minutes to dry where my friend’s jeans took all day!  Paris is actually not a bad city to be stuck in during bad weather.  While waiting for the sun we toured the Louvre and sat in a little bistro, not a bad way to pass time!  With the exception of the first day, the rest of the weather in Paris was beautiful.

Next came Barcelona…  Again, weather reports said that it was going to rain but every person that we talked to told us over and over that it never rains in Barcelona.  Even a friend who has been studying in Barcelona all semester said it never rains!  With this misguided confidence we waited for our 10am walking tour on our first day when out of nowhere it starts a torrential downpour!  Now, Paris in the rain we could handle but Barcelona?  What is there to do in a city that is known for it’s outdoor sights and atmosphere?  Feeling completely dejected, we spent an hour sitting in our hostel waiting for the rain to pass, but it didn’t.  Finally we came to a realization, it was going to rain and there was nothing we could do about it.  The only thing that we had a say in is how we were going to let it affect us.  We made the decision that we weren’t going to let rain ruin our time in this beautiful Spanish city!  With this newfound spirit we bought some cheep umbrellas and set off to make the most of our rainy day in Barcelona.

As soon as we came to terms with the fact that yes it was raining, we actually ended up have a lot of fun!  We ran around, getting completely lost and exploring the city.  One of my favorite parts was finding a pirate ship docked off a pier that you could pay to go on.  Since we had nothing better to do we spent almost an hour running around the ship taking ridiculous pictures and laughing the entire time!  After exploring, we found a small restaurant to dry off in while eating my Spanish food obsession churros con chocolate.  That night we took the metro to a small club to see a live flamenco dance performance!  All-in-all, we had a pretty amazing day, despite the fact that we thought it was ruined from the start.  The next day brought the beautiful sunny weather that Barcelona is so famous for, so we had plenty of time to see the sights.

I guess the lesson that I learned from this trip is that you can’t control or plan for everything, but you can make the most of what you’re given if you have the right attitude!

Until next time, ciao!