Barcelona || Getting There.

This post has been long overdue, since last year, haha.

I've never gotten time to get around it, and plus, life always has some lovely little lemons to squirt around every now and then, so hey ho.



I'm no travelogue-er, nor someone who goes on trips very often, so let's just say this is an overdue diary.

Let us move on to the story, shall we?
Saying I was pretty excited for this trip would be an understatement. I waited for an international trip ever since University started. The first year wasn't any good as the official dates fell on the same day as my presentation for a module, plus that trip was to Berlin, somewhere I had already been, and having no one you knew going on the trip was another reason why it never happened. Also, for this trip I felt like I finally knew how to use my camera so I was pretty pumped up. The sudden 5-day trip from Pakistan also had me on a high and so did an annoying module finishing, so yeah, I was pretty excited for the Barcelona trip.

We flew from Birmingham airport on the 28th of February and it was a fairly compact group of students from all levels of the course I'm studying at University. We checked in, sent off our luggage, and as we were flying at night, we were pretty pumped up, the pumped up where you forget to eat during the whole day and after all the official processes your tummy grumbles loud enough for the people in the airplanes outside to hear, so you try to locate the nearest halal or vegetarian friendly place that you can find and hope and pray it doesn't make you sick. That.

I knew 3 close people, friends, from my year who were with me, so I was pretty happy. The last time I went with my academic year group in 2012, my 'friends', people I knew, had things come up, one changed Colleges and the other's family holiday clashed with the trip so she bailed on the trip, and I didn't know people from the cohort, and I was a chicken back then, so it was just me and my camera, and wait a second Sanna, this is about Barcelona, not Berlin, focus.

So where was I?

Yes. So this time, I was more open to talking and vowed not to chicken out of conversations and socials. SK, LT, PY, and I hoped we were together in the room allocation in the hostel we were supposed to stay, turns out, life is surely not a bed of roses, and we were put in different rooms, scared and anxious at first, it turned out to be a pretty good turn of events, and by the end, I came to know two more lovely souls, LW and SJ. Life has a way of showing you wonders, in places and people. :)

We ate at Giraffe, SK, LW, SJ and myself. Boarded our planes and off we were to Barcelona, Espana.



The flight was pretty okay, I got a window seat so I had nothing to whine about. We landed, and it was after midnight in Barcelona, the border control queue was pretty long, and there were policemen/soldiers everywhere, at first it seemed weird, and then with time, it seemed weirder and more uncomfortable, I know it's supposed to make you feel safer, but idk, it seems weird when people eye you down and you can't see many Muslims with a Hijab in sight, it's just more comforting that way, but yeah, the queue was extra long and took us some time to reach, the men at the desk weren't as chirpy and perky as I had hoped my but meh, the sigh of relief and breathe of fresh air was just what we needed to get out of the airport.



Hah, the good old airport, as dead as a doorpost at night, we were scared we couldn't and wouldn't find our coach, doesn't help when you don't know the language and you barely see people around. Doesn't help either when you see racist graffiti sprayed across the side window, let's just say, the partial first impressions weren't all that great, however some things were. Like the pretty palm trees, and the fresh breeze, and everything just looked a lot more hip and cooler all of a sudden, like snapshots right out of instagram.

We boarded the coach after delays, including standing at the wrong end of the terminal and losing half of our group on the way to the coach, we somehow managed to reach the hostel in one piece. Haha.



The hostel looked prettttty cool, the interiors were lively and playful, and as a design student, you just felt comfortable.

And oh gosh, after getting our internet signals and connecting to the social media, the Snapchat filters in Barcelona were. so. cute!

We lugged our luggage to the room, chose our beds, I got number 2, thanks to SK, who understood and complied with my claustrophobia, upper bunk all the way, woot!

I was so glad when I opened the curtains to find us facing a wall, not immediately, but there were no other views and the wall was a block away, this meant I could open the windows and curtains for fresh air, without having to worry about throwing on my Scarf on the head, haha, #HijabiProblems. 😂





After settling in, we walked down to the nearest general store, got ourself a gallon of water, some biscuits, and food to eat before we fainted, trust me, I need that junk, I faint easily, huh. And came back and crashed into our bedside after sorting out toilet and shower times of course, I thanked the Lord for being in an all girls room and having the people that I had with me, turns out, I couldn't have been more privileged to have them.

We had the next four days to bond, and gosh did we have tales to tell, and memories to make.

First day in the next Blog post.

Can't wait to write out and jog down memory lane to some of the most happening days of my life. This post is long enough as it is. Hehe.

Till next time.

Love,
Sanna.