Spain 2017

Saturday, May 20

After my event in Burlington, Vermont my boss Mike Schaefer had to rush me to the airport. I had to change in the truck on the way there ha once I got there, I was flying Jet Blue and so I had to find their check in and get my bag checked. I made it to the gate about ten minutes before we started boarding haha close call. It was only like an hour and a half flight to JFK and I passed out. I sat next to this guy that when I told him I was in the window seat, he stood up and didn't sit down until I was all situated and then he said, you good? I was like yep. Haha when I woke up after we had landed, he was talking to himself. Weird guy. Once we landed in JFK I had to go get my baggage and then go re-check in on Delta. JFK is going through a lot of construction right now and it is a MESS to get through. I finally found the terminal that Delta was in and was able to check my bag in and then I had like 4 hours until I took off so I went to the Sky club. My mom was already in Barcelona with her coworker Blaine and Blaine's wife Robin was in JFK so I texted her (she was going to be my travel buddy while my mom worked) and she came to the Sky club with me. We sat in this "serenity" room with lounging chairs and calming images on the televisions ha Robin ended up not being able to get on my flight so she had to get on a flight to Madrid and then take a train so she left and then after a little while, some of my coworkers showed up (Aniko, Anda, Nick, Garrett, Taylor) and Jeff! He had worked the Danbury, Connecticut event and they were flying out of JFK. So I was happy I got to see him before I left :) and he brought me Panda! We had to sneak it in to the Sky club. Haha we hung out for a bit and then I had to go board. We said our goodbyes and I got on the plane. I fell asleep almost immediately. And stayed asleep until they served food (ravioli) and after I ate, I passed back out again until we landed haha 6 hour and 52 minute flight done like THAT. Haha it was great. 

Sunday, May 21 

I landed in Barcelona at 9:15am. The customs line took FOREVER. I didn't get out of the airport until 10:45am. It was insane! Then I had to find the Aerobus. Once I found it, I boarded and my hotel was at the first stop. Nuskin put us up in a four star hotel called Catalonia Hotel Barcelona Plaza. My mom wasn't responding to my texts or calls so I said her name to the front desk and they gave me a key. I just chilled in the room until she got back around 11:45am and then we went to La Sagrada Familia with Blaine. Robin wasn't there yet. We took the metro and when we came out of the tunnel, La Sagrada Familia was towering behind us. It was awesome! It's both old and new architecture mixed! So weird. It was Gaudi's most famous architecture and he wasn't able to finish it so other architects have been creating everything the way that he wanted it. They are supposed to be done in 2026. We walked around the pond in front of it because we were early and the pond had disgusting water. Ha then we went inside for our audio tour. It was pretty insane. Old mixed with new and everything was symbolic. The inside was huge! Each column symbolized a tree and was made from different material. The stain glass windows were beautiful! After our tour, we walked to Casa Mìla aka La Pedrera and got a Sprite along the way. This was another Gaudi creation. He was hired out to create an apartment complex. It was a pretty nice place! After we did the audio tour there we took the metro to the Picasso museum. We were late for our time slot but they still let us in. Tickets were free on sundays but you still had to reserve a ticket. Robin met us there and we wandered around looking at all of the art pieces. We kinda rushed through because none of us super appreciate art ha after the museum, we split from Robin and Blaine and headed back to the hotel to get ready for the FC Barcelona game. I bought a jersey on our way back to the hotel ha Messi #10! We took the metro to the game and followed the masses to the Camp Nou stadium. Once we got there, I tried to pull my ticket up on my phone and it kept on saying that there was an internal error on their website so I went to the entrance and they sent me to the ticket incident window. So I went there and gave them my confirmation number and order number and my name and seat AND everything and they took about 25 minutes looking at stuff (the girl helping me was an idiot, she needed help the entire time) and eventually she tells me that my ticket has been canceled! I was in shock. I bought mine and my moms tickets at the same time and hers worked just fine! So she wouldn't give me an explanation so she sent me to customer service. They told me that it was impossible for my ticket to get canceled so they sent me to the ticket office and told me to show them my order number and they could print it off. So I went there and they spent 20 minutes looking at it and then they come and tell me my ticket had been canceled 30 minutes after I purchased it. WHAAAAAT?!? So stupid!!! And by this time, they had closed the ticket office because there was only like 30 minutes left in the game! So my mom told me to take her ticket and go in and at least watch some of the game while she sat outside so I ran in and we had AMAZING seats (too bad we couldn't sit in them long!). When I got in there we were down 1-0 and then they scored again so we were down 2-0. And then Messi came alive and assisted 2 goals and scored a PK. It was incredible and I was able to see it all! I left with about 5 minutes left in the game and my mom and I headed back to the hotel. We ended up winning 4-2. Good game but sucky circumstances for me and my mom. Then we PASSED OUT. I was absolutely dead. 

Monday, May 22

I met Robin at 8:15am and we walked to the train station. Our plan was to take a train to Carcassone, France and come back later than night. When we got to the train station, we found out that with the train schedule, we would only be in Carcassone for like 4 hours so we decided to not go. Instead we took the metro to Park Güell and walked around. Once we got to the city, we tried to buy tickets to go inside but they weren't selling anymore tickets until later than night so we walked around the outside of it and eventually happened upon the group entrance. We saw a group of Indian teenagers go in and we saw that they didn't count how many were in the group and they weren't scanning tickets. So we decided that we were going to try and sneak in with a group. There was a group of Asians but we couldn't get in with them because we stood out too much. And then when we had almost given up, a Dutch group walked up and we melted right in and got in extremely easily! So awesome! Ha we went to the overlook and took in the sight of the city and then we went down and looked at the columns and decorations that Gaudi had done (he was all over the place!). We took a tour of the museum and learned all about the park. After we were done, we walked out and they asked us for our tickets and we said we were with a group but had lost them so they said we couldn't come back in and we said that was totally fine haha on our walk back we walked all of the guys who were selling stuff illegally clean up every time a policeman was walking by. It was hilarious and looked like so much work for not making that much money. They had everything they were selling laid out on a sheet and the sheet had ropes attached to each corner and if a cop was coming, they'd grab the rope and the sheet corners would come together and they'd just wander off. Once the cop was gone, they would lay everything out again. So much work. Ha we hopped on the metro and went back to the hotel to meet up with my mom and Blaine. They hadn't arrived yet so we walked to the Museu Nacional D'Art de Catalunya just to look around. Apparently that was where the Nuskin gala was for all of their partners (my mom and Blaine weren't a part of this) so we watched as all of these Asians walked in DECKED OUT in fancy attire. We saw this couple who most definitely had their outfits custom made. They were made from the same yellow material. It was incredible. Haha we made our way back to the hotel and met up with my mom and Blaine and we went to La Rambla street. It was a cute street full of illegal street vendors and shops and food. We walked the street just looking around and then made our way to the Gothic Quarter to find some food. The Gothic Quarter was beautiful! We found a place to eat and we ordered sooooo many tapas. So tapas aren't a food, they are a type of servings of food. Smaller portions. So you basically just order a ton of tapas to get a taste of everything. We ordered so many. We ordered a ravioli plate, goat cheese and crackers, beef and mashed potatoes, some seafood, you get the picture. We were so full after! They were so good! While we were eating, Jeff was at home ripping the house apart for my scuba certification card. Luckily he found it! I really needed it for the next day's adventures! After we ate, we walked around the Gothic Quarter a bit more and then we made our way back to La Rambla and got some gelato. After gelato, we were headed to the metro but there was a metro strike so it wasn't running until 10:30pm and it was only 9:45pm so we just hung out on La Rambla and watched the illegal street vendors constantly clean up and set up again and again and again. The cops caught a few and followed them around for a while, which was super entertaining haha but they never actually did anything about it. It looked just like more of a threat than anything. Finally the metro started running again and we headed back to the hotel and went to bed. 

Tuesday, May 23

Robin and I had to meet downstairs at 7:15am because we were going scuba diving! Jeff had sent me a picture of my scuba certification card so I was able to go! The company picked us up and we picked another guy named Vincent up and then we made the hour drive to Costa Brava. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep on the drive. It was one of those limbo sleeps haha when we got there, we were a little early so our driver took us to a lookout point of Costa Brava and it was beautiful! We took some pictures and then headed to the scuba shop. Robin is a scuba instructor so she knew what she was doing. I, on the other hand, hadn't been for about 3 years so I couldn't remember a thing! I needed help with everything. Remembering how to hook my gear up properly, remembering what gear was necessary, etc. I was a mess. Luckily Robin helped me a ton. And my memory slowly started to work ha Robin and our guide were drysuit certified and I wasn't so I had to wear a wetsuit. Once we got all of our gear, we drove down to the beach. We parked and got all of our gear on and walked the final stretch to the shore. Vincent was becoming an instructor so it was just me and Robin going with our guide so it was awesome! The water temperature was perfect! I didn't need a drysuit at all. The wetsuit worked perfectly. We got in and I had a rough time figuring out my buoyancy. So I either kept rising in the water or sinking right to the ground and kicking up sand. But eventually I figured it out (on the second dive but still). After the first dive I kept on rising up towards the surface because I was getting low on air so I couldn't control my buoyancy anymore so the guide gave me a really heavy rock to hold ha so we got out and took a break and then prepped for our second dive. We did two different routes and it was so much fun! On the second dive, I killed it with buoyancy! We saw so many different types of animals! Octopus, starfish, eels. It was a blast! And the weather and water were perfect for diving! Such good visibility. After diving, we went back to the shop, showered and changed, and then headed back to Barcelona. I passed out on the drive again ha when we got back, we went and took naps. It was amazing. I woke up to my mom coming back from working and we had a mother/daughter bonding night. We went shopping and then we ate on top of the shopping complex next to our hotel (it was an old bull fighting complex turned into a shopping complex when they outlawed bullfighting). I had a super good burger. After our meal, while we were waiting for our check, our waiter brought a surprise drink out for us. He said it would help our digestion. So we drank it and it was awful but we drank it all so we weren't rude and when he came back he said it was coffee liquor. Whoops. We died laughing. Hahaha after we paid, we went to the top of our hotel and looked at the pool and the view of the plaza we were at (we were at a great spot of Barcelona). Then we went to bed! 

Wednesday, May 24

Wednesday was beach day. My mom and Blaine had to work in the morning but they would be done by noon so Robin and I slept in and then met at the pool. We just relaxed until they got back and then we got ready and headed to the beach! We had to take the metro and then walk a little ways but it was a beautiful walk! Once we got to the beach, we realized we were at the topless portion. The beach had different sections we could go to and we ended up at that one ha I felt awkward because Blaine was with us haha so we found a spot in the midst of SO MANY people and we set up camp. My mom and I got in the ocean to cool off and then we laid out for a while. The only sunscreen we had was face sunscreen so we put that on everywhere and then just relaxed. It was super fun to people watch. It wasn't as relaxing of a beach as you would think. There were people walking around selling stuff, offering massages and braiding your hair. My mom and I did a crossword puzzle. After laying there for like 3 hours we got up and just started walking. We had no place in mind, we were just walking! We ended up grabbing sandwiches at a cafe and walking to Parc de la Ciutadella and eating next to a fountain. It was dreamy. A bird nearly pooped on me but missed so I say I was feeling pretty lucky. After eating, we walked through the park. We happened upon this crazy cool statue/fountain thing and it was awesome! Gold statues on top, mermaids, greenery, it was seriously magical. Then we walked to the Arc de Triomfph. After that we headed back to the hotel to change and then my mom and I went to La Rambla to buy souvenirs and then we went to H&M which happened to be right there and I bought a jean overall dress and then we went back to the hotel and packed our bags. I received an email telling me that my flight was delayed so I called Delta and was actually able to switch my flight to Atlanta instead of JFK so I was on the same flight as my mom! We didn't sit by each other but it was nice leaving at the same time haha 

Thursday, May 25

We got a cab and headed to the airport. My mom was randomly selected to be patted down so that was hilarious and then I stood in a line at a coffee shop for two water bottles for 25 minutes. No joke. Finally we boarded and Robin was actually on my old flight to JFK so we said bye to her. She ended up getting delayed and missing her connecting flight so she didn't get back to SLC until about 3am. I was glad I switched flights because I would have missed my flight to Akron for work and that would not have gone over well. Blessed! It was a very long day of travel. I went from Barcelona to Atlanta to Detroit to Akron and I passed out so hard when I finally got to Akron. The trip wasn't over though because from the Akron Color Vibe event we went directly to the Tri Cities TN event. So from event to Spain to event to event. I was absolutely dead when I got home finally. Luckily I was on top of my sleeping pattern so jet lag never hit me and I was super grateful for that!