Between the Miles: Hola, Bonjour, Another Guinness?

My last week of travels included Barcelona, Cycling in the French Alps, and Pub-crawling in Ireland! My last night in Barcelona was so fun because I went out to dinner with Zack, who I met in Interlaken! We went to a bomb tapas restaurant called Cerveeria Catalana and ordered some random tapas that were all pretty damn good! Afterwards we went to watch the USA futbol game at a bar that was packed full of US study abroad students! It got pretty rowdy and people were standing on tables doing the "I believe..." chant! Then we lost and that was kind of a bummer. Later that night, we went to Opium and danced until 5am which was pretty insane then we headed home on foot because the cabs were on strike...it was over an hour of walking! The next day, I met Rebecca and we headed up to Parc Guell, which is a park in the hills of Barcelona that overlooks the city and the ocean. There were gardens, statues, and the most incredible views the city had to offer! We spent a solid 3 hours in Parc Guell! I'm so excited for Rebecca and all the adventures that she's going to have the next 2 months in Barcelona!

The next day, it was time to travel- to France! Last week I talked to Coach Jimmy about heading to the Alps for some bike riding and he convinced me to book my tickets! I arrived in Lyon then met Jimmy in the airport (where both of the bikes he brought were lost), and we headed to Chalet La Source in Villard Reculas, which is a tiny village filled with cyclists in the summer and skiers in the winter! I met Michael, who's a quirky guy who owns the Chalet. We had a long day of traveling so we went to bed pretty early so we could wake up and figure out how to get bikes to ride the next day! We woke up pretty early and ran over to Alp d'huez, which was about 2 miles from Villard Reculas. The views here are pretty ridiculous. In the mornings, the clouds fill the valley and you feel like you're literally floating. Pretty amazing!

We headed into town in the afternoon and headed to Jimmy's French bike man- Dan. Dan gave us two Pinarello Dogma's to rent until Jimmy's bikes came! We headed back to the Chalet to get ready to ride when the storm clouds rolled in. It was definitely extremely debatable whether we should ride or not but we decided we'd go for it and see what happened! So we headed down Alp d'huez and then up a road the led to Notre Dame- which is another tiny village in the mountains! Alp d'huez is famous for the 21 switchbacks that are featured in the Tour de France every year. The roads were flooded with cyclists! In this area, bikes completely have the right of way because all the drivers are also cyclists. We got down into the valley and head up the mountain on the other side to Notre Dame- this is when the rain came! It poured, but it was so cool being out on these roads with Jimmy! The ride was also a little sketchy because it had 4 tunnels that were unlit. It was the most fun/scary/disorienting/terrifying experience riding through a pitch black tunnel with absolutely NO idea if you're going to run into a wall or not. I would be lying if I said that I didn't take a tumble in the tunnel, but to be fair, it's pretty hard to balance when you're going up a dark windy tunnel with essentially a blindfold on! As we got closer to the top the storm was getting pretty out of control-wind, swirling rain, and fog encompassed the top of the mountain so we hid under someone's stoop for a few minutes then headed into this sweet French woman's cafe for a couple coffees! The storm calmed down a little bit so we headed down the mountain and made it back to the Chalet with about 3 minutes left of any sort of light! I'd call it a success! The next day’s ride went out to the area before Croix de Fer. It was a lot of climbing-, which made the descent super long and fun! We passed two lakes that were crystal clear! Riding here makes you forget the numbers and the stats from your computer because you're not going to go fast or far because the climbs are so steep. It was so cool to be lost in the moment and enjoy riding! I love being on the bike again- I finally feel like a triathlete and not a runner!

I said au revoir to Jimmy and headed back to Barcelona to stay with Rebecca for a couple days before flying to Ireland! I met Becks at Arc de Triomf and we headed to her apartment for the summer! The family that she's staying with lives right above Ciutadella Park, and Rebecca was staying in the room with the balcony that overlooked the park and the city. It was pretty unbelievable! After laying down for a while, we headed to dinner at a Thai restaurant that the family recommended that we go to, then we went out to a few discos and headed back pretty early (5am). The next day we slept until noon, which I wasn't even sure was possible for me to do. We headed out for sandwiches and the beach! We embraced the Spanish culture by going topless but ultimately decided that we liked American culture more in that respect. After the beach, we headed out for a run on the boardwalk and through Ciutadella Park! When we got to the end of the boardwalk, we heard high pitched teenage girl screams and then as we got closer we could make out the lyrics of One Direction's "You Don't know You're Beautiful." Turned out that they were playing a concert in Barcelona the next day and were staying at the W hotel. I'd be lying if I said that we didn't stick around the mobbing teenage girls for a while... Anyways the last night I was in Barcelona we hit the discotecas again! We met Rebecca's friend at a club called Jamboree, which had an upper and lower level. We stayed out until 5ish again dancing and I took a two-hour nap then woke up for my flight to Dublin! I was pretty sleepy for the flight and I ended up walking about 1 mile down the wrong road so that was pretty unfortunate, but I eventually made it to the bus stop and headed to the airport!

When I landed in Dublin, I headed to the shuttle stop that was going to take me to Maynooth, where I was meeting up with Allison. I met her at The Roost Pub, which is one of 6 pubs in Maynooth. I got a beer and waited for Al to pop through the doors! She showed me around the town and gave me a tour of the campus, which was really cool and very old. That night we headed back to the Roost and got a couple drinks with the people from her program! I even found one guy who went to U of A! Beardown! The next day Allison had class all day so I headed into town and met up with Carly to do a free walking tour. We met at the Spire or the "stiffy besides the liffy" with our ginger tour guide and headed out to Trinity College, the two cathedrals, and the Temple Bar area. Ireland is extremely proud of their history. This is the one place that I found that embraces their culture and history in their everyday life. This includes the ghost stories, myths, and history. We learned some great vocab words in Irish- including "Craic" pronounced Crack. Craic means fun! I.e.) That was great craic! or That was craic! Gotta love the Irish!

After the tour, I met up with Allison and Bree for dinner and drinks in the Temple Bar area. Afterwards, we headed to Temple Bar for a beer and some Irish music! The atmosphere in this place is amazing, and the list of people who have played there is even more amazing! Afterwards, we headed down Grafton Street to check out the street performers! My last day in Dublin, I met up with Carly and we went on a tour of Wicklow and Kilkenny, which included parts of scenes of Braveheart and PS I love you. This was my favorite part of Ireland, by far. Getting out into the country where the only inhabitants were sheep was pretty awesome. We walked through the small towns of Wicklow and Kilkenny, hiked to a lake in the Wicklow Mountains, and rolled around in the green grass. We got back from the tour around 7pm and grabbed dinner and went to The Quay and Temple Bar for some beers and quality music. The best way to end the trip was singing along with the bands and Carly at the pubs! I even requested Galway girl and they PLAYED it! I even got a shout out by the band (in an Irish accent of course!) Ireland was an incredible place with the nicest people and the most interesting culture.