This weekend I got to add another country to my list as I ventured to Barcelona, Spain. The atmosphere was amazing, the people were nice and the food was awesome.

I’m struggling with how to talk about the trip when it comes to individual days and overall feelings because while things started out well, it didn’t end that way. I don’t want to be negative, but I also want to be honest.

Very early Friday morning, my roommates and I took the metro to the airport here in Paris. We had plenty of time to spare and had a nice journey into Barcelona. We took the metro into the city and when we walked out of the station, La Sagrada Familia was right there. It was an incredible first sight. Our hostel was right around the corner, which was pretty amazing for how cheap it way.

We went to the hostel and found out that there was a free walking tour of the city. We decided to take them up on the offer, and met up with a bunch of random strangers on the other end of town. It was a fun tour, but it really should have been called a “tour of the Gothic quarter.” We spent about two and a half hours walking in less than a one-mile radius. It took up most of our day and when we finally walked back to the hostel, I decided to stay in for the night.

The next morning, I ventured out to get some pictures of La Sagrada Familia before we grabbed brunch. After that is when things go interesting. We went to buy tickets for La Sagrada Familia, only to find out that it was sold out for the day. None of us were aware that this was possible. No website or sign indicated this to us. This was very disheartening new for me; the main reason I wanted to visit Barcelona was to go inside the magnificent work of art. That being said, I know that in the future I need to buy tickets online ahead of time. While It was disappointing, after stepping away from the situation, I know that I will be visiting Barcelona again and I will have another opportunity to go inside.

From there we moved on to Casa Mila “La Pedera” and Casa Batlló. They’re both very neat buildings with moderately high ticket prices. We decided to just observe from the outside and go in the gift shop.

After that we went to Park Güell. It’s much larger than I realized and we ended up entering from the opposite end we actually wanted to see. When we started to make it over to the main entrance, we could see the beautiful mosaic wall that the park is famous for. Unfortunately, you have to pay just to go down and sit on the wall. This was another place in which we just observed. We walked around to the front where you could see a little more of the park through the entrance.

After that we were all feeling a bit drained and discouraged, so we decided to take a siesta before heading out for dinner. I finally had a traditional Spanish dinner, consisting of seafood paella and sangria. That was the best meal I had.

The next morning was when the biggest blow of them all hit us. After several mishaps in the metro, we finally made it on the train headed for the airport. It was at this point I thought I’d come to terms with the fact that we were going to miss our flight. When we arrived at the airport, we had 20 minutes to make it to our gate. We made a dead spring for it, went through security just fine, and arrived at our gate. There was nobody there. Our plane had left without us. We had to pay a fee for our new plane tickets that ended up costing me more than my original ticket.

I’m extremely grateful that I even got the chance to visit Barcelona and I really want to go back someday, it’s just that I wish this trip had gone a bit differently. I’ll find my way back there someday when I can really take my time and enjoy everything. For now, I’ll try to stop thinking about what I could have done differently and start thinking of ways I can be better prepared in the future.