CAMPING

Ok... so the title of this post is a little deceiving. This weekend, we didn't actually go camping, but to a beach resort called Camping en La Playa de La Mora. It is still techincally in Tarragona, but is about 30 minutes away from our dorms. So, we were instructed to take the city bus to get there. The bus stop is only a few blocks away, but with our luggage for the weekend, it was a bit of a hassle. To make matters worse, not everyone was there where we were supposed to meet, so we wasted a lot of time trying to gather everyone. Finally, a bunch of us decided we would just go to the bus stop and go, and the stragglers would have to take a later bus. Well, wouldn't you know, just as we rounded the corner to get to the bus stop, we saw our bus pulling away (4 minutes earlier than scheduled I might add). We weren't really sure what to do at that point because, according to the schedule at the bus stop, another one wouldn't be coming for over an hour. But after talking to several people, it turned out that another would be arriving in about 30 minutes, so the whole lot of us sat on benches like homeless people for a while, bags and all.

We finally arrived at La Playa de La Mora, and the beach was gorgeous!!! We walked along a mini "boardwalk" which had three restaurants and a store, but nothing else. It was small, peaceful, and perfect! The place is called Camping because of the lodging. We stayed in rustic cabins up on a wooded hill that overlooked the Mediterranean. We were randomly assigned four people to a cabin, and luckily Sam and I got put in the same one! Here we are in our cabin before the Barcelona futbol game...

After settling in to our bungalow, we went to one of the beach front restaurants for lunch, then hit the beach! The waves were a lot of fun that day, and we really enjoyed ourselves in the water… especially after the purchase of a Hello Kitty raft!!! After we were all “beached out” we went to check out the pool. It was amazing! It was huge and lined with palm trees. I took a little nap in a lounge chair and did a little reading!

For dinner, we ate at a nice restaurant right next to the pool. The restaurant had prepared a special menu for us, but it was very poorly translated into English! For example, for starters we could have one of several salads or a "broth soap!" Our of the teachers that is with us is a professional translator and he was laughing out loud! Since most of the menu wass lost in translation, Sam and I both took our chances ordering "Escalope Milanese" thinking it MUST be a dish with scallops. Wrong!!! Turns out, it was a breaded type of steak, and we all know I don't eat steak! Luckily, the portions around here huge, so I was able to steal chicken from other people's plates! After dinner, a bunch of the girls got together for wine in one of the bungalows. It was the perfect, low-key night to top of a day of relaxation!

Breakfast the next day was at one of the beachfront restaurants. The restaurant is owned by the cutest old man in the world, Luigi. We really bonded with him, and he was so sad to see us go today. He even told us his address, so we could send him post cards from the United States!

We spent most of Saturday on the beach, then went to the pool for a few hours before dinner. I defnately caught some rays! Then we headed back to the bungalows to get ready for the big futbol game! Saturday night was the Champions League futbol final between Barcelona and Machester United. We just visited the Barcelona stadium last week, and were excited to rock our new jerseys! We ate dinner at the poolside restaurant again, which was perfect because they have a few big screen tvs. Here we are by the pool in our jerseys (Sam, Me, Hannah, Katie)

We watched while we ate (I ate chicken, not Escalope!) and then stuck around after dinner to have a beer and watch the rest of the game. Everyone in the restaurant was dressed in Barca colors, jerseys, and some even had team flags. It was so exciting, and reminiscent of the Superbowl! Barca won the game, so it was basically the best day ever!

This morning, we had to check out of our bungalows at 10 AM, and then we headed to Luigi’s restaurant for breakfast! Since it was nice out, we decided to stick around for a while and take advantage of the beach. We had already check out, so we had our suitcases with us on the beach. We looked pretty silly, but whatever! Around three, a bunch of us decided to head back to school to get started on laundry and homework (and blog entries)! It was a really relaxing weekend, and I was sad to see it end!

I'll leave you with one more picture... The lighting in our bungalow was so bad, that we did our makeup out on the deck! Haha