University of Richmond Athletics
The Bernetich Barcelona Blog
01/10/2015 | Women's Soccer
2/1/15 12:18 p.m.
My second weekend trip is now in the books! I just got back from a beautiful city called Girona in Spain. This trip was planned by University of Richmond, so I went with two other Richmond students and one local Spanish student. On Saturday morning, we hopped on the high-speed train to take us to Girona (only about a 45-minute train ride). When we got there, one of the first things we did was 
walk on a bridge over the Onyar River. This river is SO beautiful—it has tons of multicolored houses along it, which made for an absolutely stunning view. Next, we walked along the wall that protects the city. This was about a 20-minute walk with great views overlooking the entire city. Spectacular! Next, we saw the cathedral in the city, and went on the tour of the inside.
After our sightseeing for the day, we ate a late lunch and I got one of my favorite dishes since I've been in Europe. I can't remember the name of it, but basically the dish was a starter. It was described to me as lasagna without the tomato sauce, but that doesn't do it any justice. In the center, there was extremely tender meat that was delicious. The Barcelona local that I was with said that normally this is a dish that Catalans eat at restaurants or somewhere like their grandmom's house because it takes all day to cook and prepare.
The next morning, we took another short train ride (again only about 45 minutes) to another town in 
Spain called Figueres. They say that Figueres isn't famous for much, besides the fact that the artist, Salvador Dalí, was born there and that there is a museum of his work. During his life, he created this museum and he is now buried there. Although I'm not particularly interested in art, I can even say that this museum is a must see! Dalí was known for being a bizarre person that was always putting on a show with his crazy outfits, and even his mustache that curls up at the ends. This uniqueness of Dalí can definitely be seen through his artwork, which made for an extremely interesting visit to the museum, and a great end to my trip to Girona! Another great weekend!
1/30/15 7:30 p.m.
OK, so I thought my breakfast in London was good? I seriously had the best brunch of my life today! My friend Giana (my friend from high 
school) and I went to a popular brunch place in Barcelona called Brunch and Cake. Eggs benedict, on turkey slices, on a waffle with sugar, with spinach and tomatoes. AMAZING! My only regret from the meal is not ordering the cake that they serve for brunch. I will definitely be back!
1/25/15 9:49 p.m.
I just got back from my first weekend trip, LONDON! This trip was amazing and I can't wait to travel to other cities in Europe!
Exactly one week before we left, my apartment-mate Genna and I decided that we wanted to go to London for the weekend. This was a perfect first destination for us because I am still a little iffy on the idea about staying in a hostel, and Genna's family friend has an extra guest apartment in London. When Genna received the email saying that we 
were more than welcome to stay in the apartment, we immediately booked the trip. It worked out great because our other apartment-mate, Tommy, had already booked a flight there that weekend. He was meeting a friend from home in London, and so Genna asked if Tommy and his friend also wanted to stay with us in the apartment.
Tommy, Genna, and I left our apartment in Barcelona at 5 a.m. on Friday to catch our 7 a.m. flight. Everything about the travel day was smooth sailing until we arrived in London. When we got off the plane, we immediately walked outside of the airport, not noting which terminal it was. We wondered around for a little trying to find where we should wait for the bus that we already bought tickets for that would take us to the apartment in London, but then we decided to ask. The airport staff told us where to wait, but after a few minutes of waiting we didn't think we were in the right spot. To double check, we asked a woman who was also waiting at the bus stop, and when she looked at our tickets, she noticed that we were at the wrong terminal. With about five minutes until our bus left, Genna, Tommy, and I SPRINTED through the airport hoping to make it (very dramatic, we know, but we wanted to catch our bus!) After having 
tons of people stare at us running, we got to the right bus stop about three minutes too late. It left without us! After wondering what we were going to do, we realized that you were able to use the bus ticket you bought to get a seat on a bus only 60 minutes after your scheduled time. We were slightly relieved to learn this, but when we talked to the woman working with the bus company, she told us that it is not guaranteed that we would all have a seat on the bus. After anxiously waiting 15 minutes for the next bus to come and watching everyone with tickets load the bus, they told us that they had only three seats available! Seriously, what are the chances? Perfect!
We finally made it to the BEAUTIFUL apartment in Camden, an area in London. We talked to Genna's family friend for a bit, and she helped us plan out our sightseeing. As soon as Genna's family friend walked out the door, we immediately wanted to explore the city! On Friday we walked around just to get a general feel for the city—we saw the London Eye (but we couldn't bring ourselves to spend the 22-pound price, I think that's how much it was, to go around one time on a Ferris wheel. 
That would've been around $30!) Later that night, my friends REALLY wanted to go to an Indian restaurant called Curry Paradise. I had never had Indian food, but I figured I'd give it a try because apparently London has good Indian food (who would've guessed!) Turns out, the owner of the store really liked us and ended up giving us a free appetizer AND drinks! It was great! As for the Indian food, it was good, but nothing really to write home about.
The next day, we had a little more structure to our sight seeing! I REALLY wanted to see the changing of the guards, which was scheduled to happen at 11 a.m., but we showed up just a little bit too late to see it. :( I was a little bit disappointed about that, but I guess that's just one more excuse to go back to London in the future!
After we realized that we missed the changing of the guards, we went to Villier's for breakfast. And let me tell you this was the cutest breakfast that I've ever had! I got English breakfast tea, (When in Rome! Well London, I guess), two soft boiled eggs, and “buttered soldiers” (toast). I really can't describe exactly what I loved so much about the breakfast except for the fact that I just felt so extremely London while eating it!
The rest of the day, we saw amazing sights! We went to Trafalgar Square, walked the Bird Cage Walk, saw Buckingham Palace, went to the Tate Museum, and we walked through Harrod's (a department store with a bunch of expensive clothes that I could never even dream about being able to buy and the most amazing collection of chocolates and sweets!), and we went to an outdoor market (and got tons of free samples) Another cool thing that we did was walk through the neighborhood called Chelsea, an extremely wealthy area that seems like the perfect place to live in London!
That night we went to a restaurant called Poppies, which claims that they serve the best Fish and Chips in all of London! (Getting fish and chips was a must for this trip!) Poppies had a 50's theme and some pretty good food! After dinner, we did a bit of a bar crawl, to get a little taste of a few bars! This was really cool because we were able to talk to some of the locals. (It was nice speaking the same language as them for a change!) We were lucky that we got talking to them though, because when we wanted to go home, we realized that the Tube was closed! The locals gave us perfect directions on how to get home, which included riding of the red double decker busses, which was a plus!
The following morning, we traveled home. Luckily, we were a little more organized when traveling back this time. We made it home safe and sound without any problems at all. Honestly, what an amazing trip! I saw so many new things and had SO much fun!
1/21/15 12:46 a.m.
I am taking a class here all about FC Barcelona. It is called “Global Marketing and the History of FC Barcelona. Playing for Fun or for Keeps.” On the first day of the class, the teacher said that even though the course title says marketing first, the class is mainly all about the team and its history throughout the years. My homework for tonight is to watch an FC Barcelona game vs. Manchester United and take notes. Best. Class. Ever.
1/18/15 10:39 p.m.
Today was probably one of my favorite days in Barcelona so far! My friend from home, Giana, two of my roommates, and I went hiking at Montserrat! Montserrat is a beautiful mountain just outside the heart of Barcelona. We woke up rather early and took about an hour-long train ride to the mountain. When we arrived at the base of the mountain, we really didn't know what to expect. There weren't any signs pointing to a hike or even how long it would take. As soon as we thought we saw a way up the mountain, we wandered up some unmarked steps. Before we knew it, we were on the most beautiful trail filled with millions and millions of steps! (it reminded me of the stadium workouts that we did in the Robins Center last winter, but obviously a little more scenic!) After about two hours of hiking and GORGEOUS views, we reached the top of the mountain, and going up all of the stairs was so worth it. The view at the top of the mountain was definitely one of the most spectacular things that I have ever seen.
After spending a little bit of time at the top taking in the beautiful views, our group decided to make our way back down. We originally planned to go back down the mountain the same way that we had hiked up, but we soon realized that we were on a different path. After a good amount of time thinking that we were lost and wondering if we would make it back before sunset, we stumbled across this ride that takes you up and down the mountain at a very steep incline, called the “funicular.” The name of this ride really became a joke for the rest of the hike (its such a fun word to say!). When we saw the entrance building to the ride we latched on to a group that had just come up and was about to make their way back down on the ride. We were so excited to find this funicular because our legs were 
dead at this point and we were lost! Luckily for us, when we asked the worker how much the ride would cost and he said, “don't worry about it.” He realized that we accidently joined a group that had already paid for a ride up and down the mountain. When he realized that we were lost and tired so he gave us a break, and let us on for free. We got so lucky (my legs definitely were thanking him)!
On the hour long train ride back to our apartment in Barcelona, I couldn't stop thinking about how great the day had been and how lucky I am to be exploring such a beautiful and adventurous city!
1/16/15 11:32 a.m.
I am so lucky because my boyfriend, Eric, just came to visit me in Barcelona for an entire week! We had such a great time. Even though classes started up this week, we had so much time to do fun things! We spent a couple days just walking around, and I was able to show Eric all of my favorite 
parts of the city (so basically the entire city, since I love it here!!). We also had the chance to go to the zoo, watch an FC Barcelona game in a sports bar, visit the beach and ride electric scooters up and down the beach, and eat A LOT (one of my favorite pastimes as everyone knows).
We had my favorite meal since I've been here- seafood paella and tomato bread. The paella was fantastic and the tomato bread was delicious as usual in Spain (it is very common for most of the restaurants here to make “pan con tomate” which is bread with a tomato smashed on top with olive oil. But I'll explain this more when I have the chance to sample more restaurants and find the best “pan con tomate” in all of Barcelona!) I wish I could've gotten a picture of this meal that Eric and I had together, but I guess I was just too excited to eat it! But I'll be sure to go back and have this meal again, since it was so delicious! We really had a great week, and I am so thankful that he was able to come visit my amazing new city!
1/8/15 1:15 a.m.
Wow! I haven't even been here a week yet, and I have already fallen in love with the city of Barcelona. It's such a fresh and lively city, with so much beautiful history. Even though I don't 
consider myself a tourist, because I will be here for three months, it's hard to not look like one when sightseeing. There are way too many pretty monuments and views that it's impossible to not pull out a camera and start taking pictures of everything in sight.
There are nine rooms in my GORGEOUS apartment; currently there is one American (me), an Italian boy, a Canadian girl, a Canadian boy, a Turkish girl, a Dutch girl, a Mexican boy (whom I have not met yet since he is traveling), and there are two vacant rooms that will soon be filled! As weird as this may sound, my room in Barcelona is probably the biggest room that I've ever had - so much for America having the biggest size of everything. I have a double bed with tons of space on each side. One wall of my entire room is one big window that looks out to a street called Carrer de Mallorca. It is so nice to have this huge window in my room. I can always peek out and see what's happening on the streets, and I can even open up the windows to get a feel for the weather for the day. (Speaking of which, the winter weather here is absolutely PERFECT! It has been anywhere from 55- 65 degrees during the day. Beats the snow back in New Jersey and Virginia any day.
Even after just one short week, my perspective on the world is already changing. I think that my views are mostly changing because of the international apartment that I am living in. It is amazing just to walk out into the common area of our apartment and discuss cultural differences, as well as things that we all have in common with each other. For instance, I've had a few conversations with my apartment mates regarding the fact that the United States is the ONLY country in the world that doesn't use the metric system, but I've also bonded with many of my new friends over our love for running. It was kind of a light-hearted moment when one of my Canadian friends asked me typically how far I run when I go for jogs - we caught ourselves playing the “how many miles equals one kilometer again?” game. I've even discussed soccer, or “futbol” with the Dutch girl, who plays center-mid back at home. It is so cool that we can bond over a sport that we both love, even though we live on different continents!
Basically, I absolutely love it here in Barcelona! Classes haven't started yet, but I am sure that I will love my classes just as much as I love everything else in this amazing city. I am mostly excited for my three Barcelona culture classes to learn more about the city's history. Well, I should get to bed to get ready for another great day in the city tomorrow. Adéu i bona nit! (That's Catalan for goodbye and goodnight.)
1/5/15 10:09 p.m.
Today I went somewhere that I have wanted to go from the moment that I decided to study abroad in Barcelona - Park Güell! I'm sure you've seen the typical Barcelona tourists' pictures with the bench with the pretty tiles overlooking a fantastic view of the city. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, here's my picture, I really couldn't resist taking this!
Park Güell is a park designed by Antoni Gaudí, who is a very well known architect in Spain, and is especially popular in Catalan. (My sister Alex, who is currently getting her Master's in Architecture, would probably say that description of Gaudí is atrocious!) The park includes beautiful buildings, columns, and monuments designed by Gaudí, and you can even see Gaudí's house. The portion of the park with all of the monuments has an admission fee, but there is also a nature section of the park which is free of charge. Today when we went, we didn't have time to explore the free part, but I will definitely be back to check this part out in the next three months when my boyfriend and family come to visit.
I've always wanted to visit this park for its beauty, but there is also another reason why I was excited to visit - to send a funny picture to my sister. When my sister studied abroad four years ago, she visited Barcelona with her friends for the weekend. I remember her showing me pictures of her sitting in a rock in a wall, which is not a typically picture anyone takes. She said that her and her friend thought it was really funny, and I remember her laughing as she was retelling the story. The moment I entered the park today, I immediately told the people I was with that I needed to get a similar picture to send to my sister to give her a smile! So today I jumped up into the hole, and took the pictures. I really hope she enjoyed the picture. It wasn't easy to take!
1/4/15 11:57 p.m.
This city is absolutely amazing! I've spent my entire weekend walking around and exploring the city. And when I say I spent the entire weekend, I mean I literally walked for nearly seven hours each day. Right now, I'm mostly just soaking in the beauty of the city and which direction things are located! I'm seeing first hand what many people have told me about the city such as that Barcelona is ever so slightly slanted down toward the direction of the sea. If you are ever lost, you can look to see which way is the down part of the slant, and you know the ocean is that way! Contrastingly, the mountains are the other way! Such an interesting city to explore. I'm absolutely loving it over here!
1/1/2015 4:17p.m.
The day has finally come! Today I begin my adventure abroad to Barcelona, Spain. It really is a surreal feeling. I've been waiting and talking about this day for months. As I'm sitting in the airport, I can't even describe what I am feeling right now. It is the strangest mix of being the most excited I have ever been with many nervous thoughts. I can't wait for all of the adventures that I have ahead!
I'm currently waiting at my gate at JFK for my good friend from high school, Giana, who will also be studying in Barcelona for the semester. As crazy as it is, we both picked Barcelona as our destination without planning to go together. The minute that we figured it out, we planned our flights together with seats cattycorner to each other. Turns out we will also be living close to each other, all by coincidence! Although I'm excited to go out and experience different cultures, I am so happy to have Giana, which will be a little piece of home, with me during my trip!
The thing that I am most excited for about this trip is making friends from all over the world and learning from them. I will be living in an international apartment, and I'm really hoping to become close with my apartment mates and learn about their cultures, all while experiencing Barcelona with them. I have only been out of the United States once, so I am really eager to open my eyes to the rest of the world!
I think my biggest source of doubt is stemming from my lack of confidence with the language barriers. Right now, I really only feel like I can have basic conversations in Spanish, and I don't know any Catalan, which is the official language of Barcelona. I'm hoping the immersion into the culture will help me with this. And I'm also hoping that it triggers my memory from the few Spanish classes I have taken over the years. We'll keep our fingers crossed!
Even though I've been waiting for this day to come for months, I saved the packing for the absolute last minute, of course. Last night and this morning, I spent hours figuring out how to fit my entire closet in two suitcases, each weighing less than 50 pounds. Coming from the self-proclaimed “world's biggest over packer” and a girl who loves her clothes, it was not easy fitting three months of clothes in just two suitcases. Let's just say I got very lucky with the woman at the airport check-in who was VERY lenient with the 50-pound weight requirements.
I hope the rest of my travels go as smoothly as it did with the bag check! I can't wait to experience Barcelona!