Erasmus reunion (Huelva travel journal)

I've been talking to my 3 girlfriends from my Erasmus in Huelva for a long time, every single day. We have a group chat that is safe to say is absolutely on all the time. And it's not like other group chats which have more of superficial talks. We tell each other what happened every day, when some bad or good thing happens to us we talk about it immediately, and the amount of support and non-judgement we give to each other is something incredible, which I don't think I've ever experienced before.

I wasn't planning to go since I can't be in the sun or drink - which is basically the two pillars Spain was built on. But I had to go. I had the best times of my life with these people and it's been almost 2 years without seeing them and others from our group. So we decided to reunite in our Huelva, where we were on Erasmus in 2016.

It was expensive and exhausting to get there for me, but I was determined to go.

DAY ONE   

Oooooh the joys of living where I live! It only takes me 2 flights a van and a car to get to Huelva. My fastest and "cheapest" trip route was Venice - Cologne - Sevilla - Huelva. Still I decided to take a 5 day trip, which actually meant 2 days of travel and 3 days and 4 nights in Huelva.

The celebrity van

I started my adventures around 8 in the morning. I had ordered a van transportation service to get to Treviso airport, and since the last time I traveled with them I had a great experience, I thought I would have it again. Oh how wrong I was. 

When I arrived to the pick up point, I got a phone call. When I answered, someone just said: "I'm at station no. 5, come here". No introduction or anything. I was certain at that point that someone had killed my driver, stole the van and is about to kidnap me. But I have always been a curious girl so I was intrigued. The van had no company logo or sign on it, and the driver had no uniform as they usually do. He was about 30 yrs old, and half of his head was shaved while the top part had a small man bun on it. He was smoking a cigarette nervously and talking on the phone with a dude he was supposed to meet to give him money for the drive. He couldn't open the bunker so that pissed him off. "This isn't usually my van, this is my friends van so I don't know how to open it". 

He told me that he feels like he knows me from somewhere like a club or a night out and I said: "dude I haven't gone to a club in like 6 months", so we put that story to rest then and there. Then some taxi drivers told him to get lost, and that pissed him off completely. Another guy joined the ride to the airport. This guy had just quit his job and was going to Russia to watch all the football matches in the World Cup. So these two bonded immediately since they were both smokers and completely careless. The guy now needed a job, so the driver told him "oh we are just looking for drivers, you can work for this company!" It's a lucky day to be going to Russia to see the matches of World cup and get a job at the same day. 

Then the driver started talking about himself. To sum up (and I'm not making this stuff up), he usually works as a paparazzo, he is "famous" for shaving his ASS on national television, being in Big Brother and some Serbian reality shows, taking famous photos of celebs doing drugs or cheating on their husbands, and all in all being a scandalous creature. To complete my journey, he was driving extremely fast so I was scared for life, he would be on his phone because he forgot his Bluetooth ear piece, and he asked me to navigate and look for directions on his phone. I was certain I will be late for my flight, but alas, I arrived to Treviso, shook to my core. He also wanted to have a cup of coffee with me and the other guy upon arrival, but I was like: "yeahhhh I gotta go so peace out bro tnx for not killing me with your driving."

Later I remembered he told us that the company transferred from Slovenian ownership to Croatian ownership, so I understood why this transport was a fucking mess. 

Ryan

My flight to Cologne arrived 30 minutes late. Now that Ryan has a new policy of priority boarding, where most people pay 7 euros to be able to board first and put their carry-on on board, the process seems slower then ever. It's not really priority boarding if there is 60% of the passengers that bought priority, now is it? Us poor peasants who didn't buy it, we just chilled, and left out suitcases next to the plane, that the crew later put in the plane. Literally no need for priority - you still have to wait anyways, and for me it's better to wait longer outside than in the plane. Some girl sat next to me and she had flats on her feet. Imagine my joy when she decided to take them off, and the smell was just killing everyone around her. I mean it's a one and a half hour flight, keep your damn shoes on, feet are gross! I had to put perfume around myself a few times so I would survive this flight. 

Deutschland 

Finally I  arrived to Cologne. That airport is really pretty, but confusing to me as a small town girl. I was waiting for my couple-goals Erasmus friends Thomas and Apo, or as I like to call them, Tapo. They are the cutest you will ever see. She is French, he is German, and they look perfect together. He is a very good boyfriend because he always tells her the nicest things in front of people. But not like classic stuff that makes you wanna vomit, but really thoughtful things. When we were talking about some girls on our Erasmus, he said: I don't remember her because all I did was look at Apo. My cold heart pretty much melted at that point. He also always hugs and kisses her, but not too much, just enough and appropriate when in company, and you can see he takes care of her a lot, as she does for him. 

The security on the Cologne airport is very German. They have special sensors and you have to take out all the liquids out. The dude told me I have too much liquids. I was scared he would take my stuff from me and I was ready to tell him: DO YOU THINK I WAKE UP LOOKING THIS GOOD BRO? 

But luckily he was nice and he let me pass. Of course boarding was taking forever again, but we finally made it. I watched the Pleasantville movie on the flight and finally, I saw the beautiful country of Spain in the window. When we touched the ground I felt like I never left it - Andalusia. We kissed the ground when we got out of the plane and we couldn't have been more excited to be there.

Now at Seville airport, we waited for Emily (Irish) and Eliza (Latvian) to get off their plane from England. I was so excited. We made them a "welcome bitches" sign and I was jumping from excitement to see them. Of course they were already buzzed a bit because they got a bottle of prosecco for the plane and some gin. Classic them. Finally I saw them and we ran towards eachother, hugged and screamed and it was amazing. After that only Fee (Belgian) was missing, and so when she arrived, the hugs and basic white girls yelling started. 

It was now midnight, and it was time to go to Huelva.

We drove with some Romanian guy who doesn't really know English. and I guess he is on Erasmus in Huelva or something. I don't know, travel master Fee took care of this. In the car us four girls started talking immediately about everything. It was actually weird at first because we usually talk on the phone, so we were like: "This is fucking weird, should we text in the group chat instead of talk?" But after a few minutes in was all back to normal. Tapo stayed in Seville for the first night so they can have some romance without us bitches cock blocking them, so it was girls night for us. 

H U E L V A

We arrived to our apartment. It was beautiful, although in the living room there was a black leather couch that looked like it was there for casting. Still - a great apartment. We changed clothes and went straight to Saxo's, our favorite bar. There, Leli and the waiters greeted us with love, extremely surprised we were back there after 2 years. Cardi B - I like it was playing there, and it felt like coming home. So we got shots (Leli made me a non-alcoholic which honestly is the nicest thing ever) and the night could start. The four of us talked about absolutely everything and it was just something I've been missing for a long time. We ended up in our favorite Sala Lone, which was half-empty when we got there, because we completely forgot that in here people go there at like 4 in the morning, so they started showing up later. But still, the music was perfect, combination of rap and reggaeton, and I was so happy. At first I couldn't really relax and dance because I can't do that sober. My girls saw it was kinda hard for me, so they rallied around me and got me a 0,0% San Miguel. The Wip-Nay Nay song started playing and so did I start dancing. It was a first for me, I looked like I'm drunk, yet I was sober. I danced like I usually would. It was the best night for me and I had so much fun. We stayed out until about 6 and went to sleep, exhausted from a long long day of traveling and excitement. Girls night was a success! 

DAY TWO

Our second day started out sunny and beautiful. Em and Fee went to get mani-pedi's, so me and Eliza went to get some food. We went to a place close to our house and got caffe con leche and zumo de melocoton, and some lunch with it. It was so beautiful. There was some sort of yellow flower pedals from the trees on the floor, warm air, listening to the Spanish language around us - perfect. We had no make up and left the house in basically what was our pajamas and I thought - this is vacation. 

Hola buenas

Later on we went to meet Tapo in our favorite lunch place - La Botica. Here works the coolest crew of people, including the man, the myth,the legend that started the "Hola Buenas, caffe con leche por aqui" movement for us, and changed our lives with this one simple sentence. They brought us a jug of tinto de verano for free, because they know us from before, and that is basically liquid love. So we chilled and talked and laughed a lot, and it was just like the old days. 

In the afternoon us girls went shopping and finding some tapas. Of course we forgot that the kitchens don't work in the afternoon, which we heard like 10 times that day. OK las cocinas estan cerradas a este ora, god dammit we get it. So we went to Plaza de las Monjas, and got some cold tapas which were absolutely gross. Boiled potatos in mayo and garlic? I'm sorry but that is not a meal. Still the view of the statue was nice and we had fun times.

In the evening we decided to go to a rooftop bar, which was gorgeous and had a great view of the city. Us girls decided to dress up and be fancy for the night. That lasted for 5 minutes and then we went to our old ways of spilling drinks on ourselves and talking about weird stuff. Anyway, the bar was gorgeous, but the service was super slow. They brought us our drinks one at a time. Me and Eliza went into some deep conversations about stuff that happened in our lives for like an hour. Later our dear Italian friend Dario, who was also on Erasmus with us, arrived from the airport and joined our reunion.

Everything is litter when you have glitter 

We then decided to go to Saxo and Lone again, because I mean these places are awesome and have many memories for us. And there was Fee. This biach bought a PACK of glitter in different colors. And put it all over herself and everyone else. I don't think you understand this. Fee is obsessed with glitter. She takes it out in her clutch bag, like normal people take phones with them. She puts it all over herself and then hugs people with the clear mission of transferring her glitter on you. And glitter does not go off of you, even after 4 showers. Trust me, we all tried. But in time you get used to glitter and Fee being Fee, and you kinda want her to throw it on you, because as we established: glitter makes your time litter.

Then my friends started getting abducted by alcohol. It got crazy, the dancing, the everything. If you don't drink like me, there is a point when it starts to be difficult to handle drunk people, because you are just on a different level. Still I decided to have fun and dance like crazy in Sala Lone. 

Eres pequeno

Now there were many guys there, and some were trying to make conversation with us. I had some 20-year-old Bruno Mars look-alike in tighter jeans then mine try to talk to me and I told him: "Te eres un bebe" and left, while he tried to explain to me that he was 20 years old, but in his head he was much more mature, and I was like "jajaja eres pequeno, hasta luego", Fee was bothered by some guy with HUGE eyebrows, Eliza had a guy who is 24 years old with 2 kids and and alimony talk to her, while Em had some random dude who tried to talk to her because he got turned on that she was Irish. Of course we all escaped those situations, seriously impressed by the confidence level these guys have. 

The night ended with some hilarious (to me) drunk argument between some people, more dancing,  and we went to sleep around 6. 

DAY THREE

To be continued... 

Until next time 😊