My sister's visit and our trip to Barcelona, Spain

My older sister Dana came to visit me the first week in May. That was her first time out of the States. Her plane was delayed for four hours, causing me to miss class but it was worse for her; she had to sit on a plane for a total of 12 hours! Shitty. She was tired when she got here, but I dragged her out into town. From the airport it's a 20 min train ride to the main train station, then over an hour from Frankfurt to Marburg. We dropped her bags off in my room then caught a bus into town and walked around a bit and got something to eat. I wanted her to try a doener, schnitzel, German chocolate and bananenweizen while she was here. She tried everything except the schnitzel. Four days in Germany is not enough! I planned a side trip to Spain while she was here. We flew out of Frankfurt-Hahn (1 hour 45 min outside of Frankfurt hbf) and into Barcelona Reus (an hour outside of Barcelona). I din't know the airport was that far out when I booked the tickets. Woops. We had to wait 2 hours for a bus into Barcelona, so we had a beer or two in the airport. We had to spend the night before in Frankfurt because our flight left at 6:30am and we had to take a bus at 3:30am from the main train station. So I booked us a hotel room close to the train station, so that we could just go to bed early the night before and walk to the train station. I booked us a hostel in the red light district of Frankfurt. I read that before booking, but I guess I didn't expect the district to be so... red light-y. There were people around at all hours and we felt pretty safe, but I had forgotten to tell my sister that we'd be staying there, so she was pretty pissed when we walked by some prostitutes on the street. The guy at the front desk had a coke nail, too. But the room was pretty nice! haha. Barcelona wasn't really what I expected. Spain is something completely different than Germany in every sort of way it seems. It's hard to describe, really. My sister was getting frustrated as the trip went on. She was exhausted from all the traveling and would get anxious when I didn't know where we were going. I'm used to getting lost by now, and I know that we will eventually find our way. I tend to forget that not everyone is that laid back. I feel bad for planning a trip that was so... unstructured I guess, but I think she had a good time nonetheless. We went to the beach one day. The weather was gorgeous! But there were people walking along the beach trying to sell stuff to us the entire day. It was so obnoxious! I played music to try and drown out their voices. It kind of worked... though I still heard little Asian women yelling "Massagie? Massagie?" NO I DON'T WANT A MASSAGE OR A SCARF! We took a bus tour the next day, which turned out to be a great idea! It was a hop-on-hop-off sort of thing, which allowed us to easily see all the major sites. We were given a pair of headphones so that we could hear narrations of the different sites. We both really enjoyed just laying back and seeing everything from a double decker bus. We saw Sangria Familia, Las Rambles, Cathedral and Gaudi's park. There seems to be a lot of immigrants in Barcelona. It was hard finding authentic Spanish food, made by Spaniards. Maybe it's because I didn't research anything before going, but I hope to revisit Spain one day and see a different side. I know it has to be more charming, romantic and authentic than what I experienced. Our hostel was pretty cool. I can't remember the name of it right now. We had a room with two twin beds, a tv and a fan. Finding channels in English in Europe is a challenge! Though I realize you shouldn't be watching tv if you're in Spain anyways. Our room was on a patio with two other rooms, motel style. The three rooms shared one bathroom. We barely saw any of our neighbors the entire time. There was a lounge room with another tv and a computer. There was a balcony overlooking the street, too. The staff were really nice and helpful. We ate at a Hard Rock Cafe one day. I had a burger- IT WAS SO DELICIOUS. I haven't had a burger in months! After Barcelona we came back to Marburg for a few days and just took it easy. She saw Elisabethkirche, Oberstadt and we walked up to the castle. We went out one night with some of my friends and Dana tried absinthe. I accidently set my glass on fire, so I didn't actually have any alcohol left in my drink after that. I was sad to see her go, but I hope she had a good time and I'm looking forward to seeing her in just one month!