Barcelona

Just got back this morning from Barcelona and it was soo much fun. I went with one of my best friends, Ali Sakai, from school, and she had one of her friends come with. Us 3 got there Thursday afternoon, we had to go to the apartment and get everything settled because the rest of the group was coming later that night, 6 more girls and one guy. We rented an 8 person apartment but put 10 people in it. It was actually a really nice place, and it was fun to be able to cook for ourselves and buy groceries to try and make the weekend a little bit cheaper. So the three of us got the apartment and then wandered on La Rambla for a bit and went to this awesome huge market where we bought our fruit and got some snacks.

                                                   Bunnies for sale....so gross.

People on La Rambla

That night the rest of the group got there, I knew a few of them, they were all very fun, mostly from Penn State University. The next day we all got up, got breakfast at the market, and wen to La Sagrada Familia, there is still obviously a ton of construction going on but it was a lot more done than the last time I was there with my family 10 years ago. It is so cool, and the inside of it is the coolest inside of a cathedral I have ever seen, so different and pretty.

Seriously I love Gaudi's work, it's soo good and intersting. I decided not to climb up it again this year because I would have had to wait 2 hours just sitting in the church, and I remember climbing it years ago, and it was just going to be a good view, which I knew I would see anyway at Park Guell, so Ali and I left the group and made our way to Park Guell. I'm actually really happy Ali and I seperated ourselves from the group because it was nice just to hang out with a friend from home for a while, and we got to walk all the way to the park which the others did not want to do. It was almost an hour walk and it was all up hill, but we really enjoyed it, the weather was so nice and it was good to get some exercise. This park was designed by a friend of Gaudi's, someone Guell...and Gaudi put some of his work into it as well. It was so beautiful and we got such a good view of Barcelona.

                                             They did an America's Next Top Model shoot here

                               View from the top, You can sort of see La Sagrada Familia

                                                 Guadi's stuff at Park Guell

These 2 Gaudi buildings were on the big street in Passeig de Gracia.

After our big day, we all went back to the apartment and rested so we could be ready to go out that night. We went to a club that we had to take a taxi too really far away, it was pretty fun though. Stayed out until about 6 in the morning, so the next day we slept in until about 11, and got ready for our relaxing day by the water. We got some coffee and made our way to the beach/marina. We ate at a restaurant right near the water where I had a delicous club sandwich, then we just sat outside on the boardwalk for a while and enjoyed the sun, and sand. We figured the water would be pretty chilly. I loved all the sailboats and cruise ships/yachts that were all over the place. It was such a pretty scene. Then we got some gelato and started to make our way back to the center. It was the perfect day, just to relax and be by the beach. We went back and took a nap, had dinner, and we were all planning on going out. Some people went to dinner, some of us just grabbed a quick bite across the street. Me and a few of the girls went to this bar that was supposedly really fun called Dow Jones. All the drinks are on a screen and you can tell if their price is going up or down, and every half hour (or so we though) the market crashes and drink prices go way down and people rush to buy the cheapest drinks. It was a pretty cool idea, and atmosphere, but when we got there they said that it should be crashing soon, and we waited about 40 minutes and still hadn't crashed and by then we were really bored. Unfortunately we couldn't really enjoy the nightlife that much because we had to catch a bus at 5:30 in the morning, and daylight savings was also happening, so were worried about when the time was going to change, etc. So we were at the bar until about 1:30, made it home by 2:00, which automatically turned to 3:00. Hung out for a little in the apartment and then it was time for Ali, lauren and I to catch our bus. It was a really really fun weekend, I loved Barcelona. The only thing I didn't really like was the language. They speak Catalan, which is like a mix of spanish and french or something. So we just ended up speaking English the whole time.

I'm really happy to be back in Seville, and it's supposed to be nice weather all week long. I'm glad I'm going to be here for the weekend and all the way until next Friday, I'm done with exams and I just can't wait to relax for the week. My friend Alicia's brother is coming on Tuesday so I'm sure we will go out a lot this week. I think I will find out how I did on my exams this week so that should be interesting. I just found out one of my best friends from home, Katherine Turney will be in Seville this weekend!! I can't wait.