HOME

Ok everyone, I am HOME finally... if you didn't know already. Today is Christmas day and lots of people have said to me "you really need to end your blog". So here I am, the first day that I have had lots of time to sit around and hang out since I have been home, updating my blog... possibly for the last time.

There are many words that I could use to describe my study abroad experience but the one I have been using most often is amazing. I wouldn't say it was a life changing experience, but one thing that it did do was open my eyes to everything that is out there in the world. I want to do so many more things now! I want to travel to all of the countries in Europe that I didn't get to go to (and that was A LOT of them) I want to learn about the different customs in all different cultures, I want to be fluent in Spanish, but I think the first thing I have to do before I go back to Europe is travel around the US! That is my next big adventure.

Can't wait... And I bet you can't wait for the next blog ;)

Italia!

Ahhhhhhh Italy is so amazing! I love love love everything about it so far. Right now I am in Florence and it is so beautiful. I was in Rome for 3 days before this and it was awesome too. I dont have much time to write more because I am in an internet cafe but just wanted to keep you guys updated. love you all!
xoxo
Abby

Vamos a Italia!

Hello Loves! just thought I would let you all know that tomorrow I am leaving for ITALY! Rome for 3 days and then Florence for another 3. I am so excited to go to Italy, it has been a dream of mine for years. And then when I get back I only have one more week here. That is so crazy. Everyone told me that this would go by quick and I believe them but I am still very sad to go. I think that (so far) I have enjoed myself to the maximum. Taking advantage of every opportunity that I could, and that is always a good feeling. Still, I can't wait to come back here and explore Spain and the rest of Europe more. Anyone want to come?!

Gotta get to class now, hope everyone is having an awesome beginning to the month, can't wait to share the holidays with my friends and family :)

xoxo

Abby

Pictures from Granada!

AHH I love fall colors!

oh HEY :)

Gardens near the Alhambra

The view from the top of the palace (Alhambra) This is the Arabic quarter with all the white houses on this hill. My favorite part of the city by far

Sorry I'm an awkward poser in these pictures. This was a pretty fountain in the Alhambra

So Beautiful!

Courtyard at the Alhambra

In the Arabic part with the Alhambra in the background. I was really excited.

Typical house in this part of the city. I was obsessed.

A simple little kind of free

I haven't posted anything in a while! I know I have been holding you guys in suspense for a while. I hope I don't disappoint with the next few blogs, I have a lot to tell about!

I really can't believe that I only have 3 more weeks here. I have been getting kind of homesick these past few days especially because of Thanksgiving and because my family is all together and I wish I could be there with them. But yesterday was different. We were listening to a song in Spanish class and it was by one of the popular artists that is in a lot of the clubs and I got really sad. It just reminded me of the feeling I get when I go out. I can't tell you exactly why but I think its just the atmosphere of Spain. Going out at night (and that doesn't just mean to bars and clubs) I feel like I am in an entirely different world! Everyone is out, just walking around enjoying themselves no matter what age. At 8 pm at night the streets are packed with teenagers hanging out in groups, girlfriends having a cafe con leche together, husbands and wives from ages 30 to 80 linking arms and window shopping. Spaniards really do live their lives out on the street and you get so much more of a sense of community when you walk around because everyone is out! It really is an awesome country.

But of course there are some things I'm not going to miss. But as of right now I can only think of one and that is the food. Even though I don't like the food here I find myself gaining weight, dang it! Its because of all the eggs, white bread, and OIL. Oh well, I have my entire life to eat the kind of food that I want.

Besides me getting all sentimental I had a really good day yesterday. I went to class in the morning and then after class our Cal Poly group went to a wine museum that also happens to be a castle in a town right outside of Valladolid. It had amazing view and really cool picture opportunities (pictures to follow, my camera is charging). It was very interesting to see all of the exhibits about wine, I am getting very excited to get back to Cal Poly and continue with my major because wine has become a passion of mine since I have been here. After the museum we went to another town to hang out and eat our lunch and it was such a beautiful little "pueblo". The leaves were all turning on the trees and there were old buildings everywhere, yet another picture taking opportunity! Then we traveled for about half hour to a bodega in another town. This was my favorite part of the day. We started out by going on top of this big hill and watching the BEAUTIFUL sunset, maybe one of the prettiest sunsets I have ever seen. We took a tour of the fermentation room and the giant stainless steel tanks, just like any other winery I have been to but then we went into the cellar. The cellar is not what you think it would be. Along the hillside there are these doors that lead to giant tunnels that have been carved out and are now used to store the wine that is aging. There were hundreds and hundreds of barrels in these long mazes of tunnels inside the hill! It was SOO cool. I can't wait to show you pictures. Afterwards we went back to the main winery and tried some of their Crianza and a actually bought a few bottles so when I get back we can try them together and I will go into more depth about the winery. So excited for that :)

So yesterday was a really good day but today I have a lot of work to do. Two projects in two different classes. So I better get to that. Miss you guys!

xoxo

Abby

p.s. here are some topics that you have to look forward to:

Public transportation

Fashion of Valladolid

Description of my Spanish mama

Anything else that you want to know about?! let me know...

Speaking Spanish

Learning a different language is SO HARD. I didn't know what it was going to be like trying to learn a different language but it is so overwhelming. I had a realization the other day while walking and trying to think about how to say something in spanish. When I try and think about what I want to say I think about it first in english and then about how to translate that into spanish. But this is NOT the way to get better! We learn all the rules in class, we study them, we know them, its just a matter of implementing them. Learning spanish and learning the rules is not hard. Its implementing it and actually speaking without having to think that is hard! Of course this sounds so simple but switching your brain to think in a completely different language is so much harder than it seems. What I really need to do is just SPEAK and not think about if thats the right way or not, its all filed in there somewhere, I just need to implement these rules and these things that I have been hearing for almost 8 years of my life.

Its hard too because when I come back from Spain I will not be speaking spanish because I won't need to! Hopefully I will be motivated enough to try and speak spanish as much as I can. I know my grandma will be proud when I can have a conversation with her in Spanish someday :)

What language do I speak here?!

This past weekend I was in Lisbon, Portugal! I had such a good time in the city and with the people I went with. We all meshed really well together, didn’t get into any arguments or “tiffs” and everyone was just ready to do whatever. The first thing I have to tell you about is the trip over there. We left at midnight from Valladolid on a bus to Madrid and had to wait about 3 hours in the airport for our 7 am flight. When we got to Madrid one of the girls on the trip (Lily) realized that she forgot her passport! So that was a really big inconvenience for her, she had to go all the way back to Valladolid, miss the morning flight and pay to get on the next flight out to Lisbon. But despite all that she met us in Lisbon and was THAT much happier to be there. I was trying to think what I would have done in that situation and I think I would have probably freaked out so much more than she actually did.

Our first day in Lisbon was pretty mellow, we got to the hostel and put our stuff in storage because our room wasn’t ready and after no sleep the night before set out on the town! We pretty much just walked around the city, getting ourselves acquainted. Went to a really pretty park and then across the street there was a giant Corte Ingles (which is kind of like a super Kmart or something like that, except with department store quality stuff and a full size grocery store, they are everywhere in Spain). So we walked around the park a bit, went to Corte Ingles, and then went to the hostel to try and get some sleep.

Park in Lisbon... This was the point that I decided that I would not be taking any "normal" pictures in front of monuments, so this is a warning for all further pictures...

So this was my very first experience in a hostel and it really was not bad at all, it was actually pretty awesome. We were in a room with 8 beds, and the room itself was pretty small but it worked, we were only really in there to sleep! I was talking to some other people and they said that this hostel was really nice compared to others that they have stayed in. So I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that I started off my hostel experience with a good one or not, because I think now I might just expect all of them to be like that when they aren’t! Oh well, I’m sure Ill have many more stories about hostels.

That night was actually Halloween and we started off by going out to an Italian restaurant for dinner. I know, Italian food in Portugal is like cheating but don’t worry, we got our traditional Portuguese meal later in the weekend. It was so weird though, literally every other restaurant was Italian, we couldn’t get away from it! We went out later that night to the Barrio Alto, which is where all the bars are and where people go before going out to clubs/discotecas. Since it was Halloween there were a few people dressed up but not many. It also wasn’t what you expect from Halloween costumes in the US. All of them were dressed in scary costumes! No funny costumes or anything like that. I would say probably a fifth of everyone was dressed up. But the streets were packed! So many people just hanging out on the street it was really cool.

Italian restaurant! And a bottle of wine to go with it... SO GOOD.

This is the view from a park in the Barrio Alto, you could pretty much see all of Lisbon!

Ok this is my "sumo wrestler" pose... But this is also the street that our hostel was on, right in the middle of the Barrio Caixa, a big touristy part of town. During the day time there are a ton of people and a lot of outdoor seating for the cafes/restaurants.

The next day made it up and out by 11 am! I’m proud we didn’t waste the whole day. We decided to take a bus tour of the city, it was the kind where it took you to all the major stops around the city and you could get off and back on as many times as you wanted. Our major stop was in Belem, which is a part of Lisbon. It was really pretty. We went to the shore and then into the town to eat lunch (our typical Portuguese lunch). Portuguese food is a lot of fish and rice and potatoes. Lunch was REALLY good, everyone got something different and we just shared everyone’s plates so it was nice to get some variety. Got a couple pitchers of sangria (BOMB) and tried Sardines! They were very intimidating, it was pretty much just an entire fish fried and salted. They were pretty good, but there was a lot of bones and that was pretty problematic for me. My theory on different kinds of food: if someone somewhere eats it and enjoys it, then I will try it. You never know if you will like it until you try it, right?! Gosh I love food…

Our first stop on the tour... the Basilica de Estrela

It looks like the Golden Gate Bridge, doesn't it?! This bridge is called the "25th de Abril"

At the Torre de Belem, again... no normal pictures in front of monuments

On the top of the Torre de Belem. It was a really nice day out in the beginning of this bus tour and online it said it was going to be in the 70's! But then during the tour it started getting cloudy and of course I didn't bring a sweater to wear. So by the end when we were coming home it was raining and I was at the top of a bus with no sweater :(

Then we waited in line to get the traditional Belem pastries, you can only get them in Belem and they are very famous. It was like a custard in a flaky crust, really good. I wish I could send some back for everyone to try!

Belem Pastry... As Steven's head.

So bored in front of the Monsteiro dos Jeronimos

The inside was so pretty :)

That night we didn’t really do much because it was Sunday night and nothing was really open. Actually we did go to this really bizarre bar where everyone must have been over 40 and the music was awful. I might compare it to Pats II. HAH.

Monday was a really good day, probably my favorite day. We had to check out of the hostel by noon so we got our stuff together and made our journey over to the Aquarium. We had no idea what to expect when we got there but it turned out to be in a really cool area! There was a boardwalk type thing along the river and it was a beautiful day out so it was really nice walking along there. Then we hopped on these gondola things and got a really cool view of the river, Aquarium and surrounding areas. Walked around the aquarium and after went to lunch. Lunch was absurd. I wanted to order a water and for some reason no one could understand me so they brought over like 8 people to try and translate. That was one of the weird things about Portugal, I never knew what language they would understand better, English or Spanish?! So we were caught in a weird middle where we would try and communicate using both and just had to wait to see which one would work. So we finally conquered the language barrier and ordered some BOMB food. So much food, and it was all so cheap! That was a really great thing about Portugal, you could have a feast for so cheap.

Me in front of the longest bridge in portugal, the Torre Vasco de Gama, and the gondolas that took us to the Oceanario!

Omg, I think I'm going to die... This gondola ride is so far up.

Hey look! My new friend. At the Aquarium.

Didn’t get back to Valladolid until 2 am on Tuesday morning and had class at 9 the next day so that was a pretty rough day, especially since I hadn’t really gotten much sleep the entire weekend. But I powered through anyway, its so worth it to be kind of tired so I can get to see a lot more stuff and travel as much as I can.

Speaking of sleep, I need a siesta… went out again last night! Hey, I’m only in Spain once J

Lots of stuff going on...

Hey everyone! I'm home from Lisbon. I had such an amazing time, I can't wait to tell you all about it and share photos! Unfortunately I have to pretty much hit the ground running this week because I have 2 midterms and a bunch of stuff to do. So hopefully by Wednesday I will have everything done and I can update my blog again. Off to school!

Just some things on my mind...

Today is Thursday which means it is pretty much the weekend for me since I only have class in the morning tomorrow. So today is a good day :) I just ate lunch which consisted of a vegetable puree/soup thing and a piece of meat with a bell pepper on top that was SWIMMING in olive oil. Everything here is drenched in olive oil, and its not just my house, everyone says that all of their food has a ton of oil. But its always olive oil so its not as gross as it could be. Actually something about the fried food here: When our mama cooks fried food I feel like its not as heavy and greasy as it can be in the US. I really do think its because they use olive oil for everything here. So even though its fried food its not what you would typically think of fried food. Either that, or my stomach has just finally gotten used to it.

Yesterday was a crazy day, super packed with stuff. I had Spanish class in the morning and then right after that we had our "excursion" class and we went to buy our soccer tickets and look at a "hyper market" as they call it here. It was a giant supermarket that reminded me of like a Kmart or Target super store because they had a clothes section, electronics, etc. After that I came home for only like 45 min to eat lunch then go back to class to take two quizzes and watch two movies (Bottle Shock, and one about soccer). Didn't get home til about 9:30 and by that time I was so tired that I just took a shower and went to bed. It was super tiring day especially since the night before I went out and didn't get home til like 3 am. But hey, I'm in Spain, why not?!

Tonight I am going to a soccer game, Real Valladolid! It should be fun, there are a bunch of people from Cal Poly going. Their colors are purple and white so I'm going to wear the only purple shirt that I own.

I have been taking lots of videos lately because going through some of my old pictures I came across some videos and I decided that it would be really cool to be able to look back and see a bunch of videos from Spain! Maybe at the end I'll make a big multi-media slideshow.

Miss you all!!! I can't believe its been over a month now that I haven't seen a lot of you. CRAZY!

xoxo

Abby

Almost November?!

Since I haven't gotten any suggestions on blog topics I guess this blog will be just a very random one. Im so excited for so many things coming up! First immediate thing that I have coming up: Lisbon!!!!! I am leaving Friday night on a bus to Madrid then flying into Lisbon early saturday morning. Coming back on Monday night (we don't have school on Monday). I have been looking up things to do while we are there and I am very excited to eat good food, be around the ocean, and go their world famous clubs :) If anyone has any suggestions of things that I "must do" while in Lisbon then please let me know!

Second thing I am super excited about is Italy! In the beginning of December we have a 4 day weekend, so I am taking one extra day off class to make it a 5 day weekend. We just booked our flights yesterday, so that's why this is relevant now. We are going to fly into Rome on Thursday night, staying there thursday and friday and leaving for Florence on Saturday morning and going to be there for 3 nights. Going to Italy has been one of my dreams for so long, I can't believe I am finally going to do it. I can not WAIT for the food, the sights, and the wine.

Will continue this post more later... going out for a walk because its really nice out tonight :)

Picturas

This was our lunch the other day. Pringles and a fried piece of meat. Oh and soup.

It was awesome.

That same day, this was our dinner (for both of us to share btw) If you cant tell what this is, it is lunch meat that is breaded and deep fried. And that was all.

I decided to make a sandwich out of this using random things I found in the fridge, looks pretty good huh?! I thought so too until.....

I found the package of lunch meat in the fridge If you can't tell the expiration is 25/9/09 (September 25). This was on October 18th. SO AWESOME.

Ok enough complaining... Now time for pictures from Segovia.

This aqueduct was built in BC times. There was no mortar used, just giant blocks that fit so perfectly together that they haven't moved for over 2000 years. So cool!

Jill and I on top of the aqueduct

Such a beautiful view!

OH LOOK! ha

A real castle where Princesses actually lived.

Ohhhhh geeze

Inside the castle

We are a good looking group :)

On the top of the castle on one of the towers, this is they whole group Cal Poly students!

Love them :)

Ok so this is not Segovia, this is a fountain near my house. But its just so pretty!

Trends

I think I will dedicate this next post to "trends" that I have noticed amongst Spaniards and how my life has been affected by them...

The first: smoking. I'm sure most of you know that smoking is HUGE in Spain. I was talking to my spanish culture teacher and she said that over 50% of the population smokes! I would have guessed more than that because when I'm walking around the streets it seems like every single person has a cigarette in their hand. No matter what time of day it is. The smell really doesn't bother me too much anymore because I am getting very used to it. The thing that sucks is that when I go inside somewhere, whether it is a cafeteria, cafe, bar, or anywhere really I come out smelling like smoke. You can tell if I have been to a bar or cafe by smelling my clothes even the next day. It's awful! I have to air out my jackets and my jeans before I can wear them again. I guess it wouldn't really matter if I didn't though because everyone smells like that.

The second thing has to do with wine. As many of you know I am a wine major and observing wine trends is very interesting to me. I am actually taking a wine compliance class here (taught by Cal Poly) and have been learning a bit about Spanish wine from that class and also just from tasting it! -----side note: It is SO nice to just be able to go to the grocery store or wine shop and just pick up a bottle of wine, I am getting to try so many different types of wine! I dont know what Im going to do when I get back home and I can't do that for 6 more months!!----- Yesterday we went to a couple wine shops and got to see something that was really interesting to me. The first wine shop that we went to had taps of wine. Underneath in a kind of cellar they had giant concrete tanks full of "table wine", at least 5 different types. People come into this shop toting their empty 5 liter water bottles and pay by the liter to get these bottles filled with wine! The wine is so cheap too, I think the prices were something like a few euro for a couple liters of wine. The people that were mainly coming in were older and had giant jugs for them to fill. I didn't get to try any of this wine, but I'm sure it wasn't very good. Which brings me to my next trend: people like to mix other things with their wine. Whether it is a calimocho, sangria, or wine with sparkling water (which is common for table wine). I have no idea why this is so popular here, you hardly ever see people mixing things with their wine in the US. Any insights to this? I'm thinking its just an economical issue, its cheaper to do this!

Update on the food issue: Still haven't talked to mama, Laurel and I are nervous to do this... but yesterday we had a pretty good meal so that is promising :)

Some weeks and days I feel like my spanish is improving tremendously, others I feel like I am in the exact same place that I was when I first got here. It's frustrating when I can't communicate with people because my vocabulary just isn't big enough. At night time I feel so mentally exhausted from just constantly having to think before I even attempt to talk to someone. Spanish is hard! All the conjugating of verbs is really hard to get the hang of. I am really glad that I am totally immersed though because I am learning soooo many new things everyday.

Going to go take a siesta now!

Love you guys :)

p.s. If there is a specific question you have for me or something you are wanting to know about Spain or my experiences, leave a note! Sometimes I don't know what to write about because I kind of do the same things everyday...

Food is life.

Hello everyone!

Ok so today my roommate and I are struggling with something, let me set the scene for you: Our mama is really really nice. She is always very friendly and asks how our day was, she bought Laurel chocolate desserts for her birthday, we feel very welcome in every part of the house and she is always very considerate. We only have one problem: the food. So its not like the food she cooks is awful, its really not that bad (I mean besides the weird cultural food that she cooks sometimes)! The problem is this. When she goes to work she leaves us food for lunch and/or dinner which is totally fine BUT usually its only like 2 items. For example, today she left us chicken that she cooked on the stove and a pot of green beans. And thats IT. No rice, no bread, nothing else besides that. We are upset because the food that she leaves us is usually not enough for both of us to get full and we have to go searching in the fridge to get something else to eat and usually, there isn't anything in there. Also, we RARELY get vegetables. When I say rarely I mean I think we have had veggies twice since we have been here. The green beans today are a miracle. So this morning we decided that it is time that we say something because we are very unhappy with the way things have been going.

SO we came up with a few sentences to say to her in spanish, just so we would be nice and prepared :) I will let you know how this goes after we talk to her. Im only nervous to talk to her about this because when she responds to us in spanish it is all going to be very fast and I don't want to miss anything that she says! But yesterday I was about to cry because of the quality of food that we have been getting.

Maybe I am just a spoiled American that eats too much food. Its worth a try anyway!

So besides that I have been having a really good time in Valladolid. I have a ton of class though, which kind of cuts in to social time. Spanish class everyday from 9:30 to about 1, then Cal Poly classes 8 hours a week. Then homework and reading on top of that! I'm still adjusting to the times and when things close, etc.

Today is Sunday, and this means that everything is closed. Except for some cafes and restaurants. When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. Not even grocery stores! This is a crazy concept to me... But I kind of like it. Sunday truly is a day of rest.

Went to Segovia yesterday and it was really cool, I will update with photos later.

LOVE YOU ALL!!

Abby

Barcelona!!!!!

WOW! Where do I even begin?! Barcelona was so awesome... Probably one of my favorite trips ever. There are so many things to do there, I don't think I would ever be bored. The city itself was pretty easy to navigate, with metro stops everywhere you would ever want to go. I'm so happy that I got to explore the sights with Nicole, we had an awesome time together. I kept thinking "we are in SPAIN right now, that is so CRAZY!" It was nice to have a little taste of home too :)

Day 1: Got in to Barcelona at 7:30 am after a 10 hour BUS ride. Yes, I took a bus for 10 hours. The worst part was that the worst smelling human being ever sat right behind me the entire time. Honestly thinking back I don't know how I did it. After I got there I took the metro to Nicole's apartment and we slept for another 3 hours which was nice considering I didn't sleep much because of mister smelly behind me. The first thing we did was go to lunch at this place called the "Champagne-aria"? (I spelled it how it sounds because I have no idea how it is spelled). It was PACKED full of people. You could hardly move, and it was standing room only. As you can tell by the name they serve bottles of champagne but they also have amazing food. I got a sandwich with bell pepper, cheese, bacon, and some other type of meat... hah. And we all shared a bottle of champagne. This place had TONS of those little napkins on the floor that I talked about in my previous blog so I knew the food would be good. That meal was probably my favorite meal the whole weekend.

After lunch we took the metro to Parc Guell which is this amazing park that Gaudi designed. There are a ton of things to see that Gaudi designed but I think that this was my favorite that I saw. Basically it is a park with a bunch of different elements designed by Gaudi, but not actually finished until after his death. The buildings were so strange, one of them supposedly designed after Hansel and Gretel's house. The mosaics that he uses in all of his designs are so cool. I have never seen anything like his designs before. The walk up to the park is pretty steep, and that made for a really cool view of the entire city.

After a long day of walking all over the city (we walked to lunch and saw Las Ramblas as well as the port of Barcelona) we needed a nap so we didn't make it out that night until about 1 in the morning which actually isn't that unusual for Spain! Its so crazy that there are tons of people out at 1 in the morning! And its not just people going to bars or discotecas, people just sit at a cafe and drink coffee. That night was really fun, we went out to a bar that Nicole normally goes to and met up with a bunch of her friends.

Ummm... a random mime outside the bar telling people to be quiet. I thought he was

quite hilarious so I had to take a picture.

Day 2: So after not much sleep Nicole and I finally made it out of the apartment by noon with a long day ahead of us! It was nice being able to plan where I wanted to go and do the things that I wanted to do instead of traveling in a big group of 50 people. I had a guide book that I was looking up things to do in and the first place that we went was the Barri Gotic, one of the oldest sections of Barcelona. It is an old Roman city with a maze of narrow streets, all leading to the Catedral de la Santa Creu. The Cathedral is under construction currently but was amazing to see anyway. We actually went in time to see part of the mass that was going on in Latin! The surroundings of the Cathedral had tons of tourists, street performers, and small shops.

Drinking the water from the Fountain of Youth!!! I found it! No just kidding...

they say it's good luck to drink from this fountain, so I did!

From here we went to Parc de la Ciutadella which is in "La Ribera" and this was probably my favorite part of the trip. The street that we walked down had hardly any tourists but it was beautiful, you would never find anything like that in the states. We decided to take a picnic lunch and people watch. The park is giant with tons of fountains, a big pond, a zoo, courtyards, etc. It was just very relaxing and it was nice to do something in the fresh air with not a lot of tourists. This park was the sight of the 1888 Universal Exposition (random fact for you from my guidebook).

I really like posing by myself....

From the park we went to the Museu Picasso. We got into a long line to wait to go into the museum and then when we got up there they told us it was free! Awesome start already. My favorite part was the Las Meninas series. Coincidentally, this was also my favorite painting by Velasquez at the Prado Museum. The museum itself was in a huge old mansion, so even the architecture was cool to look at.

After walking around all day we were exhausted so we came home and.... yup you guessed it, took a siesta! Then that night we went out to a bar that had Karaoke, it was AWESOME. Probably about 90% of the people there spoke english and so all the songs were American songs that I knew. It was still fun despite the lack of Spanish culture.

Day 3: It had been a pretty exhausting weekend with not much sleep so we didn't make it out until about 2 this day. First we went to see La Sagrada Familia. This Cathedral, also designed by Gaudi is still a work in progress. It is like nothing I have ever seen before. It was cool to see but I wouldn't ever describe it as "beautiful". I think the best adjective to describe it would be strange. Plain and simple. But of course I can appreciate the thought and the work that has gone into it. It is still an ongoing project with many different architects and sculptors have been working on it for over 100 years. The original architect, Gaudi, died before he could finish the Cathedral. Its actually a pretty awful story- he got hit by a bus when he was walking on the street!

We decided to get some lunch after that and went over to La Rambla (no pictures for this portion, my camera died). I was on alert the whole time because apparently this is where pick pocketers make their fortune, off of tourists.

Then it was off to the 10 hour bus ride. No smelly people this time, but I still didn't get much sleep anyway.

As you can see, it was an exhausting weekend but it was so amazing! I'm happy to be back in my little town of Valladolid where I feel safe walking around by myself though and don't have to constantly be on alert for people trying to steal my purse. Hopefully while I'm here I can visit Barcelona at least one more time.

Love you guys!

P.s. write me comments so I know someone is reading my blog!!!