The rest of my trip! Sorry!!

Sorry I haven’t written in a while, it has been a very busy these past couple of weeks! School took up a lot of time, and I had a lot going on. Thursday night, my friends and I decided to go to an ice bar we had heard about. It was called Ice Barcelona (get it?) and it was sooo cool! (get it again? – I’m so clever) anyways, the entire inside of the bar was made of ice – the walls, the bar, the benches, the cups, everything. They gave us a huge silver coat to put on and some gloves, and even though we knew it was an ice bar, we didn’t realize how cold it really was in there. It was definitely a cool experience though!

Most of the group:

 Frozen FC Barcelona jersey:

 Cassandra and I in our huge coats!

 The bar:

 The Gaudi lizard:

The outside of it:

I lost my camera the day before, by the way, so I will be posting other people’s pictures. I believe it was pick-pocketed L I’m a victim. It really stinks, but there are worse things that could have happened to me in Spain!

On Friday, the group went to Girona and Figueres. We did a photo scavenger hunt in Figueres, where we had to find certain things in the city (it was really small) and take a unique picture.

The lucky lioness:

We thought this was the witch, but we were wrong:

On top of the wall surrounding the city of Girona:

About to jump:

 And falling:

Our belltower:

Afterwards, we took a 30 minute bus ride to Figueres and got to explore the Dali museum.

The museum was SO cool, but Dali was definitely a very strange individual. Many things that were recurring in his art are drawers, ants, nails, lips, sexual images, eggs, his lover Gala, insects, and more. It was very interesting. Friday night, Nichole, Meg, and I went to see a Flamenco show! The full price for the show, tapas, and sangria was 24 euros, but Nichole and Meg’s house brother was going to cut them a deal and I would still be paying full price. Somehow, though, he was able to get us all in for free! It was very exciting. 

The show was only 30 minutes long, but it was very cool to watch. It was very similar to tap dancing with more hips and more arms, and the guitar player was INCREDIBLE. He played with only his fingers, and I have never seen someone play guitar so fast/good. Afterwards, everyone headed over to a tapas bar by the port and we were fed 5 courses of tapas. The first was fried squid (I think), then individual paella dishes, then Spanish tortilla, then patatas bravas, and finally 2 large plates with bread, olive oil, tomatoes, cheese, meats, and olives. I didn’t know if I would be full from only eating tapas, but I was so stuffed. It was great.

The 3 of us at the tapas bar:

Saturday morning, we had another excursion to Costa Brava except this one was overnight. We left around 9 am (even though everyone got there at 8 like they told us to) and got to Costa Brava around 11:30 to tour the Ampurias Ruins. 

 An old house:

After a quick run-through and the realization that the only thing we wanted to do was go to the beach, they let us go and we went out to lay out. We were there for about 4-5 hours, and then we headed over to Rosas (a small town in Costa Brava) to stay the night. We all showered, went out to eat, and then hung out on the beach all night because there was nothing to do in such a small town. A big group of us decided to sleep on the beach, but around 4 am, when we were freezing, we decided to go sleep in our beds like normal people. It was so much fun though!

The next morning, we had a wakeup call at 8:45 and left the hotel around 10:00 to drive to a port and take a boat over to Cadaquez, another small town in Costa Brava.

Our boat:

It was a beautiful day out, and the cliffs, caves, and small towns that we saw along the ride were unbelievable. After about an hour, they stopped the boat and let us play in the water. There were two slides on the back of the boat to slide off of! If you know me, you know I’m not a huge fan of weird water because I’m always scared something is going to bite me, but I had the mentality of “when in Spain” so I jumped in! It was absolutely freezing, the coldest water I have ever been in, but totally worth it. Who else can say they swam in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea in Spain?

One of the caves we passed:

 The water was so blue!

 Attempting to make a star (a diamond?):

Once everyone had enough of that, we kept going and docked at Cadaquez, where we were left to get lunch, lay out, and explore the city – in no particular order. We decided to lay for about 15 minutes to dry our suits, but little did we know that the beach was completely made out of stones. They were smooth, rounded stones, but they were still stones and it was not the most comfortable beach I’ve ever laid on. We grabbed lunch, walked around, and then laid out for a bit longer. I bought a really cute floppy hat at a small store, and I’m excited to wear it to the beach! J 

Around 4:30 everyone met back at the boat and we took it back to Rosas, where we immediately got on the bus to go back home. Everyone slept during every single bus ride, but it was such an amazing weekend – definitely a great last weekend in Spain!

Adios Costa Brava!

Ps – although I’m having a great time, and I'm REALLY going to miss my friends here, I cannot wait to be back home tomorrow!!! I miss the food, my family, friends, Daisy, etc. See y’all so soon!! J

Day 23 -- June 13

None of you will believe what I did today, so I’m going to upload some pictures to prove it (I finally figured out how to add pictures). Sara, Brenden, Zach, Nichole, Meg, and I all met at Plaza Espana and took a metro to Montserrat, which lasted for about an hour, where we went to hike. It’s a huge tourist attraction, but it was totally worth it. Once the metro arrived, we had to take a cable car up to the mid-point/village area, which was kind of scary, and we started our hike from there. Meg, Nichole, and I went one way while the others went their own way. On the way, we ran into our friend Travis who hiked with us the rest of the way.

In the cable car looking down:

The whole group before we split up:

Yes, I hiked. Most of you know I’m not a huge fan of nature and/or exercise, but the hike was so much fun! I was even smiling :)

 Minus the fact that we hiked up about a million stairs on the way up, once we finally arrived to the real trails it was so gorgeous. 

SO MANY STAIRS!

Meg, me, Nichole, and Travis:

We started going down random paths (all marked), and after an hour and a half we were on the complete opposite side from where we started, and we had reached the top of the mountain we were hiking. It was so awesome. The mountains were so pretty from the view we had, and we could see all of the cities around it (it was a good ways away from Barcelona).

We were basically hanging out in the clouds, and the weather was absolutely perfect for a day of hiking.

Where we started our hike:

We climbed some random rock walls

walked through muddy trails

and Meg even made a few falls (she was taking all of ours for us)

We ended up hiking for about 4 hours.

All in all, the day was so much better than we could have thought it to be – even if my feet were throbbing! After such an exhausting day, I wanted to take a nap before having to study for my exam today, but I didn’t get home until dinner time and I needed to start studying. I’d definitely say my first hiking experience was as good as it gets!

The girls after our hike!

Video from the top of the mountain:

Day 22 -- June 12

So today, we decided to go out to the beach for the day. Nichole, Meg, and Brenden were already there (it was a beach I hadn’t been to yet), and Brenden was giving me directions on which way to go after the metro stop. Once we got down towards the beach, there was a skate park on the left, and he told me to go to the right. I misunderstood and took me and Sara to the left side of the beach, which just happened to be the nude beach. A couple of days earlier we had seen a naked man walking down the normal touristy beach, so at first I thought that was the situation again. And then I saw another naked man, and another one, and a naked woman, and I quickly realized where I was. After calling Brenden (assuming he wasn’t laying out on the nude beach) we quickly changed directions – having to pass them all again – and finally arrived to the beach with them.

Such a cool picture!

We stayed out there for a good 3 or 4 hours, and then we all left to go home. Soon after our showers, we realized that we were all pretty burnt because there was overcast for a while and no one thought about the sun coming through. After the beach, Nichole, Meg, and I went to this place that had live music, and it just so happened to be the same band from the night before – who I loved! They were so awesome, so we watched them for a while, although I was sweating from the heat coming from my body (sunburn!) and eventually went home. It was a nice relaxing day!

Me, Meg, and Nichole listening to the band - so red!

Day 20 -- June 10

After class, Jane and I were walking home (hungry, as usual) and decided to stop in a little café on the way to the metro and order patatas bravas. Patatas bravas is a very popular dish in Spain; they are basically potatoes (sometimes fried, sometimes not) with a spicy/mayo sauce over them. I actually really liked them! Afterwards, I took a siesta and then got ready to go out for dinner. Nichole, Jane, Meg and I decided to go out for tapas because I had never had them before (tapas are very small portions of food that really only feed one person). We went to Passeig de Gracia, which is a big street near Plaza Catalunya. The tapas bar we went to sat us almost immediately, and our placemats were the menus with pictures of everything on it.

We ordered two each – Spanish tortilla (potatoes and eggs), cod, steak with cheese, shrimp kabob, patatas bravas, and brie cheese, all of which came on a piece of bread. 

Spanish tortilla:

Fried cod:

Some others:

After eating those, which were relatively cheap, we figured that if we wanted to be full, we’d have to order like 10 more each so we moved on to another restaurant. We decided to split things, so we ordered a salad with melted goat cheese on top, a pizza, and pesto pasta. The meal was DELICIOUS, and we stayed and talked for a little while. After that, we met a couple of our friends in Plaza Reial where we ended up spending the rest of the night. It was such a great girls night, and it helped me to stop thinking about the negative things and start realizing what an AMAZING opportunity this is and how great this city is!