Barcelona!

This was the first (of quite a few) random weekend trips of my study abroad experience traveling on my own (for example—our whole AIFS group is going to Paris this weekend but it’s all been organized by AIFS and is pre-planned for the most part). So, going into it, London, Emily, Rachel, David, and myself knew it was going to be a learning experience; and although I was confident in all of our abilities to figure out how to get places and hopefully not get pickpocketed, it was both exciting and a bit nerve-wracking to pack up a backpack of things on Friday afternoon and leave the place that’s been our home for over a month now.

Before I give you some highlights from the trip, I have to introduce you to everyone because although the trip itself was amazing, what really made the weekend so spectacular was the people I got to adventure with!

Emily, London, David, Rachel and I in front of the Arc de Triomphe!

Starting on the left is Emily (quick pause—to anyone in AIFS potentially reading this I know it’s a bit silly)... Ok so Emily! Probably one of the bubbliest personalities here. She’s a total sweetheart and super fun to be around. Goes to Drake and is studying journalism. Then the blonde girl (the only one in the college if I had to guess) is London who is in room next to me at school and (sorry to everyone else) is probably one of my absolute favorite people I’ve met on this trip! She’s from Arkansas and is SO intelligent while being so down-to-earth and fun to be around. I think I’ve told her more about my life in the last month than a lot of even my close friends have learned about me in the last few years! Then there’s David, the only guy. He also goes to Drake for accounting and is one of the sweetest guys here. He’s pretty much always smiling and is super nice and has a Minnesota accent when he says “Bag.” Then there’s Rachel who has some amazingly curly hair. This was the first time her and I really got spend a lot of time together and I loved getting to talk to her and get to know her better and laugh a LOT and take lots of photos together. And yeah that’s me on the right.

So. I originally started writing something for the blog that turned into more of a personal journal and was simply way too long. Therefore, I’ve decided to try my best to just give the highlights. So without further ado, my weekend in Barcelona:

-Wandering the streets of Barcelona trying to find the hostel. We left the college at around 4, found the bus to Nice, got dinner, walked to the airport, flew into Barcelona, and had taken a bus into the city. From there we had a picture of a map of how to get to the hostel with very few street names and without the actual address of the hostel either (oops!). So it ended up being about an hour and a half walk at 11:30 at night trying to navigate our way when we literally had no idea where we were!

Pretty much what we looked like for most of the trip.

-The moment I walked into La Sagrada Familia—literally took my breath away and gave me chills! Words just can’t describe how stunning it was.

Outside of La Sagrada Familia

The ceiling! Incredible, right?

On of many of the gorgeous stained glass windows.

-Holding hands and praying an Our Father in La Sagrada Familia per London’s suggestion <3

-Checking out La Boccheria—the open air market there. It was not only huge but just filled with fresh fruits, fresh meats, candies, spices, cooking oils and so on. Definitely would recommend it!

-Eating some insanely good tapas!

-Getting lost looking for the Picasso Museum and ending up in the gothic quarter <3

-Taking a siesta!

-Sprinting to see the Magic Fountain. It’s sort of like an original World of Color or Bellagio Fountain thing except it’s just huge and in the middle of Barcelona and really cool. We saw it from the metro stop and saw it starting so decided to sprint.

-Dinner at this very small Mexican food place which we were at from 9:30-12:00/12:30ish. It was really good which is why it was so crowded! But it was the latest dinner I might’ve ever had.

-Mastering the Metro

-Stumbling upon a parade with amazing music, brightly colored costumes, and dancing!

-Getting to sit on the beach and then get more tapas <3

We came. We saw. We conquered.

Or at least, we felt like we did. And really we did see quite a lot. We got to experience a new culture which was great despite that we really could’ve brushed up on more Spanish so we could’ve avoided constantly telling people “Oui! Oh oops yes I mean si!” I’m really enjoying getting to see and experience the Latin culture, too. And this trip made me realize I want to learn to speak Spanish and build up the stamina to party like they do in Spain—their nights start at about 12 and go until like 5—which is I guess why they take siestas.

I have to now take some time to write about the last 4 days in Paris! Ah! Will post something soon though hopefully!

Bisous tout le monde!