Barcelona, Spain

So we returned to Ireland yesterday after an amazing trip to Barcelona, Spain. We had great weather, warm and sunny, and everyone was in great spirits throughout the trip. We arrived early on Wednesday morning and it was a bit chilly but the sun was out so we toured around the city a bit and met up with some of our friends who were traveling there as well. We walked down the pier at the marina and went down to the beach. We dipped our feet into the water and let the waves wash over our feet. That was the first time that I have actually been on a beach next to the ocean, it was really cool. We then went out to eat and enjoyed some sangria, tapas, and paella which are huge foods there. Since Barcelona is on the ocean we decided to try the seafood paella which I thought was great, one of our roommates ended up getting sick from it though :( I tried clams and oysters for the first time and even ate a baby octupus (somewhere my dad is smiling.....).

The next day we woke up to rain (boo) but it was okay because all of our activities were indoors. We visited La Sagrada Familia which is a church that has been under construction for over 100 years and still isn't done. It was originally architected by Gaudi who designed these really neat buildings that are all over Barcelona. It was cool and all but since there was construction everywhere it really wasn't that entertaining for me, I would love to see it when its done though. We then checked out the chocolate museum, our tickets to get in were chocolate bars, they were so super yummy. We walked around and found out how chocolate is made and distributed throughout the world and there was lots of statues made out of chocolate, it was great. That night we bought some frozen pizza, chips and salsa, and a few bottles of wine and went back to the hostel and just played cards and talked, I got to know a lot more about the girls that were in my group, it was cool.

The next day we headed to Montserrat which is this monastery on a mountain. We took a cable car up there and walked around the monastery for a bit and then took a 'funicular' (which is like a train) up to the spot where we started our hike to the top. It took us about an hour up and an hour down but the view was unbelieveable, definitely one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen. It was so hot that we all had on T-shirts and rolled up our pants, definitely got a bit sunburnt on that hike. Afterwards we walked along this path that led to the cave where the Virgin Mary was seen, there were statues representing all the mysteries (ie. the resurrection, the pentecost, etc). It was a cute little chapel and we saw the cave and the statue of the Black Madonna (not the original, but a replica). On the way back it downpoured and we were running through it getting soaked. We went inside the Basillica and toured the crypts and the different chambers inside. It was a beautiful building that had unbelieveable murals and sculptures. It took a lot out of us so we were exhausted by the end of it and ended up falling asleep almost as soon as we got back.

On Satuday we toured the Olympic Stadium (Barcelona hosted the Olympic games in 1992) which was pretty impressive. We then walked up this huge hill to reach a castle that overlooked the whole city of Barcelona on one side and on the other was the ocean. It was breathtaking, I could have stayed up there forever. It was soooo hot and sunny during the day and I got really really sunburnt on the back of my neck, arms, and chest; luckily I put sunscreen on my face so it wasn't too bad....We headed down to the beach aftewards to watch the sunset. There was so many people there and so many people trying to sell us coconut, sunglasses, Bob Marley sarongs, you name it, they were selling it. We went out for another festive spanish cuisine meal with some of the guys from our group that were traveling in spain during that time.

The last day we went to Parc Guell which is where Gaudi, the architect, lived and there were some of his buildings constructed there. It was the perfect day, hot and sunny. We walked around for a bit and checked out the people selling their wares on blankets in the middle of the square (really cool jewelry and scarves). Then the other girls traveling with Liz and I had to catch their train...they ended up missing it because they read the military time wrong, oops. They ended up having to pay for another train which was like 75 euro, so we walked them to the train station and saw them off.

Liz and I left the next morning, however, Liz didn't set her alarm for the correct time and we were running an hour later than we had planned. We still thought we had enough time to catch our plane but when we got to the airport the lines were ridiculous, so chaotic and cramped. We waited in a queue (which is what they call a 'line' here) for about forty five minutes when it all of a sudden it closed so we had to get in the back of another queue. With fifteen minutes to spare before our plane took off we were running to security and passed through and made our plane with five minutes to spare, it was such an adrenaline rush.

Spain was an incredible time and I would highly highly recommend Barcelona to anyone heading to Spain!! We had sooo much fun!! Please check out the pictures on the left side of the blog, they will show you how awesome of a trip it was! I send lots of hugs and love from Ireland! xoxox

-abby