Spring Break 2015 -- Spain!

The first leg of our spring break consisted of Barcelona! Woo! Finally I was in my element! I love the Spanish culture- music, fashion and food! And I would finally be able to really understand, speak and read the language for the first time! (or so I thought)-- I didn't realize that Catalan is the primary language there.. with Spanish as the second. All of the street signs were in Catalan and the locals all spoke Catalan. I thought it was a weird mix of French and Spanish.. haha so that took getting used to. Anywayy..
We got to Barcelona on Thursday morning (3/26) and met a lady to give us the keys to our AirBnB apartment. It was right in the center of Barcelona very near the main street La Rambla. We set our stuff down and went exploring! We found the famous La Rambla market right down the street. It was huge! Stall after stall of fresh fruit and zuma (juice) which we bought every morning for breakfast. There were also so many fresh meat, vegetables, nuts and seriously everything else you could think of. There were also stalls with fresh empanadas. OMG. These are one of my favorite things about Spain I think. They stuff the empanadas full of everything you could think of and every single one I tried was delicious. We walked around more of downtown Barcelona and then made our way down to the Sagrada Familia. This church was INCREDIBLE. This is my favorite church out of every one that I've seen (which is saying something, living in Rome..) The architecture on the outside alone is amazing. We got to the Sagrada Familia around 4pm which was the perfect time because the sun was shining so brilliantly through the colorful stained glass windows making the inside look so magical!

At one point after walking around, I sat down in a pew and tried to take it all in. So beautiful.

After visiting the Sagrada, we headed home and got ready for dinner. We walked down the main shopping street at night which was all lit up and walked past the Gaudi Casa Batllo. Another gorgeous building built by Gaudi. For dinner we went to La Rita which was amazing- definitely recommend!The next day we woke up and went to the market again for our zuma! We spent most of the day at Park Güell which was incredible! We explored the Gaudi house and then waited for the park to open for free to the public. While we were waiting, we hiked up to the top of Colina de las Tres Cruces (Hill of the Three Crosses)  and we had a beautiful view of all of Barcelona! Finally the park opened at 6:15 and we literally ran for a spot on the bench that still had a teeny patch of sunlight. It was pretty funny to see three girls sprinting across the overlook but we got our pictures!

The park was beautiful! 

Our final day in Barcelona we decided to hit up the beaches! After a nice walk down La Rambla, we ended up at the water and it was gorgeous. The sky didn't have one cloud and the water was bright blue! We couldn't wait to hit the sand. On the boardwalk nearby there were tables of old men playing dominoes (they were precious). We spent the rest of the day on the beach, we got burned, but it was a great day. At night we walked by a group of musicians playing and dance students dancing in a square and eventually all of the people watching -young and old- joined in and it became a huge dance mob- authentic Spanish style. Next is the saddest part of my trip because unfortunately my wallet was stolen which was very very stressful and irritating. I was able to get emergency money from a branch of my study abroad program in Barcelona to last me the rest of my trip. So Barca didn't end on a good note, but the majority of it was fun :)

The next morning we caught a train to Valencia! I was so excited for Valencia as well because it was south (aka nice and warm) also because Rachel is studying here in May! So it was cool to get a tiny glimpse of where she’ll be living for 2 months this summer! Our hotel was right in Old Town Valencia and it was so beautiful! The architecture of the old buildings is so cool and very different than Rome! It reminded me a lot of Pirates of the Caribbean for some reason, with the French-like style and the palm trees… haha I don’t know. It was Palm Sunday that day and everyone was dressed in church attire and had their palms!

Unfortunately we weren’t able to make a mass. We went to the beach and explored the shopping district a little at night. The next day we started chocolate and churros!! So delicious! We were served a plate of churros and a whole coffee mug full of melted chocolate! After being sent into a sugar coma we went to the Cathedral – where the Holy Grail is kept! From there we decided to walk all the way to the beach via the Rio Turia—a dried up river bed converted into a huge park! It was very cool the way the city incorporated it into a green space for outdoor activities! We also walked by the City of Arts and Sciences the really cool outer space-looking building! We eventually made it to the beach where we found many women tanning topless. A bit of a culture shock but nothing we couldn’t get over haha (we couldn’t say the same for the American boys laying next to us..)

Overall I LOVED SPAIN! Thankfully I’m headed back in a few weeks to go to Sevilla!