Barcelona!!

It’s been a great couple of weeks!!  Sorry I haven’t posted in awhile – I have been enjoying Spain / lots of homework! Our trip to Barcelona was amazing!  On Thursday we left at 7 am in a bus with 25 students from one of the local high schools – it was cool getting to know some Spanish people my age.  On the bus ride we watched Avatar in Spanish.  Our first stop was in Tarragona.  It is a beautiful city right on the coast.  We saw lots of Roman ruins (super interesting because of my three years in Latin classes in high school).  We saw an amphitheater, the aqueduct, some remains of the city walls and some drinking fountains with Roman heads on them.  It was really fun!  That afternoon after more traveling in the bus we went to the Park Guell.  That was awesome!! There were tons of colors and tile collages, animals and beautiful architecture!  Lots of pictures on facebook!  After that we went to our hostel for the weekend (El monisterio).  I stayed in a room with three other girls; we got two bunk beds and a sink. 

On Friday we went to Casa Miel, also created by Gaudi.  He was very into nature and took his inspiration from trees, flowers, shells, sand, bones, and more.  There is a museum in the top of that house that was very interesting.  The roof was like a play ground!! Lots of stairs and different platforms with tower like things on each.  After that we went to the Sagrada Familia – WOW!  Amazing!!  So beautiful and huge!  I felt like God could easily live there!  For lunch I finally had pizza – my favorite!!  After lunch we walked around town and saw the Christopher Columbus statue and went up – very high and not much room but great view!  After we walked down Las Ramblas, a street with trees on either side, tons of shops, outdoor restaurants, street acts and people painted all in silver or bronze standing very still.  There is also a very large food market there where I bought a fruit smoothie that was delicious; it was like I was drinking out of a piece of fruit!  In the hour we had before the bus came for us we went to El Corte Ingles, a department store here that is really popular.  We also went into the hard rock cafe but didn’t eat there.  We had dinner back at the hostel and then played cards / talked with some of the high school girls.  I feel like my Spanish improves ten times in one conversation with them!

On Saturday we had breakfast at the hostel, a large delicious croissant!! We took a bus tour through the city, stopping to look at the Olympic stadium from when the Olympics were in Barcelona in 1992.  That was awesome!  After that we went to the Born neighborhood to see a couple of churches in the Gothic style.  They were beautiful with lots of details, statues, and stained glass windows.  In the smaller (still massive) church I saw some graves that were dated from the 1700’s!  Here comes my favorite part of the trip!  We then went to Camp Nou – the futbol stadium for the Barcelona soccer club!  It was so amazing!! We saw the museum where they had lots of pictures, videos, newspaper articles, trophies and old jerseys, balls and cleats.  For all of the videos they had touch screens – I felt like I was on NCIS: LA!!!  We got to go in the stadium about halfway up.  We went up to the press box where they have all the people translating the games.  We also got to go down and out where the players sit.  When you walk up the stairs out onto the field that have a music recording playing of the stadium cheering when the players come out on to the field so we felt like the players coming out just before a game - that was a cool feeling!!  There is a guy in our group that knows pretty much everything about soccer - he was better than an audio guide – he told us lots of interesting information about the team and the players.  That night we walked along Las Ramblas again to see what it was like at night.  A friend and I joked that everybody in Barcelona was either smoking, kissing or shopping!    

On Sunday we went to a vineyard where we went on a super fun tour.  We got to see how they made the cava – the Catalan word for champagne.  We also took a small car train ride through all of the old bottles stored underground.  The train driver obviously loves his job as we were whipping around the caves like no other.  It was a blast!  For lunch on our long journey back to Dénia we stopped in a seaside town.  Amazing trip!! Lots and lots of pictures on facebook.