And so it begins... : Spain!

Hola, guys! I got to go on a trip to Barcelona, Spain! It was awesome. My friend Jenn and I went together for the weekend. The first night we had trouble finding our hostel and it was already getting really late so we were concerned BUT we found it. :) It was actually really a nice place to stay -- clean, friendly and breakfast included! Also it was right by the street Las Ramblas, which is known for being a major tourist attraction, with all sorts of shops and tents up and down the street. On Saturday we did a lot of window shopping. A LOT! It's fun to see what's there -- lots of knick knacks and souvenirs, foods, clothing, etc! It's also fun seeing the similar things, such as Starbucks, McDonalds, KFC, etc! Lots of people understood English, so communicating wasn't hard. Although, I am a Spanish major so I really have no excuse haha. I still need to learn so much Spanish. Going to Barcelona reminded me how I need to touch up and deepen my vocabulary and phrases. When I get back to UCI, I plan to join a Spanish fraternity or some group where I can practice speaking and have that Spanish community I need. :) Hopefully I can even come back to Spain one day or other Spanish-speaking areas and practice! Maybe even get an internship! Anyway, after window-shopping we made our way up to Casa Batlló! It was a house designed by Gaudí, who is known for many famous and amazing architectural designs. You can tell he puts a lot of thought into his work. It's intentional, functional, and appealing. We also got to see the Sagrada Familia during the weekend, which is a church in Spain designed by Gaudí. It's phenomenal! Again, you can notice all his hard work and effort he put into its design and structure. The Casa Batlló was very colorful inside and there were so many floors! Gaudí even designed some furniture to complement the design of the house. The inside resembled the ocean. The walls and ceilings had many curves and there was a lot of blue colors inside. Afterward we took the metro down to the harbor area. There we did more window shopping! We ended the night getting hot dogs and overlooking the bay. It was peaceful. We headed up to Starbucks in the nearby mall where we got a really nice view of the harbor. So peaceful, it put us to sleep haha. The next day we went to church! Hillsong Barcelona. :) It was really cool to be a part of. It's cool that you can meet up with other believers, even when there is a language barrier. There were translations available but listening to the Spanish music was awesome. After, we shared a lunch of paella and tapas! So good. We had to have seafood at some point since that's what Barcelona is known for. No regrets. Happy tummies. After lunch we made our way over to visit the Picasso Museum! I didn't know that Picasso was Spanish haha! When we got there the line was HUGE!! So instead we went to the bookstore to see the types of artwork he did. Very interesting... On our way back to Las Ramblas we went inside this cute little store where they use typewriters to write you a story! You pick three words of the ones they had there, then the people will type up a story for you. We ended the day with more window shopping and gelato. ;) Monday, we saw Sagrada Familia, which was very cool to see. Hard to find, despite it being so huge. We did the audio tour and learned a lot about Gaudí and how much he poured into his work. We also got to go up one of the towers! So high up! I learned I'm afraid of heights. But, you get a good view of Barcelona from there. And the bullet looking building, the Torre Agbar. It's cool seeing postcard pictures in person. After our visit we made our way down to the beach! We cut it close because we had a night flight back to England. Plus, people gave us the wrong time estimate for walking to the beach haha. It took a lot longer, but it was well worth it. Our plane even departed a little later than it was scheduled so after landing we almost missed our coach back to Cambridge! The trip was overall pretty rushed but fun at the same time! Hasta luego, Spain! God bless.

(more pics to come)