I want to officially apologize for the amount of pictures that I am about to post. I hope you don't mind. But because you are reading this and spending the time to look at all this and what not, I shall give you a great song to listen to while you are reading about my adventure abroad.
You're welcome.
So, some of you may know that I went to Barcelona this past weekend. Some of you may not have known that. Either way, now you know.
Thursday morning, my good friend Leah and I woke up at 4:15am and began our journey to the north to Barcelona. Our flight left at 8:00am and we arrived in sunny Barcelona around 10:30am. We made our way to our Ikea hostel and then began our exploring.
Here is proof that we survived our first RyanAir flight.
Our first stop was Park Guell. Neither one of us knew what we were getting into, but I am glad we didn't. I love surprises. At first we hiked up this steep hill and when we arrived, we were given the best view of the entire city. Please take a look.
We were serenaded by street performers the entire time at the park. It was awesome. If you know me, you know that live music is one of my all time favorites, so it was just the cherry on top.
After that, we went back down to the city and explored a little bit more downtown. We saw some more of Gaudi's famous architecture. Here, take a look.
It is cool to see different style buildings. I kind of liked it. Barcelona is very different than Sevilla; not in a good or bad way, just different. To me, it feels a lot more European than Spanish.
After exploring some more, we decided to walk to the harbor to see the water, but by then, we were exhausted and decided to go to the grocery store to buy our food for the weekend and to settle in for the night. Leah and I had an awesome time painting nails, watching stand up comedy, and just being girls. I have really missed girl's nights.
In the morning, we went straight to the Sagrada Familia, which has been under construction for the past century. Gaudi started to build it and towards the end of his life, he focused solely on the Sagrada Familia. It is so incredibly different than any cathedral that we have visited thus far. It was amazing. You walk in and all you see are rainbow colors everywhere on the crisp white-ish interior. It is so "modern" compared to the other cathedrals in the country. I can't do it justice and pictures won't do it justice eithe, but it will just have to do. Please, enjoy. I know I did.
I absolutely loved it. Leah and I spent two hours there and we could have easily spent more. I can't wait to see it finished because when all the stained glass is put in, my oh my it will be absolutely breathtaking. And get this, on the top level, there is seating for 1,000+ choir singers. Can you imagine? Sitting in a rainbow filled cathedral hearing 1,000+ voices singing? Oh my word, that sounds awesome. We also climbed the towers (which was a tad scary) and saw the cityscape which was so awesome. I could talk all day about this place, but to spare you, I will move on.
After the Sagrada Familia, we decided to go up to the Olympic Stadium, which is on top of another hill. You can bet by this time our feet and legs were definitely letting us know that we were abusing them. But alas, we went on.
The olympic stadium is a lot smaller than we had expected and honestly, it seemed pretty deserted. There was a concert being set up in the stadium, but it wasn't anything too extravagant. I did like visiting it though. This is my third Olympic stadium. I am pretty proud of that, not gonna lie.
The Magic Fountains are in Plaza de Espana. We got there around 6:00pm and decided we needed to sit and maybe get a Sprite or something (we all know I am absolutely addicted to Sprite). So, we were walking around the plaza and noticed that there was an abnormally large amount of people on one side of the street. Of course, curious one that I am, we walked on that side of the street to see all that was going on. We realized it was for an anime convention. I have nothing against anime or anything, but it was quite interesting to see the way that everyone dressed. I think I will leave it at that.
We went back to the Magic Fountains and there were so many people there ready to watch the show. Basically the fountains light up and change according to music that is playing. It was absolutely wonderful.
That night, we went back to our apartment and decided to cook some pasta. It was super exciting. A little back story, I decided that in my small backpack that I took with me to Barcelona, I was going to bring my head lamp in case we were faced with sudden blackouts. You never know when light will suddenly be gone. We must be prepared at all times. Do take note that my lovely friend Leah was very skeptical of my packing list (cough my head lamp cough).
Low-and-behold our power goes out in the middle of our cooking session. So, here is proof that I am a superhero and saved the day (in my SNU gear of course).
It was awesome.
The next day, we checked out of our hostel and decided that our last morning would be well spent if we went to the beach. So. We did. It was such nice weather too. We put our feet in and relished in the fact that we were standing in the Mediterranean Sea. No big deal.
It was a lot of fun and really relaxing. I just have to pinch myself everyday. Seriously.
After that, we decided to explore more of the city and it eventually brought us to this huge market. It had every type of food possible. We bought pineapple for $1euro. It was awesome.
Our next stop was the Barcelona Cathedral.
Wow. It never ceases to amazing me how intricate and enormous these places are. We also went to mass at the cathedral that night. It was such a learning experience.
After mass, we were hungry and because we were already checked out of our hostel and couldn't cook, we decided we were going to treat ourselves to some great food. So, we went to Hard Rock Cafe. I mean, who wouldn't go to the Hard Rock Cafe? We bought BBQ bacon and cheese hamburgers with fries and ranch. I haven't had ranch for 9 weeks. I nearly cried from happiness. You think I am kidding.
That night we had to go back to the airport which was quite the chore. In short, we were going to take the $5.75 euros airport bus that night but we couldn't find the bus stop. Go figure. So, we asked one of the city bus drivers and he said the airport bus doesn't run at night. We were so confused because we could've have sworn we understood the times on the sign. But we trusted in the bus driver.
We shouldn't have trusted him.
We got in a cab and knew that it was going to be pricey, but we had no choice, right? As we are driving to the airport, we see the airport bus at the bus station getting ready for a trip to the airport.
Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.
We paid $25 euros. We're not bitter. I promise.
But seriously. Come on.
At any rate, we were there at 12am and our flight left at 6am. So, we listened to Hamish and Andy on their new app to kill time and it was awesome.
We arrived home at 8:30am and I finally crawled in my bed at 9:15am. It was glorious. Whoever thought flying out that early was smart, is not smart at all (aka me).
I had an amazing time with Leah and I am so incredibly blessed to have a wonderful friend to travel with. Honestly, she is awesome. I couldn't have asked for a better person to travel with.
The Lord is stretching me in so many different ways, but I shall save that for another post.
Oh man. We serve a wonderful God. I love it.
A couple little facts.
1) Here they call granny smith apples, Granny Smith Apples. Love it. Best apple I have had here in Spain. Beautiful.
2) I love that my Spanish name has an accent. So, taking this picture was extra exciting.
3) I miss you all. I am excited to see you and hug you and to hear all about your lives. I love being here though, not gonna lie. I just wish you could share all of these experiences with me. Seriously, how fun would that be?
Love Always,
Ang
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