Sangria y Siestas

The beginning of my spring break started in Bothwell, Scotland at the lovely Martin household! Alison (Hi Alison!) and her amazing family so graciously let Audrey, Kelly, and I stay over at their home before bringing us to the Glasgow-Prestwick airport the next morning. Our stay was a lot like the homestay I went on a month or so prior, but SO MUCH BETTER! It was literally one of my favorite nights of the whole semester. Alison gave us a tour of her town and neighborhood, we jumped on her trampoline, met her American-fearing rabbit, and had an amazing dinner! We literally just ate and drank and laughed about American ridiculousness with her family all night long. Not to mention STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING. Mmmm. Audrey, Kelly, and I all agreed that we could've skipped out on our whole break just to spend more time with the Martins. Thanks again, Alison!!!!!

We spent a total of about five days in Barcelona, which in perspective of the rest of my travel time, as well as my budget is quite a lot! Luckily the city, and the weather were absolutely beautiful! Also, it was really nice to explore the city on a relaxed clock. We didn't feel as though we had to quickly and stressfully squeeze everything into two or three days, leaving a lot of time, too, for tapas, siestas and sangria - Spanish necessities!  The first day we just kind of wandered around, got ourselves pretty lost, and eventually found our hostel - conveniently located off La Rambla in La Plaza Reial. Such a crazy place - if it wasn't for the daily siesta, I don't think the people that live here could function! They go out at 2AM and come home at 6/7AM every night. I think I would die of exhaustion. More than anything, I realized in the first few hours, not only how much Spanish I could both read and understand, but also how afraid I was to actually speak it to others! I had a few days to get over it, and eventually did by the end, but it was pretty scary at the beginning.

Tapas & Sangria:

One of the first things I noticed in Barcelona was the architecture. I swear, 90% of the buildings you want to take a picture of! They are all so incredibly beautiful whether it is a church or just a plain apartment on the street. I also noticed the TREES. While Barcelona is a huge city, it is FILLED with trees that really make a huge difference in atmosphere. I should also mention that Audrey's friend from home was studying there, so it really helped to have someone to tell what where to go and what to do. And somehow, one of her friend's roommates is actually really good friends with a friend of mine from school. Smallest world! We spent a lot of the days just walking around the city, shopping in markets, and sitting on the grass soaking up the warm sun (remember I am living in SCOTLAND). Parc de la Ciutadella was amazing. 

A lot of Barcelona is centered around the beautiful art of Gaudi, known mostly for his mosaic style. Naturally, we traveled all over the city to see it all. While there are smaller museums/sights such as La Casa Mila La Pearera and La Casa Batillo, a lot of the focus rest on the Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell. Sagrada Familia, while quite the walk for us, was absolutely BREATHTAKING, despite the fact that it is actually unfinished! If you are reading this and do not know what it is I highly recommend googling it. So beautiful. Unfortunately it was ridiculously 24 euro or something to get in, so we skipped that - yet it was still SO amazing to see. Even more amazing, in my opinion at least was Parc Guell. I also HIGHLY recommend looking into it online! Overlooking the entire city (with outside escalators?) the park is absolutely MASSIVE and filled with Gaudi's amazing works. Unfortunately it was raining when we went, or else I definitely would've spent the whole day there exploring it.

Both Dali and Picasso are also highly associated with Barcelona. I would've LOVED to go to the Dali museum but it is actually about 3 hours out of the city. Such a bummer. Audrey's friend said it was amazing, and she hates art museums. Go figure! We decided against going to Picasso, but it was really cool to see the influence all around the city. 

We of course could not go to Barcelona without spending an afternoon on LA PLAYA. La Barceloneta, the beach along the city, was sun-filled and gorgeous. Unfortunately it was still a little too cold to really enjoy it, but it was very nice to lay out on a sheet for a few hours - I even got a sun burn! While the beach was beautiful, it has a creature FAR more annoying than the seagull. This creature is the peddler. Really, though. There were tens to hundreds of people coming up to every person on the beach trying to sell you things: sunglasses, hair braiding, massages - it came to the point where we had to leave - they were THAT annoying. I can only imagine what it is like in the actual summer. Madness. 

Kelly, Audrey, and I all managed to make it out alive, and with all of our money! I must say I have never been so aware/nervous/cautious about pick-pocketing in my life. I realize it was definitely important for me to be aware, I mean, it really is anywhere - but even more so in the pick-pocket capital of the world - yet, I still felt like everyone was out to get me because of it, haha.

John Mayer - Not Myself