Barcelona

So, last Thursday my allergies were extremely horrible, so I stopped into a Farmacia to get some Mucinex...yea not that simple. Spain does not have Mucinex, it ended up with Melissa and I playing charades with the people at the counter trying to describe our symptoms. It worked, my senora said that I got the right things...but im sure it was hilarious for anyone that was watching! :) Yesterday I arrived back to Madrid from my weekend trip to Barcelona, Spain. I didn't realize how draining weekend trips could be! Although, we had some downfalls to our trip, we all left loving Barcelona. We left last Thursday on a night bus that left at 11pm and we got in at 7 am. This is a good idea theoretically...but the bus was freezing and cramped=no sleep. When we all arrived in Barcelona, we immediately went to our hostel "Barcelona Dreams" which was pretty amazing. Bianca, Josie and I had no idea what to expect for the hostel bc none of us had ever been in one. The hostel was big, with a full breakfast and electronic locks. We had roommates of German, French, Danish, Canadian, and Turkish background. It was a pretty cool experience! We got through a majority of sightseeing that Friday, by the end of the day, we were dragging and sleepy. We had seen the famous street known as "Las Ramblas" which was beautiful! It consisted of a long street with vendors, restraunts, people dressed up, a boqueteria( a market full of fruits, candy, and meat). It was a wonderful experience! From there, we headed to la Sagrada Familia which is a historic church in Spain. It was beautiful on the outside, and although it was a little overpriced we decided to go in, the inside wasn't what we expected because of the construction going on, but still beautiful, including the view at the top of the 400 steps (we took elevator up, stairs down). From there we went to parc de guell, which combined with las ramblas was my favorite place of Barcelona. This is a park dedicated to the art of Gaudi. The views are spectacular from the park, there were little vendors and musicians along the park. My favorite part of the park was actually underneath it, where there are huge columns that hold up the main landing. There, some musicians played classical music and with the sun setting in the distance, it was certainly a memorable event! That night Bianca, Josie, Melody (girl from Turkey, who is studying in Paris) and I went to view the free concerts around the city, because there was a festival this weekend in Spain. There were tons of people out and about and the music was fabulous! However, before we went out, we had a bit of junk food party, where there was oreo licking contests. Random fact, none of our roommates had ever had oreos! Lol but they loved them! Then, on Saturday we took a lazy approach to seeing Barcelona, by going to the beach and dipping our toes into the Mediterranean Sea! It was cold, but Josie and Bianca still went swimming in it, I settled for getting seashells and just playing in the sand :). We all were shocked to realize that this was a topless beach! Not everyone was topless, but there were quite a few that were, young, old, middle aged...you name it they were. After a few hours, I actually got some color, we ate at a restraunt by the beach. Then we ventured on to what we thought was the "Olympic Stadium"...Turns out it was a venue for different sports. So, completely exhausted we headed back to our hostel, to wait until dinner, then get back to the bus station for yet another night bus. When we got back we saw Kristin (from Denmark) and started talking with him and then met another Danish person, Michael. We compared stereotypes, cultures and traditions. It's funny that I had never met any Danish people, and in one day I met 2! We all decided to go to dinner close to the bus station...a Chinese Buffet, and talked over some Sangria. Btw the Chinese Buffet was amazing! They even had Mongolian Beef with Mushrooms... Anywho, we all said our goodbyes and the 3 girls got on the late night bus. I don't know if it was better the second time or if I was just so exhausted that I passed out, but I slept the entire time and arrived in Madrid at 7 am. I'm still pretty tired from the weekend, but wouldnt take back a second of it! This coming weekend I'm heading off to Brussels, Belgium with Lynn, Ally, and Bianca. I have to admit Madrid is starting to feel more like home...i missed my senora Esperanza and her yummy cooking and by the end of Barcelona I was ready to come back...So for now back to homework...o and the pictures should be uploaded on the slideshow below....

Ciao!