A Taste of Spain: Just Can't Get Enough

Hello everyone! Here's an update on my life for the past week or so...

The day after our hike I was literally so sore that I could barely move. Sad but true. Still, the pain was worth it. Last week I had midterms. The universities here don't really give tests throughout the semester, so most of our grades come from midterms, finals, participation, and attendance. This is awesome and awful all at the same time. It seems like we don't have any work to do during the week, but when testing time comes around it gets a little crazy! Luckily I studied a fair amount and my tests all went pretty well. My last midterm was Thursday morning. Thursday night I jumped on a plane and headed to Barcelona. I traveled with my friend Claire, and we stayed with her friend from college named Sam. Sam is studying in Barcelona, so he was a great tour guide and an amazing host. Having a nice place to stay for free was amazing! My best friend Hunter, who is studying in Paris, flew to Barcelona as well and met us. This was such a treat...after living together for an entire semester, not seeing each other for a few months has been a little sad for Hunter and me! We had a tearful and exciting reunion in the Barcelona airport at about 11:00 pm on Thursday. Before we had even gotten in the bus to take us to our next location, Hunter had started eating my bocadilla and we had opened up the Girl Scout cookies my mom brought me...the two of us truly have a food obsession (as evidenced by this blog...)We headed to the center of town, where we got a taxi to Sam's apartment. Thursday night, we went to this really cool club on the beach called Opium. We danced a lot and had so much fun!

Friday was a day full of sight-seeing. First, of course, we grabbed lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Most of my friends here in Spain will tell you how homesick everyone is for Mexican food. There are a couple Mexican restaurants in Granada but supposedly they are terrible (nothing like Los Arcos, I'm sure). I just about fainted at the idea of a burrito! It was delicious. We wandered around Barcelona a bit. The architecture is extremely unique. I haven't seen anything like it anywhere else in Europe thus far. We saw a lot of houses/buildings designed by Gaudi, a Spanish architect that did a lot of work around Barcelona. His style is quite interesting, but I really liked it. After checking out some Gaudi stuff and the Barcelona cathedral, we headed back to Sam's apartment. Claire took a siesta (we're addicted, it is true) and Hunter and I went out to walk around some more. We found a huge market that was really cool and sold literally everything--ham, seafood, and tons of fruit! It was a very colorful place to say the least. We also went to the Sagrada Familia, which is a huge church designed by, you guessed it, Gaudi. That night, Sam and Claire cooked hamburgers and asparagus (DELICIOUS) and we were all too sleepy to go out. Hunter and I watched Black Swan and ate ice cream and potato chips...the movie, the snacks, and the company were all fabulous. Really though, if you haven't seen Black Swan, you really should. It is a little on the crazy side but SO. GOOD.

After a good night of sleep, we were all ready to see some more of Barcelona on Saturday. We got off the metro and wandered around a little bit more as we headed to the beach! We stopped on the way and ate the BEST paella I have ever had. Seriously. Amazing. Hunter and I were in heaven. We hung out at the beach a little bit, but it was a little windy/chilly so we decided to head up to Park Guell, which is this huge area designed by....Gaudi. This might have been my favorite thing that we did. The weather was gorgeous and the park offers beautiful views of the city of Barcelona. There were lots of mosaics and stuff for decoration...the whole thing was just really impressive and cool. After spending most of the afternoon outside, we headed back to the apartment where Hunter and I cooked breakfast burritos for dinner. We headed out for our last night in Barcelona, which was so much fun. Then today (Sunday) we got up pretty early and went to the airport to catch our flights home! It was a short and jam-packed weekend, but I honestly can't even convey how much fun I had. I'm adding Barcelona to the list of places where I have left part of my soul! Also there was delicious gelato...check out the pics below, haha.

Love and miss you all! Only 2 months until I'm back in the states--time is really flying!

Shannon