BARCELONA
i must admit, i've never been good at keeping up with blogging. things have been so busy, between schoolwork and traveling and meeting new friends. i'm having a fabulous time! i got slightly homesick for the first time this week, but everything is a-okay. spring break is in effect as of thursday afternoon, and then i'll be gone for 15 days traveling.
on the topic of traveling, this is actually the first weekend in the past 6 that i haven't traveled! in sequential order... i was in barcelona, brussels, dublin, edinburgh and paris. i feel incredibly fortunate being so close to all of these places, and to be amongst friends who are as excited about being in europe as i am. experiencing europe on a student's budget is incredibly manageable.... flying budget airlines and staying in hostels. granted this means usually having communal bathrooms and going to airports an hour and a half away from the actual destination... but you're only young once, right?!
so our trip to spain was very spontaneous. i went with natalie and the two andrews next door. andrew sice happens to be fluent in spanish so it was incredibly helpful in our ventures. it was so nice to be in a slightly warmer climate for a few days, and the atmosphere in spain is so relaxed and enjoyable. we were in the city for carnivale (the start of lent... the equivalent of mardi gras), and got to see a lot of people dressed up in crazy costumes. i'm pretty sure barcelona is a party city every day of the year, so the craziness of carnivale probably wasn't too out of the ordinary. i finally got to try real spanish paella.... twice... and we went out for real spanish sangria... multiple times. barcelona is still relatively untouched by commercialism too, which is nice to see. there were the typical zaras and h&ms that you see in every european city... but only on the main streets. we stayed in a hostel near las ramblas... the main street where most of the city's action is. at the north end of las ramblas was this plaza where thousands of pigeons congregate and vendors sell bird seed so people can feed them. we were so amused at this, we fed the pigeons the first day we were there for about two hours. they climb all over you! even the pigeons in spain are friendlier than those in new york. this is a picture of the four of us in the plaza catalunya and of me with a pigeon on my head:
one of my favorite parts of barcelona... minus the paella and weather and palm trees.... is that the city sits right on the mediterranean. so the first night we were there, we hung out by the water and the marina. barcelona also has incredibly unique architecture... attributed to mr. gaudi.
he designed this incredibly phenomenally beautiful park called the guell park that is in the northern part of the city on a hill. in the middle of the 'park' is this huge palatial looking structure that at the very top provided the most amaaaaazing view of the city.
another amazing thing about spain: stray cats EVERYWHERE.
so i LOVED barcelona/spain to say the least, and can't wait to stop in madrid on spring break.
next up..... BRUSSELS..... to be continued.......
on the topic of traveling, this is actually the first weekend in the past 6 that i haven't traveled! in sequential order... i was in barcelona, brussels, dublin, edinburgh and paris. i feel incredibly fortunate being so close to all of these places, and to be amongst friends who are as excited about being in europe as i am. experiencing europe on a student's budget is incredibly manageable.... flying budget airlines and staying in hostels. granted this means usually having communal bathrooms and going to airports an hour and a half away from the actual destination... but you're only young once, right?!
so our trip to spain was very spontaneous. i went with natalie and the two andrews next door. andrew sice happens to be fluent in spanish so it was incredibly helpful in our ventures. it was so nice to be in a slightly warmer climate for a few days, and the atmosphere in spain is so relaxed and enjoyable. we were in the city for carnivale (the start of lent... the equivalent of mardi gras), and got to see a lot of people dressed up in crazy costumes. i'm pretty sure barcelona is a party city every day of the year, so the craziness of carnivale probably wasn't too out of the ordinary. i finally got to try real spanish paella.... twice... and we went out for real spanish sangria... multiple times. barcelona is still relatively untouched by commercialism too, which is nice to see. there were the typical zaras and h&ms that you see in every european city... but only on the main streets. we stayed in a hostel near las ramblas... the main street where most of the city's action is. at the north end of las ramblas was this plaza where thousands of pigeons congregate and vendors sell bird seed so people can feed them. we were so amused at this, we fed the pigeons the first day we were there for about two hours. they climb all over you! even the pigeons in spain are friendlier than those in new york. this is a picture of the four of us in the plaza catalunya and of me with a pigeon on my head:
one of my favorite parts of barcelona... minus the paella and weather and palm trees.... is that the city sits right on the mediterranean. so the first night we were there, we hung out by the water and the marina. barcelona also has incredibly unique architecture... attributed to mr. gaudi.
he designed this incredibly phenomenally beautiful park called the guell park that is in the northern part of the city on a hill. in the middle of the 'park' is this huge palatial looking structure that at the very top provided the most amaaaaazing view of the city.
another amazing thing about spain: stray cats EVERYWHERE.
so i LOVED barcelona/spain to say the least, and can't wait to stop in madrid on spring break.
next up..... BRUSSELS..... to be continued.......