Fall Break: Barcelona!!

Well, it's been quite a while since I've written anything on my blog.  Since my last trip to Ireland, I've stayed put in London for a bit.  Two weeks ago we had midterms at school which was a little tough for me since my home school doesn't really do midterm exams.  Hopefully I did pretty well on them though! Thankfully my long week of work was ended with a reward of a full ten day vacation!! Very early Friday morning me and four other girls got up and headed to the airport for a flight to Barcelona, our first stop on our fall break!  When we got to Barcelona and finally made it to our hostel, we went out for lunch and got our first pitcher of sangria! After, we wandered around Barcelona for a bit, seeing the little shops and even the beach! I can't even explain how excited I was to see a beach, it's been forever!! Later that night we decided to go out for a nice quiet dinner and then headed back to the hostel to get a good night's sleep.

Our Sangria!

The next morning we woke up and went sight seeing around Barcelona.  Our first stop was to the Sagrada Familia, a church designed by Gaudi, which is still unfinished to this day.  This church was incredible.  The outside reminded me of a really crazy sand castle.  The carving into the outside was beyond anything that I have ever seen!  There were a bunch of towers that were apart of the church, so we decided to go to the top of one of the towers and look over Barcelona.  It was an incredible view, although it was kind of cloudy out so we couldn't see everything.  Once we got back to the bottom of the towers we were able to see the rest of the church.  Just like the outside, the inside looked incredible. I tried to take as many pictures as I could, but afterward looking at them, I realized there was no way I could capture exactly what the church really looked like.  After spending some time in the church we made our way to Park Guell with many buildings and structures also designed by Gaudi.  This place was really cool as well.  The buildings reminded me of something that should be in a Dr. Suess book!  From the top of this park, again we got to see a really cool view of Barcelona!  After a full day of sight seeing we went back to the hostel to get ready and go out to dinner.

The Sagrada Familia

Park Guell

The next day we decided to do a little shopping.  Within walking distance there was a road called La Rambla.  On the weekends there is a huge art market there which we were dying to go to.  It was so pretty to see everything at each station and to see what people make.  Everything was unique and nothing was ever a repeat of something that I had already seen.  I was excited we were able to go to this because I was able to pick up some good souvenirs! :) There were many restaurants on this street so, we just decided to pop into one.  We ordered some authentic tapas, which to be honest, I was completely worried about.  I'm a pretty picky eater in general, so being in Spain made eating kind of hard.  But, to my surprise the tapas were amazing!  After lunch we ventured to go to the top of Castell de Montjuic.  To get there we had to take the metro, then a funnicular and then a cable car to get all the way to the top!  When we got there though the wait was worth while.  The castle was beautiful and the scenery was just as great.  The sky was clear so we had an incredible view of Barcelona from the top of the world! On the other side, we got to see the beach and the beautiful water! Seeing the water and how beautiful it was out, we were dying to go to the beach so we headed back to the hostel, grabbed some dinner and intended on going to the beach, until it started pouring, thunder & lightning.

Our yummy tapas!

At the top of the Castle!

The next day we did even more sight seeing.  We went to the cathedral, Basilica de Barcelona.  Since I went to Italy in the summer, I've definitely seen my fair share of cathedrals and churches, but this one was like nothing I have ever seen.  It was incredible!! Everything that I had seen in Barcelona whether it was a church or a building the detail that was taken to make each of these things was incredible! After looking around the cathedral a bit, we decided to go to a flea market that we had heard about a few days before.  Once we got there, though we realized it was not what we were expecting.  Our next stop was going to be at the top of Mount Tibidabo.  Unfortunately after an incredibly long time of trying to get there we realized it was way out of our reach and instead, decided to take pictures from a far.  After that, because the sun was finally shining we decided to go to the beach! We picked up a few bottles of wine, got a blanket and headed to the sand and waves!  After some time on the beach we had a quick dinner, went back to the hostel and packed up for Athens the next day!

The Cathedral!

Mount Tibidabo

 <3

Barcelona was a beautiful city and a really fun time.  I'm not sure it's top on my list of places I've ever been, but it's a really cool feeling saying that I've been to Spain and I've seen so much there!