hola barcelona!

I'm just gonna start out by saying I really don't want to write this right now...blogging is something you have to be in the mood to do, and right now, I am not. However, I know that if I don't write now, it's just not gonna happen. WITH THAT SAID! Barcelona was awesome this past weekend. Myself, 8 CEFAM kids, and my boyfriend all made the short jaunt to Spain on friday for a lovely four day excursion. Friday night was pretty tame, we just walked around until we found a small bar to have a few drinks in. On Saturday, we were up bright and early! We got our complimentary breakfast at our hostel (which was extremely nice) and set out on a walking adventure. We basically just wandered around taking pictures until we found the Arc de Triomf and a big park around that. We split off into groups for the rest of the day but then all met up for dinner at Placa Reial. The restaurant 'Les quize nits' must be popular in Barcelona because there was a huge line a half an hour before the restaurant even opened. The food was absolutely delicious! Sunday required a bit more patience however. Adam and I started off the day by getting tapas and a place down the street. When we went in it was absolutely gorgeous outside. Of course by the time we were finished, it was pouring. We had been planning on going to see Gaudi's Casa Mila, an apartment complex designed by the famous architect. However, the roof is the most famous part, and that was closed due to the rain. Once it began to lighten up a little bit we decided to just start walking again. This time headed in the direction of Parc Guell, a huge park also designed by Gaudi at the top of a hill overlooking Barcelona. We made it about halfway before it started pouring again. Needless to say, by the time we made it to the park we were absolutely soaked. It was worth it though. Parc Guell was breathtaking even in the rain. It seemed like something out of a dream.

After heading back to the hostel to dry off and change, we headed to the Picasso Museum. Half of the museum was his personal collection of others paintings, which was very cool to see. Then the other half was a wide range of Picasso's own works. Since we are learning about Picasso and the cubists right now in Art History it was a great opportunity to really see these paintings in person. For dinner we hitched a ride with a rickshaw driver. He took us all the way through the port and down along the ocean. It was an absolutely beautiful ride! He took us to a restaurant that was right on the beach...I now have my mind set to go back to Barcelona during the summer at some point. That has to be amazing! Now just in case you've lost track, at this point it is Sunday...Super Bowl Sunday. Patriots vs Giants. BIG DEAL! We found a bar along Las Ramblas called 'SportsBar'. Literally everyone in the bar was an American college student, it was madness. Even though it was artificial, the feeling of being home in U.S. for three hours was incredible. I love Europe...but there's no place like home. As for the outcome of the game...no comment. Stupid Giants.

Monday morning half of our group left pretty early. Five of us didn't have flights until 5:30 pm though so we got to enjoy another day in Barcelona. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! There wasn't a cloud in the sky the whole day. So Matt and I spent the day Gaudi style. We went to Casa Mila and got to go up to the roof...absolutely crazy.

After spending some time exploring that, we walked to the Temple de la Sagrada Familia. A huge church in the center of Barcelona, also designed by Gaudi. They started building this thing in 1882 and it's still not even close to being finished. But when you look at it you can understand why....every inch of the building is an ornate carving or sculpture. It is (just like everything else in Barcelona) incredibly beautiful. We wanted to go up to the top of one of the towers, but the wait time was an hour and we didn't have time. Next time...

I must say that being in Spain really made me appreciate the fact that I live in France and can at least roughly speak the language. I didn't have the first clue about speaking Spanish and really just felt kind of lost all weekend. It was extremely comforting to get back to Lyon and be able to understand people. A month in though....I still wish I could speak better! Ahhh...I'm working on it. A bientot mes amis.