HOKAY. SO.
starting with friday, me and my parents decide to go to monjuic. basically, monjuic is the area of barcelona in the mountains, with lots of pretty parks and stuff. the first place we went to was the castle of monjuic, which was used in some recent war, we were assuming the second world war by the look of the artillery.
either way, the views were incredible. we took a cable car up the mountain to get to the castle, which was a tad scary but totally worth it. we then wandered down the mountain and ended up at the 1992 OLYMPIC stadium!! sooooo cool. after the Olympics, it was used by the Espanyol soccer team (i'll get into that more later) when they were building a new stadium, and is now being used for the venue of the world championships of track and field.
After monjuic we relaxed the rest of the day, grabbed a decent dinner and prepared for madrid in the morning. madrid was AMAZING. absolutely gorgeous city. it has a much more regal and ancient feel than barcelona. it was beautiful though. saturday we started by walking around the city and eventually making our way to the san miguel market. they had just about any kind of spanish food you can think of. paella, fresh sangria, cheese, ham, fresh beef, any kind of seafood, etc. it was really cool to walk around all the stalls and try out some different food. it was a pretty delicious lunch.
that night, we went to the READ MADRID vs RACING game. which was SO cool. the seats were basically on top of each other which was a little scary walking down.... literally got the most intense vertigo ever and thought i was gonna die but we made it to our seats and we could see EVERYTHING!!!! it was amazing.
the next day, we walked through a park that my cousin lexi loved, and then we walked by the museo del prado. gorgeous! and then we got some excellent churros con chocolate. i've noticed that i've been craving it more and more lately. this could become a problem... we then flew back to barcelona and hit the hay.
i had class during the day on monday, and when i got done at 2 pm i continued to be tour guide. i brought my parents to my favorite park in all of barcelona, parque de cituadella. has the most amazing view. i then had to stop being a tour guide and take a spanish test that i missed while being sick. of course. then afterward, we met up and hung out on las ramblas, and made a reservation for a really fancy restaurant. apparently the chefs are gourmet chefs in the making, and we had some pretty delicious food for a pretty good price. after, we got churros con chocolate (like a said, addicting) and then went to a mexican place that my parents discovered and drank some tequila. all in all, great first day back in barcelona.
tuesday, i had class at noon, and afterward we decided to do the sagrada familia. totally worth it to go in, because it was absolutely gorgeous. a lot of it is under construction, but those parts are closed and the parts that are done are breathtaking.
i then had to meet my business of sport in europe class, where we went to the espanyol stadium (the other barcelona soccer team that nobody knows) because they just rebuilt their stadium! it's just outside the city, and was voted the best stadium in europe in 2009. we got to tour all the vip areas, press areas, go down on the pitch and see the locker rooms. SO BALLER.
after espanyol, and coming out of my soccer coma, i went to ciudad condal cerveceria with my parents for the best tapas i've ever had. it was absolutely delicious. like i said before, spain knows how to make some excellent sliders. we ended up being at that restaurant for about 4 hours. haha
wednesday i had class until 2, and then we hit up parc guell (the third time for me). and did some touristy shopping for a little bit afterward. after that, we headed back to the hotel and i swear i napped for about 4 hours. being tour guide can be exhausting. that night, we went out to dinner at a small seafood place recommended by rick steves, which was phenomenal of course.
thursday my first class got cancelled and we had more time to walk around. we decided to check out the born area and the barceloneta area (down by the port and the beach). for lunch we had phenomenal pinxto tapas (tapas on toothpicks, aka little sandwiches). and it was more of a relaxing day. that night we hit up la rita for dinner, which was incredibly filling and i legitimately almost fell asleep at the table because of how tired i was.
i know it may look like i'm pissed off but really i'm just exhausted.
friday morning i bid farewell to my parents and left for PARIS. easyJet doesn't allow you to have assigned seating and it was a mad dash to the gate to get on the plane. it took forever. and it was annoying. however, after a 45 minute delay and 2 hour nap later, we arrived in paris. from there, i luckily got my luggage right away, but the way into the city was super confusing. first of all, the ticketing stations to get a train ticket into the city only took french credit cards and euro coins. we had neither. so we had to figure out how to get change, and then buy a ticket. THEN we had to figure out which train to get on. we tried to call the hostel but OH WAIT. my phone went into an "emergency calls only" mode. that was good. so we somehow remembered what street the hostel was on and made our way from there. almost 2 hours later we made it.
for lunch, we stumbled upon a small creperie, where i ordered a french omelette, spanish ones are better, which came with french fries and a salad. what's interesting, is that the entire trip every meal came with french fries. i mean, i know the word french is in it... but come on! i thought that was an american thing. either way, i wasn't complaining too much. i also had a chocolate and nutella crepe with ice cream. i was loving life.
we then went to the Eiffle Tower at night. i could not pick my jaw up off the floor.
on saturday, we woke up pretty early for a walking tour through the hostel. it was so good! our tour guide was from amsterdam and spoke perfect english. he was hilarious too. normally history bores the shit outta me, but he made it really interesting. i learned so much about the city, which i should have because the walking tour was 3 and a half hours.
at the end of this fabulous tour, we went to a traditional french restaurant and i tried escargot and duck! i was pretty proud of myself. both were actually pretty delicious, and not at all what i expected. after this delicious and unexpected meal, we went back to the eiffle tower and climbed to the 2nd floor! we were cheap and just bought tickets to use the stairs. my legs hated me, but it was worth it. it was a really cool view, and i now can say i've been in the eiffle tower. on the walk down though i thought my legs were gonna collapse on me. haha
we then sprinted to the notre dame and back (after getting lost multiple times) to see the light show at the eiffle tower. after, we trekked to another rick steves hot spot where we had local cuisine. i had lobster bisque and beef bourguignon. both soooo good. totally worth it. we then trekked back to the hotel and drank a little more wine and passed out. i was sooooo exhausted after the longest day of my life. haha
in the morning we got up early again and went to the louve! saw the mona lisa and a lot of old greek, roman, and egyptian sculptures and artifacts. it's amazing that the louve contains all this history in one place.
we then hit up another crepe place, where i had an unhealthy amount of french cheese and a ham, cheese, and egg savory crepe. which was delicious, but i felt like i couldn't move.
we then went to a french flea market, where i bought some presents for people back home and some decorations for my apartment next year :) we then went to notre dame and walked through the inside. it was a gorgeous showing of gothic architecture, and i felt like i was in a disney movie. also, we went during mass and there was some huge ceremony with a bunch of cardinals involved. i felt so awkward standing there taking pictures of everything haha
the train was definitely a cool experience. we had our own cabin with pull down beds (which was ideal because we had an 8 hour train ride overnight). there was also a bar and restaurant which we took full advantage of. when we got done with dinner i hit up that pull down bed and passed out until we got to barcelona.
i then endured class from 9-2 right after we got in at 8 am and have spent the last 5 hours uploading pictures, unpacking, and writing this blog post. talk about a lot of catching up to do.
that's all for now :) hitting up the french riviera on thursday night, which should be absolutely amazing. until then, i'm enjoying a nice relaxing week in barcelona, catching up on schoolwork and midterms this week and working out.
hasta luego!
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