So after a lovely few days in Ireland, we headed off to Spain! Our first stop was Barcelona, home of sunny beaches and delicious Paella. When we were scheduling this trip way back in September, I was aprehensive to be spending so much time and money on a country about which I knew so little. I cannot express how glad I am that my friends convinced me to go to Spain. Not only was the weather warm and the landscape beautiful, but the people were friendly, the food was delicious and inexpensive, and it was an all around great time.
In Barcelona, we stayed at an excellent hostel in a great location-- right off the famous Las Ramblas. The array of crazy street performers and costumed locals we passed on our way in made us very excited to spend time in the city. We spent our first day seeing the major sights- the unfinished sagrada familia, a huge cathedral designed by Gaudi and started in 1882 and is not scheduled to be complete until 2026. It is absolutely breathtaking, especially since the design is so intricate that it is still under construction 100 years later! After that, we headed up to Parca Guell, which is a huge park overlooking the city that houses lots of Gaudi archetecture and art. It was beautiful, and a lovely relaxing way to spend the afternoon... once we finally completed the hour long uphill walk to get there!
After a delicious seafood dinner, we headed back to the hostel to prepare for some of Barcelona's famous nightlife. Conveniently enough, our hostel sponsored free entrance to what is supposedly one of the city's best "discotheques," located right on the beach. Not really my scene, but it was a fun (and late!) night nonetheless.
In the morning we took in a few of the city's other minor sights, such as the Columbus monument and the pier (pictured above) before moving on to Madrid!!
Madrid, the capital of Spain, was absolutely beautiful. I had been there previously (for a grand total of 12 hours) but did not truly get to appreciate the archetecture and art. Seeing the art in the Reigna Sofia museum and the Prada was so cool, as was touring the royal palace and eating chocolato con churros.
By far the coolest experience in Madrid was eating dinner at the world's oldest restaurant, Sobrino de BotÃn. It has been in operation since 1725 and still uses the same oven from back in the day. The food was pretty good, but not as good as I had expected. It was the atmosphere that really made the experience worthwhile. After this last great experience, it was time to head off to FRANCE! I was very excited to be able to use my seven years of French experience to good use!
Keep checking back for my next update!
Liz
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