Madrid and Barcelona!

España!!

Madrid

.... and at the end of our Paris stay, we headed off to Madrid!! I have been so lucky to go to Madrid already this year for spring break with Kira... and will be going again with Kira in November, but I have to say, it is probably my favorite European City besides Paris!

We arrived in Madrid and walked around Sol & ate Empanadas... I remembered a lot of the city. For whatever reason, the Bear Statue, which is the symbol of Madrid's DT Sol was being cleaned and had been moved! And the center of Sol AKA the center of Madrid had been roped off for replastering or something. So things were a bit off, but thats ok!

Julie and I met up with Travis (TC) who goes to Cal Poly - he's in our Fraternity but is studying abroad in Madrid. TC let us stay with him! And we met his 2 roommates, one from Korea and the other from San Diego, CA. We quickly got ready and headed out to Cien Montaditos, for Euro Bocadillos (sandwiches) which was introduced to me by Kira and the girls... like everything we did on this trip, introduced by them. We randomly ran into our friend Ross who goes to Cal Poly and is studying in Valledolid, Spain outside the Plaza Mayor! Then finally got to see Mollie, Elizabeth, Brian, and Casey… friends from Mullen and St. Vincents (crazy huh?) at a bar with a lot of international (English speaking) students.

The next day, we walked from the Plaza Mayor and stopped in Sol. I showed Julie Kira’s apartment, the Pina Coloda juice box that I love, and had Paella across from her apartment. We got postcard stamps where Kira showed me (for all of you that got postcards only from Madrid, its because it is the only place I knew where to get stamps and what the post boxes looked like) and headed off to Retiro Park.

We stopped at the Prado for free student admission, but all my art history seems to have slipped out of my brain since arriving in Europe. I remember which painting was Sarah’s and remembered the Midget painting as well. That night, we went to downtown Madrid, and all I could think of is All that she wants! I love Sol, it really never sleeps!

Our treat the following day was Churros con chocolat, and then we wandered the city parks around Palacio Real before heading to El Tigre, which is the most vivacious, crammed, and delicious tapas bar! Free tapas with every drink! It was a fun reunion night again full of salsa dancing at El Sol and catching up with old friends. All I have to say is that I LOVE Madrid.

Barcelona!

Headed over to Barcelona (pronounced Bar THa Lona with a lisp) which was a really quick plane trip. Funniest thing was the flight attendant reading instructions in English, though it was clear she spoke no English, so it sounded like pure, slurred, Spanish accented jibberish. That’s probably how I sound when I try to speak Spanish though!

Once In Barcelona, we went to our hostel and headed straight down La Ramblas. There was a huge festival going on that weekend, so all the street performers were out past 2am. We had the most delicious traditional tapas meal and were so happy about that! We even stopped at a full on concert, but the only band that had played that I recognized was The Hives (we missed them by about an hour sadly).

The next day Julie and I rented beach cruiser bicycles and biked all around the city. We went up to La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s infamous church.

He began building it around 1880 and designed the most unbelievable archways with both religious and architectural hidden meanings. It continues under construction after his mapped out instructions, with plans to be complete only after 2030.

The exterior of the building is full of hidden crevices with intricately detailed statues and artwork. The front looks like it is artistically melting into religious sculptures in a bizarrely interesting way. The interior and exterior are so phenomenal that I would love to return to see this masterpiece in 20 years!!

Gaudi is a legend in Barcelona, but an interesting fact, he was killed in an accident after being hit by a tram. Trams are now forbidden in Barcelona!

After our bike ride around the city, we headed down to the beach! The beach was beautiful of course as the Mediterranean is impossibly crystal clear. On our way back from our beach nap, we accidently stumbled across a huge wine and food tasting festival where we had dinner and spent most of the evening.

We also got to see the Columbus Memorial at sunset. It is a giant monument of Columbus pointing from Spain (where he left on his journey) to North America for one of the most historically significant discoveries.

When we came back to the hostel, we met a bunch of people in our hostel/ room for awhile before heading out for Pina Coladas at a local bar! Pina Coladas = my favorite drink of all time, so I was a happy gal!

It was a great trip to Spain overall. I’m going to have to learn Spanish since I’ll definitely be living in Spain for some point in my life!