Spain!
Barcelona
After a fun few days in Amsterdam, my friend Seth and I arrived in Barcelona! We got off the plane late in the evening with our very stuffed backpacks and survived an epic public transportation journey from the airport into town to our hostel. We arrived so late in the evening that we ended up snacking for 'dinner' and crashing shortly thereafter, but after a solid sleep and breakfast, we were ready to see the city.
We started off by walking down La Rambla (a long, tree-lined boulevard) downtown, where we found some fresh fruit and a delicious quinoa salad for lunch at La Boqueria (a market just off of La Rambla).
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| By a fresh fruit stand at La Boqueria |
Although it was a beautiful, sunny day, it was only in the mid-60s and there was a pretty good wind blowing, so we didn't wind up swimming in the Mediterranean. We contented ourselves with wading into the water up to our knees and enjoying the sand and surf.
From there, we wandered around a bit more along the waterfront before finding the metro and heading up to Park Guell at the north end of the city atop a hill. One of Gaudi's many architectural masterpieces in the city, Park Guell was positively swarming with tourists! We enjoyed a walk through the park nonetheless, and I even stopped for a quick minute to take advantage of swinging on an unoccupied swingset, letting my inner five-year old shine for a few moments. :)
After exploring the park, we walked alllllllllll the way back to our hostel in the center of the city. We took a quick nap break and then headed out for a delicious dinner of tapas and sangria- both of which would become our lunch and dinner staples for the remainder of the trip. We found an excellent restaurant called Morryssom, which had such great tapas and such cheap liters of sangria that we went back for dinner again the next night! So tasty. Seth fell instantly in love with the sangria (now that I think back on it, with this nice Washington summer weather we're currently enjoying, I really should make some sangria soon!!).
Seth and I were both pretty exhausted after a very busy day and LOTS of walking, so the following day was very relaxed. The fact that the weather was kind of crappy and rainy helped our relaxed mood, haha. We went on a laundry adventure in the morning and then in the afternoon, we made our way to Sagrada Familia, another Gaudi masterpiece, but on an unbelievable scale.
Construction on the church was begun in the 1880s and continues to this day. The cathedral isn't projected to be completed until approximately 2040!!
I had been to see Sagrada Familia when I was in Spain with my parents when I was about seven years old, but as you can imagine, seventeen years of construction changes things dramatically! Showing the photos to my parents, they told me it looks VERY different from the cathedral we saw as a family so many years ago. Construction crews completed the interior and ceilings a couple of years ago, and many of the stained glass panels were in place. It's such a crazy, chaotic, and monumental piece of architecture, but it really is just gorgeous. I was quite we went to see it.
Next, we walked from Sagrada Familia to see some of Gaudi's residential houses nearby, then it was off to another dinner at Morryssom before a relatively early flight to Sevilla the next morning.
Sevilla
The same thing goes for Sevilla; I had been there with my family at age seven, but I remembered nothing about it. Boy, let me tell you, I was very pleasantly surprised by this gem of a city! Sevilla is absolutely fantastic and is a must-visit on any trip to Spain.
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| "The Mushrooms": a weird modern art building. They lit it up at night, which was cool! |
My favorite spot was the Place de Espana, located in a large park. The horseshoe-shaped building was unbelievably ornamented, complete with thousands of painted tiles and a mini-canal! Just gorgeous. I could have taken photos there ALL DAY.
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| Jumping for joy in Sevilla :) |
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| B-E-A-utiful! |
Once we got up and going the next day (Saturday), Seth and I and our group from the previous night headed over to the Plaza de Toros for a tour of the bullring and the bullfighting museum. Super cool! While we didn't get in on a bullfight during our visit to Spain, it was great to visit a bullring and get a sense of that facet of Spanish culture.
Seth was a pro and top-notch friend to drive around all day on Spanish highways (I can't drive a stick shift... yet) and accompany me though the pouring rain with less than sufficient jacket coverage (he let me use his waterproof snowboarding jacket, like a gentleman!) while I'm trying to snap photos without getting my camera too wet. We were freezing cold and soaked by the end of our four-hour visit, but at least we had a working heater in the car to warm us up and dry our jackets and socks during our return trip to Sevilla. Despite the rain, I was glad we went! The Moorish architecture, carvings, and designs are awe-inspiring, even with lousy weather.
On our final day in town, Seth decided to enjoy some leisure time while I made my way to the Real Alcazar, the sprawling castle complex in town, and the (HUGE) Sevilla cathedral, where Christopher Columbus is buried. Both were lovely!
That evening, we enjoyed MORE tapas for dinner! One of the places we stopped by on our tapas crawl was El Rinconcillo, the oldest tapas bar in Sevilla (established 1670!). That place is magical. I loved it there. It was literally a four-minute walk from our hostel and I could have spent all night enjoying the people watching, good food, and wine at this place. The decor is fantastic, the old-school feel of the place is great, and it was so wonderfully Spanish!
On Sunday morning, Seth and I headed to the airport to pick up a rental car and road trip across Andalusia to Granada, home of the Alhambra. The Alhambra is one of the few things I vaguely remember about being in Spain at age seven, and it was definitely a place I wanted to re-visit on this trip. Unfortunately, Sunday wound up being ridiculously rainy and rather cold, so the visit wasn't as ideal as I had imagined, but you do what you can with the weather you're given!
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| A view of the city of Granada |
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| A shot of a large portion of the Alhambra complex. |
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| The tile work, carving, and architecture were fascinating |
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| I really liked this plant-covered walkway at Real Alcazar |
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| Christopher Columbus' tomb, flanked by the four contemporary kings of the various regions of Spain. It's large and very striking! |
I wandered around the inside of the cathedral for quite a while before heading up the Giralda tower (pictured above) for some great areal views of the city. You know how much I love climbing towers! :)
On Tuesday, 30 April, we woke up early and headed back to Nantes! After running around like mad trying to do laundry and take care of various end-of-year pre-moving-back-to-the-States errands, Seth and I enjoyed a fantastic dinner in the Bouffay side of downtown Nantes with several of my BTS Communications students, followed by drinks. It was a great night and a perfect send-off for Seth before he headed back to 'Murica.
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| Buds enjoying cider at Buck Mulligan's Irish Pub (one of my favorite spots!) |
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| With the BTS crew! |
I had an excellent time with Seth and am honored that he 1) was the ONLY one of my friends to take me up on the offer to visit me in Europe and 2) he let me be his tour guide for his first trip abroad! He gets an epic thank you for hanging out with me, being a great friend and fun travel buddy, and for his general awesome-ness!! I hope we get to travel together again sometime.
So, as evidenced here, Spain was a blast!! In my next post, I wake up the next day (1 May) and send Seth off to the airport while I make my way to the train station to travel to Belgium to meet up with Kris!
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