Spain Trip Part I: Metz:Paris:Barcelona*

Signs exist! !Mira! I went to Cora, got dinner "chicken"cooked it. "Foie" actually means liver in French. Yes, it was time to go to Spain.
But, Dad, you'll be proud of me.. I managed to eat it .. all of it. Enough for my lifetime so never offer it to me again :) I flavored it with carrots, onions and other vegetable... tried to put it in a rap as well.. I prolonged the process of finishing it way too long!!



Even our teachers were ready to get rid of us for a while: We got our DiffEQs teacher sick. Math class Thursday was canceled, and so starts my now 11 day Spring break.
 
I headed off to Barcelona on Thursday late afternoon, Brenna would meet me there Saturday morning because the trains were full when she went to reserve. It just so happened that Joseph had my same train to Barcelona, and someone wanted me to switch train cars with them, and the person sitting next to him wasn’t there, so after I switched cars and seats again we were sitting next to each other figuring out my new camera! No more editing out black clouds from the screen! I’m very happy thanks mom! The camera is awesome.

We had a few hours so we walked around Paris and went to the Sacre Coeur at night. Up all those stairs once again though this time with luggage!

We also went to what we thought was the Moulin Rouge… because that’s where the map said it was. So I was a little disappointed, but don’t worry Cassie, this is not it!

After an overnight train for which Joseph and I happened to even be in the same car as each other (this time for real, I didn’t switch or anything). Unfortunately I had still been fighting a cold but I knew it was nothing serious because I just got off antibiotics, and thank goodness, because that dissolving stuff tastes disgusting. Friday I was still feeling kind of exhausted but we definitely made the day worth it. We tried to make sense of our direction based on a map with a compass, and somehow still managed to go in the opposite direction. By the second day we realized the map was actually drawn with the east as the south! Ay caramba. A nice walk around the block we arrived at HelloBCN hostel. I asked the guy working if he could see if Joseph reserved for here also because he “lost the paper” and couldn’t remember the name of the hostel. We didn’t plan this together, but he did reserve the same one! And we happened to be in the same room too, which was also to our entertainment. What a coincidence! And it was a fun place to stay, certainly; though I did not use it to its most potential.

We visited the Olympic Village and walked around to the beach.

Ah! uh, Captain, Captain Jack Sparrow.

Of course it was beautiful, a little chilly, but the funnest part was when we got to this awesome climbing ropes pyramid. I saw some guys on it making it look very difficult. It was rather easy though and I made it up too quickly, I wished it was bigger!

But after that fun I was dragging a little so we stopped in a supermarket, and Oh My God, I could have made a very convincing commercial for Snickers!

 I had an amazing ice cream Snickers. It was perfect and felt so good.

Back in the game… we went ahead to a castle… which of course was under construction because everywhere I go is under construction. So unfortunately I didn’t get to see the huge fountain at work. But it was impressive and provided great views regardless.

We stayed there just long enough to see the light beams emit from behind it.

 Quite ready for a nap… or sleep… we headed back, and saw the Apollo theater was playing

 in an hour. The girl behind the glass mumbled Spanish that was hard to understand so this guy translated and said that it was being shown in Catalan which is pretty similar to Spanish and probably more so in writing. But it sounds a lot different. She told me that if I couldn’t understand Spanish I definitely wouldn’t be able to understand this. We went anyways, and it was definitely worth it! So much fun and good acting! I got the majority of it, just missing out on some finer specific details.

 

We managed to get up early to pick Brenna up from the train station, stop back at the Hostel, eat breakfast, store luggage, and check out. We saw the Gothic center of the city, as well as went west to some other attractions that cost too much money and time to go all the way up.

:

Reminded me of the story in "The Little Princess"

More European Humor:

<--Already?? There ya  go Mom. ;)

Sagrada Familia

The market was awesome! We gathered various things for lunch and went back to the beach for a picnic. It was so relaxing! Well, we are back on the train! To Valencia now and I’m dually excited!

ASLAN