Barcelona Sunday

We have arrived safe and sound!  It took a bit of traveling (about half a day for all of us) to get here, but it was well worth it!  Barcelona is beautiful already, and we have only seen a small section of the city.

Our apartment is so cute.  It has three pretty good sized bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, and dining room/living room, which gives us the luxury to take a break mid-day and not feel like we are just sitting on hotel beds.  Plus we have two little balconies that look out onto the street.  Very cute and I love it!

We basically started out wandering the city area around our apartment, until we ended up at the tapas bar right across from our apartment.  It turned out to be delicious and simple though, exactly what we were looking for.  Then, after a quick pitstop for some pastries and a bathroom break, we headed out to wander (and try to keep the parents from succumbing to jet-lag).  We ended up stumbling upon the Picasso Museum, which happened to be free on Sundays!  It was only open for another half an hour, but we zoomed in and saw a really interesting progression of his early work morphing into his more modern stuff.  It was fascinating, and fantastic that it was free!

After that, we were pretty tuckered out.  My parents are already in bed, and I am headed that way (it was a long bus ride), but just wanted to give a quick update!  Tomorrow we head to Las Ramblas and the port.  Hasta Luego!

p.s. pictures to follow!

50th blog!

I can't decide if I am happy or sad about the fact that this is my fiftieth blog that I have published about my semester so far in Spain.  Either way, the only news that I have right now, is that MY PARENTS ARE COMING.

I leave in about an hour for the bus to Barcelona, where I will be meeting them tomorrow morning.  I cannot wait at all!  The wait is killing me!!!  But it is going to be a great time.  We will be staying in an apartment in Barcelona until Friday.  Then my parents will return home, and I will head off to Rome for a weekend by myself.

It should be a great time and I feel so lucky that they can come and see me.  We are going to be able to see the Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, and the Mediterranean Sea (and much much more!).

I think that is it for right now, talk to you all in a week!!!

Comments on travelling.

It is good y'all are keeping me honest, because my lovely grandmother reminded me that I had promised to make some comments about travelling.  I had remembered but secretly hoped no one else would haha because I have been battling a cold for the past couple of days.

That being said though, this semester has been a very interesting experience for me, especially because of all the travel I have been lucky enough to participate in.  I have had a lot of "firsts" here, and in London I had my first dorm-style hostel experience.  I thought it was going to be a lot worse than it was, but the reality was that it was not that bad of a situation.  Yes, it was a little awkward, but we were usually so exhausted by the end of the day, we just collapsed into bed and slept straight through until morning!

The interesting thing that we did notice was the diversity in the different nationalities and how they are tourists.  For example, we had a lovely Finnish couple who were super nice to us, but a French group who was very rude.  The Germans were very loud, and the Americans were surprisingly shy.  I am obviously not saying that this is a generalization of their entire cultures, it was just very interesting to see all of the different groups interact.  I have become so used to being in non-touristy areas, that it was a refreshing change of pace to be in an area where everyone stuck out like a sore-thumb (and therefore blended in!).

This isn't really related, I just thought it was interesting.  "Give way" instead of yield. Haha, oh the English. 

This is so much more direct!  Not warning, this could cause problems.  Nope, direct and to the point!

Ok that may be all for now, but my FIFTIETH blog entry is tomorrow!  Be prepared!

London: Part 7 (FINALE: Westminster Abbey)

As my lovely mother pointed out to me, I forgot to finish the last entry of the London seven-part saga (sorry for so many parts!) so I thought I should polish it off before I head off to my exciting week of Semana Santa!

The morning of our last day, we visited Westminster Abbey first thing in the morning.  The line was very long, and the Abbey was very expensive, but it was worth it all.  We were not allowed to take pictures, so I only have some of the outside, but it was my second favorite place that we visited.  Every inch of the Abbey was covered in statues, tombs, and memorials to every famous English person that you can think of (Queen Elizabeth, Charles Darwin, and Geoffrey Chaucer to name a small small fraction).  It would take hours to even realize exactly what we were looking at, but it was neat to wander around "collecting" famous people in our heads.

After that, Meghan and I went our separate ways, she to Sevilla and I to Santander and eventually Oviedo.  It was a whirlwind of a trip, but I am happy with the amount of sightseeing we were able to fit into such a short period of time.  We did not miss out on anything and were able to enjoy everything without feeling rushed (somehow) and it was an amazing weekend.

I think that is finally all for London! We are done! Terminados! Yay!  Thank you for being patient :)

London: Part 6 (National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, Downing Street, the London Eye)

NOTE: Even if you do not read this one, be sure to look at the pictures at the end!  They are some of my absolute favorite!

After the market, we headed over to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.  I had heard rave reviews, but until you see the sheer volume of famous artists and artwork housed in this FREE museum, it is just not believable.  (Small side comment, the only thing we actually ended paying for in terms of admission was the London Eye, we did it so smartly!)  There was Monet, Manet, Velasquez, Pisarro, DaVinci, VanGogh, Degas, Renoir, and pretty much anyone else you could ever look for.  It was breathtaking.  We tried to focus our attention on the eras that we really enjoyed, but even that was an extensive collection.  Again, no pictures, but here is a picture of the building, a work in itself.

The National Gallery is located in Trafalgar Square, which is an incredibly popular tourist destination for people around the world.  However, when we were there, they were pre-celebrating St. Patrick's day, so the place was packed!  We did not get very many good views as a result...but look how many people!

On our way back across the river, Meghan realized we were passing Downing St, which we had wanted to see anyway.  This is the street where the Prime Minister lives, and is just down the street from the Parliament square and adjoins with other important buildings of offices that I now can't remember the name.  Obviously there is extreme security, but I took a picture of the gates along with the 15 other people who realized what they were looking at!

Finally, we get to the meat of this entry: The London Eye.  I had never heard of this particular attraction until Meghan and my beloved guidebook both brought it up.  But it was absolutely my favorite part of London, and well worth the money that we paid for it.  It is this huge carousel type thing, with cars that hold about 25 people, and it moves very slowly until you can see all of London stretched out before you. 

See! Look how high it goes!  It goes to a height of 450ft, and is the largest observation wheel in the world.

  

All 25 people getting onto our capsule.  You only had 45 seconds to do it!  Rush, rush!

The capsule in front of ours.  There are 32 capsules in all!

Pretty amazing view!

Just stunning!

Meghan and I!

I know these all start to look the same, but I was just in awe of the views!

After the London Eye, we went to find the George Inn, which was recommended in our guidebook.  Apparently, food in England stops getting served extremely early (a stark contrast from our late dinners in Spain), so we missed the food at the Inn and had Chinese food instead (which was delicious).  But we went back afterwards and had a pint of English beer at an English pub!  So typical and fantastic. 

The George Inn.  I was actually carded for the first time ever!  Then I was almost not allowed to get anything. The bartender asked for my ID and then told me it was not a "real license" because it was not "properly laminated."  I have never been so indignant haha.  Yes, it was not a European driver's license, so I could understand if they didn't accept it, but to call it not proper and real: the nerve!  Luckily I had my passport, so it really wasn't an issue.  

Almost done! Last one: Westminster Cathedral, and some comments on traveling and England in general.  

It was featured in Charles Dickens' "Little Dorrit."

London: Part 5 (Tate Modern, Globe Theatre, English Breakfast, Covent Market)

So we wandered across Millennium Bridge to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.  It is a replica, and we did not actually go inside (we are starving college students after all), but it was still pretty cool to be standing next to.  Yes, it was not the original, but you still got that sense of importance and almost magic of Shakespeare's time.  Just to think of the playwrights who walked on the same (ok, well similar) ground that we were walking on, it gives me chills!

That's me, though I kind of blend in!

After that, it was on to the Tate Modern!  Meghan and I were pretty excited to mix it up and throw an art museum in there, in contrast with all of the monuments (which of course were exquisite), but a change of pace would be nice!  

There were so many famous pieces and artists scattered amongst some really neat unknown (to me) artists.  There were Dali and Picasso and Monet and Matisse, and just tons of artists.  I was in awe walking from room to room.  We were NOT allowed to take pictures, but whoops, I did not realize that until we got yelled at.  So here are my three illegal pictures: 

By the end of this all, my wagon was sagging, and I was starving.  The hard thing about London though, is balancing price with authenticity.  It is a lot easier to eat something cheap and fast, but that doesn't give you the best English experience.  However, we got some really great food for an amazing price.  AND it was a full English breakfast, which was not only authentic but SCRUMPTIOUS.  We had eggs, tomatoes, bacon, sausage, toast, mushrooms, hashbrowns, and beans, and we ate every last bite.

Then we continued on to the Covent Market, which was a hotbed of artists, performers, food, and just about everything you could imagine, from high fashion jewelry, to paper flowers, to London paraphernalia, to jugglers.  It was great to just wander around, even though we did not purchase much!

Coming up: Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, and the London Eye!!!

London: Part 4 (Tower Bridge, Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, Millennium Bridge)

That seemed like quite enough for one day, on no sleep, and walking everywhere.  So we crashed in our hostel and slept for as long as possible, but still rallied pretty early in the morning and headed out to see the Tower Bride and the Tower of London.

The Tower Bridge is often confused with the London Bridge because it is one of the well known landmarks in London.  The actual London Bridge is very very boring looking, just like a highway over water.  The Tower Bridge however, is really really impressive looking.  The bottom can be easily raised so that the bridge can still allow boats through and really was a triumph in Victorian architecture at the time (1894).

Right in front of the tower bridge is the HMS Belfast, left over from World War II

The Tower Bridge and the HMS Belfast are located right next to the Tower of London, a very key building in London.  It used to have a moat, but is now dry.  It is a multipurpose castle basically, but is most well known for its dungeon qualities, holding prisoner some famous British royalty, such as Anne Boleyn (who was executed there I believe as well) and Queen Elizabeth I.  I thought that was pretty amazing, especially because I used to be really fascinated with Henry XIII and his wives and children, and the whole city is just filled with neat little spots of history.  

Then we headed off to St. Paul's Cathedral, which was massively impressive.  It has the second highest dome in the world (the basilica in Rome being the only higher), but it is just really mind-blowingly beautiful and large.  It was a Sunday so we couldn't actually enter but the outside alone was amazing.  

  

We then headed across to the Millennium Bridge, which was not on either of our lists of things to see, but when I read my guidebook I thought it looked pretty neat.  So as we headed over to it, we saw that it was such a cool little thing!  The suspension is horizontal instead of vertical, which creates a really neat effect, and it leads almost directly from St. Paul's to the Tate Modern (which we headed to next). 

 

I don't know if any of you are devoted Harry Potter fans like Meghan and myself, but this was the bridge that the Dementor's swooped down and attacked in one of the later Harry Potter movies.  Just for your dork-fact pleasure :)

Sheesh, these get so very long!  Coming up: The Tate Modern, the Globe Theatre, and much much more!

London: Part 3 (Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, fish and chips, Natural History Museum)

After the changing of the guards, we set out to enjoy the other two parks: Green and Hyde Park, as well as Kensington Gardens.  They are HUGE, but really really beautiful.  There are monuments all over the place, dedicated to soldiers, wars, Greek gods, or characters.

You can't really tell from this picture, but this was a memorial to the Canadians who died fighting for Britain.  At first inspection, we thought that a bunch of leaves had fallen on the monument, but it turned out that they were maple leafs implanted to remember the Canadians.  It was actually really impressive looking.

Not sure what this one was, but it was quite impressive as well!  Really big!

Another war memorial, they were literally all over the place.

Meghan at one of the entrances to Hyde Park.

Achilles and I, practically the same person.  

Hyde Park.

Princess Diana memorial fountain.

Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens.  Really neat looking.

Albert Memorial.  SUPER tall!

More of the Albert Memorial.

Kensington Palace.  Much less impressive than I was expecting...but the queen does live there sometimes!

Finally we were so exhausted that we had to find somewhere to eat!  We went to the Notting Hill neighborhood (yes, just like the movie!) and found a little place to get the traditional fish and chips.  It was PERFECT and exactly what we needed at the time.  

We then mustered and went onto the Natural History Museum.  It was free, which was great.  It was very interesting, but most of the stuff was reproductions which was not as impressive as we were really looking for.  Still a great experience, but we were glad we didn't have to pay!

Meghan and I learning about fishies :)

Well this is long enough... more to follow!