NOT ALL WHO WANDER ARE LOST...: Viva Barcelona!

Hey hey. So I returned safely from Barcelona, Spain on Monday night. It was definitely my favorite trip so far. It was just me, and my two friends who went. It was a pretty chilled out trip. Not nearly as intense as Dublin was, as we had three full days there. We stayed right in las Ramblas, kind of the center of town. We saw all of the big sights, including: Temple de La Sagrada Familia, jPort Olimpic, The Gothic Quarter with la Catedral de Barcelona, the church of Santa Maria del Mar (incredible!), the Picasso museum (I wandered for a good 2.5 hours. SO cool to see all of Picasso's originals, and non-cubism pieces that we didn't study in Spanish class), Parc de La Ciutadella, and my favorite thing: un Partido de Futbol!!!! ( A soccer game...). But ok, soccer here is NOT soccer in the states. It is outstanding to watch the footwork and talent these players have. Incedible!! So we bought tickets to go to the game, and bought jerseys of course. Way fun night! We unfortunately couldn't find an authentic Spanish resturaunt because the area we were in was so touristy, and lived off of sandwiches for 4 days. But there was chocolate....lots of chocolate, and chocolate shops. Unfortunately, most cool buildings we saw were under construction. Temple de La Sagrada Familia isn't complete yet. The construction started in 1882, and in 1926 the project director died. 8 out of the 12 towers are built. Right now they are focusing on the transepts and the apse. The entire temple has always been and remains entirely funded by private donations. All weekend long I spoke broken Spanish which was fun, usually I'd just get a response in English though....It was still fun to try! I still have Paris and Athens left on my trips before I leave. Thinking about going home makes me really sad. Studying over here, and living in Europe has given me a whole new outlook on a lot of aspects of life. If I were to do it again, I would definitely pick another country. The UK is very similar to the US, which is nice in some ways. When I went to Spain though, it was so different. EVERYTHING. Flamenco guitarists on the street. Enormous cathedrals, larger than I have seen or could have imagined. A live culture. Just SO different than anything I've seen before. I am really looking forward to experiencing the same sense of nostalgia in France and Greece.